Tiberian Hebrew Explained
Tiberian Hebrew is the canonical pronunciation of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) committed to writing by Masoretic scholars living in the Jewish community of Tiberias in ancient Galilee under the Abbasid Caliphate. They wrote in the form of Tiberian vocalization,[1] which employed diacritics added to the Hebrew letters: vowel signs and consonant diacritics (nequdot) and the so-called accents (two related systems of cantillation signs or te'amim). These together with the marginal notes masora magna and masora parva make up the Tiberian apparatus.
Although the written vowels and accents came into use in around 750 CE, the oral tradition that they reflect is many centuries older, with ancient roots.
Sources
Today's Hebrew grammar books do not teach the Tiberian Hebrew that was described by the early grammarians. The prevailing view is that of David Qimḥi's system of dividing the graphic signs into "short" and "long" vowels. The values assigned to the Tiberian vowel signs reveals a Sephardi tradition of pronunciation (the dual quality of qameṣ (Hebrew: אָ) as pronounced as //a//, pronounced as //o//; the pronunciation of simple shva (Hebrew: אְ) as pronounced as //ɛ̆//).
The phonology of Tiberian Hebrew can be gleaned from the collation of various sources:
- The Aleppo Codex of the Hebrew Bible and ancient manuscripts of the Tanakh cited in the margins of early codices, all of which preserve direct evidence in a graphic manner of the application of vocalization rules such as the widespread use of reduced vowels where one would expect simple shva, thus clarifying the color of the vowel pronounced under certain circumstances. Most striking is the use of reduced ḥireq in five words under a consonant that follows a guttural vocalized with regular ḥireq (as described by Israel Yeivin) as well as the anomalous use of the rafe over letters that do not belong to Hebrew: בגדכפ"ת or Hebrew: א"ה.
- The explicit statements found in grammars of the 10th and the 11th centuries, including the Sēfer haq-Qoloṯ Hebrew: ספר הקולות of Moshe ben Asher (published by N. Allony); the Sēfer Diqduqē haṭ-Ṭe'amim (Hebrew: ספר דקדוקי הטעמים Grammar or Analysis of the Accents) of Aaron ben Moses ben Asher; the anonymous works entitled Horayaṯ haq-Qorē Hebrew: הורית הקורא (G. Khan and Ilan Eldar attribute it to the Karaite Jew Aaron of Jerusalem); the Treatise on the Schwa (published by Kurt Levy from a genizah fragment in 1936), and Ma'mar haš-Šəwā Hebrew: מאמר השוא (published from Genizah material by Allony); the works of medieval Sephardi grammarians, including Abraham ibn Ezra and Judah ben David Hayyuj. In the case of the latter two, it is evident that the chain of transmission is breaking down or that their interpretations are influenced by local tradition.
- Ancient manuscripts that preserve similar dialects of Hebrew or Jewish Palestinian Aramaic vocalized with Tiberian niqqud that reveal a phonetic spelling rather than a phonemic spelling. They include the so-called "pseudo-Ben Naphtali" or "Palestinian-Sephardi" vocalized manuscripts, which generally conform to the rules enumerated below, such as pronouncing sheva as pronounced as //ĭ// before consonantal yod, as in pronounced as //bĭji// Hebrew: בְּיִ.
- Other traditions include Palestinian vocalization and (to a lesser extent) Babylonian (Mesopotamian) vocalization. Each community (Palestinian, Tiberian, Babylonian) developed systems of notation for pronunciation in each dialect, some of which are common among the traditions.
- Karaite transcriptions of Biblical text using the Arabic alphabet but vocalized with Tiberian signs, especially important for syllable structure and vowel length, which is marked in Arabic by matres lectionis and the sign sukun.
- Various oral traditions, especially Karaite and Yemenite Hebrew, have both preserved old features that correspond to Tiberian tradition, such as the pronunciation of schwa according to its proximity to gutturals or yod.
Phonology
Consonants
Tiberian Hebrew had at least 23 consonantal phonemes, represented by 22 letters. The sin dot distinguishes between the two values of, with a dot on the left being pronounced the same as the letter Samekh. The letters (begadkefat) had two values each: plosive and fricative.
