Edition 1.2
15 December 2011

E-book - History of the Ancient and Modern Hebrew Language

E-book - Biblical Hebrew Poetry and Word Play - Reconstructing the Original Oral, Aural and Visual Experience

By David Steinberg

David.Steinberg@houseofdavid.ca
Home page http://www.houseofdavid.ca/

TERMS, ABBREVIATIONS, AND LINGUISTIC SYMBOLS

1. Abbreviations

abs. - absolute state (status absolutus) of a noun or adjective as opposed to the construct and pronominal states.

acc. - accusative case

adj. - adjective

a.p. - active participle

BCE - Before Common Era = BC; CE – Common Era = AD

BH - Biblical Hebrew, the language of the Hebrew Bible. Typologically it can be divided into ABH, CBH and PCBH. Its registers include prose and poetic varieties.

BHA - Biblical Hebrew, its antecedents and the development of the Biblical Hebrew reading tradition of the Tiberian Masoretes (BHA phase 1 - Phase 6).

C - consonant

C(_{1, 2, 3, 4}) - (first, second, third, forth) consonant

C_x(C_x) - a given (same) consonant

constr. - construct state (status constructus) of a noun or adjective as opposed to the absolute and pronominal states. In transcription constr. is indicated by the secondary stress marker ˌ .

cp. - common plural

cs. - common singular

du. - dual

f. - feminine

fp. - feminine plural

fs. - feminine singular

gen. - genitive

imp. - imperative

inf. abs. - infinitive absolute

inf. constr. - infinitive construct

m. - masculine

MCS - Masoretic cantillation signs

ML - Matres Lectionis

mp. - masculine plural

ms. - masculine singular

MSA - Modern Standard (or literary) Arabic

MT - Masoretic Text

n. - (foot)note

N₁....N₂ - first noun ... second noun

nom. - nominative case

obl. - oblique case

part. - participle(s)

PC - Prefix Conjugation[1]

PC_coh[2]_-cohortative.[3] This is the volitive mood of the first person of the PC ("I would like to..."; "let's...") . "(T)he cohortative has a direct use, e.g. May I kill, I wish to kill!, and an indirect or subordinated use (with ו ), e.g. in order that I might kill ( וְאֶקְטְלָה)." [4]

PC_imp[5]- imperfect. Its range meanings - present, future and past durative.

PC_{imp_inj}- imperfect used as injunctive[6]. "The imperfect in this usage is differentiated from the jussive with its prohibitive in that the imperfect is negated by לֺא while the (jussive) prohibitive has אַל. The commandments formulated in the imperfect often show the archaic long plural suffix and frequent reinforcement by the infinitive absolute. The emphasis in this kind of injunction is not on the will of the speaker (as it is in the jussive and (jussive) prohibitive) but on the action enjoined or forbidden."[7]

PC_{imp_prfut}- imperfect in its most common present, future meaning.

PC_{imp_pdur}- imperfect in its less common past durative meaning.

PC_jus[8]- jussive. This is the volitive mood of the second and third person of the PC.[9] "The jussive is used to express all the nuances of will: from a superior to an inferior: command, exhortation, advice, invitation, permission; - from an inferior to a superior: wish, prayer, request for permission etc. The jussive is often followed by the entreating particle נָא, especially in requests for permission."[10]

PC_pret - preterite i.e. the original past tense that preceded the development of the SC as a verbal tense.

PC_{pret_sim}[11]- the simple yaqtul preterite i.e. used without the augmented conjunction,...waw plus gemination. This is moderately common in poetry and used sporadically in prose usually where the context makes the time reference unambiguous.

PC_pretW_C[12]- "In prose the yaqtul (preterite) has been restricted to the role of a narrative past tense expressing a sequence of actions. In narrative sequences of this nature, it is at the head of the clause, always introduced by the augmented conjunction,...waw plus gemination...."[13] PC_pretWC is a regular feature of BH prose and is used sporadically in BH poetry.

pl. - plural

PMT - Proto-Masoretic text - the consonantal text of the Hebrew Bible inherited by the Tiberian Masoretes. Their addition to this text form of the MCS and vowel signs (pointing) produced the Masoretic Text.

p.p. - passive participle

pro. - pronoun, pronominal

PS - Proto-Semitic language[14]

s. - singular

SC - Suffix Conjugation[15]. GK (§106) gives a global overview of the non-waw conversive SC - "(It) serves to express actions, events, or states, which the speaker wishes to represent from the point of view of completion, whether they belong to a determinate past time, or extend into the present, or, while still in the future, are pictured in their complete state."

