Biblical Hebrew

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Biblical Hebrew, Classical Hebrew

, , )( , Spoken in Total speakers Kingdom of Israel Global (as a liturgical language for Judaism) Extinct as a regularly spoken language by the 4th century CE, but survived as a liturgical and literary language Afro-Asiatic
o

Semitic Central Semitic Northwest Semitic Canaanite Bibli

Language family

cal Hebrew, Classical Hebrew Proto-Canaanite / Phoenician alphabet Writing system Paleo-Hebrew alphabet Hebrew alphabet Samaritan alphabet Language codes ISO 639-3 hbo
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Biblical Hebrew, also called Classical Hebrew, is the archaic form of the Hebrew language, spoken by the Hebrews/Israelites. The most notable text in Biblical Hebrew is the Hebrew Bible; in addition, various Israelite inscriptions have also been found. The language is attested from the 10th century BCE to the late Second Temple period, after which the language developed into Mishnaic Hebrew. Most Biblical Hebrew texts were mainly consonantal; the language's vowels are attested by transcriptions into other scripts and from later Medieval vocalization traditions (most notably the Tiberian vocalization). Biblical Hebrew is a VSO language with a tenseaspect-mood system, which is still not precisely understood.

Contents
[hide]

1 Nomenclature 2 History 3 Classification 4 Eras 5 Dialects 6 Orthography 7 Phonology o 7.1 Consonants o 7.2 Vowels o 7.3 Stress 8 Grammar o 8.1 Morphology o 8.2 Syntax 9 Sample text 10 See also 11 Notes 12 References 13 Bibliography 14 External links

[edit] Nomenclature
Apiru (prw)[1] in hieroglyphs

The earliest written sources refer to Biblical Hebrew by the name of the land in which it was spoken: ' the language of Canaan' (see Is 19:18).[2] The Hebrew Bible also shows that the language was called ' Judaean, Judahite' (see, for example, 2 Kgs 18:26,28).[2] In the Hellenistic period Greek writings use the names Hebraios, Hebrasti (Josephus, Antiquities I, 1:2, etc.), and in Mishnaic Hebrew we find ' Hebrew' and ' Hebrew language' (Mishnah Gittin 9:8, etc.).[2] The origin of this term is obscure; it may relate to the Biblical Eber, the Ethnonym abiru or apiru found in sources from Egypt and the near east, or less likely a derivation from the root ' to pass' alluding to crossing over the Jordan river.[2] Jews also began referring to Hebrew as ' the holy tongue' in the Rabbinic era.[2] The term Classical Hebrew may include all pre-medieval dialects of Hebrew, including Mishnaic Hebrew (Roman Era Hebrew). The term Biblical Hebrew refers to pre-Mishnaic dialects (sometimes excluding Dead Sea Scroll Hebrew). The term 'Biblical Hebrew' may or may

not include extra-Biblical texts, such as inscriptions (e.g. the Siloam inscription), and generally also includes later vocalization traditions for the Hebrew Bible's consonantal text, most commonly the early-Medieval Tiberian vocalization.

[edit] History
History of the Hebrew language

Biblical Hebrew Mishnaic Hebrew Medieval Hebrew Hebrew Language Revival Modern Israeli Hebrew

Hebrew developed during the latter half of the second millennium BCE between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, an area known as Canaan.[2] The Israelite tribes established a kingdom in Canaan at the beginning of the first millennium BCE, which later split into the kingdom of Israel in the north and the kingdom of Judah in the south after a dispute of succession.[3] The earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, written in the Proto-Canaanite alphabet and dated to the 10th century BCE, was found at Khirbet Qeiyafa in July 2008 by Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel.[4][5] The earliest previously known Hebrew inscriptions are found in the Phoenician script, including the Gezer calender from around the 10th century BCE.[6][7] The oldest inscriptions in Paleo-Hebrew script are dated to around the middle of the 9th century BCE, the most famous being the Mesha Stele in the Moabite language (which might be considered a dialect of Hebrew).[8][9] Hebrew inscriptions from the 9th century were found in Kuntillet Ajrud, Tel Hazor, and Tel Arad, and Lachish.[8] The number of findings increases starting in the 8th century BCE, including the famous Samaria ostraca and Siloam inscription.[8]

Siloam Inscription, taken at Istanbul Archaeological Museum

The kingdom of Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians in 722 BCE.[3] A great number of ostraca and letters from the 7th and early 6th centuries were found in Arad, and the Lachish letters date from the early 6th century BCE.[8] Two silver rolls from the 7th or 6th century BCE, the Ketef Hinnom scrolls, show a version of the priestly blessing.[8][10] The only papyrus document from the First Temple period that has survived was found in the Wadi Murabba'at, and is dated to the 7th century BCE.[8] However, fiber impressions on the back of many bullae of that period show that papyrus was in common use in that region.[8] Presumably papyrus was common in the pre-exilic period, while during the Babylonian exile, leather scrolls were used, given that papyrus does not grow there.[11] The kingdom of Judah was conquered by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, its people exiled and the first Temple destroyed.[3] Later the Persians made Judah a province and permitted Jewish exiles to return and rebuild the Temple.[3] In the Hellenistic period Judea became independent under the Hasmoneans, but later the Romans ended their independence, making Herod their governor.[3] The oldest documents that have been found in the Square Script are fragments of the scrolls of Exodus, Samuel, and Jeremiah found among the Dead Sea scrolls, dating from the late 3rd and early 2nd centuries BCE.[12] Before these were discovered the earliest known such find was the Nash Papyrus containing the Ten Commandments and part of the Shema, dating to around the middle of the 2nd century BCE.[12] Other finds in the Square Script from the late Second Temple period include the Benei Hezir inscription from the 1st century BCE, the Uzzia epitaph, Queen Helena's inscriptions, and a few monumental inscriptions including the 'House of Trumpeting' inscription.[13] Spoken Hebrew after the Second Temple period developed into Mishnaic Hebrew.
[13]

One Jewish revolt against the Romans lead to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, and the second Bar-Kochba revolt in 132-135 CE lead to the departure of the Jewish population of Judea.[3] Other than several sections and isolated loanwords in Aramaic, the Hebrew Bible is entirely written in Biblical Hebrew. Vowel and cantillation marks were added to the older consonantal layer of the Bible between 600 CE and the beginning of the tenth century.[14][nb 1] The scholars who preserved the pronunciation of the Bibles were known as the Masoretes. The most wellpreserved system that developed, and the only still used is the Tiberian vocalization, but both Babylonian and Palestinian vocalizations are also attested.[14] The Palestinian system was preserved mainly in piyyutim, which contain biblical quotations.[14] The Biblical Hebrew language evolved into Roman Era Hebrew, or Mishnaic Hebrew, which was influenced by Greek, Persian and Aramaic, which was the Lingua franca of the area at the time. Mishnaic Hebrew was spoken until the 4th century CE. Hebrew continued to be used as a literary and liturgical language in the form of Medieval Hebrew, and Hebrew began a revival process in the 19th century, culminating in Modern Hebrew becoming the official language of the State of Israel. Currently, Classical Hebrew is generally taught in public schools in Israel, and

Biblical Hebrew forms are sometimes used in Modern Hebrew literature, much as archaic and Biblical constructions are used in Modern English literature. Since Modern Hebrew contains many Biblical elements, Biblical Hebrew is fairly intelligible to Modern Hebrew speakers, even though Modern Hebrew would have been unintelligible to Biblical Hebrew speakers.[15]

