2019/08/30 by Benjamin D. Suchard · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Biblical Studies and Interpretation #Linguistics and language evolution #Historical and Linguistic Studies #Hebrew #Semitic languages #Biblical Hebrew #Diphthong #Linguistics #Pronunciation #History #Philosophy #Vowel #Literature #Hebrew Bible #Art #Biblical studies #Arabic
paper · doi:10.1163/9789004390263
openalex publication_date 2019/08/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06
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.