Details

Subject(s)

• Hebrew language—Vowels [Browse]
• Hebrew language—Phonology, Historical [Browse]
• Bible Old Testament—Language, style [Browse]

Series

• Studies in Semitic languages and linguistics ; 99. [More in this series]
• Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics; v.99

Summary note

The development of the Biblical Hebrew Vowels investigates the sound changes affecting the Proto-Northwest-Semitic vocalic phonemes and their reflexes in Tiberian Biblical Hebrew. Contrary to many previous approaches, Benjamin Suchard shows that these developments can all be described as phonetically regular sound laws. This confirms that despite its unique transmission history, Hebrew behaves like other languages in this regard. Many Hebrew sound changes have traditionally been explained as reflecting non-phonetic conditioning. These include the Canaanite Shift of *ā to *ō, tonic and pre-tonic lengthening, diphthong contraction, Philippi’s Law, the Law of Attenuation, and the apocope of short, unstressed vowels. By reconsidering reconstructions and re-evaluating phonetic conditions, this work shows how the Biblical Hebrew forms regularly derive from their Proto-Northwest-Semitic precursors.

Bibliographic references

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN

90-04-39026-X

OCLC

1096223197

Doi

• 10.1163/9789004390263

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