To: kwrandolph AT email.com, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Cc:
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] resources for learning Paleo-Hebrew?
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2004 21:50:52 EST
In a message dated 2/24/2004 8:12:34 AM Eastern Standard Time,
kwrandolph AT email.com writes:
Maybe you do not want to view an unpointed text, but others may. After all,
the points are not canonical, they just represent a tradition as it existed
at
the time of the Masorites, a tradition that may or may not be accurate
according to original intent.
The reason that I started reading an unpointed text is because I found the
points a distraction. There are enough times that I disagree with the points
that I do not like them there, and for the vast majority of the time that I
agree
with them, I found they unnecessarily cluttered up the page. Hence I prefer
to read an unpointed text. And for fun, I use a pre-exilic (Hebrew, not
Aramaic) font.
(I did not catalog the times I disagree with the points, after all, I was
just reading, not making a scholarly work.)
There are times I found that the points make the text complex, sometimes
unintelligeable, but with a change in points of a key word or two, a simple,
easily understood passage consistent with its context would leap out.
_________
I think most of us use a pointed text. I must confess though that the points
almost might as well not be there for all the attention I pay to them. There
are times, however, when they come in handy. I remember when I first started
learning Hebrew I wouldn't have known what to do without them, but in time
they seem to be not so much a distraction or a cluttering up of the text but
simply a part of the woodwork. It is nice though to have the tradition to
fall
back on when a passage becomes a bit dicey. For this reason alone I would be
loathe to part with them.
Regarding your font: What font do you use? Is there a comparable font for
Windows -- preferably, indeed almost mandatorily, a unicode font (I believe
you
said you use a MAC)?