Biblical Hebrew Poetry - House of David Steinberg

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Biblical Hebrew Poetry and Word Play - Reconstructing the Original Oral, Aural and Visual Experience by David Steinberg
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closed); yaˈšinu (yåˈšēn) י ֹ ‏ָשֵ‏ ן >
"sleeping"; yaˈguru "being afraid"). This compensatory יָגוֹר >
lengthening did not take place during the dropping of the final short vowels from the status
constructus and verbs, and since during its operation these word classes already exhibited
closed final syllables, they were not lengthened at all שָ‏ מַר ‏;דַּג ־:‏therefore‏)‏ "he kept", with final
short vowels, viz, pataḥ. Since the ṣere and ḥolem in יָשֵ‏ ן "he slept" and יָגוֹר "he was afraid"
correspond to pataḥ, they have to be considered short as well, whereas the same words
when serving as participles contain long ṣere and ḥolem; similarly
.( מֻבְ‏ דָּ‏ ל qţl/yqţl against the participle יֻבְדַּל ‏/הֻבְדַּל ‏,נִשְ‏ מָר participle
qţl as against the נִשְ‏ מַר
1. In the case of a verbal form being used as a name the stressed vowel undergoes compensatory
lengthening 38 . E.g.
(/EBHP/): /yi cˈqub
qub/ "he over reaches etc."; /yi cˈqoːb/ "Jacob" both derived from BHA phase 2
/ya cˈqu
qubu/
(/EBHP/): /naˈtan
tan/ "he gave"; /naˈta
taːn/ "Nathan" both derived from BHA phase 2 /naˈta
tana/
2. In some cases, if the preceding syllable was closed or when open contained an unchangeable long,
vowel, /a/ remained short though in similar situations /u/ lengthened to /oː/ and /i/ to /eː/. Egs.
PH */ʾiṣˈba
c u/ > /EBHP/ /ʾiṣˈba
c / 'finger', PH */šuːˈšanu/ > /EBHP/ /šuːˈšan
an/ 'lily', PH */mapˈti
tiḥu/ >
/EBHP/ /mapˈte
teːḥ/ 'key', PH */ša:ˈpi
piṭu/ > /EBHP/ /šoːˈpe
peːṭ / 'judge', PH */ṣipˈpu
puru/ > /EBHP/ /ṣipˈpo
poːr/ 'bird',
PH */'mu
'mutu/ > /EBHP/ */ˈmo
moːt/ 'man'. However, in many cases, the EBHP form assimilated to the /da'ba:r
'ba:r/
class, i.e. the stressed /a/ lengthened to /a/. Egs. PH */miqˈda
dašu/ > /EBHP/ /miqˈda:
da:š/ 'sanctuary', PH */ c a:ˈ
lamu/ > /EBHP/ / c oːˈla:m
la:m/ 'world, age'. 39
Table 1 - Changes in the Noun from PH to TH - General Case
*PH
EBHP
PTH
TH
(c. 1200 BCE)
*/EBHP/
/EBHP/+
*/PTH/
*[PTH]
/TH/ + *[TH]
*[EBHP]
(c. 400 CE)
(c. 850 CE)
(c. 850-550 550 BCE)
דָּ‏ בָברָברָברָ‏ ר
דבר דבר
'word'
*/daˈbaru/ 40
*/daˈbaːr/
s. */daˈbara/ 41
*/daːˈbaːr/
*[dɐˈbaːɾ]
*/daˈbari/ 42
*/dabaˈrāmi/
du. 43
*/dabaˈraym/
*/dabaˈraymi/ 44
*/dabaˈrūma/ */dabaˈrīm/
pl.
*/dəbaːˈrīm/
*/dabaˈrīma/ 45 *[dɐbɐˈɾiːm]
/dåˈbår/
*[dɔːˈvɔːr]
י ים רִ‏ םִ‏
דְּ‏ בָ‏
/dəbåˈrim/
*[dəvɔːˈriːm]