Ver. 15.2

March 5, 2010

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History of the Ancient and Modern Hebrew Language

By David Steinberg

David.Steinberg@houseofdavid.ca

Home page http://www.houseofdavid.ca/

http://www.adath-shalom.ca/history_of_hebrewtoc.htm

Excursus 2

Evolution of Pronunciation and Stress Patterns

(See also Biblical Hebrew Poetry and Word Play - Reconstructing the Original Oral, Aural and Visual Experience )

Box 19 - The Nature of Stress in Ancient and Modern Hebrew

Box 20 - The Independent Pronouns in EBHP and Colloquial Arabic Dialects

Table 24 - History of Stress and Pronunciation of the Hebrew Pronoun

Table 25 - History of the Accusative Particle 'ẹt and its Inflected Form' ōtō = "him"

Table 26 - Stressed Noun Suffixes in Biblical Hebrew

Table 27 - Locative ה

1. Classes of Verbs

2. Background on Biblical Hebrew Suffix Conjugation (traditional "perfect")

Table 28 - Common Stative and Similar Qal Verbs

Table 29 - History of Stress and Pronunciation of the Hebrew Verb - Suffix Conjugation

3. Background on Biblical Hebrew Prefix Conjugation (traditional "imperfect")

Table 30 - History of Stress and Pronunciation of the Hebrew Verb Prefix Conjugation (traditional "imperfect")

4. Participles, Imperatives and Infinitives

Table 31 - History of Stress and Pronunciation of the Hebrew Participles, Imperatives and Infinitives

Box 20

The Nature of Stress in Ancient and Modern Hebrew

“...The term stress is applied to the phonetic elevation of the voice, although, strictly speaking, the (Biblical) Hebrew stress, unlike that in ancient Greek and Latin, refers rather to more forceful articulation than higher musical pitch, the latter being a secondary element as in Modern Greek, Vulgar Latin... English, Italian etc. That the (Biblical) Hebrew stress is essentially a prominence of intensity or force of articulation is manifest in its effects on the vocalisation. In contrast, the contemporary Israeli pronunciation of Hebrew is characterised by a musical pitch accent.”

Quoted from Joϋon-Muraoka 1991 § 15a

Box 21

The Independent Pronouns in EBHP and Colloquial Arabic Dialects[1]

"In its system of pronouns, Hebrew discloses, for a number of persons, two allomorphs - one terminating in a vowel, the other with a consonant.

Person	Independent Pronouns in EBHP
	Allomorph Originally Ending with a Short Vowel which may have been Elided	Allomorph Ending with a Long Vowel
2 ms.	את /ˈʾatta/ > /ˈʾat(t)/[2]	אתה /ˈʾattaː/[3]
2 fs.	את /ˈʾatti/ > /ˈʾat(t)/	אתי /ˈʾattiː/[4]
3 ms.	הוא /ˈhuʾa/ > /ˈhuʾ/ > /ˈhû/	הואה /ˈhuʾaː/[5]
3 fs.	היא /ˈhiʾa/ > /ˈhiʾ/ > /ˈhî/	היאה /ˈhiʾaː/[6]
2 mp.	אתם /ʾatˈtima/ > /ʾatˈtim/	אתמה /ʾatˈtimaː/[7]
2 fp.	אתן /ʾatˈtinna/ > /ʾatˈtin(n)/	אתנה /ʾatˈtinnaː/[8]
3 mp.	הם /ˈhimma/ > /ˈhim(m)/	המה /ˈhimmaː/
3 fp.	הן /ˈhinna/ > /ˈhin(n)/[9]	הנה /ˈhinnaː/

A somewhat similar picture obtains in the pronominal systems of Arabic dialects. To exemplify the lines of resemblance, we shall here present the pronominal systems of some dialects in the Syro-Israeli area.

Person	Urban Dialects		Rural Dialects
	Damascus	Bišmizzīn (Lebanon)	Hōrān	Bīr Zēt
1 cs.	ʾana	ʾana	ani	ana
2 ms.	ʾәnte	ʾinti, ʾint	әnte, әnt	inte, int
2 fs.	ʾәnti	ʾinti	әnti	inti
3 ms.	hūwe	huwwi, hū	hū, hūwa	hū
3 fs.	hiye	hiyyi, hī	hī, hīye	hī
1 cp.	nәḥna	niḥna	әḥne, әḥna	iḥna
2 mp.	ʾәntu	ʾintu	әntu	intu
2 fp.			әntenn	intin
3 mp.	hәnne	hinni, hin	huMM, huMMa	him
3 fp.			henn, henne	hin

The following points are worthwhile noting;

(a) the preservation, from a historical point of view, of the final vowel in the 2nd pers. masc. sing.: Hebrew ʾatta, Arabic dialects inte (and variants).

