Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On Sat, Feb 6, 2010 at 8:41 PM, Vadim Cherny wrote:
> The Masoretes, I believe, wrote a chanting guide for liturgy rather
> than grammar. The concept of grammar was largely unknown then. So they
> wrote together what is sung together. Naturally, an open-syllable
> particle became concatenated to the next world.

That is inaccurate.  The Masoretes wrote many treatises on various aspects
of grammar.  By the time of the Masoretes, grammatical investigation into
Arabic was very influential.  Saadia Gaon's grammar (perhaps the first full
grammar of Hebrew, and definitely the first one that has largely survived)
was written after, if not during, Saadia Gaon's stay in Tiberias where he
met and spoke to the Masoretes themselves.

Yitzhak Sapir