[edit] Classification
Reflexes of Proto-Semitic consonants in Hebrew[16][17] Examples Proto-Semitic Hebrew Hebrew Aramaic meaning *// 'gold' */z/1 1 ' scale' */z/ *// 'year' *//1 1 *// 'repeat' ' shadow' *// *// */s/1 'land' 1 */s/ 'shout'
1.
possibly affricated

Biblical Hebrew is a Northwest Semitic language of the Canaanite subgroup.[18][19] As a Northwest Semitic language, Hebrew shows the shift of initial */w/ to /j/, a similar independent pronoun system to the other Northwest Semitic languages (with third person pronouns never containing //), some archaic forms, such as /nanu/ 'we', first person singular pronominal suffix -i or -ya, and /n/ commonly preceding pronominal suffixes.[20] Case endings are found in Northwest Semitic languages in the second millennium BCE, but disappear almost totally afterwards.[20] Mimation is absent in singular nouns, but is often retained in the plural.[20] The subjunctive and energetic verb forms yaqtula and yaqtulan(na)/yaqtul are attested in nearly the whole Northwest Semitic area.[20] The Northwest Semitic languages formed a dialect continuum in the Iron Age (1200-540 BCE), with Phoenician and Aramaic on each extreme.[20][21] Hebrew is classed with Phoenician in the Caananite subgroup, which also includes Ammonite, Edomite, and Moabite.[20] Moabite might be considered a Hebrew dialect, though it possessed distinctive Aramaic features.[9][21] Although Ugaritic shows a large degree of affinity to Hebrew in poetic structure, vocabulary, and some grammar, it lacks some Canaanite features (like the Canaanite shift and the shift *// > /z/), and its similarities are more likely a result of either contact or preserved archaism.[22] Hebrew underwent the Canaanite vowel shift, where Proto-Semitic /a/ tended to shift to /o/, perhaps when stressed.[20][23] Hebrew also shares with the Canaanite languages the shifts *// > /z/, *// and *// > /s/, widespread reduction of dipthongs, loss of intervocalic /h/, and assimilation of non-final /n/ to the following consonant.[20] Lexical isoglosses include: ' roof' ' table' ' window' ' old (thing)' ' old (person)' ' expel'.[20] Morphological isoglosses include the masculine plural marker - ,first person singular pronoun ,

interrogative pronoun ,definite article ( -appearing in the first millennium BCE), and third person plural feminine verbal marker 20].-] As Biblical Hebrew (BH) evolved from Proto-Semitic (PS) it underwent a number of consonantal mergers, parallel with those in other Canaanite languages.[16][20][24][nb 2] There is no evidence that these mergers occurred after the adaptation of the Hebrew alphabet.[25][nb 3]

[edit] Eras
Biblical Hebrew as preserved in the Hebrew Bible is composed of two linguistic layersthe consonantal skeleton, and a vocalic system which only began being written down much later. Biblical Hebrew may be subdivided by era. The oldest form of Biblical Hebrew, Archaic Hebrew, is found in poetic sections of the Bible and inscriptions dating to around the 1000 BCE. [26][27] Later pre-exilic Biblical Hebrew (such as is found in prose sections of the Pentateuch, Prophets, and some Writings is known as 'Biblical Hebrew proper' or 'Standard Biblical Hebrew'. [26][27] Biblical Hebrew from after the Babylonian exile in 587 BCE is known as 'Late Biblical Hebrew'.[26][27] Qumran Hebrew, attested in the Dead Sea Scrolls from ca. 200 BCE to 70 CE, is a continuation of Late Biblical Hebrew.[27] Archaic Biblical Hebrew, also known as Old Hebrew or Paleo-Hebrew, is the oldest stratum of Biblical Hebrew, corresponding to the spoken language of roughly the 10th to 9th centuries BC, or the early Monarchic Period. It is distinguished from Standard Biblical Hebrew that is used in most of the Hebrew Bible (8th to 6th century BCE), and from Late Biblical Hebrew (5th to 2nd century BCE). The oldest known artifacts of Archaic Biblical Hebrew are various biblical accounts from the Hebrew Bible Tanakh, including the Song of Moses (Exodus 15) and the Song of Deborah (Judges 5). Biblical poetry uses a number of distinct lexical items, for example for prose ' see', for ' great'.[28] Some have cognates in other Northwest Semitic languages, for example ' do' and ' gold' which are common in Canaanite and Ugaritic.
[29]

Late Biblical Hebrew shows Aramaic influence in phonology, morphology, and lexicon, and this trend is also evident in the later-developed Tiberian vocalization system.[30] For example, see the use of the conditional particle replacing .Another difference between the two is the use of the relative pronoun ( introducing a Restrictive clause, 'that') in the earlier period, being replaced with the clitic - in the later, both being used in Mishnaic and Modern Hebrew.

[edit] Dialects
Dialect variation in Biblical Hebrew is attested to by the well-known shibboleth incident of Judges 12:6, where Jephthah's forces from Gilead caught Ephraimites trying to cross the Jordan river by making them say '( ear of corn')[31] The Ephraimites' identity was given away by 31] their pronunciation: . ]The apparent conclusion is that the Ephraimite dialect had /s/ for standard //.[31] As an alternative explanation, it has been suggested that the proto-Semitic phoneme *//, which shifted to // in most dialects of Hebrew, may have been retained in the

Hebrew of the trans-Jordan.[32][nb 4] However, there is evidence that the word had initial [31] consonant *// in proto-Semitic, contradicting this theory. The Northern dialect shows more frequent monopthongization of /aj/ into /e/ as attested by the Samaria ostraca (8th century BCE), e.g. / =( jen/ < */jajn/ 'wine'), while the Southern dialect instead shows an anaptyctic vowel, added halfway through the first millenium BCE (/ = jajin/).[20][nb 5][33] The word play in Amos 8:1-2 ... may reflect this: given that Amos was addressing the population of the Northern Kingdom, the vocalization * would be more forceful.[33] Other possible Northern features include use of ' -who, that', forms like ] 'to know' rather than and infinitives of II-y verbs of the form ' to do' rather than . 34] The Samaria ostraca also show for standard ' year', as in Aramaic.[34] The guttural phonemes / h / merged over time in some dialects. This was found in Dead Sea Scroll Hebrew, but Jerome attested to the existence of contemporaneous Hebrew speakers who still distinguished pharyngeals. Samaritan Hebrew also shows a general attrition of these phonemes, though // is occasionally preserved. Loss of these sounds was also a regionalism in later Mishnaic Hebrew and Aramaic. The existence of an Israelian Hebrew dialect has been proposed to account for Aramaisms in preexilic Biblical texts.

[edit] Orthography
Phonetic Phonetic Greek value Name Paleo-Hebrew Block Samaritan value (LXX, (Pre-Exilic)[35][36] (Tiberian) Secunda)[37] (IPA) Aleph Beth Gimel Daleth He Waw Zayin

[], [b] [] [d] [h], [w], [z] , 2, 2

Heth Teth Yodh

Kaph

Lamedh

Mem

Nun Samekh Ayin

Pe

Sadhe

Qoph Resh Shin Taw

1. 2. 3.

