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  • From: Randall Buth <randallbuth AT gmail.com>
  • To: Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] the little things
  • Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2010 16:18:58 -0700

comments follow this of Kevin:

Kevin:
The lentition of the letters bgdkpt is usually placed much later. Many
think it came in after the Exile. So the answer is no, no C12th BCE
Hebrew speaker would have known of this. But after it did become part
of Hebrew, yes, ordinary speakers would notice. Anyone who used the
wrong variant would have sounded either 'wrong' or 'foreign', just like
in languages today that have the same phenomenon.

This brings us back to a point often made: the Hebrew we have in the
Masoretic texts represents the way Hebrew was chanted in the second half
of the 1st millennium CE. As part of the tradition of Hebrew, it is
part of the evidence of how Hebrew was spoken in the 1st or 2nd
millennium BCE, but it is not, nor was it meant to be, a trascription of
how Moses, David or Ezra pronounced Hebrew.

Kevin Riley

On 5/11/2010 1:27 AM, fred burlingame wrote:
> that make life fun ...
>
> and so, in numbers 31:23 we have three instances of the hebrew word באש
> occurring, but we have pronunciation differing; "ya-vo ... va-esh;"
> "ta-ah-vi-ru ... va-esh;" and "ya-vo ... ba-esh."
>
> Is there some rule or reason to "dagesh" for "ba-esh" only once of three
> instances?
>
> Would the average 12th century b.c., shepherd or farmer practiced (or even
> known about) such subtle differences in his every day communications?
>
> Thanks for your help.
>
> regards,
>
> fred burlingame


Kevin is correct in general about bgdkpt and potentially sounding
foreigh or strange in not following the patterns.

However, the example of Num 33.23 is special and relates to how
fast one is speaking. Normally, following a vowel the bet in 'with fire'
would have been pronounced as a fricative, (probably like the bilabial
'b' in Habana [Havana in English] and later as a labiodental 'v)'.
However, if a speaker paused for half a moment the
bet was considered to be beginning a phrase and would be pronounced
as a stop 'b'. In the MT of Num 33, the third example is accented with
a 'disjunctive' accent before the bet. Thus, the pause would be heard
and reinforced by the stop 'b' continuing a new phrase unit.

This illustrates the sub-phonemic status of the b/v alteration in biblical/
post-biblical times. If a speaker spoke the verse above quickly enough
then all of the bet's would have been fricatives.

Randall Buth

--
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicalulpan.org
randallbuth AT gmail.com
Biblical Language Center
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