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  • From: fred burlingame <tensorpath AT gmail.com>
  • To: Randall Buth <randallbuth AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] the little things
  • Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2010 11:31:13 -0500

Hello Randall;

I appreciate your continuing explanations of the complex masorete accent
system of pointing the text (and as distinguished from the nikkud word
pronunciation pointing).

It seems an accent mark appears on most words.

I cannot imagine the thousands of people listening to ezra (and the ko-hen)
reading the text (nehemiah 8:8), for hours on end, would have been aware of
such subtle pauses, every word or so.

I can understand the people grasping pauses between what we call now
"sentences," or even "clauses," ... but chronic phrases of one word? I don't
think so. The masorete accent system surely appears designed for academic or
scribal consumption only (and not by the general population of people using
this language daily for survival).

regards,

fred burlingame

On Fri, Nov 5, 2010 at 10:28 AM, Randall Buth <randallbuth AT gmail.com> wrote:

> On Fri, Nov 5, 2010 at 8:14 AM, fred burlingame <tensorpath AT gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > Hello Randall:
> >
> > Thanks for your incisive comments.
> >
> > The punctuation beneath יבא in לא יבא באש (numbers 31:23) appears to
> > include a conjunctive "merkha" rather than a disjunctive "tiphchah" (as
> that
> > latter mark appears under באש ). I note however, that the "merkha"
> > under יבא appears to enclose an additional "dot." I don't know the
> meaning
> > of the dot.
>
> The whole accent, with the dot, is called tvir, a minor disjunctive.
>
>
> >
> > http://www.tanach.us/Tanach.xml#Num31:1-31:54
> >
> > http://www.tms.edu/FacultyDocuments/HebrewAccentsrev.pdf
> >
> > Given the immense amount of precision the masorete scribes assigned to
> their
> > text, I find it a little surprising that they would have divided phrases
> > between יבא and באש .
>
> true, but that is the choice that they made. The disjunctive phrases
> become quite small in the MT.
>
> braxot
> Randall Buth
>
>
> >
> > regards,
> >
> > fred burlingame
>
> --
> Randall Buth, PhD
> www.biblicalulpan.org
> randallbuth AT gmail.com
> Biblical Language Center
> Learn Easily - Progress Further - Remember for Life
>




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