, , , , ,

[]1, [][38][39] [t][38][39] [j],

[k]

3, 3

[l]

[m]

[n] [s] [], [][38][39] 1,

[p]

3, 3

[s][38][39]

[q] or [k][38][39] [r] [], [][38][39] [t] 3, 3

may be accompanied by vowel mutation[40] originally written with <> like the other sibilants, but later was written with <>.[41] /k p t/ are consistently written in the Secunda by < >, but the Septuagint also uses < >.[42]

The earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, dated to the 10th century BCE, was found at Khirbet Qeiyafa in July 2008 by Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel.[4][43][44][45] The 15 cm x 16.5 cm trapezoid pottery sherd (ostracon) has five lines of text written in ink written in the ProtoCanaanite alphabet (the old form of the Phoenician alphabet).[4][5] That the language of the tablet is Hebrew is suggested by the presence of the words " to do" " servant".[nb 6][4][46][47] The tablet is written from left to right, indicating that Hebrew writing was still in the formative stage.
[5]

The Israelite tribes who settled in the land of Israel adopted the Phoenician script script around the 12th century BCE, which developed into the Paleo-Hebrew script in the tenth or ninth centuries BCE.[48][49][50] The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet's main differences from from the Phoenician script were "a curving to the left of the dowstrokes in the 'long-legged' letter-signs... the consistent use of a Waw with a concave top[, and a] x-shaped Taw."[48][nb 7] The ancient Hebrew script was in continuous use until the early 6th century BCE, the end of the First Temple period.
[51]

In the Second Temple Period the Paleo-Hebrew script gradually fell into disuse.[52] The epigraphic material in the ancient Hebrew script is poor in the Second Temple Period.[8] Pentateuch fragments in the ancient Hebrew script dating to the 3rd or 2nd century BCE were found in Qumran, Hasmonaean coins and coins from the Bar Kokhba revolt (132-135 BCE), and ostraca from Masada before its fall in 74 CE are among the youngest finds in the ancient script, as well as the use of divine names in texts otherwise in other scripts.[8] It seems that the PaleoHebrew script was completely abandoned among the Jews after the failed Bar Kochba revolt.[49] [52] The Samaritans retained the ancient Hebrew alphabet, which evolved into the modern Samaritan alphabet.[49][52] In fact, the adoption of the script by the Samaritans may have influenced the Rabbis' negative view of the script and lead to its final rejection.[11][49][nb 8] The only papyrus document from the First Temple period that has survived was found in the Wadi Murabba'at, and is dated to the 7th century BCE.[8] However, fiber impressions on the back of many bullae of that period show that papyrus was in common use in that region.[8] Presumably papyrus was common in the pre-exilic period, while in the Babylonian exile hide scrolls were used, given that papyrus does not grow there.[11] By the end of the First Temple period the Aramaic script, a separate descendant of the Phoenician script, became widespread throughout the region, gradually displacing PaleoHebrew.[52] The Jews who were exiled to Babylon became familiar with Aramaic out of necessity, while the Jews remaining in Judea seem to have mostly lost the writing tradition.[11] According to tradition, the Aramaic script became established with the return of Ezra from exile around the 4th century BCE.[11][49] The modern Hebrew alphabet, also known as the Assyrian or Square script, is a descendant of the Aramaic alphabet.[52] It seems that the earlier biblical books were originally written in the Paleo-Hebrew script, while the later books were written directly in the later Assyrian script.[49] Some Qumran texts written in the Assyrian script write the tetragrammaton and some other divine names in Paleo-Hebrew, and this practice is also found in several Jewish-Greek Biblical translations.[49][53]

While spoken Hebrew continued to evolve into Mishnaic Hebrew, the scribal tradition for writing the Torah gradually developed.[54] A number of regional "book-hand" styles developed for the purpose of Torah manuscripts and occasionally other literary works, distinct from the calligraphic styles used mainly for private purposes.[54] The Sephardi and Ashkenazi book-hand styles were later adapted to printed fonts after the invention of the printing press.[54] The Phoenician script had dropped five characters by the twelfth century BCE, reflecting the language's twenty-two consonantal phonemes.[50] As a result, the 22 letters of the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet numbered less than the consonant phonemes of ancient Biblical Hebrew; in particular, the letters < >, , could each mark two different phonemes.[55] After a sound shift the letters , became uniphonic, but (except in Samaritan Hebrew) remained multiphonic. The old Babylonian vocalization wrote a superscript above the to indicate it took the value /s/, while the Masoretes added the shin dot to distinguish between the two varieties of the letter.[56][57] The Aramaic script began developing special final forms for certain letters in the 5th century BCE, though this was not always a consistent rule (as reflected in the Qumran practice).[58][59] The original Hebrew alphabet consisted only of consonants, but gradually the letters ,, , , also became used to indicate vowels, known as matres lectionis when used in this function.[50][60] It is thought that this was a product of phonetic development: for instance, *bayt 'house' shifted to in construct state but retained its spelling.[61] While no examples of early Hebrew orthography have been found, older Phoenician and Moabite texts show how First Temple period Hebrew would have been written.[60] Phoenician inscriptions from the tenth century BCE do not indicate matres lectiones in the middle or the end of a word: ,) ) = (, )= similarly to the Hebrew Gezer Calendar: 60].(? ] )= (, )= Matres lectionis were later added word-finally, for instance the Mesha inscription has =) )= (, ;)however at this stage they were not yet used word-medially, compare Siloam inscription versus 60].( ] )= The relative terms defective and full/plene are used to refer to alternative spellings of a word with less or more matres lectionis, respectively.[60][nb 9] The Hebrew Bible was presumably originally written in a more defective orthography than found in any of the texts known today.[60] Of the extant textual witnesses of the Hebrew Bible, the Masoretic text is generally the most conservative in its use of matres lectionis, with the Samaritan Pentateuch and its forebearers being more full and the Qumran tradition showing the most liberal use of vowel letters.[62] The Masoretic text mostly uses vowel letters for long vowels, showing the tendency to mark all long vowels except for word-internal /a/.[61][nb 10] However, there are a number of exceptions, e.g. when the following syllable contains a vowel letters (like in ' voices' rather than )or when a vowel letter already marks a consonant (so 'nations' rather than ,)*and within the Bible there is often little consistency in spelling.[61] In the Qumran tradition, o- and u-type vowels, including short holem ( ,), , qames hatuf ( ,), and hatef qames ( ,)are usually represented by < ><.]36[]46[ >is generally used for both long [i] and sere ( ,), and final [i] is often written as - in analogy to ,, e.g. ,sometimes >.]36[]46[ >is found finally in forms like (Tiberian ( ( , Tiberian ,)while < >may be used for a-quality in final position (e.g. )and in medial position (e.g. 63]( ]Pre-Samaritan and Samaritan texts show full spellings in many categories (e.g. vs. Masoretic in Gen 49:3) but only rarely show full spelling of the Qumran type (but see Gen 24:41b Samaritan vs. Masoretic 65].(]

In general the vowels of Biblical Hebrew were not indicated in the original text, but various sources attest them at various stages of development. Greek and Latin transcriptions of words from the Biblical text provide early evidence of the nature of Biblical Hebrew vowels. In particular, there is evidence from the rendering of proper nouns in the Koine Greek Septuagint (3rd-2nd centuries BCE[66]), and the Greek alphabet transcription of the Hebrew Biblical text contained in the Secunda (3rd century CE, likely a copy of a preexisting text from before 100 BCE[nb 11]). In the 7th and 8th centuries CE various systems of vocalic notation were developed to indicate vowels in the Biblical text.[67] The most prominent, best preserved, and the only system still in use, is the Tiberian vocalization system, created by scholars known as Masoretes around 850 CE.[14][68] There are also various extant manuscripts making use of less common vocalization systems (Babylonian, and Palestinian), known as superlinear vocalizations because their vocalization marks are placed above the letters.[14][68][nb 12][nb 13] In addition, the Samaritan reading tradition is independent of these systems, and was occasionally notated with a separate vocalization system.[68][69][nb 14] These systems often record vowels at different stages of historical development; for example, the name Samson is recorded in Greek as Sampsn with the first vowel as /a/, while Tiberian / imon/ with /i/ shows the effect of the law of [70] attenuation. All of these systems together are used to reconstruct the original vocalization of Biblical Hebrew. The Tiberian vowel-sign wa () was used both to indicate lack of a vowel (quiescent wa) and as another symbol to represent the phoneme //, also represented by ataf pata ().[71][72] Before a laryngeal-pharyngeal, mobile wa was pronounced as a ultrashort copy of the following vowel, e.g. [ uvq], and as [] preceding /j/, e.g. / ammjuni/.[72] By contrast, ataf pata would only used be used when pronounced [].[73] In the Palestinian system these echo vowels were written with full vowel letters, see Yahalom (1997:12,1819).</ref> Pronunciation of wa is attested by alternations in manuscripts like 72].]~, ~ Use of ataf vowels was considered mandatory under gutturals but optional under other letters. In addition to marking vowels, the Tiberian system also uses cantillation marks, which serve to mark word stress, semantic structure, and the musical motifs used in formal recitation of the text.
[74][75]

