Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Vadim Cherny <vadimcherny AT gmail.com>]

On Aug 24, 2011, at 11:24 PM, Petr Tomasek wrote:

>  Bezalel Elan Dresher. "The Prosodic Basis of the Tiberian Hebrew  
> System of Accents". Language 70 (1994). s. 1-52.  ?

Prosody is too broad an explanation for the Masoretic marks. Prosody  
alone, for example, cannot explain five vowel quantities - they simply  
do not exist in speech, but only in singing.

> The "liturgical chant" of a Biblical text was actually only a  
> ritualized
> form of learning/teaching towards a broader public.

I doubt that on historical grounds. There was no concept of learning  
Hebrew besides learning to chant the liturgical texts, not for the  
'broad public.'

Vadim Cherny