... Yitzhak, who made the
claim as I understood him, that one can not claim to read
Biblical Hebrew unless he uses points. Of course I found
his claim untenable, and told him so.
I don't think Yitzhak made this claim, which is clearly untenable in
this strong form. Those who read the scriptures in synagogues read from
unpointed text, but they still read biblical Hebrew because they still
read it more or less according to the Masoretic pronunciation, although
they do this from memory rather than from written points. And the same
is at least in part true of you: because you have read the text several
times with points, you know many of the points and so at most places
subconsciously read the text according to the Masoretic pronunciation
even when you don't have the points in front of you.
--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work) http://www.qaya.org/