Biblical Hebrew Forum

[David Steinberg <david.l.steinberg AT rogers.com>]

As many of you will know, one of the best Hebraist cum Arabists of the 
second half of the 20th century was Joshua Blau.
In Torat Hahege Vehatzurot  (1972) and A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew , 
Porta Linguarum Orientalium 1976 (and presumably the upcoming 
/Biblical// Hebrew Phonology and Morphology/, Eisenbrauns, ISBN 
1575061295) Dr. Blau outlined a series of pre-Tiberian stress periods.  
However, he did not state how these stress periods related to the 
historical-cultural periods of ancient Judah. I would be grateful if any 
scholar could respond to the following

-   Would I be correct in understanding that the third Proto-Hebrew (= 
pre-Tiberian) stress period corresponds to the situation of formal 
literary Jerusalem Hebrew of say 750-600 B.C.E. while the changes of the 
fourth Proto-Hebrew stress period might have commenced in the spoken 
Hebrew of that period?*

*  -  In A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew (1st. ed.) sect. 9.1.3 Blau wrote 
" At that period, there were still the contrasting forms of the 
indicative yo:'_k_al (ultimate stress) < yo-:'_k_alu, and the jussive 
'yo-_k_al (penultimate stress)." Would I be correct in understanding 
that Blau's view is that this distinction was maintained in the strong 
verb of the third stress period? i.e.

Qal - Indicative - yiq'tol; Jussive - 'yiqtol; Preterite - way'yiqtol

Piel - Indicative - yaqat'til or y?qat'tel; Jussive - ya'qattil or 
y?'qattel; Preterite - wayya'qattil or wayy?'qattel

Niphal - Indicative - yiqqa'til or yiqqa'tel; Jussive - yiq'qatil or 
yiq'qatel; Preterite - wayyiq'qatil or wayyiq'qatel

Hiphil - Indicative - yaq'ti:l; Jussive - 'yaqtil or 'yaqtel; Preterite 
- way'yaqtil or way'yaqtel

Hithpiel - Indicative - yitqat'til or yitqat'tel; Jussive - yit'qattil 
or yit'qattel; Preterite - wayyit'qattil or wayyit'qattel



David Steinberg

Ottawa, Canada

http://www.houseofdavid.ca/

David.Steinberg AT houseofdavid.ca <mailto:David.Steinberg AT houseofdavid.ca>