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  • From: James Read <J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk>
  • To: joel AT exc.com
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Dagesh
  • Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:05:30 +0100

In English we commit absolute atrocities and somehow manage to convince ourselves that a particular letter is the same sound.

Consider, for example the 'th' sound. Is it one sound? Are you absolutely sure about that? Now say 'thought'. Now say 'the'. Still convinced they are the same sound? Say them again but this time listen to yourself very, very carefully. The beginning 'th' sounds are different and produce different speech signals when analysed with a fourier free transform. One is a fricative version of the other.

What about the letter 'l'? Now say 'label'. Is the first 'l' the same as the last 'l'? Are you absolutely sure? Listen very carefully because this one is a more subtle difference.

In short, what are completely different sounds are often categorised by listeners as the same sound merely because the alphabet tells them it is the same sound. This does not stop them from spotting that a non fricative pronunciation of 'the' somehow sounds funny though.

James Christian

Quoting joel AT exc.com:

What is the consensus opinion of the original functioning of begedkefet
pairs:

1. A difference in aspiration b/bh, or
2. Completely different sounds b/v ?

Even the question, as posed, prejudices the answer. Just becuase in
English and similar languages B/V are more distinct than B/Bh doesn't
mean that the same is true in every language. The stop/fricative
difference can be just as (un)important as aspiration.

The second supposition runs against our understanding of alphabet.
Presumably, letters were introduced to reflect sounds, and it is rather
unlikely that two very different sounds, b/v, were recorded with the
same letter.

Using the same letter for B/V is essentially the same as using the
same letter for B/BH, to say nothing of S/Z (as we do in English), or
S/K (also in English), G/X (some Russian words), etc.

If we take dagesh as post-LXX phenomenon, we're still faced with the

Surprisingly, while the Dagesh as a diacritic is post-LXX, it more
than any other Masoretic symbol finds support in the LXX, at least as
a marker of double letters.

-Joel

Joel M. Hoffman, PhD
http://www.lashon.net

Author of And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible's Original Meaning
http://www.AndGodSaid.com

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