At an early stage, documents written in the paleo-Hebrew script were divided by short vertical lines and later by dots, as reflected by the Mesha Stone, the Siloam inscription, the Ophel inscription, and paleo-Hebrew script documents from Qumran.[76] Word division was not used in Phoenician inscriptions; however, there is not direct evidence for Biblical texts being written without word division, ass suggested by Nachmanides in his introduction to the Torah.[76] Word division using spaces was commonly used from the beginning of the 7th century BCE for documents in the Aramaic script.[76] While the Tiberian, Babylonian, and Palestinian reading traditions are extinct, various other systems of pronunciation have evolved over time, notably the Yemenite, Sephardi, Ashkenazi, and Samaritan traditions. Modern Hebrew pronunciation is also used by some to read Biblical texts. The modern reading traditions do not stem solely from the Tiberian system; for instance, the Sephardic tradition's distinction between qamatz gadol and qatan is pre-Tiberian.[77] However, the only orthographic system used to mark vowels is the Tiberian vocalization.

[edit] Phonology
The phonology as reconstructed for Biblical Hebrew is as follows:

[edit] Consonants
Consonants lost and gained during the lifetime of Biblical Hebrew are color-coded respectively. Biblical Hebrew consonants[38][39] Dental/ PostVelar/ PharynLabial Palatal Glottal Alveolar alveolar Uvular geal Nasals m n voiceless p t k voiced Stops b d [38][39] emphatic t k/q[38][39] voiceless (f) () s [38][39] (x)[38][39] [38] h [38][39] [38] Fricatives voiced () (v) () z [38] emphatic s Approximants w l j Trill r The phonetic nature of some Biblical Hebrew consonants is disputed. The so called "emphatics" were likely glottalized, but possibly pharyngealized or velarized.[78][79] Some argue that /s, z, s/ were affricated (/ts, dz, ts/).[78] Originally, the Hebrew letters and each had two possible phonemes, uvular and pharyngeal, unmarked in Hebrew orthography. However the uvular phonemes // and // merged with their pharyngeal ones // and // respectively circa 200 BCE. This is observed by noting that these phonemes are distinguished consistently in the Septuagint of the Pentateuch (e.g. Isaac = versus Rachel = ), but this becomes more sporadic in later books and is generally absent in Ezra and Nehemiah.[80][81] The phoneme //, also unmarked by Hebrew orthography, is attested by internal and comparative evidence; in particular it is preserved as a lateral fricative in Modern South Arabian dialects. [82] // began merging with /s/ in Late Biblical Hebrew, as indicated by interchange of orthographic and ,possibly under the influence of Aramaic, and this became the rule in Rabbinic Hebrew.[38][79] In all Jewish reading traditions // and /s/ have merged completely; however in Samaritan Hebrew // has instead merged with //.[38] Allophonic spirantization of /b d k p t/ to [v x f ] (known as begadkefat spirantization) developed sometime during the lifetime of Biblical Hebrew under the influence of Aramaic.[nb 15] This probably happened after the original Old Aramaic phonemes /, / disappeared in the 7th century BC,[83] and most likely occurred after the loss of Hebrew /, / circa 200 BCE.[nb 16] It is known to have occurred in Hebrew by the 2nd century CE.[84] After a certain point this

alternation became marginally phonemic in word-medial and final position, but in word-initial position they remained allophonic.[85] This is evidenced both by the Tiberian vocalization's consistent use of word-initial spirants after a vowel in sandhi, as well as Rabbi Saadia Gaon's attestation to the use of this alternation in Tiberian Aramaic at the beginning of the tenth century CE.[85] The Dead Sea scrolls show evidence of confusion of the phonemes / h /, e.g. mr for Masoretic / mar/ 'he said'.[86] However the testimony of Jerome indicates that this was a regionalism and not universal. Confusion of gutterals was also attested in later Mishnaic Hebrew and Aramaic (see Eruvin 53b). In Samaritan Hebrew, / h / have generally all merged, either into //, a glide, or null, often creating a long vowel, except that original / / sometimes have reflex // before /a /. Geminate consonants are phonemically contrastive in Biblical Hebrew. In the Secunda /w j z/ are never geminate.[87] In the Tiberian tradition / h r/ cannot be geminate; historically first /r / degeminated, followed by //, /h/, and finally //, as evidenced by changes in the quality of the preceding vowel.[88][nb 17]

[edit] Vowels
The vowel system of Biblical Hebrew has changed considerably over time. The following vowels are reconstructed for the earliest stage of Hebrew, attested by the Secunda, various vocalization traditions (Tiberian, Babylonian, and Palestinian), and the Samaritan tradition, with vowels absent in some traditions color-coded. (The Babylonian and Palestinian systems also existed in more Tiberian-influenced versions.) Tiberian, Babylonian, Proto-Hebrew Secunda Hebrew and Palestinian Samaritan Hebrew[94] [91][92][93] Hebrew Front Back Front Back Front Back Front Back Close i i u u Close i u Close i u Close i i u u CloseCloseCloseMid e e (o)1 (e) o e e o o e o mid mid mid Open a a 1 Open a a Open a a Open()2 1 2 Reduced mid Reduced Open a4 3 3 ()3 Reduced 3
[89] [90]

1. possibly
pronounced [], as the orthography alternates <> and <>[95][nb 18]

1. merges with /e/ in

the Palestinian tradition and with /a/ in the Babylonian tradition[96][97][nb 19]
[nb 20]

1. /u/ and /o/ only

contrast in open post-tonic syllables, e.g. / jedu/ 'his hand' / jedo/ 'his hands', where /o/ stems from a contracted

2. merges with /a/ or

/o/ in the Palestinian tradition[97][nb 19][98] 3. The Tiberian tradition has the reduced vowel phonemes / / and marginal //, while Palestinian and Babylonian have one, // (pronounced as [] in (later?) Palestinian Hebrew

dipthong.[99] In other environments, /o/ appears in closed syllables and /u/ in open syllables, e.g. /dor/ / durot/.
[99]

2. results from both /i/

and /e/ in closed post-tonic syllables[100]

4. possibly []?[citation
needed]

