Categories
History of the Hebrew Language
1. The name Hebrew Language usually denotes the language of the sacred writings of the Israelites which form the canon of the Old Testament. It is also called Ancient Hebrew in contradistinction to the New Hebrew of Jewish writings of the post-biblical period. The name Hebrew language (לָשׁוֹן עִבְרִית γλῶσσα τῶν Ἑβραίων, ἑβραϊστί) does not occur in the Old Testament itself. Instead of it we find in Is 19:18 the term language of Canaan, and יְהוּדִית in the Jews’ language 2 K 18:26, 18:28 (cf. Is 36:11,36:13) Neh 13:24. In the last-cited passage it already agrees with the later (post-exilic) usage, which gradually extended the name Jews, Jewish to the whole nation, as in Haggai, Nehemiah, and the book of Esther.
The distinction between the names Hebrew (עִבְרִים Ἑβραῖοι) and Israelites (בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל) is that the latter was rather a national name of honour, with also a religious significance, Learn more...
The Aspiration of the Tenues
The harder sound of the six Begadkephath letters, indicated by a Dageš lene, is to be regarded, according to the general analogy of languages, as their older and original pronunciation, from which the softer sound was weakened. The original hard sound is maintained when the letter is initial, and after a consonant, but when it immediately follows a vowel or Šewā mobile it is softened and aspirated by their influence, e.g. פָּרַץ pāraṣ, יִפְרֹץ yiphrōṣ, כֹּל kōl, לְכֹל lekhōl. Hence the Begadkephath take Dageš lene
(1) at the beginning of words:
(a) without exception when the preceding word ends with a vowelless consonant, e.g. עַל־כֵּן ʾal-kēn (therefore), עֵץ פְּרִי ˓ēṣ perî (fruit-tree);
(b) at the beginning of a section, e.g. בְּרֵאשִׁית Gn 11, or at the beginning of a sentence, or even of a minor division of a sentence after a distinctive accent, although the preceding word may end with Learn more...
Unchangeable Hebrew Vowels
What vowels in Hebrew are unchangeable, i.e. are not liable to attenuation (to Šewâ), modification, lengthening, or shortening, can be known with certainty only from the nature of the grammatical forms, and in some cases by comparison with Arabic. This hems good especially of the essentially long vowels, i.e. those long by nature or contraction, as distinguished from those which are only lengthened rhythmically, i.e. on account of the special laws which in Hebrew regulate the tone and the formation of syllables. The latter, when a change takes place in the position of the tone or in the division of syllables, readily become short again, or are reduced to a mere vocal Šewâ.
1. The essentially long and consequently, as a rule, unchangeable vowels of the second and third class, î, ê, û, ô, can often be recognized by means of the vowel letters which accompany them (־ִי, ־ֵי, וּ, וֹ); e.g. יֵיטִיב he does well, חֵיכָל palace, גְּבוּל Learn more...
Hebrew Verbs With Gutturals
Verbs which have a guttural for one of the three radicals differ in their inflexion from the ordinary strong verb. These differences do not affect the consonantal part of the stem, and it is, therefore, more correct to regard the guttural verbs as a subdivision of the strong verb. At the most, only the entire omission of the strengthening in some of the verbs middle guttural (as well as in the imperfect Niph'al of verbs first guttural) can be regarded as a real weakness. On the other hand, some original elements have been preserved in guttural stems, which have degenerated in the ordinary strong verb; e.g. the ă of the initial syllable in the imperfect Qal, as in יַחְמֹד, which elsewhere is attenuated to ĭ, יִקְטֹל.—In guttural verbs א and ה are only taken into consideration when they are actual consonants, and not vowel-letters like the א in some verbs פ״א, in a few ע״א, and in most ל״א. In all these cases, however, the א was at Learn more...
Mater Lectionis
The usage of certain consonants to indicate a vowel in the spelling of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac languages is called matres lectionis (Latin "mothers of reading", singular form: mater lectionis, Hebrew: אֵם קְרִיאָה mother of reading). The letters that do this in Hebrew are א (aleph), ה (he), ו (waw) and י (yod). The י and ו in particular are more often vowels than they are consonants.
The practice of using matres lectionis seems to have originated when [ay] and [aw] diphthongs (written using the י (yod) and ו (waw) consonant letters respectively) monophthongized to simple long vowels [ē] and [ō]. This epiphenomenal association between consonant letters and vowel sounds was then seized upon and used in words without historic diphthongs. This system developed as an early system for indicating vowels using the Hebrew alphabet. The consonant letters י (yod), ו (waw), ה (He), and א (Aleph) can be given for a rough indication of long vowels. Originally they were Learn more...
