Ver. 17.0

June 22, 2010

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Words Significantly Different in Pronunciation in EBHP[1]

By David Steinberg

David.Steinberg@houseofdavid.ca

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

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See also http://www.houseofdavid.ca/problem5.pdf

1. Nouns (including adjectives) Based on Two Consonants

2. Nouns (including adjectives) Based on Three Consonants Masc. Sing Having One Vowel in EBHP

3. Nouns (including adjectives) Based on Three Consonants Two Short Vowels in EBHP

4. Nouns (including adjectives) Based on Three Consonants Short First Long Second Vowel

5. Nouns (including adjectives) Based on Three Consonants Long First Short Second Vowel

6. Nouns (including adjectives) Based on Three Consonants Two Long Vowels

7. Nouns (including adjectives) based on Three Consonants the Second of which is Geminated having (in masc. sing.)Two Short Vowels

8. Prepositions, Negatives, Adverbs, etc.

Nb.

1. N.b. Vowel Qualities of Reconstructed [EBHP]

2. When multiple forms are possible, the form used in [EBHP] transliterations and sound files is underlined.

The Case System of Proto-Hebrew

As illustrated elsewhere, PH originally had a system of case endings similar to that of Classical Arabic[2]. As in Classical Arabic, attached pronominal suffixes, if any, followed the case endings. For the noun forms in the singular, feminine singular this consisted of a system of three cases[3] (nominative - suffix u (constr. u > Ø during PH period); accusative - suffix a (constr. a > Ø during PH period); genitive - suffix i (constr. i > Ø during PH period)). Nouns in the dual, masculine plural and feminine plural all had two cases[4] -

dual - nominative - suffix áːmi (constr. and before pronominal suffix aː); oblique (= accusative plus genitive) - suffix áymi (constr. and before pronominal suffix ay);

masculine plural - nominative - suffix úːma (constr. and before pronominal suffix uː ); oblique - suffix íːma (constr. and before pronominal suffix iː ); and,

feminine plural - nominative - suffix óːtu (constr. and before pronominal suffix oːt ); oblique - suffix óːti (constr. and before pronominal suffix oːt ).[5]

At some time, presumably related to the drastic reduction in the use of the dual and the decline of the case system in late BHA phase 2, the oblique ending (íːma > íːm ) became the single suffix for mp. absolute nouns and the dual oblique construct (ay ) became the single suffix for mp. construct nouns.

For this reason, in the following table, I will use the general approach in PH reconstructions of showing, where possible, the PH vocalization that developed into the BH form. Thus, for PH reconstructions I will -

§ illustrate noun forms in masculine singular, feminine singular, and feminine plural in the nominative case;

§ illustrate masculine plural and dual construct noun forms in the oblique case; and,

§ illustrate masculine plural absolute noun forms in the oblique case.

1. Nouns (including adjectives) based on Two Consonants

(forms with long (doubled) second consonant follow this link)

Forms	Reconstructed Development to PH (up to c. 1000 BCE)	EBHP */EBHP/^+ *[EBHP]^[6] (c. 850-550 BCE)	TH *[TH] (c. 850 BCE)	Meaning/Comments
qaˈlaː fs. of ˈqaːl	/ʾaˈmatu/	/ʾaˈmâ/ [ʔɐˈmɐː]	אָˈמָה [ʔɔːˈmɔː]	female servant, slave-wife
	/śaˈpatu/	/śaˈpâ/ [ɬɐːˈpɐː]	שָֺˈפָה [sɔːˈfɔː]	lip, language
	/šaˈnatu/	/šaˈnâ/ [ʃɐˈnɐː]	ֺשָˈנָה [ʃɔːˈnɔː]	year
qil (Tiberian קֵל)[7]	/ˈʾilu/	/ˈʾeːl/ [ˈʔẹːl]	ˈאֵל [ˈʔẹːl]	god - abs. form
	/ˌʾil/	/ʾil/ [ˌʔɪl]or [ˌʔɛl]	ˌאֶל [ˌʔɛl]	god of- cstr. form.
	/ˈbinu/	/ˈbeːn/ [ˈbẹːn]	ˈבֵּן [ˈbẹːn]	son - abs. form.
	/ˌbin/	/ˌbin/ [ˌbɪn]or [ˌbɛn]	ˌבֶּן־ ˌבִּן־ [bin], [bɛn]	son of- cstr. form.
	/ˈbintu/ > /ˈbittu/	/ˈbatt/ [ˈbɐtt]	ˈבַּת[8] [ˈbɐːθ]	daughter
	/ˈl