Proto-Semitic likely had a vowel system with three qualities and two lengths, i.e. */a a i i u u/, where the long vowels only occurred in open syllables.[101][102] Later, final unstressed short vowels dropped out in some words, making it possible for long vowels to occur in closed syllables. Hebrew shows the Canaanite shift whereby */a/ often shifted to /o/); the conditions of this shift are disputed.[23][nb 21] This shift had occurred by the fourteenth century BCE, as demonstrated by its presence in the Amarna letters (c. 1365 BCE).[103][104] The Proto-Hebrew vowel system is thus reconstructed as */a a o i i u u/ (and possibly rare */e/).[89] The short vowels */a i u/ tended to lengthen in various positions: first in pretonic position in an open syllable, and later in stressed open syllables.[105][nb 22][nb 23]Samaritan // results from the neutralization of the distinction between /i/ and /e/ in closed post-tonic syllables, e.g. /bit/ 'house' /abbt/ ' the house' /ger/ / aggr/ 100].] Various more specific conditioned shifts of vowel quality have also occurred. Dipthongs were frequently monopthongized, but the scope and results of this shift varied dialectually. In particular, the Samaria ostraca show /jen/ < */jajn/ for Southern /jajin/ 'wine', and Samaritan Hebrew shows instead the shift */aj/ > /i/.[20][106] Original */u/ tended to shift to /i/ (e.g. and ' word'; ' outside' and ' outer') beginning in the second half of the second millennium BCE.[107] This was carried through completely in Samaritan Hebrew but met more resistance in other traditions such as the Babylonian and Qumran traditions.[107] Philippi's law is the process by which original */i/ in closed stressed syllables shifts to /a/ (e,g, *bint > / bat/ 'daughter'), or sometimes in the Tiberian tradition // (e.g. /*amint/ > / mt/ 'truth').[108] This is absent in the transcriptions of the Secunda,[109] but there is evidence that the law's onset predates the Secunda. In the Samaritan tradition Philippi's law is applied consistently, e.g. */libu/ > /lab/ 'heart'.[110][nb 24] In some traditions the short vowel /*a/ tended to shift to /i/ in unstressed closed syllables: this is known as attenuation. It is common in the Tiberian tradition, e.g. */abat/ > Tiberian / iv/ 'seven', but exceptions are frequent.[111] It is less common in the Babylonian vocalization, e.g. /ab/ 'seven', and differences in Greek and Latin transcriptions demonstrate that it began quite late.[111] Attenuation generally did not occur before /i~e/, e.g. Tiberian / maftea/ 'key' versus / mifta/ 'opening (construct)',

and often was blocked before a geminate, e.g. ' gift'.[111] Attenuation is rarely present in Samaritan Hebrew, e.g. / maqda/.[112][nb 25] In the Tiberian tradition /e i o u/ take offglide /a/ before /h /.[113][nb 26] This is absent in the Secunda and in Samaritan Hebrew but present in the transcriptions of Jerome.[106][114] In the Tiberian tradition an ultrashort echo vowel is sometimes added to clusters where the first element is a guttural, e.g. / jazin/ 'he will listen' / plo/ 'his work' but ' he will make glorious' / rbo/ 'its breadth'.[115][nb
27][nb 28]

[edit] Stress
Proto-Hebrew generally had penultimate stress.[116] For the purposes of vowel quality shifts, words in the construct state are treated as if the stress fell immediately on the first syllable following the word.[116] The ultimate stress of later traditions of Hebrew usually resulted from the loss of final vowels in many words, preserving the location of proto-Semitic stress.[nb 29] Tiberian Hebrew has phonemic stress, e.g. / bnu/ 'they built' vs. / bnu/ 'in us'.[117] Stress is most commonly ultimate but penultimate stress is also frequent; antipenultimate stress is marginal but exists, e.g. / hohl/ 'into the tent'.[117][nb 30] There does not seem to be evidence for stress in the Secunda varying from that of the Tiberian tradition.[118] Segolate nouns with an epenthetic vowel preserve the original stress on the first syllable, e.g. / m/ 'sun'. Despite sharing the loss of final vowels with Tiberian Hebrew, Samaritan Hebrew has generally not preserved Proto-Semitic stress, and has predominantly penultimate stress. Ultimate stress sometimes results when the last two syllables have coalesced.

[edit] Grammar
[edit] Morphology
Medieval grammarians of Arabic and Hebrew classified words as belonging to three parts of speech: Arabic ism 'name; noun', fil 'act; verb', and arf 'motion; particle'; other grammarians have included more categories.[119][119] Adjectives differ from substantives, but less so than in most European languages.[119] Biblical Hebrew has a typical Semitic morphology, characterized by the use of roots. Most words in Biblical Hebrew are formed from a root, a sequence of consonants with a general associated meaning.[120] Roots are usually triconsonantal, with biconsonantal roots less common (depending on how some words are analyzed) and rare cases of quadri- and quinqiconsonantal roots.[120] Roots are modified by affixation to form words.[120] Verbal patterns are more productive and consistent, while noun patterns are less predictable.[121] The most common nominal prefix used is /m/, used for substantives of location ( 'assembly'), instruments (' key'), and abstractions (' judgement').[122] The vowel after /m/ is normally /a/, but appears sometimes as /i/, or in the case of as /o/ (contracted from

*/aw/).[122] The prefix /t/ is used to denote the action of the verb it is derived from, more common for initial-/w/ verbs, e.g. ' thanksgiving' (< ydy).[122] Prefixed // is used in adjectives, e.g. ' deceptive', and also occurs in nouns with initial sibilants, e.g. ' finger'.[122] In the latter case it appears that this stems from vowel epenthesis, and the prefix is called either 'prothetic' or 'prosthetic'.[122] Prefixed / /occurs perhaps as a mark of forcefulness, e.g. ' to cover' vs. ' to shut oneself off, ' to be sad' vs. ' to grieve', and often occurs in quadriliteral animal names, perhaps as a prefix, e.g. ' bat', ' mouse', ' scorpion'.
[122]

Nouns are marked as definite with the prefix /ha-/ followed by gemination of the initial consonant of the noun; this marker is also found in other Northwest Semitic languages. In proto-Semitic nouns were marked for case: in the singular the markers were */-u/ in the nominative, */-a/ in the accusative (used also for adverbials), and */-i/ in the genitive, as evidenced in Akkadian, Ugaritic, and Arabic.[123] The Amarna letters show that this was probably still present in Hebrew circa 1350 BCE.[124] In the development of Hebrew, final */-u, -i/ were dropped first, and later */-a/ was elided as well.[125] Mimation, a nominal suffix */-m/ of unclear meaning, was found in early Canaanite, as shown by early Egyptian transcriptions (c. 1800 BCE) of Jerusalem as Urualimim, but there is no indication of its presence after 1800 BCE.[125][nb 31] Final */-a/ is preserved in / lajl/, originally meaning 'at night' but in prose replacing / lajil/ 'night', and in the "connective vowels' of some prepositions (originally adverbials), e.g. ' with us'; nouns preserve */-i/ in forms like 126].[] nb 32] Construct state nouns lost case vowels at an early period (similar to Akkadian), as shown by the reflexes of */adaju/ ( in absolute but in construct) and the reflexes of */jadu/ ( and 127]( ]However forms like [128] show that this was not yet a feature of Proto-Hebrew. Biblical Hebrew has two genders: masculine and feminine. Verbs inflect for gender, and feminine nouns tend to be marked, most often with the ending *-/at/ > BH /a/~/at/ (status constructus) in the singular and */at/ > TH /ot/ in the plural. Gender marking is productive on adjectives. Masculine plurals are marked with the ending -/im/ (-/e/ in construct form). Biblical Hebrew does not have broken plurals like in Arabic, although segolates may have originally formed plurals with ablaut. The Proto-Semitic dual number is preserved marginally in the plurals of body parts and other paired objects; however this form is used even when more than two are being referred to.[citation needed] The traditions differ on the form of segolate nouns, nouns stemming from roots with two final consonants. The anaptyctic // of the Tiberian tradition in segolates appears in the Septuagint (3rd century BCE) but not the Hexapla (2nd century CE), e.g. / gr/ = versus /kesl/ = (Ps 49:14).[129] This may reflect dialectual variation or phonetic versus phonemic transcriptions.[129] Both the Palestinian and Babylonian traditions have an anaptyctic vowel in segolates, /e/ in the Palestinian tradition (e.g. /eres/ 'land' = Tiberian Deut. 26:15) and /a/ [130] in Babylonian (e.g. /epas/ 'item' = Tiberian Jer. 22:28). The Qumran tradition sometimes shows some type of back epenthetic vowel when the first vowel is back, e.g. <> for Tiberian </ >ohl/ 'tent'.

