Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Bryant J. Williams III" <bjwvmw AT com-pair.net>]

Dear Jim,

This list is about BIBLICAL HEBREW, not HURRIAN. I really do care about 
knowing
Biblical Hebrew. Cognate languages may be able to assist in determining the
meaning of a hapax legomenon or words used less than 10 times, but usually are
not able to help in determining meaning since it is the context that is the
determining factor in ALL cases.  Just because something is possible, does not
mean that it is probable or certain. I remind myself often that ALL we have is
the text everything else is supposition or even presupposition.

Rev. Bryant J. Williams III
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <JimStinehart AT aol.com>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, October 25, 2010 7:20 AM
Subject: [b-hebrew] Dagesh


>
> On another thread, Kenneth Greifer humorously wrote:  “I have been on
> B-Hebrew for a few years, and I know that you can never fail if you discuss
> dageshes and schwas. You should see how excited they get if someone asks 
> why a
> dagesh is someplace….  Be careful about asking too many questions about
> dageshes because you don't want to overexcite some of the older B-Hebrew
members.”
>
> But all kidding aside, did the Hebrew dagesh concept originate from
> Hurrian?
>
> In Hurrian, Hebrew and Aramaic, and perhaps in no other languages, B and P
> soften when between vowels, except when doubled.  Did the Hebrew dagesh,
> which prevents such softening by doubling B or P, come from Hurrian, which 
> has
> the same written phenomenon as to P?  That is the tentative suggestion at
> pp. 56-57 of Frederic William Bush, “A Grammar of the Hurrian Language”
> (1964) [where I will use <<…>> for the two footnotes, and anything in 
> brackets
> represents my own comments]:
>
>  “Hurrian did not tolerate doubled voiced stops [e.g., B] but only doubled
> voiceless stops [e.g., P]….  Now, the fact that the three fricatives of
> Hurrian (the labial [B and P], the dental and the velar) exhibit this exact
same
> pattern is suggestive.  …This pattern of non-phonemic, inter-vocalic
> [between vowels] spirantization [softening, where B is pronounced V in 
> Hebrew,
and
> P is pronounced PH in Hurrian and Hebrew] which is lost when the consonants
> are doubled immediately brings to mind the very similar pattern of the
> Hebrew stops.  <<FN 59  The so-called begadkephat letters.  This is a 
> feature
of
> Aramaic as well.  Here [in Hurrian] it occurs in post-vocalic position
> also.>>  This is a pattern that is unique among the Semitic languages, and
hence
> it seems likely that it is due to some exterior influence.  Perhaps this
> development is due to the influence of Hurrian during the formative period 
> of
> the Aramaic and Canaanite dialects during the latter half of the second
> millennium.  <<FN 60:  It must be noted that the Hebrews [but Jim says:  No
way!
>  The Hebrews’ experience with the Hurrians was in Canaan in the 14th
> century BCE] and the Arameans originated in just those areas of North Syrian
and
> North-west Mesopotamia where Hurrian penetration was particularly strong.
> Although direct evidence is lacking, the close association of the Hurrians
> with other Semitic groups as at Nuzi and Alalah renders a similar 
> relationship
> between the Hurrians and the ancestors of the Arameans and Canaanites
> entirely within the realm of possibility.>>   …This remains, however, the 
> most
> tentative of suggestions.”
>
> Is this fundamental Hebrew grammar feature of doubling a P [i.e., using a
> dagesh] in writing to indicate the rare situation where P, even though
> surrounded by vowels, does not soften to PH, coming from Hurrian?  
> Apparently
> Hebrew and Aramaic are the only Semitic languages that have this 
> Hurrian-type
> feature.
>
> Jim Stinehart
> Evanston, Illinois
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>


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