DOCSLIB.ORG

Inflectional and Derivational Hebrew Morphology According to the Theory of Phonology As Human Behavior

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Inflectional and Derivational Hebrew Morphology According to the Theory of Phonology As Human Behavior BEN- GURION UNIVERSITY OF THE NEGEV FACULTY OF HUMINITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LITERATURES AND LINGUISTICS INFLECTIONAL AND DERIVATIONAL HEBREW MORPHOLOGY ACCORDING TO THE THEORY OF PHONOLOGY AS HUMAN BEHAVIOR THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS LINA PERELSHTEIN UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF: PROFESSOR YISHAI TOBIN FEBRUARY 2008 BEN- GURION UNIVERSITY OF THE NEGEV FACULTY OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LITERATURES AND LINGUISTICS INFLECTIONAL AND DERIVATIONAL HEBREW MORPHOLOGY ACCORDING TO THE THEORY OF PHONOLOGY AS HUMAN BEHAVIOR THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS LINA PERELSHTEIN UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF PROFESSOR YISHAI TOBIN Signature of student: ________________ Date: _________ Signature of supervisor: _____________ Date: _________ Signature of chairperson of the committee for graduate studies: ______________ Date: _________ FEBRUARY 2008 ABSTRACT This research deals with the phonological distribution of Hebrew Inflectional and Derivational morphology, synchronically and diachronically. The scope of this study is suffixes, due to the fact that final position bears grammatical information, while initial position bears lexical items. In order to analyze the gathered data, the theory of Phonology as Human Behavior will be employed. The theory classifies language as a system of signs which is used by human beings to communicate; it is based on the synergetic principle of maximum communication with minimal effort. This research shows that the similarity within Modern Hebrew inflectional and derivational suffix system is greater than the derivational Modern Hebrew – Biblical Hebrew system in terms of a specialized suffix system and that the phonological distribution of Hebrew suffixes is motivated by the principles of the theory. This leads towards the conclusion of a self-improving system, more economical, self-efficient with more suffixation distinction, and with greater emphasis on the preference for producing easier suffixes. The results of this research yield the fact that the theory of Phonology as Human Behavior is valid for describing and explaining Hebrew morphology and other languages. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to those people whose contribution, patience, perseverance, and kindness have helped me to complete this thesis. I am sincerely thankful to my supervisor, Prof. Yishai Tobin, for his vast knowledge and enthusiasm, inspiration and stimulating suggestions, who remained thoughtful, and supportive throughout. I would like to thank my fellow student, Liron Shokty, for hearing and sharing ideas on the matter, and for her practical part in our mutual works. To my best friend Gabi Friderich for all the times he was there to lend an ear to my crazy ideas and thoughts. To my significant other, Ram Shallom, who enriched my life, for his everlasting support and unceasing love. Last, but certainly not least, I wish to thank my brother Michael and my parents Sima and Israel Perelshtein for their love and encouragement to be curious and an independent thinker. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii Acknowledgements iii List of tables vi 1 Introduction 1 1.1 The Theory of Phonology as Human Behavior (PHB) …………………… 3 1.2 The Principles of the Theory of PHB ……………………………………... 6 1.3 Hypotheses ………………………………………………………………... 8 1.4 Data and goals …………………………………………………………….. 8 2 Analysis 9 2.1 Phonological Systems …………………………………………………….. 9 2.1.1 The Biblical Hebrew Phonological System ………………………. 14 2.1.2 The Modern Hebrew Phonological System ………………………. 17 2.2 Hebrew Root System: Conjugations and Derivatives …………………….. 19 2.3 Inflectional Data …………………………………………………………... 20 2.3.1 Verbal Inflection ………………………………………………….. 24 2.4 Derivational Data …………………………………………………………. 25 2.4.1 Biblical Hebrew …………………………………………………... 26 2.4.2 Modern Hebrew …………………………………………………... 