Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Moshe Shulman <mshulman AT ix.netcom.com>]

The problem with this theory is that the 
manuscripts are Biblical texts. The addition of 
letters for pronunciation purposes does not apply 
there. In fact we do not find it anywhere else in 
this text while in the sectarian texts it is found all the time.

I am not sure that you have looked at the 
original of these texts, but if you did you would 
see that the writer (I hate to use the word 
scribe because that seems to imply some 'skill' 
at writing) has very poor handwriting. IF you 
have ever needed to correct papers in Hebrew, you 
know that telling the difference between a vov 
and a yud is sometimes quite difficult.

At 10:45 PM 12/5/2009, you wrote:
> On Sat, Dec 5, 2009 at 4:28 AM, Steve Miller 
> <smille10 AT sbcglobal.net> wrote: > In Ps 22:17, 
> if the correct reading is karu according to the 
> 2 DSS witnesses > + LXX, then is it possible to 
> explain the extra aleph in the MT as a > 
> "prosthetic aleph"? > > > > The Pocket 
> Dictionary for the Study of Biblical Hebrew by 
> Todd J. Murphy > defines a prosthesis as > > 
> "The addition of a phoneme (usually a vowel) in 
> BH and the Semitic languages > to a word-initial 
> consonant cluster in order to smooth 
> pronunciation, which > by itself tends to run 
> contrary to the regular rules of Semitic > 
> pronunciation (e.g., BH zroa, "arm", becomes 
> ezroa or zeroa). Prosthetic > vowels compensate 
> for a consonant cluster at the beginning of a 
> word, and > anaptyctic vowels compensate for 
> consonant clusters at the end of a word. > See 
> also prosthetic aleph." > > Would the words 
> surrounding kari in Ps 22:17 in MT qualify as a 
> "consonant > cluster"? > No, Steve. There's no 
> need for the aleph to break anything here. 
> Notice that the vowel sound "a" already exists 
> in the verb form כרו KRW "they dug out." The 
> aleph in this case isn't a phoneme at all, since 
> it adds nothing that wasn't already present in 
> the verb itself. It would serve only as a vowel 
> letter. We do find instances of aleph as a vowel 
> letter in middle-weak verbs. We could find 
> קאמו instead of קמו, for example. But I 
> don't know of any instances of third-heh verbs 
> taking such an aleph as a mater lectionis, as it 
> is suggested here. Regards, Jason Hare Rehovot, 
> Israel 
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Moshe Shulman   outreach AT judaismsanswer.com 718-436-7705
Judaism's Answer:  http://www.judaismsanswer.com/