Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Will:

Good point.

The question is: when did Hebrew pronunciation change from native Hebrew to bad Aramaic, i.e. Aramaic vowels and Aramaic consonantal pronunciation of Hebrew writing? I think it started during the Babylonian Exile, and largely reached completion before the LXX was written.

There are some very sparse clues that there was also a secondary change, one that started in the South (Egypt) probably during the time the LXX was translated, but did not reach all of Aramaic speaking Jews until centuries later, hence Peter’s accent and some of the spellings retained in the Byzantine transliterations in the New Testament.

Karl W. Randolph.

On Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 4:46 PM, Will Parsons <wbparsons AT alum.mit.edu> wrote:

Hi Karl,

On Wed, 28 Nov 2012 07:38:01 -0800, K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Note: apparently the segolate form is late, possibly not earlier than
> Mishnaic or even Masoretic Hebrew. Even Waltke & O’Conner mention that the
> Amarna Letters, archaeologically dated to the Divided Kingdom era, give
> clues that the language then spoken was apparently a CVCVCV form with no
> consonantal clusters. I had earlier to my reading of Waltke & O’Conner come
> to the tentative conclusion derived from reading the unpointed text that
> such a form was possibly the case.

I won't venture an opinion on what might have been the pronunciation
in the Divided Kingdom era, but the segholate form apparently goes
back to the time of the LXX translation, at any rate.  For example, in
Gen 26.1, the name אבימלך is represented as Αβιμελεχ/Abimelech.

--
Will Parsons
μη φαινεσθαι, αλλ' ειναι.