35 2.5 Data Analysis ……………………………………………………………... 45 2.5.1 Synchronic Analysis ……………………………………………… 45 2.5.1.1 Modern Hebrew: Summary of inflectional suffixes ……. 45 2.5.1.2 Modern Hebrew: Summary of derivational suffixes …… 46 2.5.1.3 Inflectional and Derivational suffixation: a comparison ... 47 2.5.2 Diachronic view: Modern Hebrew vs. Biblical Hebrew ………….. 53 2.6 Language changes and phenomena: Standard Hebrew vs. Spoken ………. 61 iv 3 Summary and Conclusions 64 4 Appendix 67 Appendix A …………………………………………………………………... 67 Appendix B …………………………………………………………………... 72 Appendix C …………………………………………………………………... 75 Appendix D …………………………………………………………………... 76 Appendix E …………………………………………………………………... 77 Appendix F …………………………………………………………………... 78 5 References 79 v LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Points for Hebrew vowels (and selected consonant) phonemes ………… 11 Table 2. Points – shwa ……………………………………………………………. 12 Table 3. Vowel length comparison and summary for BH vs. MH ….……………. 13 Table 4. Consonants ………………………………………………………………. 16 Table 5. Hebrew modern phoneme system ……………………………………….. 18 Table 6. Noun declension …………………………………………………………. 67 Table 7. Adjectival Inflection …………………………………………………….. 68 Table 8. Noun declension (possession) …………………………………………… 69 Table 9. Hebrew Forms …………………………………………………………… 21 Table 10. Construct state (proximity) ……………………………………………… 70 Table 11. Verbal inflection ………………………………………………………… 71 72 ..………………………………………… (גזרת ל"א) Table 12. Gizrat Lamed-Aleph 73 ..…………………………………………… (גזרת ל"ה) Table 13. Gizrat Lamed-Hei Table 14. Suffixes summary of Hebrew nouns …………………………………….. 23 Table 15. Summary Derivatives ……………………………………………………. 74 Table 16. Summary: Verbal Suffixes (by tenses) ………………………………….. 24 27 ………………………… (גזרת השלמים) Table 17. Regular verbs Gizrat ha-shlemim Table 18. I - Guttural verbs ………………………………………………………… 28 Table 19. I-Aleph verbs ……………………………………………………………. 28 Table 20. II – Guttural verbs ……………………………………………………….. 29 29 ………………………………………………… (גזרת פ"נ) Table 21. Gizrat Pei-Nun 30 ...……………………………… (גזרת פ"י) Table 22. I- Vav verbs / Gizrat Pei-Yod 31 ..………………………… (גזרת ל"ה +ל"י) Table 23. Gizrat Lamed-Hei/Lamed-Yod Hollow verbs) …………….. 32) (גזרת ע"ו + ע"י) Table 24. Gizrat Ain-Vav + Ain-Yod 33 …………………………………………… (גזרת הכפולים) Table 25. Geminate verbs Table 26. III – Guttural …………………………………………………………….. 34 34 ..……………………………… (גזרת ל"א Table 27. III Aleph (Gizrat Lamed-Aleph 35 ..………………………… (גזרת ל"ה +ל"י) Table 28. Gizrat Lamed-Hei/Lamed-Yod 36 ..………………………………………… (גזרת ל"א) Table 29. Gizrat Lamed-Aleph 37 ………………………………………………… (גזרת פ"י) Table 30. Gizrat Pei-Yod 38 ………………………………………………… (גזרת פ"נ) Table 31. Gizrat Pei-Nun 39 ...…………………………… (גזרת ע"ו + ע"י) Table 32. Gizrat Ain-Vav + Ain-Yod 40 ...…………………………………… (גזרת המרובעים) Table 33. Gizrat ha-merubaim 41 …………………………………………… (גזרת כפולים) Table 34. Gizrat ha-kfulim 44 ………………………………………… (גזרת השלמים) Table 35. Gizrat ha-shlemim Table 36. Summary of Hebrew inflectional suffixes: Nouns, Adjectives, Forms, Derivatives and Verbs …………………………………………………… 46 Table 37. Summary of MH Derivatives ……………………………………………. 46 Table 38. Summary of BH Derivatives …………………………………………….. 54 Table 39. Summary of BH Derivational suffixes ………………………………….. 75 Table 40. Summary of MH Derivational suffixes ………………………………….. 76 Table 41. Diachronic summary …………………………………………………….. 55 Table 42. BH &MH: Examples of suffixal change ………………………………… 60 Table 43. Frequency: BH and MH …………………………………………………. 77 vi Why can't the English teach their children how to speak? Norwegians learn Norwegian; the Greeks have taught their Greek. In France every Frenchman knows his language from 'A' to 'Zed'. Arabians learn Arabian with the speed of summer lightning. And Hebrews learn it backwards, which is absolutely frightening. - George Bernard Shaw (1913) 1. Introduction Phonology is an attempt to understand the non-random distribution of sounds (Diver 1975). Phonology tries to describe, and explain the distribution of sounds in certain phonetic environments, the diverse frequency of different sounds, and the favored and disfavored collocations of sounds. There have been many developments in linguistics science from the beginning of the 20th century until today; which have been placed under the name of "Modern