On the Historical Validity of the Vocalization of the Hebrew Bible

Abstract

In biblical scholarship there still prevails a strong tendency to regard the vocalization of the Bible as superfluous and to consider the vocalization of those forms which phonologically or morphologically seem strange as corrupt. While it is true that there are forms the vocalization of which defies explanation, we should not surmise that any form which looks bizarre in its vocalization is necessarily corrupt and requires emendation. Many of these forms are genuine and reflect ancient phonological, morphonemic, and morphological features of Hebrew: some of them may be dialectal; others show peculiarities typical of certain periods in the history of biblical Hebrew. In the present paper the historical validity of the following forms will be discussed:

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