SC_hyp- "Hypothetical conditions or unrealizable wishes"[16]

SC_past - past tense. Normally non-durative[17]. This is the normal usage and accounts for the great majority of non-waw conversive instances of the SC.

SC_pre - A performative action that occurs by means of speaking.

נָתַתִּי אֹתְךָ עַל כָּל־אֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם

I appoint you over all the land of Egypt.[18]

SC_prec - precative perfect i.e. to articulate a request (rare and only found in Psalms).[19]

SC_prof - prophetic perfect presenting the future as if it was already reality[20] (rare).

SC_state - state of affairs or condition. Mainly with stative verbs.[21] Nb. GK (§106g) "(The SC can) represent actions, events, or states, which, although completed in the past, nevertheless extend their influence into the present (in English generally rendered by the present...."

SC_timeless - gnomic perfect describing actions or events that are not time-bound (rare).[22]

SC_wc - waw conversive form of SC carrying the range of meanings of PC_imp. Used regularly in narrative prose and irregularly in poetry.

sp. - pronominal state (status pronominalis)[23] of nouns governing pronominal suffixes contrasting with the absolute and construct states. Sp. resembles the construct both in function and form but exhibits a shift of stress which in EBHP rests on the pronominal suffix or the vowel “connecting” it with the noun except for the always stressed “heavy” suffixes כם, כן, הם, הן, ם.

V - vowel

V(1, 2) - (first, second) vowel

V_x(V_x) - a given (same) vowel

2. Linguistic Terms and Symbols[24]

Anceps vowels /ã/, /ĩ/, /ũ/

Colloquial Arabic - current spoken varieties of Arabic

Energic Mood - 'Found in Classical Arabic and various other Semitic languages, the energetic mood expresses something which is strongly believed or which the speaker wishes to emphasize, e.g. yaktubanna يَكتُبُنَّ ("he certainly writes")' - source Wikipedia.

Epigraphic Hebrew (EH) - the extra-biblical Hebrew inscriptions of Palestine which have been attributed to the period between the tenth and the sixth century BCE.

Fientive or action verb designates an action of movement or change of state in which the subject performs the action.

Koine, Koineization

Phonemes - consonants

Phonemes - vowels

Phonologically distinct or phonological - refers to phonic differences capable of distinguishing meaning in a given language. Essentially it has them same meaning as 'phonemic'

Vowel Letters or Matres Lectionis (Latin for “mothers of reading”) – abbreviation ML - א ה ו י when used to represent a vowel. For details see these boxes.

ˈ Primary (or Main) stress (occasionally phonemic) - this symbol is placed immediately before the syllable carrying primary stress with the stressed syllable itself marked bold e.g. */ʾaˈdaːm/.

ˌ Secondary stress[25] Phonemic in EBHP/LBHP in such cases as: /ˈsūs/ = "horse"; /ˌsūs/ (constr) = "horse of -". This symbol is placed immediately before the syllable carrying secondary stress.

Ø For EBHP I assume that nouns in the construct have a secondary stress on the syllable which in the absolute case would carry the primary stress.

Ø For TH syllable:

o In the case of nouns in the construct case, all syllables marked by Tiberian stress indicating accents are assumed to carry secondary stress[26].

o In all other cases all syllables marked by Tiberian stress indicating accents, other than the final one in the word, are assumed to carry secondary stress.

N.b. - In TH, originally short vowels are found in closed syllables carrying primary or secondary stress, and are pronounced long.[27]

. Syllable break - a.a (used where necessary for clarity)

/t/ virgules mark phoneme boundaries

: colon placed between two words indicates phonological contrast minimally, a minimal pair

[t] square brackets mark phonetic/allophone boundaries.

<ph> graphemes

? e.g. /ˈḫiṣy/ (EBHP?) > /ˈḫiṣî/ (EBHP?) means the pre-exilic Biblical Hebrew (BH) phonemic pronunciation was either /ˈḫiṣy/ or its later derived form /ˈḫiṣî/. It is impossible to decide based on current data.

/ slash separates contrastive or variant items, categories, etc.

√ root eg √gdl or √גדל

{ } encloses morphemic element, morphemic, element, morphemic junction or root.

