Am I understanding your correctly that you are arguing shewa is never[cut]
vocal? I would love to hear you read a text of the Hebrew Bible to see
what you do with shewa, to see what you do with shewa in practice. Is
it too much to ask that you record a few lines in a wmv file and email
them to me? Do you deal with any of these issues in your book?
On 8/31/07, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:
James,
The whole business of Schwa NA and Schwa NAX is in my opinion
baloney. It is a historical misunderstanding and is one of the many
ghosts cozily and imperturbably inhabiting the dim corners of Hebrew
grammar. It got now to the point of becoming a religious question of
how to properly recite the prayers, with some Hebrew prayer books
marking what they think needs to be "moved".
There is only one Schwa and it is but an indication to put a tiny
hiatus or pause after the marked consonant. Since this requires
phonetic discipline some find it easier to sloppily insert a thin,
and ugly, E into this gap, phonetically disfiguring thereby the
Hebrew language.
Thus: XAL[ ]LEI not XAL[E]LEI, CIL[ ]LEI not CIL[E]LEI, UMAD[ ]DU,
not UMAD[E]DU, Y[ ]$AD[ ]DEM, not Y[E]$AD[E]DEM, AP[ ]PU, not AP[E] PU.
There is a natural tendency to place such a redundant (repugnant) E
after an initial schwaic L, M, N, R, Y. To wit: L[E]BENAH, 'brick', L
[E]BIBAH, 'cake', N[E]BIAH, 'prophetess', R[E]BABAH, 'ten thosand', Y
[E]SOD, 'foundation', Y[E]LADYIM, 'children', in place of L[ ] BENAH, L
[ ]BIBAH, N[ ]BIAH, R[ ]BABAH, Y[ ]SOD, Y[ ]LADYIM. Also if the
second letter is Alef, He or Ayin as in the mispronounced G[E]) ULAH, $
[E](ARYIM, T[E])O, M[E](ARAH, S[E](ARAH, B[E]HEMAH, D[E]HYIRAH (from
the root DHR, 'gallop, canter'). But $)AL, 'ask', SAD(, 'eat', $)AB
'draw water', appear to be easily pronounceable as $[ ])AL, S[ ](AD
and $[ ])AB.
Cleavage of a consonant cluster may also be a myth. Even (new) words
such as BAR[ ]RAN, 'fastidious, choosy', from the root BRR, or XA$[ ]
$AN, 'apprehensive', from the root X$$, should not be pronounced BAR
[E]RAN, and XA$[E]$AN.
As far as I can recall, no Hebrew noun starts with a schwaic Alef,
He, Xet or Ayin , but an initial schwaic Resh is common, for
instance, R[ ]BABAH. There are few Hebrew nouns containing a schwaic
Alef such as B)[ ]$AH, 'cockle' of Job 31:40. In Isaiah 42:21 we find
the verbal V[ ]YA)[ ]DYIR. A schwaic He is also rare.
The 1 Kings 6:8 UB[ ]LULYIM, 'with winding stairs' is commonly
pronounced U-BE-LULIM. But Leviticus 2:5 B[ ]LULAH, 'mingled' is
pronounce BLULAH to indicate that this B is radical. Also M[ ]MALE)
is being voiced nowadays as ME-MALE( in recognition of the
prepositioned M being short for MI, 'he, who'.
Isaac Fried, Boston University
--
Dr Raoul Comninos
93 Wagenaar Street
Monte Vista
7460
South Africa
capechurch AT gmail.com
Fax: (086) 6544615
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