Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

That's certainly possible, but reading a qamats in a closed syllable as a 
short vowel fits the way all of the other vowels work. 

 

Yigal Levin

 

From: K Randolph [mailto:kwrandolph AT gmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2011 2:34 PM
To: Yigal Levin
Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Why not patah?

 

Yigal:

On Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 10:27 PM, Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il> wrote:

Hi Pere,
…
Now, why the Mesoretes used identical signs for a long a and for a short o
is another question.

Do you suppose they used the identical sign because originally they intended 
it to refer to the identical pronunciation? But that in the intervening 
centuries that either in the closed syllables, and/or the open syllables, 
that the pronunciation changed? 

 


Yigal Levin



Karl W. Randolph.