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  • From: Vadim Cherny <vadimcherny AT gmail.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Pausal forms
  • Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2011 23:06:29 +0300

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




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