Linguistics". Modern Linguistics' main research objective is to determine the characteristic of human linguistic abilities. A language, as a system that stands by itself, in a given time, was first introduced by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, who is considered to be the 'father' of Modern linguistics. Saussure was interested in the structure of language; and he viewed linguistics as a science of signs (which he named Semiology1). Saussure states that "the subject matter of linguistics comprises all manifestations of human speech, whether that of savages or civilized nations, or of archaic, classical or decadent periods". He asserts that the linguist must consider in each period "not only correct speech and flowery language, but all other forms of expression as well" along with the written text, since observing the speech directly is not an easy task, and "only through them can he reach idioms that are remote in time and space". 1 "A science that studies the life of signs within society is conceivable; it would be a part of social psychology and consequently of general psychology; I shall call it semiology' (from Greek semefon 'sign'). Semiology would show what constitutes signs, what laws govern them. Since the science does not yet exist, no one can say what it would be; but it has a right to existence, a place
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Heichal Avodath Hashemb
    Heichal Avodath Hashem A Guide to Proper Pronunciation of Hebrew Rabbi Avi Grossman First Edition Introduction .................................................................................5 Exact Pronunciation – How? .......................................................7 The Superiority of the Yemenite Dialect .....................................9 The Letters that have been Confused and their Correct Pronunciations ............................................................................14 The Guttural Letters ...........................................................................................14 .14 Ayin‘ 'ע' The .15 Het 'ח' The 17 Hei 'ה' The .18 Alef 'א' The Non-Gutturals .....................................................................................................18 .18 Waw 'ו' The .20 Tet 'ט' The 20 Tzadi 'צ' The Kaf, Quf, and Gimmel ........................................................................................21 21 Quf 'ק' The The Weak Forms of the Beged Kefet Letters .............................22 Vet .......................................................................................................................22 The Weak Sound of Gimmel.............................................................................. 22 The Weak Dalet ..................................................................................................23 The Weak Tau ....................................................................................................25 The Vowels that have Become Confused and Their
    [Show full text]
  • Tlingit Phonology in a Generative Framework
    TLINGIT PHONOLOGY IN A GENERATIVE FRAMEWORK: AN EXAMINATION OF PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSES AND ABSTRACT REPRESENTATION by GAELAN^/de WOLF B.A., University of British Columbia, 1971 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS In THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES Department of Linguistics We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA August, 1977 GAELAN de WOLF, 1977 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Gaelan de Wolf Department of T.-mpn-i «t-i rs The University of British Columbia 2075 Wesbrook Place Vancouver, Canada V6T 1W5 Date /V? /ff? - ii - ABSTRACT The Saussurean Paradox described by Labov (1971), in which "the social aspect of language can be studied by the theorist asking himself questions, while the individual aspect can only be studied by a social survey", apparently mirrors a predicament occurring in the structuralist and generative models of linguistics. For, while descriptive and structuralist linguistic models seek to mirror the reality of particular languages, a generative model of linguistics, in a search for universals, attempts to discover the underlying reality of all languages.