! rowspan="2" | Labial | Dental | Denti-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal |
|---|
| plain | emphatic |
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| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | | pronounced as /link/ | | | | | | |
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| Stop | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | | pronounced as /link/ |
|---|
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | | pronounced as /link/ | | | pronounced as /link/ | | | |
|---|
| Fricative | voiceless | (pronounced as /link/) | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ |
|---|
| voiced | (pronounced as /link/) | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | | | (pronounced as /link/) | | pronounced as /link/ | |
|---|
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | | | | | |
|---|
The following are the most salient characteristics of the Tiberian Hebrew consonantal pronunciation:
- Before the labial vowels (Hebrew: בומ״ף) and shva (Hebrew: אְ), the waw-conjunctive (Hebrew: ו) was read as Hebrew: אוּ pronounced as //ʔu// rather than Hebrew: וֻ pronounced as //wu// (as is the case in some eastern reading traditions).
- The threefold pronunciation of resh Hebrew: ר. Even though there is no agreement as to how it was pronounced, the rules of distribution of such pronunciation is given in Hebrew: הורית הקורא Horayaṯ haq-Qorē:
- "Normal" Resh pronounced as //rˤ// pronounced thus (according to Eldar, as a uvular sound pronounced as /[ʀ]/) in all other instances (except for the circumstances described below): Hebrew: אוֹר pronounced as /[ʔoʀ]/
- The "peculiar" resh pronounced as /[r]/ before or after Lamed or Nun, any of the three being vocalized with simple sheva and resh after zayin Hebrew: ז, daleth Hebrew: ד, samekh Hebrew: ס, sin Hebrew: שׂ, taw Hebrew: ת, ṣade Hebrew: צ, ṭeth Hebrew: ט, any of them punctuated with simple sheva: Hebrew: יִשְׂרָאֵל pronounced as /[jisrɔˈʔel]/, Hebrew: עָרְלָה pronounced as /[ʕɔrˈlɔ]/. Because of the proximity of a dental consonant, resh was pronounced as an alveolar trill, as it still is in Sephardi Hebrew.
- There is still another pronunciation, affected by the addition of a dagesh in the Resh in certain words in the Bible, which indicates it was doubled pronounced as /[ʀː]/: Hebrew: הַרְּאִיתֶם pronounced as /[haʀːĭʔiˈθɛm]/. As can be seen, this pronunciation has to do with the progressive increase in length of this consonant (Hebrew: הָרְאִיתֶם). It was preserved only by the population of Ma'azya (Hebrew: מעזיה), which is in Tiberias.
- A possible threefold pronunciation of taw Hebrew: ת. There are three words in the Torah, Prophets, and Writings in which it is said that "the Taw is pronounced harder than usual". It is said that this pronunciation was halfway between the soft (pronounced as //θ//) and the hard taw (pronounced as //t//): Hebrew: וַיְשִׂימֶהָ תֵּל pronounced as /[wajsiˈmɛhɔ‿θ‿tel]/
Vowels
Tiberian Hebrew phonemic vowels!! Front! Back| Close | pronounced as /i/ | pronounced as /u/ |
|---|
| Close-mid | pronounced as /e/ | pronounced as /o/ |
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| Open-mid | pronounced as /ɛ/ | pronounced as /ɔ/ |
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| Open | pronounced as /a/ |
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| Reduced | pronounced as /ă ɔ̆ (ɛ̆)/1 | |
|---|
- marginal
The vowel qualities pronounced as //a e i ɔ o u// have phonemic status: Hebrew: אָשָׁם הוּא אָשֹׁם אָשַׁם (Lev. 5:19) and Hebrew: אָשֵׁם 'guilty', Hebrew: אִם 'when' and Hebrew: אֵם 'mother'. pronounced as //ɛ// has phonemic value in final stressed position Hebrew: רְעֶה רְעִי רָעָה, מִקְנֶה מְקַנֵּה, קָנֶה קָנָה קָנֹה, but in other positions, it may reflect loss of the opposition pronounced as //a//: pronounced as //i//. By the Tiberian period, all short vowels in ultimately-stressed syllables had lengthened, making vowel length allophonic.[2] Vowels in open or stressed syllables had allophonic length (such as pronounced as //a// in Hebrew: יְרַחֵם, which was previously short).[3]
The Tiberian tradition possesses three reduced (ultrashort, hatuf) vowels pronounced as //ă ɔ̆ ɛ̆// of which pronounced as //ɛ̆// has questionable phonemicity.[4] pronounced as //ă//, under a non-guttural letter, was pronounced as an ultrashort copy of the following vowel before a guttural (Hebrew: וּבָקְעָה pronounced as /[uvɔqɔ̆ˈʕɔ]/) and as pronounced as /[ĭ]/ preceding pronounced as //j//, (Hebrew: תְדַמְּיוּנִי pronounced as /[θăðammĭˈjuni]/). However, it was always pronounced as pronounced as /[ă]/ under gutturals: Hebrew: חֲיִי pronounced as /[ħăˈji]/.
