You are asking one of the most perplexing questions of Jewish history. But this is what I think:
1. At first there was a dagshan, possibly even during the first temple period. He was a man of considerable authority, to the extent that he had the authority, or, at least, found the audacity, to alter the shape of the Hebrew letter by placing a dot in its interior (interior!). The purpose of this dot was to serve as a mnemonic ––– as a hint, in the absence of any niqud (imagine this: no niqud!), as to the proper reading of the sacred books. The dot was placed in the letter following a present day patax, xiriq or qubuc. This dot is mostly absent in the "gutturals" (not entirely clear to me why. Removed later?) and also in an "unmoved" (namely, punctuated by a present day schwa) letter. In the latter case the dagesh was moved ahead to the next letter. This shifted dagesh is called now "QAL". At first, it used to appear in every letter, as does the dagesh "XAZAQ", but was left later only in the BGDKPTs. Obviously, the dagesh is superfluous in plene writing. The dagesh in the opening letters is a remnant of a dot placed there to separate one word from another. There is, of course, no manuscripts extant without niqud but with dgeshim. 2. Nothing is known about the Tiberias nakdanim, but I tend to agree with the thinking that they were Karaites who "made ALIYAH" following the Anan schism in the middle of the 8th century. They may have brought the niqud system with them from Babylonia or Persia, and brought it to fruition in Teberias. Being Karaites, they did not need any rabbinical permission, and fearlessly did what they thought is right. It took about 200 years for this niqud to be eventually universally accepted by all other streams of Judaism, with some thinking it was made in heaven. 3. Once the niqud was accepted, the "Masorates' (Qaraites, at first?) stepped in to carefully preserve it, as well as the text itself. Isaac Fried, Boston University On Jun 24, 2011, at 11:48 AM, Nir cohen - Prof. Mat. wrote: > isaac, > > can you inform me the identity of the naqdanim, dagshanim and what YOU > call masoretes? and perhaps a few sources which back up your story? > > nir > > > _______________________________________________ > b-hebrew mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
