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Now, in the cases of "l-" and "b-", the MT allots the vowel to the particle instead of the consonant. Why? Because it is the same vowel phoneme. In fact, this allotment does not mean that the vowel attached to the aleph was not enunciated; it was. Look at the pronunciation: la do nai. It was merely subsumed into one phoneme.
Rhythmically, ADNI remained three syllables.
What I find interesting is that two examples of apocopated forms, final vowels lost, "l-" and "b-" are being used here to illustrate how Hebrew remained CV and never lost or reduced weak final vowels until the post-exilic period.
I said I had no intention of getting into this aspect; because the evidence denies that Hebrew, unlike darn near every other Semitic or IE language, never lost weak finals. The mechanisms of vowel loss are diverse. Note that when ADNI or YHVH stands alone, apparent aphaeresis does not occur.
Syncope is the most common cause of apocopation in Semitic languages -- with the *second* vowel lost or reduced. Another very common mechanism is apocopation by proximity, that is, loss of a vowel phoneme because two vowels are perceptually the same. The apparent lack of vowel pointing for the alef is apocopation by proximity -- and the wrong consonant was assigned the vowel. In apocopation by proximity, it is the *first* vowel that is lost; not the second.
Well, Kimchi said that the Masoretes were no grammarians; it's pretty clear that they had tin ears, too.Thank you for your attention. I'm not sure that I follow the relevance of the Old English, but you make sense about the Hebrew.
I am sorry, I arrived at 1:00 am and have had to plow through more than 700 messages -- I am too tired to continue right now. Hope I'm not too confusing in this note.
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