Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Ratson Naharadama <yahoo-arch AT heplist.com>]

Karl Randolph wrote:
> Both [LXX & Hexapla] too late, by centuries.
> If my reading of the text is correct,
> then the pronunciation was changing
> already at the time of Cyrus the Great.

How about the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III? This is dated to 
somewhere around 825 BCE, and even ignoring the date, it is still 
pre-exilic. Yehu (Jehu) is mentioned where it writes:
Yaúa mar Huumrii
Meaning "Yehu son of Omri." Omri (עמרי) is written in the patter CVCCV 
(or CVCCVC if you were to count the yud).

Karl wrote in reference to nun-assimilation:
> Irrelevant.

???
What causes it to become irrelevant?

Karl wrote:
> At the very least, many of the words
> [...] had a CV:CV structure during Biblical times.

So, at least I know you accept the existence of (temporally) long vowels.

Karl wrote:
> [...] like in modern Chinese.

And once upon a time, what would become Chinese had CVC patterns. As the 
syllable-final consonants weakened (which simultaneously involved the 
preceding vowel to gain tone qualities), they eventually dropped out 
leaving a tonal system in the wake. But then, the history of Chinese 
doesn't really help out a whole lot with Semitic languages in this area.

Karl wrote:
> But a major evidence for CV language
> is poetry, where there is a beat
> to reading all letters as consonants
> followed by vowels.

One problem here is poetry can take many different rhythms. By reading 
any languages as CV,  all you are doing is altering the language to fit 
the *most* simple of poetic rhythms. You can usually do that to any 
language and discover a rhythm.

Another problem is that syllables can be read so that it can take a 
portion of a single beat while another can be read to take up several 
beats. You can see this in both Jewish and Arabic usage (as well as in 
English and many other cultures). Then, with Samaritan poetry, a 
syllable can even be repeated multiple times when read, yet only written 
once. The rhythm can also change back and forth in poetry. There are so 
many unknowns introduced by poetry that examples are often excluded when 
studying a language.

Karl wrote in reference to nun-assimilation:
> Irrelevant.

Again... Why is nun-assimilation irrelevant?

--
Ratson Naharädama
Denver, Colorado