    [Show full text]
  • Some Things That Concordances Do Not Tell You
    358 The Testimony, September 2001 “walk away” is indicative of the hold which John Paul II and the Palestinian leader Yasser the Middle East has on the nations of the world. Arafat. As events continue to develop in the Mid- The article goes on to write of how the European dle East we should exhort one another as we see Union has been involved and how (in MacAskill’s the day approaching (Heb. 10:25). Let us remain opinion) there is scope for more involvement in faithful so that we might be with Christ as he the crisis. The Catholic Church is also increas- marches through Bozrah (Isa. 34:6) and moves to ingly becoming involved in the crisis. On 2 Au- Israel to carry out the “recompences for the con- gust 2001 a meeting took place between Pope troversy of Zion” (v. 8). 1234 1234 1234 EDITOR: John Nicholls, 17 Upper Trinity Road, Halstead, 1234 1234 1234 Essex, CO9 1EE. Tel. 01787 473089; 1234 1234 e-mail: [email protected] 1234 1234 Reviews 1234 1234 Some things that concordances do not tell you John Carder N ENGLISH the tense of a verb shows its That form is often referred to as the stem or root relation to time, that is, past tense, present of the verb. Itense or future tense. English is a very time- From that basic and most simple form, usu- orientated language, with distinct tenses. The ally consisting of just three Hebrew letters, all Hebrew of the Bible is completely different. It other parts of each Hebrew verb are derived.
    [Show full text]
  • How Was the Dageš in Biblical Hebrew Pronounced and Why Is It There? Geoffrey Khan
    1 pronounced and why is it בָּתִּ ים How was the dageš in Biblical Hebrew there? Geoffrey Khan houses’ is generally presented as an enigma in‘ בָּתִּ ים The dageš in the Biblical Hebrew plural form descriptions of the language. A wide variety of opinions about it have been expressed in Biblical Hebrew textbooks, reference grammars and the scholarly literature, but many of these are speculative without any direct or comparative evidence. One of the aims of this article is to examine the evidence for the way the dageš was pronounced in this word in sources that give us direct access to the Tiberian Masoretic reading tradition. A second aim is to propose a reason why the word has a dageš on the basis of comparative evidence within Biblical Hebrew reading traditions and other Semitic languages. בָּתִּיםבָּתִּ ים The Pronunciation of the Dageš in .1.0 The Tiberian vocalization signs and accents were created by the Masoretes of Tiberias in the early Islamic period to record an oral tradition of reading. There is evidence that this reading tradition had its roots in the Second Temple period, although some features of it appear to have developed at later periods. 1 The Tiberian reading was regarded in the Middle Ages as the most prestigious and authoritative tradition. On account of the authoritative status of the reading, great efforts were made by the Tiberian Masoretes to fix the tradition in a standardized form. There remained, nevertheless, some degree of variation in reading and sign notation in the Tiberian Masoretic school. By the end of the Masoretic period in the 10 th century C.E.
    [Show full text]
  • Issues in the Representation of Pointed Hebrew in Unicode Third Draft, Peter Kirk, August 2003
    Issues in the Representation of Pointed Hebrew in Unicode Third draft, Peter Kirk, August 2003 1. Introduction The Hebrew block of the Unicode Standard (http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U0590.pdf) is intended to include all of the characters needed for proper representation of Hebrew texts from all periods of the Hebrew language, including fully pointed and cantillated ancient texts such as that of the Hebrew Bible. It is also intended to cover other languages written in Hebrew script, including Aramaic as used in biblical and other religious texts1 as well as Yiddish and a few other modern languages. In practice there are a number of issues and minor deficiencies in the Hebrew block as currently defined, in version 4.0 of the Unicode Standard (http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode4.0.0/), which affect its usefulness for representation of pointed Hebrew texts and of Hebrew script texts in some other languages. Some of these simply require clarification and agreed guidelines for implementers. Others require further discussion and decision, and possibly additions to the Unicode standard or other action by the Unicode Technical Committee. The conclusion reached in this paper is that two new Unicode characters should be proposed; other issues can be resolved by use of suitable sequences of existing characters, provided that such use is generally agreed by content providers and rendering systems. Several of these issues relate to different typographical conventions for publishing of Hebrew texts. It seems that a particular set of conventions is used for general publications in Hebrew, especially in Israel, but various other conventions, in which more fine distinctions are made, are used mainly for quality editions of biblical and other religious texts.
