Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Randall Buth <randallbuth AT gmail.com>]

On Sat, Aug 27, 2011 at 10:06 AM, Vadim Cherny <vadimcherny AT gmail.com> wrote:
>
> What we have in pausal forms are two separate issues:
>
> 1. Why there is elongation at all (or restoration to the original vowel, in 
> your scenario)?
> 2. Why the epenthetic/ elongated (or restored) vowel varies?
>
> You offered an explanation to the second point. I doubt it mainly because 
> of historical improbability of such restoration and the lack of Secunda 
> evidence. In your shame'u example, ayin was lost by the time of Masoretes, 
> but could influence them choosing e over a.
>
. . .

Your doubting of historical probability seems to assume that the
Masoretes would have needed to research and insert the phenomenon in
order to restore it. Yes, then it would appear improbable. But if the
Masoretes were recording and preserving a tradition that retained some
archaic features, then it is not just possible, it is probable that
they would record things that they may not have understood themselves.
shame`u is one piece of that evidence among many. (since it is not my
research interest, I will not take time to list my favorite ten
examples of masoretic preservation.)

Your comment on `ayin is also curious. `ayin was lost? How did the
Arabs preserve the `ayin and Het correctly in place names from the
seventh century and following if the `ayin was universally lost? All
it takes is for some of the dialects to preserve this, or for a
liturgical tradition to preserve this, in order for `ayin to be
preserved, correctly. Even today in Israel, many speakers of
'Ashkenazi-Israeli' do not pronounce `ayin or even "he" in their
speech, but will add them when reading in a synagogue.

Finally, your explanation on shame`u did not explain why laqaHu and
nasa`u did not use 'e'.They have pharyngeals that should have
influenced their alleged phonetic innovation. Did the masoretes just
get lucky? Time and time again?


>
>> And note some pharyngeal sister-pausals:
>> laqaHu 'they took'
>> and nasa`u 'they travelled'.
>> Neither one has an etymological
>> 'i/e' vowel, and both have the expected 'a' forms.
>> shame`u 'they heard', on the other hand, reflects its 'stative'
>> 'i/e' etymology. Chalk one up for the Masoretes.
>> A hypothesis needs to cover wide data.


braxot

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Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicallanguagecenter.com
Biblical Language Center
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