The argument seems to have
been inferred not only from the external sources like
Hidayat al-qari etc etc but also from within the system itself: distribution
of gay'ot etc.
What struck me most was the fact that non-Karaite sources revealed
distinctly further divisions beyond the usual binary-ness short vs long.
intrigued by your idea on accents as indicators of length retained on the
plane of cantillation (did
I read correctly the idea that sometimes an accent in cantillation extends
the vowel to four peaks?)
if, owever, "It even appears to me that when
Hebrew ceased to be a spoken language after the early
centuries CE, that vowel length was gradually lost as the
reading tradition developed Hebrew in ways more suitable for
the cantillation of the liturgical reading",
then that would undermine the transcriptions of the Hebrew Bible into
Arabic by the Karaites etc and
their reliablity as sources for the reconstruction of quantity would
be put into question.
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