(b) in the Hebrew forms for the 3rd pers. mast. and fem. sing. and plur. which have a vowel termination - huʾa, hiʾa, hemma, henna - the final vowel ā possibly goes back to ancient -at. Cf, hmt in ancient Phoenician (Byblian) and hwt, hyt, hmt in Ugaritic (in the genitive-accusative case) as well as the genetive-accusative pronominal morphemes šuātu/i, šāti/u (third pers. masc. sing.), šuiāti, šāti (fem. sing.), šunūti (mast. plur.) and šināti (fem. plur.) in Akkadian.

As to the longer forms in Arabic dialects (hūwe, huwwi, etc, for the masc. and hīyeʾ, hiyyi for the fem.), there seems to be no evidence to indicate such a historical development. What would seem plausible is either the assumption that the longer forms have preserved the final vowel of Classical Arabic (huwa, hiya), or, that they developed a new final vowel. But here we touch upon a rather intricate question, the existence of a final vowel in a number pronominal forms (cf. above table) in many Arabic dialects.

Table 24

History of Stress and Pronunciation of the Hebrew Pronoun[10]

	*PH (c. 1200 BCE)	JEH^[11] */JEH/ (mainly c. 750-586 BCE)	PMT (c. 400-300 BCE)	EBHP[12] */EBHP/ *[EBHP] (c. 850-550 BCE)	PTH */PTH/^+ *[PTH] (c. 400 CE)	TH /TH/^+ *[TH] (c. 850 CE)	MT pronounced as IH [IH] (present)
1 cs.	/ˈʾanã/ > (≈ suffix /ῑ/) /ˈʾani(ː)/[13]	אני	אני	/ˈʾani(ː)/[14]	/ˈʾani(ː)/ > /ʾăˈniː/ (pausal /ˈʾaːniː/)	/ʾăˈni/ [ʾăˈniː] (pausal /ʾåni/ [ʾɔːniː])	[aˈni]
	/ʾaˈnaːkũ/ > /ʾaˈnoːki(ː)/	?[15] [י] אנכ	אנכי	/ʾaˈnôki(ː)/[16]	/ʾaˈnôkiː/ → /ʾaːnôˈkiː/ (pausal /ʾaːˈnôkiː/)	/ʾånoˈki/ [ʾɔːnoːˈxiː] (pausal /ʾåˈnoki/ [ʾɔːˈnoːxiː]	[anoˈxi] (pausal [aˈnoxi])
2 ms.	/ˈʾanta/ > /ˈ’attã/	[ת] א	אתה	/ˈʾatta(ː)/	/ˈʾattaː/ → /ʾatˈtaː/ (pausal /ˈʾaːttaː)	/ˈʾatˈtå/ [ʾatˈtɔː] (pausal /ˈʾåttå/ [ˈʾɔːttɔː]	[aˈta]
2 fs.	/ˈʾantĩ/ > /ˈʾattĩ/ ^[17]		את	/ˈʾat(t)/ - standard /ˈʾatti(ː)/ - occasion possibly northern	/ˈʾat/[18]	/ˈʾat/	[at]
3 ms.	/ˈhuwat/ > /ˈhu’ã/	הא	הוא	/ˈhû/, */ˈhuʾ/ or */huʾa(ː)/[19]	/ˈhû/	/ˈhu/ *[ˈhuː]	[ˈhu] or [ˈʾu]
3 fs.	/ˈhiyat/ > /ˈhi’ã/		היא הוא	/ˈhî/, */ˈhiʾ/ or */ˈhiʾa(ː)/	/ˈhî/	/ˈhi/ [ˈhiː]	[ˈhi] or [ˈʾi]
1 cp.	/ˈniḥnã/ > /ˈnaḥnũ/	נחנו	אנחנו נחנו (rare)	/ʾaˈnaḥnuː/	/ʾăˈnaːḥnuː/	/ʾaˈnaḥnu/ [ʾăˈna:ḥnu:]	[aˈnaxnu]
2 mp.	/ˈʾantumã/[20] > /ʾatˈtimã/		אתם	/ʾatˈtim/ [ʾatˈtiˑm] or [ʾatˈteˑm]	/ʾatˈtem/	/ʾatˈtɛm/ [ʾatˈtɛːm]	[atɛm]
2 fp.	/ˈʾantinnã/ > /ʾatˈtinnã/[21]		אתנה	Form 1. /ʾatˈtin(n)/ [ʾatˈtin(n)] or [ʾatˈteˑn] Form 2. /ʾatˈtinna(ː)/ or /ʾatˈtinnaː/	/ʾatˈten/