Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Noam:

On Tue, Jan 8, 2013 at 8:22 AM, Zalman Romanoff <flintflintflintflint AT gmail.com> wrote:

… The text just rolls off the mouth and has a rhythm that becomes apparent only when you read it out loud in public (without the obfuscating tropes), particularly the “Law” parts (especially Deuteronomy).

Deuteronomy was Moses’ farewell speech and was originally given orally. He may have written it down first, or afterwards, but it was intended as an oral speech.

 

… Poetry doesn't work that way, though, something is missing (it was probably originally chanted with a lot of repetitions.)

I think what’s missing is that the original pronunciation has been lost and the “modern” (according to Masoretic pointing) pronunciation loses its rhythm. This is one of the evidences that makes me think that the original pronunciation of Hebrew was that of a syllabary, not an alphabet, with each consonant followed by a vowel. I find when reading poetry out loud as a syllabary, the rhythm so carries me forward that sometimes I don’t want to stop to think about what the words say.

Noam Eitan,

Brooklyn, NY 

Karl W. Randolph.