Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Vadim Cherny <vadimcherny AT gmail.com>]

I've been arguing that the entire Masoretic notation relates to  
liturgical chant and was never intended for speech (Richard Goerwitz  
apparently expresses a similar opinion in his dissertation). In this  
vein, we can now explain pausal elongation.

Penultimate vowel in pausal position is elongated to avoid  
interrogative intonation. This is a well-known phenomenon to narrators  
and opera singers. The simplest (and rather derided) way of canceling  
interrogative intonation is reducing the ultimate vowel to near schwa.  
The Masoretes adopted a better approach: they elongated penultimate  
vowel so that the relative length of the final vowel is reduced  
without making the vowel inaudible.

Incidentally, several singers told me that in their experience Hebrew  
speakers are more prone to elongating final vowel, which turns the  
phrase into a question. Whether this anecdotal evidence holds, I don't  
know.

In interrogative sentences, pausal elongation would be unnecessary.

Vadim Cherny