Fred: On Thu, Nov 4, 2010 at 8:22 PM, fred burlingame <[email protected]>wrote:
> Hello Karl: > > It occurs to me that Kevin perhaps observed above, that the masoretic text > nikkud points, simply represent the manner in which the masoretes chanted > the text in liturgical settings. If this is so, how do we know how > any biblical hebrew is vocalized? > > We don’t know, and that is one of the continuing disagreements between me and Randall. When even the meanings as indicated by some of the points are wrong, even according to their own system, then how can that be an accurate transcription of Biblical pronunciation? Pere Porta has indicated that he has found 8000 different grammatical patterns in Masoretic Hebrew. I have heard from several sources that the average working man has a working vocabulary of 2500–3000 unique terms. No way is the language that complex! If Pere is correct, and I don’t doubt him, then that indicates to me that the Masoretes didn’t have a unified grammatical system, rather they pointed more or less ad hoc to fit their chanting tradition. > > regards, > > fred burlingame > > Karl W. Randolph. _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