( ) in transcriptions encloses: (a) an element included in an alternative reconstruction; or, (b) an omissible or optional element. Thus EBHP /qaˈṭalta(ː)/ indicates that the pronunciation was either /qaˈṭalta/ or /qaˈṭaltaː/ or that either was an option at that time.

< 'derives from ...'

<< morphophonemic shift

← 'derives from...' omitting one or more intermediate stages.

> 'leads to ...'

>> morphophonemic shift

→ abridged shift (i.e. without intermediate stages)

# terminal pause

Ø zero

≈ by analogy to

≈hyp. cor. hypercorrections or pseudo-correction. Example forms such as בְּאֵר /bәˈʾệr/

± 'with or without' or 'indifferent to'

2.1 Symbols Denoting Vowels - see Vowel Phonemes [28]

a) Vowel Length

· Transcribing diachronic examples -

I. Irreducible Historically Long Vowels i.e. vowels that seem to have been long as far back as we can reconstruct even if their quality has changed -

/ῑ/, /ē/ ([ɛ̄] or [ẹ̄][29]), /ā/[30], /ō/[31], /ū/.

N.b. Such vowels can be gained by analogy as in the case of the 1cs. independent pronoun.

II. Irreducible Long Vowels which lengthened due to contraction and assimilation -

/î/, /ê/ ([ɛ̂] or [ệ]), /â/, /ô/, /û/.

III. Long Vowels originating from PH anceps vowels, vowels lengthened due to stress
(tonic and pretonic lengthening), long vowels whose origin is unclear, and long
vowels in foreign names etc. e.g. פַּרְעֹ֛ה /parˈ^coː/, סִֽיסְרָ֖א /siːsạˈraː/ -

/iː/, /eː/ ([ɛː] or [ẹː]), /aː/, /ɔː/, /oː/, /uː/.

IV. Vowels carrying primary stress when not otherwise marked -

í, ɪ́, é, ẹ́, ɛ́, á, ɐ́, ɔ́, ó, ʊ́, ú.

V. Vowels carrying secondary stress in TH when not otherwise marked -

ì, ɪ̀, è, ẹ̀, ɛ̀, à, ɐ̀, ɔ̀, ò, ʊ̀, ù.

· Phonetic transcription and transcribing reconstructed text

Ø I generally use IPA symbols, thus historic /ō/, /ô/ and /oː/ (see above) are all
transcribed [oː] in *[EBHP].

Ø TH qāmeṣ is transcribed [ɔ] in *[TH] regardless of its origin;

· Word-final Vowels of intermediate or uncertain length

I use the IPA symbol ˑ for transcribing reconstructed *[EBHP] word-final vowels in two situations:

Ø when it is uncertain whether a word-final vowel was pronounced short or long e.g. TH קׇטַלְתׇּ which was a reflex of /EBHP/ */qaˈṭalta(ː)/ i.e. */qaˈṭaltaː/ or */qaˈṭalta/; reconstructed pronunciation [EBHP] *[qɐˈṭɐltɐˑ]

Ø when a historically long word-final vowel is unstressed and hence probably shortened in pronunciation as in many Arabic dialects e.g. TH (3fs. SC) קׇטְלָה which was a reflex of /EBHP/ */qaˈṭalâ/[32]; [EBHP] *[qɐˈṭɐlɐˑ]

b) Restored Vowels -

ạ, ị, ụ in /EBHP/ (ɐ, ɪ , ʊ or ɐ̣, ɪ̣, ʊ̣ in my reconstructed [EBHP])[33] are used to indicate originally short vowels, which have been reduced to ә/Ø (בְ), ɐ̆ (בֲ), ɛ̆ (בֱ) or ɔ̆ (בֳ) in TH.
Their pronunciation in [EBHP], in descending order of probability -

/ạ/ [ɐ], [ɐ̆], [ɛ], [ɛ̆], [ә], [Ø]

/ị/ [ɪ], [ĭ], [ẹ], [ĕ], [ә], [Ø]

/ụ/ [ʊ], [ŭ], [ŏ], [ɔ], [ɔ̆], [ә], [Ø]

c) Notes -

· in diachronic examples, the TH phoneme /ɔ/ is transcribed /ǫ/[34] *[ɔ] when it originated from short u, and /å/ *[ɔː]
when it immediately originated from long a.

