Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Uri:

Another question, how quickly did the pronunciation of Hebrew change during
and after the Babylon Exile? Is not evidence from immigrant children as they
speak their parents’ languages a clue?

That clue indicates that a major change in pronunciation occurred in the
first couple of generations after Hebrew ceased to be the primary language
among those who speak it. That would explain the split between the sin and
shin, for example, when evidence from the text is that they were one letter
before the Exile.

This clue indicates that that early change occurred long before any
transliteration surviving from any language.

Karl W. Randolph.

On Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 8:31 PM, Uri Hurwitz <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com> wrote:

>    Besides Greek evidence, one should also check
>   the Arabic. Now, although in that case we are
>  looking at written material which is many centuries
>  later than the Greek, it nevertheless retains Semitic
>  elements which are far earlier than both
>  the Heb. or the LXX.
>
>   Shlomo is known in Arabic is 'Suleiman'. The '-an'
>  ending may be borrowed from the Greek, but may as well
>  be an original pronounciation or spelling of the name.
> Comparewith the biblical name 'Naaman', for instance.
>  As for the Heb. letter Shin, which becomes Sin in Arabic,
>  that again may go back to early pronounciation, since
>  unlike Greek, in Arabic like the Hebrew, both 'Shin'
>  and 'Sin' exist.
>
>   A further illustration is the biblical noun 'Shemesh'
>  (sun); in Arabic it is 'Shams' -- compare the last
>  consonant in the two languages. One may ask, what
>  relevance does it have to the MT prononciation. However,
>  a brief glance at the declensions of other biblical Segolate
>  nouns like Melekh, such as Malki, etc. clearly shows
>  that they maintained an earlier pronounciation which is
>  preserved in the Arabic.
>
>  The original question is valid; answers can be only tentative
> becuase of the complexities. To give just one example:
> to what extent does tha MT represent earlier pronounciations,
> and if it does, even partially as can be argued,
>  from what periods?
>
>
>
>
>     Uri Hurwitz                              Great Neck, NY
>
>
>