Stress
Tiberian Hebrew has phonemic stress (Hebrew: בָּנוּ֫ pronounced as //bɔˈnu// 'they built' vs. Hebrew: בָּ֫נוּ pronounced as //ˈbɔnu// 'in us'). Stress is most commonly ultimate, less commonly penultimate, and rarely antepenultimate stress: Hebrew: הָאֹ֫הֱלָה pronounced as //hɔˈʔɔhɛ̆lɔ// 'into the tent'.[5]
Phonotactics
As described above, vowel length is dependent on syllable structure. Open syllables must take long or ultrashort vowels; stressed closed syllables take long vowels; unstressed closed syllables take short vowels. Traditional Hebrew philology considers ultrashort vowels not to be syllable nuclei.
Orthography
See main article: article, Hebrew alphabet and Tiberian vocalization.
| letter | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|---|
| transliteration | | b, | g, | d, | h | w | z | | | y | k, | l | m | n | s | | p, f | | q | r | , | t, |
|---|
| pronunciation (Modern) | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/[<nowiki/>[[Voiceless velar fricative|x]]], pronounced as /link/ʀ̥ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ |
|---|
| pronunciation (Yemenite) | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ |
|---|
| pronunciation (Tiberian) | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ |
|---|
| pronunciation (Biblical) | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/,
pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/,
pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/,
pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ | |
|---|
| niqqud with ב |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|---|
| name | pathaḥ male | seghol male | ṣere male | ḥireq male | qamaṣ male | ḥolam male | shuruq male |
|---|
| pronunciation | pronounced as //a// | pronounced as //ɛ// | pronounced as //e// | pronounced as //i// | pronounced as //ɔ// | pronounced as //o// | pronounced as //u// | |
|---|
| niqqud | | | | | |
|---|
| name | daghesh | rafe | mapiq | shin dot | sin dot |
|---|
| pronunciation | Gemination of a consonant pronounced as //Cː//, or the stop pronunciation of the בגדכפ״ת consonants | Fricative pronunciation of the בגדכפ״ת consonants (its use is optional) | pronounced as //h//, being the last letter of a word | pronounced as //ʃ// | pronounced as //s// | |
|---|
The simple sheva sign changes its pronunciation depending on its position in the word (mobile/vocal or quiescent/zero) and its proximity to certain consonants.
In these examples, it has been preferred to show one in the Bible and represents each phenomenon in a graphic manner (a chateph vowel), but the rules still apply when there is only a simple sheva (depending on the manuscript or edition used).
When the simple sheva appears in any of the following positions, it is regarded as mobile (na):
- At the beginning of a word, which includes the sheva (originally the first of the word) following the attached particles bi-,ki-,li- and u- and preceded by metheg (the vertical line placed to the left of the vowel sign, which stands for either secondary stress or its lengthening). Examples: pronounced as //ˌʔuzăˈhav// Genesis 2:12; pronounced as //ˈbisăvɔx// Psalms 74:5. But is not pronounced if there is no metheg; that is, they form a closed syllable.
- The sheva following these three vowels pronounced as //e/, /ɔ/, /o//, except for known types of closed syllables (and preceded or not, by metheg). Examples: pronounced as //ˌnelăxɔˈnːɔ// Exodus 3:18; pronounced as //ˈʔelăxɔ ˈnːɔ// Exodus 4:18.
- The second of two adjacent shevas, when both appear under different consonants. Examples: pronounced as //ʔɛxtăˈvɛnːu// Jeremiah 31:33; pronounced as //wɔʔɛʃqălɔˈlːo// Jeremiah 32:9 (except for at the end of a word, pronounced as //ʔɔˈmart//).
- The sheva under the first of two identical consonants, preceded by metheg. Examples: pronounced as //băˌħasˤăˈsˤon// Gen. 14:7; pronounced as //sˤɔlăˈlu// Exodus: 15:10.
- The sheva under a consonant with dagesh forte or lene. Examples: pronounced as //subɔ̆ˈlo// Isaiah 9:3; pronounced as //ʔɛʃtăˈlɛnːu// Ezekiel 17:23.