· in quotations from other authors I have generally kept their notation unless otherwise noted.

2.2 Gemination[35]

Were Word-Final Geminated Consonants Maintained in EBHP?

Long continuants

Long stops

Symbols for long vowels and consonants

List of words with final gemination

2.3 Stages of the Hebrew Language [36]

a) PNWS - Proto-Northwest Semitic (BHA phase 1)

b) PH - Proto-Hebrew (BHA phase 2). The Canaanite dialects (c.1200-1000 B.C.E.) that would develop into Hebrew with the loss of the case endings. Pattern of long and short vowels and consonants carry on Proto-Semitic pattern. Vowel and consonant quality and length phonemic. Stress uniformly penultimate thus not distinct. Sources - see Harris 1939, Hendel-Lambdin-Huehnergard, Sáenz-Badillos.

c) AH - Ancient Hebrew[37] - All the Canaanite dialects written and spoken in the territory described in the Bible as being settled by the tribes of Israel, and later the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, from about 1000 BCE until the extinction of Hebrew speech with the suppression of the Bar Kochba rebellion in the mid-second century CE (BHA phase 1 - Phase 4).

c.1) PreExH - Pre-Exilic Hebrew (BHA phase 3). This encompasses both Judean and Israelian Hebrew i.e. all the dialects spoken and written in the villages and towns of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel c. early 10th to early sixth centuries BCE i.e. in the First Temple Period.

Israelian Hebrew (some scholars call Northern or Israelite Hebrew [38]) (BHA phase 3) - This is not a dialect; it is a catchall term for all the dialects spoken and written in the villages and towns of the Kingdom of Israel c. 1000 BCE until at least the late eighth century BCE. It does not imply that these dialects had more in common with each other than many of them had to some of the dialects spoken in the Kingdom of Judah and hence classed under the rubric Judahite Hebrew. It is possible that the major areas of the kingdom (Samaria, Galilee, the Coastal Plain and Gilead) developed recognizable regional dialects.

IEH - Israelian Epigraphic Hebrew

*[EBHP_isr] a possible reconstruction of Samarian Hebrew when probably at variance from EBHP.

Judahite Hebrew (some scholars call Southern or Judean Hebrew) (BHA phase 3) - This is not a dialect; it is a catchall term for all the dialects spoken and written in the villages and towns of the Kingdom of Judah during the First Temple Period. The spoken dialects ancestral to MH, falls under this rubric. Use of the term Judahite Hebrew does not imply that these dialects had more in common with each other than many of them had to some of the dialects spoken in the Kingdom of Judah and hence classed under the rubric Israelian Hebrew.

ABH - Archaizing Biblical Hebrew - The language of a few important poems[39]. These poems could have been authored at any time after 1000 BCE[40] probably using a standard set of archaizing features[41].

CBH - Classical Biblical Hebrew (BHA phase 3) - The literary dialect of Jerusalem c.950-586 B.C.E (First Temple Period) as recorded in the passages of the Hebrew Bible reasonably dated to the pre-exilic period. It is represented by the PMT, of these passages, minus non-word final vowel letters. This is the only widely attested form of Judahite Hebrew. It is clear that: (1) CBH shows very little if any internal development[42] suggesting later revision of any early texts, (2) all CBH biblical texts were transferred to the Aramaic script, modernized in orthography and possibly linguistically and/or textually revised in the post-exilic period. (3) CBH continued to be written, alongside PCBH, well into the Persian period[43]. In the post-exilic period the author/editors would have used PMH or Aramaic as their daily speech and have written the very different CBH and PCBH in the way that modern Arabs write MSA, Iron Age Babylonian scribes composed in Standard Babylonian[44] or as medieval Italians wrote Church Latin. N.b. the language of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, while being substantially CBH, show some PCBH features.

*EBHP - Early Biblical Hebrew Pronunciation

/EBHP/⁺^{^[45]} - This reconstruction includes -

· the phonemic transcription of reconstructed CBH (/EBHP/) recovering, as closely as possible, the pronunciation that a scribe in Jerusalem 700-600 BCE would have used in reading poetry and other literature to upper class Judeans or members of the king’s court. Vowel and consonant quality and length and word stress phonological. N.b. It is quite possible that Early Biblical Hebrew Pronunciation continued to be used in some circles for formal literary reading of CBH and PCBH, alongside LBHP, well into the Persian period;

· the occasionally phonemic placement of primary word stress;

· the non-phonemic placement of secondary word stress; and,

· the non-phonemic distinction between the long vowels of various origins e.g. ῑ, î, iː.

[EBHP]^{^[46]} a phonetic transcription of reconstructed Early Biblical Hebrew Pronunciation.

/EBHP+/ more probable of alternative reconstructions.

/EBHP-/ less probable of alternative reconstructions.

/EBHP?/ possible reconstruction usually used when it is impossible to decide, based on current data, between and earlier and later form.

/EBHP_sam/ possible reconstruction of Samarian pre-exilic Hebrew when probably at variance from Jerusalem dialect.

JEH - Judahite Epigraphic Hebrew (see A Note on Epigraphic Hebrew) - inscriptions contemporaneous with pre-exilic CBH. Scribes trained in Jerusalem 700-586 BCE were likely the authors of the bulk of surviving JEH e.g. Siloam Inscription, Lachish ostraca, Arad ostraca. For their orthography see Matres Lectionis in Hebrew. The same circles were likely the composers and/or transmitters of most of the pre-exilic biblical texts. Epigraphic Hebrew documents have been preserved in their original language and orthography and, within limits, can serve as a guide to pronunciation. Except for archaisms used in poetry, the original orthography of the pre-exilic biblical texts would very likely to have conformed to the norms of JEH.

I am working on the assumption that in JEH -

· all final stressed vowels were long and generally marked by vowel letters;

· final unstressed long vowels were generally marked by vowel letters; and,

· final unstressed short vowels, were unmarked i.e. were not marked by vowel letters or in any other way.

c.2) PostExH - Post-Exilic Hebrew (BHA phase 4)

PCBH - Post-Classical Biblical Hebrew (BHA phase 4) - A literary dialect of Jerusalem c.500 B.C.E.- 70 CE. It is a direct continuation of, and very similar to CBH[47] and like CBH texts the language of PCBH biblical passages shows no discernable internal development.. However, it shows internal linguistic developments that were probably influenced by Aramaic[48] and contemporary spoken Hebrew. PCBH diverged increasingly from spoken Hebrew and should be considered a diglossic prestige language.[49] In the post-exilic period the author/editors would have used PMH or Aramaic as their daily speech and have written the very different CBH and PCBH in the way that modern Arabs write MSA or as medieval Italians wrote Church Latin[50]. Sources later books of the Bible such as Chronicles.

LBHP /LBHP/ (Late Biblical Hebrew Pronunciation) - Phonemic transcription of reconstructed reading tradition of BH c.500 BCE - 200 CE. Naturally it would have changed considerably over that period. It was increasingly affected by Aramaic and spoken Hebrew.

[LBHP] a phonetic transcription^{^[51]} transcription of reconstructed Late Biblical Hebrew Pronunciation.

QH - Qumran Hebrew i.e. the Hebrew of the non-biblical Dead Sea Scrolls (see Qimron 1986). Opinions differ as to whether it should be considered a highly idiosyncratic and Aramaized form of PCBH or a separate line of development[52]. Most scholars consider it to have been a literary language probably spoken in formal situations much like MSA today in the Arab world. For the relation between BH and QH see Young, Rezetko, Ehrensvärd 2008 chapt. 10.

PMH - Proto-Mishnaic or Proto-Rabbinic Hebrew - see Development of Proto-Mishnaic Hebrew (c. 586 BCE-c. 70 BC).[53].

MH - Mishnaic, Middle or Rabbinic Hebrew - Basically the spoken Hebrew of some areas of rural Judah of the first and early second centuries C.E. Its population base was destroyed with the suppression of the Bar Kochba rebellion. Source - Tannaitic Literature especially the Mishnah. For the relation between BH and MH see Young, Rezetko, Ehrensvärd 2008 chapt. 9.

d) MidH - Medieval Hebrew. Various forms of Hebrew c. 1000-c. 1850 C.E.

e) IH - Israeli Hebrew. Spoken and written Hebrew Palestine (1900-1947)/Israel (1948-present).

/IH/ Phonemic transcription of IH.

[IH] Phonetic transcription of IH. Note Vowel System - Modern Israeli Hebrew.

2.4) Proto-Tiberian, Tiberian and Other Traditions of Reading Biblical Hebrew

a) PTH - Proto-Tiberian Hebrew (BHA Phase 5 - c.150-c.500 C.E.). This is the developing traditional pronunciation of some circles of Aramaic speaking Palestinian scholars when reading the Proto-Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible.

This tradition underlies TH and is largely deduced from the phonology of TH.

/PTH/⁺ This reconstruction includes -

· the phonemic[54] transcription of reconstructed PTH (/PTH/);

· the occasionally phonemic placement of primary word stress;

· the non-phonemic placement of secondary word stress;

· the allophonic spirantization of the bgdkpt consonants (dageš qal (Hebrew) or dagesh lene (Latin) - b/b, g/g, d/d, p/p, t/t; and,

· the non-phonemic distinction between the long vowels of various origins e.g. ῑ, î, iː.

[PTH] Phonetic^{^[55]} transcription of reconstructed PTH.

b) TH - Tiberian Hebrew (BHA Phase 6 - c.850 C.E.). TH masoretic cantillation and vowel points basically reflect the final development of PTH as it continued to develop from the fifth to the ninth centuries CE (see Tiberian Vowel System). Compared to EBHP there was a decrease in the number of consonantal phonemes and an increase in the number of vowel phonemes. Short vowels remain only in closed unstressed syllables. Vowel length non-phonological, consonant gemination carries light phonemic load. Vowel and consonant quality and word stress phonological.

As described in Khan 1987 (pp. 24-25) -

"Although the Tiberian vocalization system marks all the major qualitative distinctions between the vowels, it gives only partial indication of relative vowel quantity. The reason for this is that ... vowel quantity was not phonemic. The vocalization system was concerned primarily with the phonemic quality oppositions. The few indications of allophonic distinctions of both quality and quantity were made by the Masoretes out of their desire to preserve correctly the phonetic details of the reading tradition."

/TH/⁺ In order to include the full range of word-level information provided by MT this includes:

· the phonemic transcription of TH (/TH/);

· the occasionally phonemic placement of primary word stress;

· the non-phonemic placement of secondary word stress; and,

· the largely partly or largely allophonic -

· vocal šwa and ḥaṭaf/ḥatep vowels[56]

· spirantization of the bgdkpt consonants (dageš qal (Hebrew) or dagesh lene (Latin) - b/b, g/g, d/d, k/k, p/p, t/t.

[TH]^{^[57]} Phonetic transcription of reconstructed TH assuming that vowels that the were as in the table Tiberian Vowel System.

c) Other Written Traditions of Reading Biblical Hebrew[58]

BH_Qum - Biblical Hebrew as reflected in the orthography of biblical Dead Sea Scrolls (2nd c. BCE-1st c. CE)[59].

BH_Pal - Biblical Hebrew pointed with Palestinian Vocalization (from c. 7th c. CE)[60].

BH_Bab - Biblical Hebrew pointed with Babylonian Vocalization (from late c. 9th c. CE)[61].

BH_G_k-Lat - Biblical Hebrew as reflected in Greek[62] and Latin[63] transcriptions (mainly 3rd c. BCE-4th c. CE)[64].

BH_Sam-nik - Biblical Hebrew pointed with Samaritan Vocalization (from c. 10th c. CE).

d) Modern Pronunciation Traditions Used in Reading BH

1. BH_SAM[65]- Modern Samaritan traditional pronunciation used in reading the (unpointed) Samaritan Pentateuch. There are four vowel lengths maintained in the Samaritan tradition of Torah reading but vowel length is not phonological[66].

2. BH_IH = [BH_IH] = [IH] - The reading of the MT using Israeli Hebrew pronunciation. Stress mainly follows TH accents and the phonemic structure is set by the TH graphemes. Influence of European Languages. No long consonants or vowels, no emphatic consonants, no gutturals except occasional [h]. For the sound system of Israeli Hebrew see Glinert p. 9 see also Berman.

3. BH_AH = [BH_AH] - The reading of the MT using traditional Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation. Stress penultimate and the phonemic structure is set by the TH graphemes thus any variations in vowel length are non-phonological. Influence of European Languages. No long consonants or vowels, no emphatic consonants, no gutturals except [h].

4. BH_MIZ= [BH_MIZ] - The reading of the MT using traditional Mizrahi (Arabic speaking excluding Yementie) Hebrew pronunciation. Stress mainly follows TH accents and the phonemic structure is set by the TH graphemes thus any variations in vowel length are non-phonological. Somewhat variable due to the influence of different Arabic dialects. Pronunciation includes long consonants and vowels, emphatic consonants, gutturals.

5. BH_SEP = [BH_SEP] - The reading of the MT using traditional Sephardi Hebrew pronunciation. maintained in the Ladino speaking communities. Stress mainly follows TH accents and the phonemic structure is set by the TH graphemes thus any variations in vowel length are non-phonological. Influence of European Languages. No long consonants or vowels, no emphatic consonants, no gutturals except occasional [h].

6. BH_YEM[67]= [BH_YEM] - The reading of the MT using the traditional Yemeni Hebrew pronunciations for scriptural reading and recitation. Stress mainly follows TH accents and the phonemic structure is set by the TH graphemes thus variations in vowel length are non-phonological (There are four vowel lengths maintained in the Yemenite tradition of reading the MT. [68]) Somewhat variable due to the influence of different Yemeni Arabic dialects.

7. TH_CST=/TH_CST/Conventional Scholarly Transcription of TH. Stress mainly follows TH accents and the phonemic structure, including stress, is set by the TH graphemes. The most widely used standard for TH_CSTis TH_SBL - Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) Academic Translation Style[69]_.

[TH_{CSP IS-ENG}] - This represents the way English-speaking scholars, familiar with the pronunciation of IH, tend to pronounce TH. Frequently, in writing scholars use TH_CST for transcription, they ignore the transcription substituting BH_IH in oral pronunciation modified, in some cases, where English speaking habits are closer to *[TH] than to [IH]/BH_IH. Some examples[70] -

(a) Ṣērê in [TH_{CSP IS-ENG}] is usually pronounced with its historic Tiberian pronunciation ẹ (IPA [e]) not as in IH [ɛ] - cf. the English contrast bet:bait;

(b) ר in [TH_{CSP IS-ENG}] is usually actualized as [ɾ] as in English and *[TH] not as in BH_IH/IH [ʁ̞];

(c) consonantal ה in BH_IH/IH is usually silent or a glottal stop while in [TH_CSP
IS-ENG] English speakers tend to realize it, in positions in which consonantal [h] appears in English, as the original [h] - cf. the English contrast hat:at. Some examples -

- "the door" הַדֶּלֶת

/TH/ /had.ˈdɛ.lɛt/ [TH] *[hɐd.ˈdɛː.lɛθ]

BH_IH/IH [ɐ.ˈdɛ.lɛt]

TH_CSP
IS-ENG [hɐ.ˈdɛ.lɛt]

- BUT, English not being comfortable with a consonantal [h] following a vowel at the end of a syllable הַ֥לְלוּ יָ֨הּ

/TH/ /hal.lu.ˈyåh/ [TH] *[hɐl.luː.ˈyɔːh]

BH_IH/IH [ɐ.lə.lu.ˈyɐ]

TH_CSP
IS-ENG [hɐ.lə.lu.ˈyɐ]

- Perhaps the most important example of English pronunciation rules distorting a key word is יהוה EBHP *yahˈwê TH_{CSP IS-ENG} [yaˈwẹ]

(d) in IH yod quiesces when followed by a ḥîreq at the beginning of words thus יִשְׂרָאֵל is [yɪsrɐˈẹl] in [TH_{CSP IS-ENG}] but [ɪsʁɐˈɛl] in BH_IH/IH. Similarly, יִבְחַר is
[yɪvˈxɐr] in TH_{CSP IS-ENG} but [ɪvˈxɐr] in BH_IH/IH.

It must be stressed, that this practice, of modeling pronunciation on [IH], completely obscures important Ancient Hebrew distinctions - vowel and consonantal length, emphatic vs. unemphatic consonants, the range of gutturals. This is in addition to changes between EBHP and TH (see The Pronunciation of Hebrew Changed Substantially Between EBHP and the Time of the 8^th-11^th CE Masoretes Who Vocalized the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible).

1. BHSAM[65] - Modern Samaritan traditional pronunciation used in reading the (unpointed) Samaritan Pentateuch. There are four vowel lengths maintained in the Samaritan tradition of Torah reading but vowel length is not phonological[66].

1. BH_SAM[65]- Modern Samaritan traditional pronunciation used in reading the (unpointed) Samaritan Pentateuch. There are four vowel lengths maintained in the Samaritan tradition of Torah reading but vowel length is not phonological[66].