What does a 'vanishing yod' have to do with the presence of an aleph? I don't see why the occasional loss of a Y leads you to assume the aleph must therefore be a vowel. And why would Hebrew represent any vowel by (Y? Is there any evidence at all that Biblical Hebrew ever represented vowels with digraphs?
Kevin Riley On 10/05/2011 10:34 AM, [email protected] wrote: > > Kevin Riley: > You wrote:“You might notice, just in passing, that all the Semitic > languages except Akkadian start words with a consonant.Therefore only > Akkadian has an initial A.Does that not suggest, especially when you > take into account everything known about Akkadian, that perhaps there > was no initial 'true vowel A', but in fact an ) ?” > That seems to make sense, but if you are right about that, then how do > you explain the “vanishing yod” phenomenon?I had tentatively thought > that perhaps a true vowel A could be represented in Hebrew > alternatively by )Y or just ).But if you’re saying that the aleph we > see in these words is a true consonantal aleph, then how do you > explain the fact that most of these words, although their full form > begins )YL, can alternatively be spelled in shortened form beginning > with )L?That’s what I’m struggling with.HALOT gives at least 7 > examples of that widespread phenomenon regarding these words: > (1)p. 48:“I )L > I )YL ram, tyrant” > (2)p. 48:“II )L > II )YL big tree” > (3)p. 48:“III )L > III )YL pillar” > (4)p. 51:)LH is a “unitary noun from II )YL” > (5)p. 54:Regarding )LWN at Judges 4: 11, “MSS )YLWN”.That is to say, > many manuscripts have an interior yod, though the Masoretic text does not. > (6)p. 40:The words for both “ram” and “deer” (or “stag”) in Hebrew are > )YL.But the Ugaritic cognate for “ram” is il, with no yod whatsoever, > whereas the Ugaritic cognate for “deer” is ’yl, with a yod, and in > Syriac “deer” is ’iyyala, with a consonantal yod. > (7)p. 41:)WLM vs. )LM vs. )LM:“orthography varies”. > Why does that interior yod seem to be optional in so many of these > cases?My main problem is not so much with the initial aleph, but > rather is how to explain the “vanishing yod” in so many of these words. > Jim Stinehart > Evanston, Illinois > _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