- The sheva under a consonant that expects gemination but is not so marked, for example, the one found under . And sometimes even when preceded by the article. Examples: pronounced as //măvɔʀăˈxɛxɔ// Genesis 12:3; pronounced as //hamăðabăˈʀim// 2 Chronicles 33:18.
- In case a quiescent sheva was followed either by a guttural or yodh, it would turn into mobile according to the rules given below, if preceded by a metheg. Ancient manuscripts support that view. Examples: pronounced as //nivɔ̆ˈhɔl// Proverbs 28:22; pronounced as //ʃivăˈʕaθ// Job 1:3.
- Any sheva, if the sign metheg is attached to it, would change an ultrashort vowel to a short, or normal length vowel. For this, only ancient, reliable manuscripts can give us a clear picture, since, with time, later vocalizers added to the number of methegs found in the Bible.
The gutturals, and yodh, affect the pronunciation of the sheva preceding them. The allophones of the phoneme pronounced as //ă// follow these two rules:
- It would change its sound to imitate that of the following guttural. pronounced as //ˌʔuqɔ̆ˈhɔθ// Numbers 3:17; pronounced as //wănizrɔ̆ˈʕɔ// Numbers 5:28.
- It would be pronounced as ḥireq before consonantal yodh. Examples: pronounced as //jiʀmĭˈjɔhu// Jeremiah 21:1; pronounced as //ʕinĭˈjɔn// in Maimonides' autograph in his commentary to the Mishnah.[6]
It must be said that even though there are no special signs apart pronounced as //ɛ̆/, /ă/, /ɔ̆// to denote the full range of furtive vowels, the remaining four (pronounced as //u/, pronounced as //i//, pronounced as //e//, /o//) are represented by simple sheva (ḥaṭaf ḥiriq in the Aleppo Codex is a scribal oddity and certainly not regular in Hebrew manuscripts with Tiberian vocalization).
All other cases should be treated as zero vowel (quiescent, nah), including the double final sheva (double initial sheva does not exist in this Hebrew dialect), and the sheva in the words pronounced as //ˈʃtajim// and pronounced as //ˈʃnajim//, read by the Tiberian Masoretes as pronounced as //ʔɛʃˈtajim// and pronounced as //ʔɛʃˈnajim// respectively. This last case has similarities with phenomena occurring in the Samaritan pronunciation and the Phoenician language.
Depending on the school of pronunciation (and relying on musical grounds, perhaps), the metheg sign served to change some closed syllables into open ones, and therefore, changing the vowel from short to long, and the quiescent sheva, into a mobile one.
That is referenced specifically by medieval grammarians:
The names of the vowel diacritics are iconic and show some variation:
Notes
- https://books.google.com/books?id=6upai6--QhMC&pg=PA6&lpg=PA6 Tiberian Hebrew Phonology: Focussing on Consonant Clusters, Andries W. Coetzee
- In fact, all stressed vowels were first lengthened in pause, see, as can be seen by forms like Tiberian Hebrew: כַּף pronounced as //kaf// < *pronounced as //kaf//, pausal Hebrew: כָּף pronounced as //kɔf// < *pronounced as //kɔːf// < *pronounced as //kaːf// < *pronounced as //kaf//. The shift in Tiberian Hebrew of *pronounced as //aː// > *pronounced as //ɔː// occurred after that lengthening but before the loss of phonemicity of length (since words like Hebrew: ירחם with allophonically long pronounced as /[aː]/ show no such shift).
- That is attested to by the testimony of Rabbi Joseph Qimḥi (12th century) and by medieval Arabic transcriptions: . There is also possible evidence from the cantillation marks' behaviour and Babylonian pataḥ: .
- See Hebrew: אֳנִי pronounced as //ʔɔ̆ˈni// 'ships' Hebrew: אֲנִי pronounced as //ʔăˈni// 'I', Hebrew: חֳלִי pronounced as //ħɔ̆ˈli// 'sickness' Hebrew: חֲלִי pronounced as //ħăˈli// 'ornament', Hebrew: עֲלִי pronounced as //ʕăˈli// 'ascend!' (Num 21:17) and Hebrew: בַּעֱלִי pronounced as //baʕɛ̆ˈli// '(with the) pestle' (Prov 27:22). pronounced as //ɛ̆// alternates with pronounced as //ă// frequently and rarely contrasts with it: Hebrew: אֱדוