Tiberian Hebrew
Encyclopedia
Tiberian Hebrew is the extinct canonical pronunciation of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh
and related documents in the Roman Empire
. This traditional medieval pronunciation was committed to writing by Masoretic
scholars based in the Jewish community of Tiberias , in the form of the Tiberian vocalization
. This written form employed diacritics added to the Hebrew letters: vowel signs and consonant diacritics (nequdot) and the so-called accents (two related systems of cantillation
signs or te'amim), which together with the marginal notes (masora magna and masora parva) make up the Tiberian apparatus. (Though the written vowels and accents only came into use ca. 750 CE, the oral tradition they reflect is many centuries older, with ancient roots.)
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The usual Hebrew Grammar Books do not teach Tiberian Hebrew as described by the early grammarians. The prevalent view in some of these grammars is the use of David Qimchi's system of division of the graphic signs into "short" and "long" vowels. The values assigned to the Tiberian vowel signs reveals a Sephardi tradition of pronunciation (the dual quality of qames (אָ) as /a/, /o/; the pronunciation of simple sheva (אְ) as /ɛ̆/).
The phonology
of Tiberian Hebrew can be gleaned by the collation of various sources:
The most salient characteristics of the Tiberian Hebrew consonantal pronunciation are:
The vowel qualities /a e i ɔ o u/ have phonemic status: viz. אשָם הוא אשֹם אשַם (Lev. 5:19) and אשֵם 'guilty', אִם 'when' and אֵם 'mother'. /ɛ/ has phonemic value in final stressed position: רעֶה רעִי רעָה, מקנֶה מקנֵה, קנֶה קנָה קנֹה, but in other positions it may reflect loss of the opposition /a : i/. By the Tiberian time, all short vowels in stressed syllables had lengthened, making vowel length allophonic.In fact, first all stressed vowels were lengthened in pause, see . This can be seen by forms like Tiberian כַּף /kaf/ < */kaf/, pausal כָּף /kɔf/ < */kɔːf/ < */kaːf/ < */kaf/. The shift in Tiberian Hebrew of */aː/ > */ɔː/ occurred after this lengthening, but before the loss of phonemicity of length (since words like ירחם with allophonically long [aː] don't show this shift). Vowels in open or stressed syllables had allophonic length (e.g. /a/ in יְרַחֵם, which was previously short).This is attested to by the testimony of Rabbi Joseph Qimḥi (12th century) and by medieval Arabic transcriptions, see . There is also possible evidence from the cantillation marks' behavior and Babylonian pataḥ, see .
the Tiberian tradition possesses three reduced (ultrashort, hatuf) vowels /ă ɔ̆ ɛ̆/ of which /ɛ̆/ has questionable phonemicity.See אֳנִי /ɔ̆ni/ 'ships' אֲנִי /ăni/ 'I', חֳלִי /ħɔ̆li/ 'sickness' חֲלִי /ħăli/ 'ornament', עֲלִי /ʕăli/ 'ascend!' (Num 21:17) and בַּעֱלִי /baʕɛ̆li/ '(with the) pestle' (Prov 27:22). /ɛ̆/ alternates with /ă/ frequently and rarely contrasts with it, e.g. אֱדוֹם /ʔɛ̆ðom/ 'Edom
' versus אֲדֹמִי /ʔăðomi/ 'Edomite'. /ɔ̆/ is clearly phonemic but bears minimal functional load
. /ă/ is written both with mobile šwa <ְ> and hataf patah <ֲ>. /ă/ under a non-guttural letter was pronounced as a ultrashort copy of the following vowel before a guttural, e.g. וּבָקְעָה [uvɔqɔ̆ˈʕɔ], and as [ĭ] preceding /j/, e.g. תְדַמְּיוּנִי [θăðammĭˈjuni], but was always pronounced as [ă] under gutturals, e.g. חֲיִי [ħăˈji].
The simple sheva sign
changes its pronunciation depending on its position in the word (mobile/vocal or quiescent/zero
), as well as due to its proximity to certain consonants.
In the examples given below, it has been preferred to show one found precisely in the Bible which represents each phenomenon in a graphic manner (i.e. a chateph vowel), although these rules still apply when there is only simple sheva (depending on the manuscript or edition used).
When the simple sheva appears in any of the following positions, it is regarded as mobile (na):
The gutturals (אהח"ע), and yodh (י), affect the pronunciation of the sheva preceding them. The allophones of the phoneme /ă/ follow these two rules:
It must be said that, even though there are no special signs apart /ɛ̆/, /ɐ̆/, /ɔ̆/ to denote the full range of furtive vowels, these remaining four (/u/, /i/, /e/, /o/) are represented by simple sheva (Chateph chireq (אְִ) in the Aleppo Codex is a scribal oddity, and certainly not regular in Hebrew manuscripts with Tiberian vocalization).
All other cases should be treated as zero vowel (quiescent, nah), including the double final sheva (double initial sheva does not exist in this Hebrew dialect), and the sheva in the word שְׁתַּיִם /ʃˈtɐːjim/, read by the Tiberian Masoretes as אֶשְׁתַּיִם /ʔɛʃˈtɐːjim/. This last case has similitudes with phenomena occurring in the Samaritan
Pronunciation and the Phoenician language.
Depending on the school of pronunciation (and relying on musical grounds, perhaps), the metheg sign served to change some closed syllables into open ones, and therefore, changing the vowel from short to long, and the quiescent sheva, into a mobile one.
Has this been published? Seems own research to me. Shai H.
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Tanakh
The Tanakh is a name used in Judaism for the canon of the Hebrew Bible. The Tanakh is also known as the Masoretic Text or the Miqra. The name is an acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim —hence...
and related documents in the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
. This traditional medieval pronunciation was committed to writing by Masoretic
Masoretes
The Masoretes were groups of mostly Karaite scribes and scholars working between the 7th and 11th centuries, based primarily in present-day Israel in the cities of Tiberias and Jerusalem, as well as in Iraq...
scholars based in the Jewish community of Tiberias , in the form of the Tiberian vocalization
Tiberian vocalization
The Tiberian vocalization is a system of diacritics devised by the Masoretes to add to the consonantal Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible; this system soon became used to vocalize other texts as well...
. This written form employed diacritics added to the Hebrew letters: vowel signs and consonant diacritics (nequdot) and the so-called accents (two related systems of cantillation
Cantillation
Cantillation is the ritual chanting of readings from the Hebrew Bible in synagogue services. The chants are written and notated in accordance with the special signs or marks printed in the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible to complement the letters and vowel points...
signs or te'amim), which together with the marginal notes (masora magna and masora parva) make up the Tiberian apparatus. (Though the written vowels and accents only came into use ca. 750 CE, the oral tradition they reflect is many centuries older, with ancient roots.)
Sources
The phonology
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
of Tiberian Hebrew can be gleaned by the collation of various sources:
- The Aleppo CodexAleppo CodexThe Aleppo Codex is a medieval bound manuscript of the Hebrew Bible. The codex was written in the 10th century A.D.The codex has long been considered to be the most authoritative document in the masorah , the tradition by which the Hebrew Scriptures have been preserved from generation to generation...
of the Bible (and other ancient manuscripts of the TanakhTanakhThe Tanakh is a name used in Judaism for the canon of the Hebrew Bible. The Tanakh is also known as the Masoretic Text or the Miqra. The name is an acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim —hence...
, cited in the margins of early codices), which actually preserves direct evidence of the application of these rules in the Hebrew Bible in a graphic manner, e.g. the widespread use of chateph vowels where one would expect simple sheva, clarifying the color of the vowel thus pronounced under certain circumstances. Most prominent, the use of chateph chireq in five words under a consonant which follows a guttural vocalized with regular chireq, as described by Israel YeivinIsrael YeivinIsrael Yeivin was an Israeli linguist, scholar of Masorah and the Hebrew language.-Biography:...
. Even the anomalous use of the rafé sign over other letters which do not belong to בגדכפ"ת or א"ה.
- The explicit statements found in books of grammar near the 10th and 11th Centuries C.E., such as: The Sefer haQoloth of Moshe ben Asher (published by N. Allony), Diqduqé hata'amim of Aaron ben Moses ben AsherAaron ben Moses ben AsherAaron ben Moses ben Asher was a Jewish scribe who refined the Tiberian system for writing down vowel sounds in Hebrew, which is still in use today, and serves as the basis for grammatical analysis...
; the anonymous works entitled Horayath haQoré (G. Khan and Ilan Eldar attribute it to the Karaite Abu Alfaraj Harun), the Treatise on the Schwa (published by Kurt Levy from a GenizahGenizahA genizah is the store-room or depository in a Jewish synagogue , usually specifically for worn-out Hebrew-language books and papers on religious topics that were stored there before they could receive a proper cemetery burial, it being forbidden to throw away writings...
fragment in 1936), and Ma'amar haschewa (published from Genizah material by Allony); the works of medieval Sephardi grammarians, such as Abraham Ibn EzraAbraham ibn EzraRabbi Abraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra was born at Tudela, Navarre in 1089, and died c. 1167, apparently in Calahorra....
, Judah ben David HayyujJudah ben David HayyujJudah ben David Hayyuj was a Jewish linguist. He is regarded as the father of scientific grammar of Hebrew language. He was born in Fez, Morocco, about 945...
. In the last two, it is evident that the chain of transmission is already breaking down, or interpreted under the influence of their local tradition.
- Ancient manuscripts which preserve other similar dialects of Hebrew or Palestinian Aramaic, but vocalized in Tiberian signs in a "vulgar" manner, which reveal a phonetic spelling, rather than a phonemic spelling. This is the case of the so called "Pseudo-Ben Naphtali" or "Palestinian-Sephardi" vocalized manuscripts. These confirm some of the rules enumerated below, for example, the pronunciation of sheva as /ĭ/ before consonantal yod, as in /bĭji/ בְּיִ.
- Other vocalization traditions such as: the vocalization of the Land of IsraelLand of IsraelThe Land of Israel is the Biblical name for the territory roughly corresponding to the area encompassed by the Southern Levant, also known as Canaan and Palestine, Promised Land and Holy Land. The belief that the area is a God-given homeland of the Jewish people is based on the narrative of the...
; and, to a lesser extent, the BabylonBabylonBabylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
ian vocalization. Each community (Palestinian, Tiberian, and Babylonian) developed systems of notation of pronunciation phenomena in each dialect, and some of them are common among these traditions. In one it is graphically represented, while in some other, we have to rely on other sources for explicit statements.
- The transcriptions of the Biblical text made by the members of the Karaite community into Arabic characters, and vocalized with Tiberian signs, help us get a glimpse of the pronunciation of Tiberian Hebrew. This is especially true with regards to syllable structure, and vowel length (which is marked in Arabic by matres lectionis, and the sign sukun).
- Various oral traditions, especially the oral tradition of Yemenite Hebrew pronunciation, and the Karaite tradition. Both have preserved old features which correspond to Tiberian tradition, such as the pronunciation of schewa according to its proximity to gutturals or yod.
Consonants
Tiberian Hebrew has 22 consonantal phonemes represented by 22 letters. The Shin with dot on the left (שׂ) was pronounced the same as the letter Samekh. The letters בגדכפ"ת had two values each – plosive and fricative.| Labial | Interdental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plain | Emphatic | |||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ||||||||
| Stop | Voiceless | p | t | tˤ | k | q | ʔ | |||
| Voiced | b | d | ɡ | |||||||
| Fricative | Voiceless | f | θ | s | sˤ | ʃ | x | ħ | h | |
| Voiced | v | ð | z | ɣ | ʕ | |||||
| Trill | ʀ | |||||||||
| Approximant | l | j | ||||||||
The most salient characteristics of the Tiberian Hebrew consonantal pronunciation are:
- Waw "ו" conjunctive was read, before פמ"ב, as אוּ /ʔu/, rather than וֻ /wu/ (as is the case in some eastern reading traditions).
- The threefold pronunciation of ReshReshResh is the twentieth letter of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic alphabet . Its sound value is one of a number of rhotic consonants: usually or , but also or in Hebrew....
"ר". Even though there is no agreement as to how it was pronounced, the rules of distribution of such pronunciation is given in Horayath haQoré:
- a) "Normal" Resh /ʀ/ pronounced thus (according to Eldar, as a uvular sound /ʀ/) in all other instances (except for the circumstances described below). Example: אוֹר /ʔoːʀ/
- b) The "peculiar" resh /r/ before or after Lamed or Nun, any of the three being vocalized with simple sheva; and Resh after Zayin, Daleth, Sin / Samekh, Taw, Tzadi, Teth, any of them punctuated with simple sheva. Example: יִשְׂרָאֵל /jisrɔːˈʲeːl/, עָרְלָה /ʕɔrˈlɔː/. Given the proximity of a dental consonant, it is likely that this form of resh was pronounced as an alveolar trill, like resh in Sephardi Hebrew.
- c) There is still another pronunciation, affected by the addition of a dagesh in the Resh in certain words in the Bible, which indicates it was doubled /ʀː/. Example: הַרְּאִיתֶם /hɐʀːĭʔiːˈθɛːm/ As can be seen, this pronunciation has to do with the progressive increase in length of this consonant. It was preserved only by the population of Ma'azya which is in Tiberias.
- A possible threefold pronunciation of Taw. There are three words in the Torah, Prophets and Writings of which is said that "the Taw is pronounced harder than usual". It is said that this pronunciation was half way between the soft Taw /θ/ and the hard Taw /t/. Example: וַיְשִׂימֶהָ תֵּל /vɐjsiːˈmɛːhɔθ teːl/
Vowels
| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
|
|---|---|---|
| Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the... |
i | u |
| Close-mid Close-mid vowel A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from a close vowel to a mid vowel... |
e | o |
| Open-mid Open-mid vowel An open-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of an open-mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned two-thirds of the way from an open vowel to a mid vowel... |
ɛ | ɔ |
| Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
a | |
| Reduced | ă ɔ̆ (ɛ̆)1 | |
- marginal
The vowel qualities /a e i ɔ o u/ have phonemic status: viz. אשָם הוא אשֹם אשַם (Lev. 5:19) and אשֵם 'guilty', אִם 'when' and אֵם 'mother'. /ɛ/ has phonemic value in final stressed position: רעֶה רעִי רעָה, מקנֶה מקנֵה, קנֶה קנָה קנֹה, but in other positions it may reflect loss of the opposition /a : i/. By the Tiberian time, all short vowels in stressed syllables had lengthened, making vowel length allophonic.In fact, first all stressed vowels were lengthened in pause, see . This can be seen by forms like Tiberian כַּף /kaf/ < */kaf/, pausal כָּף /kɔf/ < */kɔːf/ < */kaːf/ < */kaf/. The shift in Tiberian Hebrew of */aː/ > */ɔː/ occurred after this lengthening, but before the loss of phonemicity of length (since words like ירחם with allophonically long [aː] don't show this shift). Vowels in open or stressed syllables had allophonic length (e.g. /a/ in יְרַחֵם, which was previously short).This is attested to by the testimony of Rabbi Joseph Qimḥi (12th century) and by medieval Arabic transcriptions, see . There is also possible evidence from the cantillation marks' behavior and Babylonian pataḥ, see .
the Tiberian tradition possesses three reduced (ultrashort, hatuf) vowels /ă ɔ̆ ɛ̆/ of which /ɛ̆/ has questionable phonemicity.See אֳנִי /ɔ̆ni/ 'ships' אֲנִי /ăni/ 'I', חֳלִי /ħɔ̆li/ 'sickness' חֲלִי /ħăli/ 'ornament', עֲלִי /ʕăli/ 'ascend!' (Num 21:17) and בַּעֱלִי /baʕɛ̆li/ '(with the) pestle' (Prov 27:22). /ɛ̆/ alternates with /ă/ frequently and rarely contrasts with it, e.g. אֱדוֹם /ʔɛ̆ðom/ 'Edom
Edom
Edom or Idumea was a historical region of the Southern Levant located south of Judea and the Dead Sea. It is mentioned in biblical records as a 1st millennium BC Iron Age kingdom of Edom, and in classical antiquity the cognate name Idumea was used to refer to a smaller area in the same region...
' versus אֲדֹמִי /ʔăðomi/ 'Edomite'. /ɔ̆/ is clearly phonemic but bears minimal functional load
Functional load
In linguistics and especially phonology, functional load refers to the importance of certain features in making distinctions in a language...
. /ă/ is written both with mobile šwa <ְ> and hataf patah <ֲ>. /ă/ under a non-guttural letter was pronounced as a ultrashort copy of the following vowel before a guttural, e.g. וּבָקְעָה [uvɔqɔ̆ˈʕɔ], and as [ĭ] preceding /j/, e.g. תְדַמְּיוּנִי [θăðammĭˈjuni], but was always pronounced as [ă] under gutturals, e.g. חֲיִי [ħăˈji].
Stress
Tiberian Hebrew has phonemic stress, e.g. בָּנוּ֫ /bɔˈnu/ 'they built' vs. בָּ֫נוּ /ˈbɔnu/ 'in us'; stress is most commonly ultimate, less commonly penultimate, and antipenultimate stress exists marginally, e.g. הָאֹ֫הֱלָה /hɔˈʔohɛ̆lɔ/ 'into the tent'.In fact, it is not clear that a reduced vowel should be considered as comprising a whole syllable. Note for example that the rule whereby a word's stress shifts to a preceding open syllable to avoid being adjacent to another stressed syllable skips over ultrashort vowels, e.g. עִם־יוֹ֫רְדֵי בוֹר /ʕim-ˈjorăde vor/ 'with those who go down into the pit' מְטֹ֫עֲנֵי חָ֫רֶב /măˈtʼoʕăne ˈħɔrɛv/ 'pierced with a sword'. SeePhonotactics
As described above, vowel length was dependent on syllable structure. Open syllables must take long or ultrashort vowels, stressed closed syllables take long vowels, and unstressed closed syllables take short vowels. Traditional Hebrew philology considers ultrashort vowels not to constitute syllable nuclei.Orthography
| transliteration | b | g | d | h | w | z | y | k | l | m | n | s | p | q | r | , | t | |||||
| letter | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| pronunciation | ʔ | b v |
ɡ ɣ |
d ð |
h | v | z | ħ | tˤ | j | k x |
l | m | n | s | ʕ | p f |
sˤ | q | ʀ r |
ʃ s |
t θ |
| niqqud with א | ||||||||
| name | patah | segol | tzere | hiriq | qamatz | holam | qubutz | shuruq |
| value | /a/ | /ɛ/ | /e/ | /i/ | /ɔ/ | /o/ | /u/ | |
| niqqud with א | ||||
| name | shva Shva Shva or, in Biblical Hebrew, Sh'wa is a Hebrew niqqud vowel sign written as two vertical dots "ְ" underneath a letter. In Modern Hebrew, it indicates either the phoneme or the complete absence of a vowel , whereas in Hebrew prescriptive linguistics, four grammatical entities are differentiated:... |
hataf patah | hataf segol | hataf qamatz |
| value | /ă/, ⌀ | /ă/ | /ɛ̆/ | /ɔ̆/ |
The simple sheva sign
Shva
Shva or, in Biblical Hebrew, Sh'wa is a Hebrew niqqud vowel sign written as two vertical dots "ְ" underneath a letter. In Modern Hebrew, it indicates either the phoneme or the complete absence of a vowel , whereas in Hebrew prescriptive linguistics, four grammatical entities are differentiated:...
changes its pronunciation depending on its position in the word (mobile/vocal or quiescent/zero
Zero (linguistics)
A zero, in linguistics, is a constituent needed in an analysis but not realized in speech. This implies that there is a lack of an element where a theory would expect one. It is usually written with the symbol "", in Unicode .There are several kind of zeros....
), as well as due to its proximity to certain consonants.
In the examples given below, it has been preferred to show one found precisely in the Bible which represents each phenomenon in a graphic manner (i.e. a chateph vowel), although these rules still apply when there is only simple sheva (depending on the manuscript or edition used).
When the simple sheva appears in any of the following positions, it is regarded as mobile (na):
- At the beginning of a word. This includes the sheva (originally the first of the word) following the attached particles bi-,ki-,li- and u- and preceded by metheg (the vertical line placed to the left of the vowel sign, which stands for either secondary stress, or its lengthening). Examples: וּזֲהַב /ˌʔuːzɐ̆ˈhɐːv/ Genesis 2:12; בִּסֲבָךְ /ˈbiːsɐ̆vɔx/ Psalms 74:5. But is not pronounced if there is no metheg, that is, they form a closed syllable.
- The sheva following these three vowels /e/, /ɔ/, /o/, except for known types of closed syllables (and preceded or not, by metheg). Examples: נֵלֲכָה-נָּא /ˌneːlɐ̆xɔˈnːɔː/ Exodus 3:18; אֵלֲכָה נָּא /ˈʔeːlɐ̆xɔː ˈnɔː/ Exodus 4:18.
- The second of two adjacent shevas, when both appear under different consonants. Examples: אֶכְתֲּבֶנּוּ /ʔɛxtɐ̆ˈvɛːnːuː/ Jeremiah 31:33; וָאֶשְׁקֲלָה-לֹּו /vɔːʔɛʃqɐ̆lɔˈlːoː/ Jeremiah 32:9 (except for at the end of a word, אָמַרְתְּ /ɔːˈmɐːrt/).
- The sheva under the first of two identical consonants, preceded by metheg. Examples: בְּחַצֲצֹן /bɐ̆ˌћɐːsˤɐ̆ˈsˤoːn/ Gen. 14:17; צָלֲלוּ /sˤɔːlɐ̆ˈluː/ Exodus: 15:10.
- The sheva under a consonant with dagesh forte or lene. Examples: סֻבֳּלוֹ /suɓbɔ̆ˈloː/ Isaiah 9:3; אֶשְׁתֳּלֶנּוּ /ʔɛʃtɐ̆ˈlɛːnːuː/ Ezekiel 17:23.
- The sheva under a consonant which expects gemination, but is not marked thus, for example, the one found under ר. And sometimes even מ when preceded by the article. Examples: מְבָרֲכֶיךָ /mɐ̆vɔːʀɐ̆ˈxɛːxɔː/ Genesis 12:3; הַמֲדַבְּרִים /hɐːmɐ̆ðɐɓbɐ̆ˈʀiːm/ 2 Chronicles 33:18.
- In case a quiescent sheva was followed either by a guttural or yodhYodhYodh is the tenth letter of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew Yud , Syriac and Arabic...
, it would turn into mobile according to the rules given below, if preceded by a metheg. Ancient manuscripts support this view. Examples: נִבֳהָל /niːvɔ̆ˈhɔːl/ Proverbs 28:22; שִׁבֲעַת /ʃiːvɐ̆ˈʕɐːθ/ Job 1:3.
- Any sheva with the sign metheg attached to it, would change an ultrashort vowel to a short, or normal length vowel. For this, only ancient, reliable manuscripts can give us a clear picture, since, with time, later vocalizers added to the number of methegs found in the Bible.
The gutturals (אהח"ע), and yodh (י), affect the pronunciation of the sheva preceding them. The allophones of the phoneme /ă/ follow these two rules:
- It would change its sound to imitate that of the following guttural. וּקֳהָת /ˌʔuːqɔ̆ˈhɔːθ/ Numbers 3:17; וְנִזְרֳעָה /vɐ̆nizrɔ̆ˈʕɔː/ Numbers 5:28.
- It would be pronounced as ḥireq before consonantal yodh. Examples: יִרְמִיָהוּ /jiʀmĭˈjɔːhuː/ Jeremiah 21:1; עִנִייָן /ʕiːnĭˈjɔːn/ in MaimonidesMaimonidesMoses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
' autograph in his commentary to the Mishnah.These two rules, as well as the rule that metheg changes sheva from an ultrashort to a normal vowel, are recorded by Solomon AlmoliSolomon AlmoliSolomon ben Jacob Almoli was a rabbi, physician and Hebrew author of the sixteenth century; lived in Turkey, probably in Constantinople. As a physician he seems to have enjoyed quite a reputation, but he is better known as a Hebrew grammarian. He appears to have become a man of wealth in later...
in his Halichot Sheva (Constantinople 1519), though he states that these differences are dying out and that in most places vocal sheva is pronounced like segol. In Oriental communities such as the Syrians, these rules continued to be recorded by grammarians into the 1900s (e.g. Sethon, Menasheh, Kelale Diqduq ha-qeriah, Aleppo 1914), though they were not normally reflected in actual pronunciation. The rules about yodh and metheg, though not the rule about gutturals, is still observed by the Spanish and Portuguese JewsSpanish and Portuguese JewsSpanish and Portuguese Jews are a distinctive sub-group of Sephardim who have their main ethnic origins within the Jewish communities of the Iberian peninsula and who shaped communities mainly in Western Europe and the Americas from the late 16th century on...
of Amsterdam: Rodrigues Pereira, Martin, 'Hochmat Shelomoh.
It must be said that, even though there are no special signs apart /ɛ̆/, /ɐ̆/, /ɔ̆/ to denote the full range of furtive vowels, these remaining four (/u/, /i/, /e/, /o/) are represented by simple sheva (Chateph chireq (אְִ) in the Aleppo Codex is a scribal oddity, and certainly not regular in Hebrew manuscripts with Tiberian vocalization).
All other cases should be treated as zero vowel (quiescent, nah), including the double final sheva (double initial sheva does not exist in this Hebrew dialect), and the sheva in the word שְׁתַּיִם /ʃˈtɐːjim/, read by the Tiberian Masoretes as אֶשְׁתַּיִם /ʔɛʃˈtɐːjim/. This last case has similitudes with phenomena occurring in the Samaritan
Samaritan Hebrew language
Samaritan Hebrew , is a reading tradition for Biblical Hebrew as used by the Samaritans for reading the Samaritan Pentateuch. Its pronunciation is highly similar to that of Samaritan Arabic, used by the Samaritans in prayer.-Orthography:...
Pronunciation and the Phoenician language.
Depending on the school of pronunciation (and relying on musical grounds, perhaps), the metheg sign served to change some closed syllables into open ones, and therefore, changing the vowel from short to long, and the quiescent sheva, into a mobile one.
External links
Has this been published? Seems own research to me. Shai H.
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