Verbs are marked for subject person, number, and gender. Biblical Hebrew also has a system of verb stem derivations expressing meanings such as causativity, intensity, reflexivity and passive voice. The plain, jussive, and cohortative verb prefix-endings were distinguished by short vowels before ca. 1350 BCE;[124] in Biblical Hebrew traces are left. Biblical Hebrew has a set of independent subject pronouns, optional objective pronominal suffixes to the verb, and a set of "bound" pronominal suffixes which are added to prepositions (e.g. ' with me') and to nouns to indicate possession (e.g. ' my house'). Proto-Semitic *// shifted to Hebrew /h/ in grammatical morphemes, including the pronominal suffixes. This */h/ was then elided in the pronominal suffixes, leading to idiosyncratic sound shifts: */-a-hu/ > /-o/ */-a-ha/ > /-a/ */-a-hm/ > /-am/ */-e-hm/ > /-em/ */-i-hu/ > /-iw/ */-i-hm/ > /-im/ */-u-hm/ > /-um/ */-ay-hu/ > /-aw/

[edit] Syntax
Whereas most Biblical Hebrew constructions are also permissible in Modern Hebrew at least in formal, literary, archaic or poetic style, the opposite is not always the case. Some examples of differences are:

In Biblical Hebrew, possession is normally expressed with status constructus, a construction in which the possessed noun occurs in a phonologically reduced, "construct" form and is followed by the possessor noun in its normal, "absolute" form. Modern Hebrew tends to reserve this construction for phrases where the two components form a unified concept, whereas ordinary possession is more commonly expressed analytically with the preposition shel 'of' (etymologically consisting of the relativizer she- 'that' and the preposition le- 'to').[131][132] Possession in pronouns is expressed with pronominal suffixes added to the noun. Modern Hebrew tends to reserve this for a limited number of nouns, but usually prefers to use the preposition shel, as in the previous case.[133] Biblical Hebrew often expresses a pronoun direct object by appending a pronominal suffix directly to the verb, as an alternative to appending it to the preposition that signals a definite direct object. The latter construction is the one generally used in Modern Hebrew.[133] The tense/aspect that is formed by prefixes could denote either the present (especially frequentative) or the future, as well as frequentative past in Biblical Hebrew (some scholars argue that it simply denoted imperfective aspect), while in modern Hebrew it is

always future. The suffixed form denotes what is commonly translated as past in both cases, though some scholars argue that it denoted perfective aspect.[134] Biblical Hebrew employs the so-called waw consecutive construction, in which the conjunction "and" seemingly reverses the tense of a verb (though its exact meaning is a matter of debate). This is not typical of Modern Hebrew.[135] The default word order in Biblical Hebrew is VSO, while Modern Hebrew is SVO.[136]

[edit] Sample text

The following is a sample from Psalm 18 as appears in the Masoretic text with Medieval Tiberian niqqud and cantillation and the Greek transcription of the Secunda of the Hexapla along with its reconstructed pronunciation. Tiberian Hebrew[137] Secunda[95]

92 29. YHWH 29. [ki ata tair neri **** 03

alohaj aih oki] 30. 31. (*-) 30. [ki bak arus dud wbalohaj adale ur]

Pronunciation[95] (IPA)

YHWH 31 31. [hael tamim darko emrat **** srufa maen hu lkol haosim bo] 23 YHWH (* )
32. 32. [ki mi aloh mebalade **** wmi sur zulati alohenu]

[edit] See also

List of liturgical Hebrew cognates

[edit] Notes
1. ^ This is known because the final redaction of the Talmud, which does not mention these

additions, was ca. 60 CE, while dated manuscripts with vocalization are found in the beginning of the tenth century. Blau (2010:7) 2. ^ However it is noteworthy that Akkadian shares many of these sound shifts but is less closely related to Hebrew than Aramaic., see Blau (2010:19) 3. ^ However it should be noted that, for example, when Old Aramaic borrowed the Canaanite alphabet it still had interdentals, but marked them with what they merged with

in Canaanite. For instance 'ox' was written but pronounced with an initial //. The same phenomenon also occurred when the Arabs adopted the Nabatean alphabet. See Blau (2010:7475). 4. ^ As a consequence this would leave open the possibility that other proto-Semitic phonemes (such as *//) may have been preserved regionally at one point, see Rendsburg (1997:72) 5. ^ Such contraction is also found in Ugaritic, the El-Amarna letters, and in Phoenician, while the anaptyctic vowel is found in Old Aramaic and Deir Alla. Senz-Badillos (1993:44) 6. ^ used in the tablet as a verb, unlike in Phoenician where this root is only nominal 7. ^ At times the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, and Philistines would also use the PaleoHebrew script, see Yardeni (1997:25) 8. ^ As an example of the Rabbis' view of the script, see Sanhedrin 21b "The Torah was originally given to Israel in this [Assyrian] script. When they sinned, it became ". 9. ^ Ktiv male, the Hebrew term for full spelling, has become de rigueur in Modern Hebrew. 10. ^ There are rare-cases of < >being used medially as a true vowel letter, e.g. for the usual ' fish'. Most cases, however, of < >being used as a vowel letter stem from conservative spelling of words which originally contained //, e.g. ' head' from original */ra/. See Blau (2010:86). 11. ^ The Secunda is a transliteration of the Hebrew Biblical text contained in the Hexapla, a recension of the Old Testament compiled by Origen in the 3rd century CE. There is evidence that the text of the Secunda was written before 100 BCE, despite the later date of the Hexapla. For example, by the time of Origen < > were pronounced [i ], a merger which had already begun around 100 BCE, while in the Secunda they are used to represent Hebrew /e aj/, see Janssens (1982:14). 12. ^ The Palestinian system has two main subtypes and shows great variation. Blau (2010:7) The Babylonian vocalization occurred in two main types (simple / einfach and complex / kompliziert), with various subgroups differing as to their affinity with the Tiberian tradition. Senz-Badillos (1993:9799) 13. ^ In the Babylonian and Palestinian systems only the most important vowels were written, see Blau (2010:118). 14. ^ Almost all vocalized manuscripts use the Masoretic Text. However there are some vocalized Samaritan manuscripts from the Middle Ages, see Tov (1992:40) 15. ^ Or perhaps Hurrian, but this is unlikely, see Dolgoposky (1999:723). 16. ^ According to the generally accepted view, it is unlikely begadkefat spirantization occurred before the merger of /, / and /, /, or else [x, ] and [, ] would have to be contrastive, which is cross-linguistically rare. However Blau argues that it is possible that lenited /k/ and // could coexist even if pronounced identically, since one would be recognized as an alternating allophone (as apparently is the case in Nestorian Syriac), see Blau (2010:56). 17. ^ The vowel before originally geminate /r / usually shows compensatory lengthening, e.g. / hv/ 'the father' < /*haab/; with // preceding /*i/ tends to remain short; with /h/ original /*a/ also remains short, and // generally does not cause compensatory lengthening, e.g. ' he will have compassion'. See Blau (2010:8183) 18. ^ This also might explain why /a/ > /a/ while /a/ > // in Tiberian Hebrew[citation needed]

19. ^ a b In this respect the Palestinian tradition corresponds to the modern Sephardi

pronunciation, and the Babylonian tradition to the modern Yemenite pronunciation.

