>What is the consensus opinion of the original functioning of begedkefet
>pairs:
>
>1. A difference in aspiration b/bh, or
>2. Completely different sounds b/v ?
Even the question, as posed, prejudices the answer. Just becuase in
English and similar languages B/V are more distinct than B/Bh doesn't
mean that the same is true in every language. The stop/fricative
difference can be just as (un)important as aspiration.
>The second supposition runs against our understanding of alphabet.
>Presumably, letters were introduced to reflect sounds, and it is rather
>unlikely that two very different sounds, b/v, were recorded with the
>same letter.
Using the same letter for B/V is essentially the same as using the
same letter for B/BH, to say nothing of S/Z (as we do in English), or
S/K (also in English), G/X (some Russian words), etc.
>If we take dagesh as post-LXX phenomenon, we're still faced with the
Surprisingly, while the Dagesh as a diacritic is post-LXX, it more
than any other Masoretic symbol finds support in the LXX, at least as
a marker of double letters.