    [Show full text]
  • Preliminary Studies in the Judaean Desert Isaiah Scrolls and Fragments
    INCORPORATING SYNTAX INTO THEORIES OF TEXTUAL TRANSMISSION: PRELIMINARY STUDIES IN THE JUDAEAN DESERT ISAIAH SCROLLS AND FRAGMENTS by JAMES M. TUCKER A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES Master of Arts in Biblical Studies We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard ............................................................................... Dr. Martin G. Abegg Jr., Ph.D.; Thesis Supervisor ................................................................................ Dr. Dirk Büchner, Ph.D.; Second Reader TRINITY WESTERN UNIVERSITY Date (August, 2014) © James M. Tucker TABLE OF CONTENTS Abbreviations and Sigla i Abstract iv Chapter 1: Introduction 1 1.0. Introduction: A Statement of the Problem 1 1.1. The Goal and Scope of the Thesis 5 Chapter 2: Methodological Issues in the Transmission Theories of the Hebrew Bible: The Need for Historical Linguistics 7 2.0. The Use of the Dead Sea Scrolls Evidence for Understanding The History of ! 7 2.1. A Survey and Assessment of Transmission Theories 8 2.1.1. Frank Moore Cross and the Local Text Theory 10 2.1.1.1. The Central Premises of the Local Text Theory 11 2.1.1.2. Assessment of the Local Text Theory 14 2.1.2. Shemaryahu Talmon and The Multiple Text Theory 16 2.1.2.1. The Central Premises of the Multiple Texts Theory 17 2.1.2.2. Assessment of Multiple Text Theory 20 2.1.3. Emanuel Tov and The Non-Aligned Theory 22 2.1.3.1 The Central Premises of the Non-Aligned Theory 22 2.1.3.2. Assessment of the Non-Aligned Theory 24 2.1.4.
    [Show full text]
  • HEADS HEBREW Graml\Iar
    HEADS OF HEBREW GRAMl\iAR HE1tDS OF IIEilRE\V GRAJ\ilJ\lAR CONTAINING ALL THE PRINCIPLES NEEDED BY A LEARNER. BY S. PRIDEAUX TREGELLES, LL.D. TWENTY-THIRD IMPRESSION SAMUEL BAGSTER & SONS LTD. 80 WIGMORE STREET LONDON WI NEW YORK: HARPER AND BROTHERS ..?'RINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN PREFACE. - THE object of these Heads of Hebrew Grammar is to furnish the learner of that language with all that is noedful for him in his introductory studies, so that he may be thoroughly grounded in all that is elementary. In teaching, the present writer has been wont to give oral imtruction as to all the elements, commonly making use of some short Hebrew grammar ;--marking tl,e rules which re­ quire attent10n, and adding others which are not to be found in elementary grammars in general. In this way he has had a kind of oral Hebrew grammar for learners; and the same grammatical instruction which he has thus communicated to those whom he has thus taught, is here given w-ritten down for use or reference. He is well aware that the number of Hebrew grammars,­ both of those called elementary, and of those called critical, -is very great; this consideration made him long feel reluc­ tant to commit his oral grammatical instruction to writing; but, if the mass of He\Jrew grammars be examined, it will be found that very few of them possess any distinctive features; and he is not aware of one which he has been able to use as thoroughly adapted to the want,s of learners.
