Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Jason Hare <jaihare AT gmail.com>]

Some people on the list may not be aware that Isaac has his own entrenched opinions that generally contradict those of the majority. Especially, how he views word roots and connections between letter groups, rejects the functions universally attributed to the dagesh (which is functionally similar to the Arabic shadda, which he might also argue doesn't exist) and repudiates any distinction between the vocal and silent sheva, among other things.

It would be good for these people, who may be new and slightly "uninitiated" in the interactions of B-Hebrew personalities, to know that it is with good reason that Isaac's posts often go without reply. He doesn't speak for the whole body of participants on B-Hebrew, the majority of whom, I'm sure, are well aware of the uses of these features of the Hebrew language.

I will say that the only people that I can imagine taking Isaac's minimalist stance on grammatical orthography are those who grew up in Israel and never learned the nikkud system properly in the first place. I rarely meet an Israeli who knows the difference between segol and tsere.

Jason Hare
Rehovot, Israel