Biblical Hebrew Forum

[John Leake <jesleake AT yahoo.co.uk>]

Sorry, Rolf, I don't quite get this. Are you saying that there's no trace of shortened forms of verbs in the consonantal biblical texts of the DSS or that Qumran Hebrew didn't have these forms? (I'm having difficulty remembering this and don't have any books with me but thought defective verbs at least showed consonantal differences in the Masoritic text between waw-consecutive/waw+jussive and waw+imperfect).

John Leake

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ان صاحب حياة هانئة لا يدونها انما يحياها

He who has a comfortable life doesn't write about it - he lives it

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On 15 May 2013, at 06:52, "Rolf" <rolf.furuli AT sf-nett.no> wrote:

Dear Jerry,

I would like to add one point regarding the origin of WAYYIQTOL to the post I sent yesterday.

Ken correctly observes that there is no distinction between WATYYIQTOL and WEYIQTOL in the DSS. The same is true in the Greek transcriptions of the Hebrew text in Origen's Hexapla. Thus, the WAYYIQTOL form was not known before the middle of the first millennium CE., when the Masoretes pointed the Hebrew text.

(Please note that  the Palestinian pointings of WEYIQTOLs versus WAYYIQTOLs are not always the same as in the MT. For example, in the Palestinian manuscript J in Paul Kahle, "Masoreten des Westens Texte und Untersuchungen zur Vormasoretischen Grammatik des Hebräischen," 1930, the six WEYIQTOLs in Daniel 11:5 (1), 15(2), 16(2), 17(1) are pointed as WAYYIQTOLs.

So, what was the origin of the WAYYIQTOL form? The Masoretes pointed their text on the basis of the recitation of the texts in the synagoges—on the basis of accentuation (stress) and tone. The difference between WEYIQTOL and WAYYIQTOL is basically one of accentuation. It is natural to put the stress differently in narrative texts compared with poetry and prophetic texts. Very little Hebrew grammar was known in the days of the Masoretes—it seems that they did not even know the three-radical nature of Hebrew words. So, the pointing of the Masoretes was based on pragmatics—the recitation in the synagogues and not om semantics—a grammatical distinction between different forms. But in the Middle Ages, the pragmatic pointing of the Masoretes were given a semantic interpretation (cf. Kimhi), and the view of the WAYYIQTOL as an independent grammatical form was born.

When semantic meaning and conversational pragmatic implicature are not distinguished, the result is confusion. Does anyone know of a single grammatical study in any of the ancient Semitic languages, except my dissertation,  where this distinction is systematically made?



Best regards,


Rolf Furuli
Stavern
Norway

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