    [Show full text]
  • Stress Assignment in Words with -I Suffix in Hebrew Ora (Rodrigue) Schwarzwald, Bar-Ilan University, Israel
    Stress Assignment in Words with -i Suffix in Hebrew Ora (Rodrigue) Schwarzwald, Bar-Ilan University, Israel The purpose of this paper is to describe, analyze and explain the stress patterns of words formed with the homonymic suffix -i which conveys a variety of derivational and inflectional morphological functions in Hebrew, e.g. yaldut-i ‘childish’ (derivation) and ‘my childhood’ (inflection). The suffix -i functions in two inflectional and three derivational categories: (a) second person singular feminine in verbs (e.g. šví ‘sit down! [F.SG]’, takúmi ‘you[F.SG] will get up’); (b) first person singular in nouns, prepositions, and several other parts of speech (e.g. 'aví ‘my father’, kamóni ‘like me’); (c) adjectival formation (e.g. 'olamí ‘worldwide’, cíni ‘cynical’); (d) gentilic affiliation (e.g. germaní ‘German’, síni ‘Chinese’); (e) affectionate expression (e.g. xamúdi ‘sweetie’). Polysemy seems to occur in adjectives (c) and gentilic words (d), however, as each of the functions creates different word classes – only adjectives in (c) and both nouns and adjectives in (d), these categories will be differentiated here. The stress in words with the suffix -i is not fixed, as can be seen in the examples above. In most cases the suffix is stressed (except for (e) which is always unstressed). Penultimate stress is determined in each category by various phonological and morphological rules as well as by other non-linguistic factors which will be described and explained in this paper. Keywords: derivation, homonymy, inflection, stress, suffixes, word class 1. Introduction Affixes are morphological devices in word formation and in inflection. They are affixed to certain stems in order to indicate features such as person, number, gender, or tense in inflection, and to create substantives from verbal stems, adjectives from nouns and other words in derivation.
    [Show full text]
  • Section B Grammar
    BLF 1: Hebrew Grammar Section B Grammar © 2000-2015 Timothy Ministries Page B - 1 BLF 1: Hebrew Grammar “As a hawk flieth not high with one wing, even so a man reacheth not to excellence with one tongue.” — Roger Ascham © 2000-2015 Timothy Ministries Page B - 2 BLF 1: Hebrew Grammar BH BiblicalAbbreviations Hebrew. BHS Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. MNK A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar by van der Merwe, Naudé, and Kroeze. PHK Biblical Hebrew: An Introductory Grammar, by Page H. Kelley. JAH A Basic Introduction To Biblical Hebrew by Jo Ann Hackett. JW A Practical Grammar For Classical Hebrew by J. Weingreen. PDSBH Pocket Dictionary For The Study Of Biblical Hebrew by Todd J. Murphy. VP Biblical Hebrew: A Compact Guide by Miles V. Van Pelt. YO The Essentials Of Biblical Hebrew by Kyle M. Yates, edited by John Jo- seph Owens. Special Vowels Patah Furtive Normally, a vowel sign appearing under a word is read after the consonant above it. This rule has an exception: if the final consonant of a word is a guttural and follows a full accented vowel, then a ' (patah) under that final consonant is furtive and is read first. The word j'Wr, for example, is pronounced roo/ach, not roo/cha. Qamatz Qatan (Qamets Hatuf) Written identically to the normal qamatz (qamatz rachabh), : , the qamatz qatan is a short vowel and is recognized by the fact that it appears in a closed, unaccented syllable. By contrast, the regular qamatz appears in an open syllable, or in a closed and accented syllable. Qamatz Qatan occurs in lK; (Gen 1.21), hm;k]j;, Úl]k;a} (Gen 2.17) and Úr“m;v]yI (Psa 121.7).