20. ^ While the vowels /a e i o u/ certainly have phonemic status in the Tiberian

tradition, // has phonemic value in final stressed position but in other positions it may reflect loss of the opposition /a : i/, see Blau (2010:111112) 21. ^ In fact, its scope of application is different in Samaritan and Tiberian Hebrew (e.g. 'here' Tiberian /po/ vs. Samaritan /fa/), see Ben-ayyim (2000:8386). Even in Tiberian Hebrew doublets are found, e.g. /kano(?)/ = /kan(?)/ 'zealous', see Steiner (1997:147). 22. ^ This relative chronology is established by forms like ( Secunda: /qatlu/), originating from */qatalu/. The first vowel */a/ first lengthened because it was in a pretonic syllable, yielding */qatalu/. By a later development, stressed short vowels in an open syllables were reduced and lost the stress, yielding /qatlu/. See Janssens (1982:5657). 23. ^ Parallels to Aramaic syllable structure suggest pretonic lengthening may have occurred in the Second Temple period, see Blau (2010:128129) 24. ^ The only known case where Philippi's Law does not apply is in the word / qen/ < */qinn-u/ 'nest'. The shift */i/ > /a/ has been extended by analogy to similar forms, e.g. */im-u/ > /am/ 'name' (but */im-u/ > /em/ 'reputation'!). Ben-ayyim (2000:76,79) 25. ^ Verbal forms such as = Samaritan /jifqd/ < */jafqud/ may be examples of Barth's law rather than attenuation. 26. ^ This is known as 'pata furtivum', literally 'stolen pata' and perhaps a mistranslation of Hebrew ' pata of the stolen [letter]', as if were being inserted, see Blau (2010:83). 27. ^ It is evident that this epenthesis must have been a late phenomenon, since a short vowel preceding a guttural is preserved even though it becomes in an open syllable, see Blau (2010:85). 28. ^ This is less common when the consonant following the gutteral is a beged kefet letter, e.g. / tabol/ 'you take in pledge'. This suggests that beged kefet spirantization was no longer automatic by the time that this epenthesis occurred, see Blau (2010:79) 29. ^ Additionally, short stressed vowels were reduced and lost stress, leading to ultimate stress in forms like /* < qatalu/ 30. ^ In fact, it is not clear that a reduced vowel should be considered as comprising a whole syllable. Note for example that the rule whereby a word's stress shifts to a preceding open syllable to avoid being adjacent to another stressed syllable skips over ultrashort vowels, e.g. / im-jorde vor/ 'with those who go down into the pit' /mtone rv/ 'pierced with a sword'. See Blau (2010:143144) 31. ^ It has been suggested that the construct forms , have long /i/ lacking in the absolute because the later stem from forms like */abum/ > */abum/ (because Proto-Semitic did not allow long vowels in closed syllables) > */ab/ (loss of mimation and final short vowel), see Blau (2010:267) 32. ^ The unstressed suffix - in words like ' to the earth', occurring also in exclamations like and used ornamentally in poetry, e.g. ,may have originally terminated in consonantal */-h/ which was later elided, following the suffix */a/. This is evidenced by Ugaritic orthography, almost purely consonantal, where appears with /h/, see Blau (2010:9192, 268)

[edit] References
^ An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary, in Two Volumes, Budge, Sir E.A.Wallis.; p.119, Vol. 1; Dover Publications, Inc. New York; 1920 2. ^ a b c d e f Senz-Badillos (1993:12) 3. ^ a b c d e f Steiner (1997:145) 4. ^ a b c d http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-01/uoh-mah010710.php University of Haifa press release, 7 Jan. 2010 5. ^ a b c Oldest Hebrew inscription' Discovered in Israelite Fort on Philistine border, Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 2010, pp. 51-6. 6. ^ Yardeni (1997:15) 7. ^ The Gezer Calendar 8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Yardeni (1997:1725) 9. ^ a b Blau (2010:18) 10. ^ Tov (1992:118) 11. ^ a b c d e Yardeni (1997:4044) 12. ^ a b Yardeni (1997:42,45,4750) 13. ^ a b Yardeni (1997:5965) 14. ^ a b c d e Blau (2010:7) 15. ^ Blau (2010:1112) 16. ^ a b Blau (2010:2540) 17. ^ Frank (2003:12) 18. ^ Rendsburg (1997:65) 19. ^ Senz-Badillos (1993:29) 20. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Senz-Badillos (1993:3638,4344,4750) 21. ^ a b Waltke & O'Connor (1990:8) 22. ^ Blau (2010:21) 23. ^ a b Blau (2010:136137) 24. ^ Dolgopolsky 1999, pp. 57-59. 25. ^ Blau (2010:76) 26. ^ a b c Senz-Badillos (1993:52) 27. ^ a b c d Rendsburg (1997:66) 28. ^ Senz-Badillos (1993:60) 29. ^ Senz-Badillos (1993:61) 30. ^ Senz-Badillos (1993:55) 31. ^ a b c d Blau (2010:8,4041) 32. ^ Rendsburg (1997:70) 33. ^ a b Blau (2010:8,9697) 34. ^ a b Blau (2010:8) 35. ^ Blau (2010:6,69) 36. ^ Rendsburg (1997) 37. ^ Senz-Badillos (1993:8086) 38. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Blau (2010:69) 39. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rendsburg (1997:7073) 40. ^ Senz-Badillos (1993:81) 41. ^ Senz-Badillos (1993:85)
1.

^ Senz-Badillos (1993:82) ^ [1] ^ BBC News, 30 October 2008, 'Oldest Hebrew script' is found, Retrieved 3 March 2010 45. ^ Mail Online, 31 October 2008, Daily Mail, Retrieved 3 March 2010 46. ^ http://gath.wordpress.com/2009/10/15/qeiyafah-inscription-update/ 47. ^ Oldest Hebrew inscription' Discovered in Israelite Fort on Philistine border, Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 2010, p. 52. 48. ^ a b Yardeni (1997:13,15,17) 49. ^ a b c d e f g Tov (1992:218220) 50. ^ a b c Senz-Badillos (1993:1618) 51. ^ Yardeni (1997:23) 52. ^ a b c d e Yardeni (1997:18,2425) 53. ^ Though some of these translations wrote the tetragrammaton in the square script, see Tov (1992:220) 54. ^ a b c Yardeni (1997:65,8491) 55. ^ Blau (2010:7475,77) 56. ^ Sperber (1959:81) 57. ^ Blau (2010) 58. ^ Yardeni (1997:38) 59. ^ Tov (1992:210) 60. ^ a b c d e f Tov (1992:221223) 61. ^ a b c Blau (2010:6) 62. ^ Tov (1992:96,108,222) 63. ^ a b c Tov (1992:108109) 64. ^ a b Senz-Badillos (1993:136) 65. ^ Tov (1992:9697) 66. ^ Karen H. Jobes and Moises Silva (2001). Invitation to the Septuagint. Paternoster Press. ISBN 1-84227-061-3. http://books.google.com/books? id=OysSAQAAIAAJ&q. 67. ^ Ben-ayyim (2000:5) 68. ^ a b c Rendsburg (1997:6869) 69. ^ Ben-ayyim (2000:6) 70. ^ Waltke & O'Connor (1990:25) 71. ^ Blau (2010:117118) 72. ^ a b c Blau (2010:105106) 73. ^ Blau (2010:118) 74. ^ Blau (2010:7,143) 75. ^ Yeivins (1980:157158) 76. ^ a b c Tov (1992:208209) 77. ^ Blau (2010:110111) 78. ^ a b Blau (2010:68) 79. ^ a b Rendsburg (1997:73) 80. ^ Rendsburg (1997:7374) 81. ^ Blau (2010:56, 7576) 82. ^ Blau (2010:77)
42. 43. 44.

