Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Hebrew pronunciation before the Masoretes
Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2011 15:14:59 +0100
> From: Will Parsons <wbparsons AT alum.mit.edu>
>
> I don't have enough knowledge to state an opinion on the original
> pronunciation of Miryam/Maryam. I mentioned the possibility that Miryam is
> the original pronunciation, but it is also possible that the original was
> Maryam and this later became Miryam in Hebrew. I don't know of evidence for
> one over the other. I'm not familiar with "Mattaion", and since I don't
> know
> the Hebrew or Aramaic original, I can't venture an opinion on that one
> either.
Maryam is as clearly the older and original pronunciation, as is Bal'am (for
Bil'am) and Shamshon (for Shimshon), and so on, and this has nothing to do
with Aramaic at all. The shift /a/ > /i/ in closed unstressed syllables
opening a word took place rather late. /a/ is preserved in proper names of
the LXX, but not any longer in later transcriptions of the 2nd century CE.
Simply compare the proper names as they are written in the MT (with pretonic
short /i/ in closed syllable) to their pre-masoretic pronouciation as it is
preserved in the LXX (written pretonic closed-syllable /a/), see for instance
Ex 15:20ff, Num 12:1ff, Mi 6:4 (Miryam-Mariam)
Gen 25:2 Num 31:3ff etc (Midyan - Madiam)
Gen 37:28-36 Midianites (Midyanim - MadiEnaioi)
Num 33:7 (Migdal - Magdol)
1 Chr 8:10 (mirma - marma)
Neh 7:7 (Mispar - Maspar)
and many more.
This is called attenuation (or, in German, "Verduennung") of /a/ to /i/.
For instance have a look in the recent marvelous book of Joshua Blau,
Phonology and Morphology of Biblical Hebrew, Eisenbrauns 2010, p. 132 (§
3.5.7.6.13).