A Quantitative Study of the Vocalization of the Inseparable Prepositions in the Hebrew Bible
Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This dissertation presents a quantitative study of the vocalization of the Hebrew inseparable prepositions (beth, kaf, and lamed). Both synchronic and diachronic dimensions are addressed. After a synchronic survey and analysis, a few regularities of the vowels of the inseparable prepositions in the Tiberian text are discovered. These regularities are mostly syntactically, rather than semantically, based. The vowels of the inseparable prepositions tend to be heavy, and light vowels are employed only in a certain syntactical constructions. The observation that these syntactical constructions usually prescribe a lack of definite article indicates a connection between the audio feature of the light vowel and the textual feature of the absence of definite article. This in turn argues for an early dating of the vowels of the inseparable prepositions. The diachronic survey covers the vocalization in the Babylonian and Palestinian traditions, the Greek transliteration in the second column of Origen’s Hexapla, and the Greek translation in Aquila’s recension. The vocalization of the inseparable prepositions in the Babylonian, and Palestinian texts is found to adhere closely to that of the Tiberian text. The transliteration in the Hexapla also indicates that a substantial portion of the vocalization of the inseparable prepositions in the Masoretic Text has an origin as early as the date of the Greek transliteration. In the survey of Aquila’s translation, although a correspondence cannot be unquestionably affirmed between the vocalization of the inseparable prepositions in the Masoretic text and the use of Greek definite articles, the finding that Aquila’s employment of the Greek definite articles depends heavily on the grammatical function of the Hebrew inseparable prepositions suggests the plausibility that some of the ancient perspectives about the Hebrew inseparable prepositions had exercised considerable influence on the fixation of the vocalization. As a whole this study affirms the credibility of the vocalization of the inseparable prepositions as preserved in the Masoretic text.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Jengzen Huang
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2580197859