^ Dolsopolsky 1999, p. 72. ^ Dolgopolsky 1999, p. 73. ^ a b Blau (2010:7881) ^ Senz-Badillos (1993:137138) ^ Janssens (1982:43) ^ Blau (2010:8283) ^ a b Steinberg, David. History of the Ancient and Modern Hebrew Language "History of the Ancient and Modern Hebrew Language". http://www.adathshalom.ca/history_of_hebrew2a.htm History of the Ancient and Modern Hebrew Language. 90. ^ Janssens (1982:54) 91. ^ Blau (2010:105106, 115119) 92. ^ Senz-Badillos (1993:8889, 97, 110) 93. ^ Sperber (1959:77,81) 94. ^ Ben-ayyim (2000:4344, 48) 95. ^ a b c Janssens (1982:173) 96. ^ Blau (2010:112) 97. ^ a b Blau (2010:118119) 98. ^ Yahalom (1997:16) 99. ^ a b Ben-ayyim (2000:44, 4849) 100. ^ a b Ben-ayyim (2000:49) 101. ^ Blau (2010:111) 102. ^ Blau (2010:151) 103. ^ Steiner (1997:147) 104. ^ LaSor (1978, Part 2, 14.11) 105. ^ Janssens (1982:5657) 106. ^ a b Senz-Badillos (1993:156) 107. ^ a b Senz-Badillos (1993:138139) 108. ^ Blau (2010:133136) 109. ^ Janssens (1982:66) 110. ^ Ben-ayyim (2000:79) 111. ^ a b c Blau (2010:132) 112. ^ Ben-ayyim (2000:81) 113. ^ Blau (2010:83) 114. ^ Janssens (1982:43,133) 115. ^ Blau (2010:8485) 116. ^ a b Janssens (1982:52) 117. ^ a b Blau (2010:143144) 118. ^ Janssens (1982:53) 119. ^ a b c Waltke & O'Connor (1990:6667) 120. ^ a b c Waltke & O'Connor (1990:83) 121. ^ Waltke & O'Connor (1990:84) 122. ^ a b c d e f Waltke & O'Connor (1990:9092) 123. ^ Blau (2010:266) 124. ^ a b Waltke & O'Connor (1990:17) 125. ^ a b Blau (2010:267268)
83. 84. 85. 86. 87. 88. 89.

^ Blau (2010:122, 268269) ^ Blau (2010:119120, 268) ^ Blau (2010:268) ^ a b Blau (2010:274275) ^ Sperber (1966:445) ^ Zuckermann, G. Complement Clause Types in Israeli. In Complementation: a cross-linguistic typology. Ed. R.M.W.Dixon, A.I.Akhenvald. P.74 132. ^ Rosn, H. Israel Language Policy and Linguistics. In Ariel vol. 25 (1969) Pp. 48-63 [2] 133. ^ a b Glinert, Lewis. 2004. The Grammar of Modern Hebrew. P.52. 134. ^ Blau, Joshua. 1981. The renaissance of modern Hebrew and modern standard Arabic. P.153-154 135. ^ Davis, Craig. 2007. Dating the Old Testament. P.536 136. ^ Doron (2005) 137. ^ [3]
126. 127. 128. 129. 130. 131.

[edit] Bibliography

Ben-ayyim, Ze'ev (2000). A Grammar of Samaritan Hebrew. Jerusalem: The Hebrew University Magnes Press. ISBN 1-57506-047-7. Bergstrasser, Gotthelf; Daniels, Peter T. (1995). Introduction to the Semitic Languages: Text Specimens and Grammatical Sketches. Mnchen: Max Hueber Verlag Mnchen. pp. 5075. ISBN 0931464102. G. Bergstrsser. (1983). Introduction to the Semitic Languages. Translated by Peter T. Daniels. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns. Blau, Joshua (2010). Phonology and Morphology of Biblical Hebrew. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns. Bonnie Pedrotti Kittel, Vicki Hoffer, and Rebecca Abts Wright, Biblical Hebrew: A Text and Workbook Yale Language Series; New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1989. Dolgopolsky, Aron (1999). From Proto-Semitic to Hebrew. Milan: Centro Studi CamitoSemitici di Milano. Doron, Edit (2005), "VSO and Left-conjunct Agreement: Biblical Hebrew vs. Modern Hebrew", in Kiss, Katalin ., Universal Grammar in the Reconstruction of Dead Languages, Berlin, pp. 239-264, http://pluto.huji.ac.il/~edit/edit/doron-left-conjunctagreement.pdf Frank, Yitzhak (2003). Grammar for Gemara and Targum Onkelos. Jerusalem, Israel: Ariel United Israel Institutes. Janssens, Gerard (1982). "Studies in Hebrew historical linguistics based on Origen's Secunda". Orientalia Gandensia (Uitgeverij Peeters) 9. ISBN 2801701890. Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar - Kautzsch, E. (ed.), Eng. ed. A. E. Cowley. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910. Kutscher, E. Y. A History of the Hebrew Language. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1982. Lambdin, Thomas O. (1971). Introduction to Biblical Hebrew. London: Charles Scibner's Sons.

LaSor, William Sanford (1978). Handbook of Biblical Hebrew. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. ISBN 9780802804440. S. Moscati et al. (1964). An Introduction to the Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages, Phonology and Morphology. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. Rendsburg, Gary A. (1997), "Ancient Hebrew Phonology", in Kaye, Alan, Phonologies of Asia and Africa, Eisenbrauns, pp. 65-83, http://jewishstudies.rutgers.edu/component/docman/doc_view/93-ancient-hebrewphonology Senz-Badillos, Angel (1993). A History of the Hebrew Language. Cambridge University Press. Sperber, Alexander (1959). A Grammar of Masoretic Hebrew. Copenhagen: Ejnar Munksgaard. Sperber, Alexander (1966). A Historical Grammar of Biblical Hebrew. Leiden: E. J. Brill. Steiner, Richard C. (1997), "Ancient Hebrew", in Hetzron, Robert, The Semitic Languages, Routledge, pp. 145-173 Tov, Emanuel (1992). Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress. ISBN 0-8006-2687-7. Waltke, Bruce K.; O'Connor, M. (1990). An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns. ISBN 0-931464-31-5. Wrthwein, Ernst (1995). The Text of the Old Testament (trans. Erroll F. Rhodes). Grand Rapids: Wm.B.Eardmans Publishing. ISBN 0-8028-0788-7. Yeivin, Israel (1980). Introduction to the Tiberian Masorah. Scholars Press. ISBN 089130-373-1. Yahalom, Joseph (1997). Palestinian Vocalised Piyyut Manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah Collections. Cambridge University. ISBN 0521583993. Yardeni, Ada (1997). The Book of Hebrew Script. Jerusalem: Carta. ISBN 965-220-3696.

[edit] External links

History of the Hebrew Language o History of the Ancient and Modern Hebrew Language, David Steinberg o Biblical Hebrew Poetry and Word Play - Reconstructing the Original Oral, Aural and Visual Experience o Short History of the Hebrew Language, Chaim Rabin o The Alphabet of Biblical Hebrew Biblical Hebrew Resources o Resources for the Study of Biblical Hebrew, Prof. E. Ben Zvi, University of Alberta o Biblical Hebrew bibliography and transliteration, Matthew Anstey Grammar and Vocabulary o The Handy-Dandy Hebrew Grammar Chart, Prof. Shawn Madden, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

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Basic Biblical Hebrew Grammar (introductory) Learn to write the Hebrew characters