Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Ari:

On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 8:18 AM, AMK Judaica <amkjudaica AT hotmail.com> wrote:

>
> karl,
>
> you wrote, "every consonant was followed by a vowel. As such, your name may
> originally have been “Re-be-qa-he” with the stress on the penultimate
> syllable."
>
> i thought the terminal heh is not a consonant in this case, but rather a
> mater lectiones for the vocalization of the previous letter (kuf). if so,
> why would you put a vowel ("e") after the heh?
>
> thanks,
> ari kinsberg
> brooklyn, new york
>
> That it is a mater lectiones is a modern understanding. But was it always
so? ... Well?

We don’t know. Therefore we cannot rule out that it did have a following
vowel. In reading poetry, the cadence sometimes works out best that it is
followed by a vowel.

Oh for a time machine, so we could go back and interview native speakers.

Karl W. Randolph.