Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Jonathan Mohler <jonathan.mohler AT gmail.com>]

This can be seen as a typical morphophonemic process, whereby one sound takes on a characteristic of a neighboring sound.  One of the characteristics of the lamed is that it is a "continuant;" the fricative kaf thus is extending the continuant characteristic of the lamed.  This is the most observable phenomenon in language.  What Rolf is dubbing a "voiced" kaf is actually a "stop" or what phonologists call a [ -continuant ] (the lamed is a [ +continuant ]).  Whatever one thinks about the masoretic pointing, linguists have and continue to show that their phonology is consistent with that of all languages.  That is, the Tiberian system was a real-world spoken language.

I recommend everyone on this list pick up some beginning linguistics books such as:

Phonological Analysis, a Functional Approach, by Donald A. Burquest. (see p.3 for the above argument).

On Jun 2, 2013, at 11:00 AM, b-hebrew-request AT lists.ibiblio.org wrote:

In Numbers 31:8 we find the plural construct form of MLK (king). First we see the closed syllable MAL, which is normal. Then we see the open syllable KE, which is not normal, because the kaf is fricative and should have been voiced. What does the fact that the kaf is fricative indicate?

Jonathan E. Mohler

Baptist Bible Graduate School

Springfield, Missouri, US