Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Kevin:

On Sun, Jun 13, 2010 at 6:16 PM, Kevin Riley <klriley AT alphalink.com.au>wrote:

> I would both agree and disagree with Yitzhak.  They do have a habit of
> saying things that are not based on any scholarly consensus or
> archaeological evidence - such as Karl's claim that Hebrew was
> originally CV


Please be accurate! All I have said on this issue is that there is some
evidence that possibly Hebrew during Biblical times was a CV language, and
that the only evidence against it is from centuries later and/or linguistic
models. In other words, there is neither proof for nor against. I am not a
puffed up, chest thumping scholar with all the answers, rather I’m willing
to admit that we don’t know and unless a discovery is made of an extensive
transliteration into a language for which we have unambiguous knowledge of
its pronunciation (is there any such from Biblical times?) we will never
know.


> - but in most cases (not that one) their claims do have a
> basis - it just isn't one we talk about on this list.  I don't see it as
> any more 'apology worthy' than some of the statements they (and others)
> have made, so why not let the gentlemen in question sort it out for
> themselves?  If we start insisting on an apology every time someone is
> offended, we will end up with an archive filled with more apologies than
> anything else.
>

I decided to let the original slur from Yitzhak slide because, … well,
that’s Yitzhak. Sometimes it’s better just to ignore what he says.

>
> Kevin Riley


Given the above, that we don’t know how Hebrew was pronounced during
Biblical days, we build theories on very shaky sands if we insist certain
pronunciations to have been true or false. That includes this whole argument
about consonantal clusters in Biblical Hebrew.

Karl W. Randolph.