Biblical Hebrew Forum

[David Steinberg <david.l.steinberg AT rogers.com>]

Karl
Your statement below is both partially correct and misleading -

"We don't know what was the original pronunciation of Biblical Hebrew. 
All we have are the consonants, and we don't even agree on the 
pronunciation of those. There are some of us who believe that the modern 
pronunciation (Israeli or Yemini) was how the ancients pronounced Hebrew 
before the Babylonian Exile, others dispute that belief. Therefore, the 
safest way to deal with that in these discussions is merely to write the 
Hebrew consonants as they are found in Tanakh, and/or to write them out 
in transliteration. That way there is no argument as to pronunciation 
(useful to avoid that argument when other questions are the main 
subjects of a posting). When I read Tanakh, I read it without points 
(the text I have in my computer has no points) so when I read the text 
and quote it in my messages here, it will be without pronunciation. "



We cannot recreate the pronunciations (1000 - 350 BCE and many dialects and 
registers(seehttp://www.houseofdavid.ca/anc_heb_diglossia.htm  ) of Biblical 
Hebrew with certainty however:

a) we can reconstruct the Tiberian pronunciation with some confidence ( 
http://www.adath-shalom.ca/history_of_hebrew2a.htm#vowel_systemTH nb. 
footnotes);
b) we know that in Hebrew until the Middle Ages, vowel ( see 
http://www.adath-shalom.ca/history_of_hebrew2.htm#dvcl 
http://www.adath-shalom.ca/history_of_hebrew2a.htm#minprs )and consonant 
length was phonemic unlike modern pronunciations ( see 
http://www.adath-shalom.ca/history_of_hebrew2a.htm#MLbib )so that the 
whole phonemic structure was unlike Israeli Hebrew ( see 
http://www.houseofdavid.ca/anc_heb_12.htm#alter; 
http://www.adath-shalom.ca/history_of_hebrew2.htm#vcl ).
c) we do have a clear view of the range of the likely pronunciations of 
the BH consonants ( see 
http://www.adath-shalom.ca/history_of_hebrew2.htm#con_phoneme )and can 
make reasoned hypotheses regarding the BH vowel system (see 
http://www.adath-shalom.ca/history_of_hebrew2a.htm )

No one can read or pronounce or even understand the text ( see 
http://www.houseofdavid.ca/anc_heb_5.htm#orth )without assuming a 
vocalization.

David Steinberg

Ottawa, Canada