While we're on the topic of the reliability of Massoretic vocalization, what
is the consensus on when monosyllabic nouns began being pronounced with the
second (anaptyctic) vowel?
The LXX seems to show them as disyllabic, but Origen still has them
monosyllabic. Is this difference due to dialectal variation? A slow
diffusion of the change?
I checked Saenz-Badillos, Sperber, GKC, and WOC, but couldn't find a date
for the change.
I would like to know whether such nouns were pronounced as monosyllables or
segolates in the Qumran writings. I remember Ehlen's Harvard dissertation
from the 1960's assumes they were monosyllabic, but I don't recall why, and
I don't have it here with me.