Talk:Biblical Hebrew phonology

Vowel Changes

I've been working on a summary of the historic vowel changes between PS and Archaic BH to pre-Mishnaic Hebrew (almost something like the rules by which the changes occurred). The idea of adding this was an offshoot inspired by Mo-Al's summary table. At the moment, I'm having difficulty in condensing it down to something short that is at the same time readable. Hopefully I'll have something to add by the end of this coming weekend. — al-Shimoni (talk) 17:21, 2 August 2011 (UTC)

Sounds interesting! Mo-Al (talk) 18:03, 2 August 2011 (UTC)

1. under vowels - a) there should be a reconstructed vowel system of Biblical Hebrew between Proto-Hebrew and the Secunda. b) the lay out may be seen to imply that the line of pronunciation tradition goes Proto-Hebrew to Secunda to Tiberian, Babylonian, and Palestinian Hebrew to Samaritan Hebrew. It should be emphasized that each of these should be treated separately (see http://www.houseofdavid.ca/anc_heb_Blau_rev.htm#uniform ). In particular (see below) some elements of Tiberian may be closer to the original biblical Hebrew than some elements of the Secunda etc. law of attenuation. c) I suggest that the statement

In some traditions the short vowel /*a/ tended to shift to /i/ in unstressed closed syllables: this is known as the law of attenuation. It is common in the Tiberian tradition, e.g. */ʃabʕat/ > Tiberian שִבְעָה /ʃivˈʕɔ/ 'seven', but exceptions are frequent. It is less common in the Babylonian vocalization, e.g. /ʃabʕɔ/ 'seven', and differences in Greek and Latin transcriptions demonstrate that it began quite late. Attenuation generally did not occur before /i~e/, e.g. Tiberian מַפְתֵּחַ /mafˈteaħ/ 'key' versus מִפְתַּח /mifˈtaħ/ 'opening (construct)', and often was blocked before a geminate, e.g. מתנה 'gift'.[63] Attenuation is rarely present in Samaritan Hebrew, e.g. מקדש /maqdaʃ/.

be changed to (see http://www.houseofdavid.ca/anc_heb_tequ.htm#aram_law_atten_maqtal )

In some traditions the short vowel /*a/ tended to shift to /i/ in unstressed closed syllables: this is known as the law of attenuation. It is common in the Tiberian tradition, e.g. */ʃabʕat/ > Tiberian שִבְעָה /ʃivˈʕɔ/ 'seven', but exceptions are frequent. It is less common in the Babylonian vocalization, e.g. /ʃabʕɔ/ 'seven', and differences in Greek and Latin transcriptions. This may be understood as indicating that this shift was late or that the shift occurred in the pre-exilic period and that this shift was reversed in the precursors of the non-Tiberian traditions in the post-exilic period under the influence of Aramaic. If this latter is correct, it is this reversal that is reflected in the non-Tiberian traditions of reading Biblical Hebrew while the conservative, and probably scholarly, precursor to the Tiberian tradition would seem to have preserved the late pre-exilic pronunciation. Even in the Tiberian tradition, attenuation generally did not occur before /i~e/, e.g. Tiberian מַפְתֵּחַ /mafˈteaħ/ 'key' versus מִפְתַּח /mifˈtaħ/ 'opening (construct)', and often was blocked before a geminate, e.g. מתנה 'gift'.[63] Attenuation is rarely present in Samaritan Hebrew, e.g. מקדש /maqdaʃ/. David Steinberg David.Steinberg@houseofdavid.ca — Preceding unsigned comment added by Davidsteinberg (talk • contribs) 20:22, 6 January 2012 (UTC)

Remerged

90% of the text on this page duplicated the equivalent text in Biblical Hebrew. Duplication of this sort is bad and leads to "bit rot" -- gradual divergence as changes are made to one place but not the other, with the more visible page (Biblical Hebrew) better maintained/updated compared to the less maintained page (this one). There is little obvious reason for the split unless there is far less duplication. Biblical Hebrew isn't overly large, and by its nature it's going to be a rather technical article, so it seems to me that it makes little sense to separate some of the more technical stuff on this page, as was done with the vowel section (but not any of the others). Benwing (talk) 06:41, 15 August 2012 (UTC)