Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Ishinan" <ishinan AT comcast.net>]

[PHILIP ENGMANN] - Dear Group, Please can anyone tell me why the consonantal 
Hebrew text was vocalized?

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[ ISHINAN] -  Dear Philip, in my previous answer I gave you some general 
ideas about the motivations for vocalizing the consonantal Hebrew text. 
After some thought, I came up with the following reason, which I hope will 
directly answer your query.

If the aim was to restore "the correct pronunciation of Biblical Hebrew, and 
to protect against scribal errors, as well as to annotate possible variants 
and cantillation", it would seem that all of these measures can be viewed as 
an eagerness that goes beyond the faithful transmitting of linguistic 
traditions.

What it shows, in my opinion, is an unabated ambition at a genuine revival 
of the Hebrew language and to preserve it for the future generations. 
Scholars at that time must have discovered that the essential role of 
developing a GRAMMAR in communicative language teaching was paramount, and 
the best answer for a language survival.

The historic task to preserve the sacred literature and to assure to its 
correct interpretation and transmission to generations to come, required 
first to come up with coherent systems of rules "niqqud"  to make sense out 
of the all the raw data from the ancient traditions. Once these systems of 
rules were put in place, it allowed scholars the ability to indicate in 
writing exactly how a word should sound (to vowels, accents, and consonantal 
spelling etc.) This momentous invention led to the foundation for 
grammatical analysis of Hebrew.  One thing led to another, and "dikduk". 
was born.


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This bring us to Randall's intriguing remark :

[RANDALL BUTH] - Your general motivations seem in the right direction but 
they don't explain an 1100-year gap. Why did it take from 400 BCE to 700 CE 
for the vowels and tunes to be recorded?

[ISHINAN]   A point well taken.  Might it be that this goes hand in hand 
with the need, or the lack thereof, of developing a grammar?  Perhaps, you 
can come up with an equally insightful thought as to why It took from 400 
BCE  to circa 1000's CE to develop dikduk?

I am genuinely interested in knowing your opinion on this intriguing 
matter.

Note:  In the above explanation, I made a conscious effort at concentrating 
only on the "motives" in order to satisfy Philip's inquiry without any added 
distraction.

Best regards to the both of you,

Ishinan Ishibashi


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