    [Show full text]
  • Recent Notes on Hebrew Pronunciation
    Recent Notes On Hebrew Pronunciation Recent Notes On Hebrew Pronunciation By Rabbi Avi Grossman Edited by Mr. Jonathan Grossman Many of the ideas discussed in this article were in my notebook for some time, and just as I was getting around to preparing them for publication, my prolific colleague Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein sent a copy of Professor Geoffrey Khan’s The Tiberian Pronunciation Tradition of Biblical Hebrew to me. After reading it and briefly corresponding with the author, I concluded that it was time to release this article. Professor Khan invites the yeshiva world to read his book, available for free at this link, and to check out hiswebsite . Full disclosure: although Prof. Khan’s research is enlightening, not only do I not agree with or endorse everything he claims, I do not believe that certain points are admissible as halachic sources in the Bet Midrash. With regards to the details of halachic pronunciation, I have already released my own book wherein I try to show how the rishonim would pronounce Tiberian Hebrew, and I direct readers to Rabbi Bar Hayim’s videos on the subject. Rabbi Bar Hayim follows the views of Rabbi Benzion Cohen. All of us are attempting to recreate something that we cannot really know, and for now, we still have to debate the fine details. I seriously doubt that the Masoretes spoke a ritual Hebrew that sounded exactly the way any of us describes it. Before getting into the nitty gritty of Prof. Khan’s arguments, I would like to introduce some basic ideas that can be gleaned from an elementary, comparative study of Arabic.
    [Show full text]
  • Chastised Rulers in the Ancient Near East
    Chastised Rulers in the Ancient Near East Dissertation Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree doctor of philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By J. H. Price, M.A., B.A. Graduate Program in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures The Ohio State University 2015 Dissertation Committee: Samuel A. Meier, Advisor Daniel Frank Carolina López-Ruiz Bill T. Arnold Copyright by J. H. Price 2015 Abstract In the ancient world, kings were a common subject of literary activity, as they played significant social, economic, and religious roles in the ancient Near East. Unsurprisingly, the praiseworthy deeds of kings were often memorialized in ancient literature. However, in some texts kings were remembered for criminal acts that brought punishment from the god(s). From these documents, which date from the second to the first millennium BCE, we learn that royal acts of sacrilege were believed to have altered the fate of the offending king, his people, or his nation. These chastised rulers are the subject of this this dissertation. In the pages that follow, the violations committed by these rulers are collected, explained, and compared, as are the divine punishments that resulted from royal sacrilege. Though attestations are concentrated in the Hebrew Bible and Mesopotamian literature, the very fact that the chastised ruler type also surfaces in Ugaritic, Hittite, and Northwest Semitic texts suggests that the concept was an integral part of ancient near eastern kingship ideologies. Thus, this dissertation will also explain the relationship between kings and gods and the unifying aspect of kingship that gave rise to the chastised ruler concept across the ancient Near East.
    [Show full text]
  • 4 the Syllable Structure of Shaoxing
    The phonology of Shaoxing Chinese Zhang, J. Citation Zhang, J. (2006, January 31). The phonology of Shaoxing Chinese. LOT dissertation series. LOT, Utrecht. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/1887/4279 Version: Not Applicable (or Unknown) Licence agreement concerning inclusion of doctoral thesis in the License: Institutional Repository of the University of Leiden Downloaded from: https://hdl.handle.net/1887/4279 Note: To cite this publication please use the final published version (if applicable). 4 The Syllable Structure of Shaoxing 4.1 Introduction The status of the syllable as a linguistic unit, although not uncontrover- sial, is widely accepted in present-day phonology and phonetics. Syllables may consist of a vowel or diphthong, with onsets and codas of one or more consonants. Syllables may also contain syllabic consonants. Human listeners seem to need syllables as a way of segmenting the speech stream, while speakers use syllables to impose a rhythm of strong and weak beats to language, just like in music. All languages are assumed to have syllables, although the syllable status is sometimes questioned by researchers working on languages with extreme collocations of conso- nants or vowels, such as Bella Coola (Bagemihl 1991) and Gokana (Hyman 1990, 2003).1 Levin (1985) claims that phonetic utterances in all natural human languages are made up of syllables. However, the primary evidence for the syllable seems rather phonological than phonetic, in that “the syllable is the phonological unit which organizes segmental melodies in terms of sonority; syllabic segments are equivalent to sonority peaks within these organizational units” (Blevins 1995: 207). The syllable al- lows the formulation of generalizations both at the segmental level and at higher prosodic levels, which are awkward to express without referring to this constituent.
    [Show full text]