Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Fred:

On Mon, Dec 27, 2010 at 8:47 PM, Paul Zellmer <pzellmer AT sc.rr.com> wrote:

> …
> To put this in more technical terminology, your stated opinion of your own
> question looks at the Masoretic markings as being prescriptive when they
> were actually descriptive.  They were following the sounds of the language
> as they actually heard, without regard for *why* the sounds were pronounced
> that way.
>
> …
> Paul Zellmer
>
> I’ll add to what Paul said, in that we don’t know how Biblical Hebrew was
pronounced when it was the language of the street and hearth. The Masoretic
points only indicate a local dialect of Hebrew as it was spoken at the
Masoretic time. And I accept it as descriptive rather than prescriptive.

Karl W. Randolph.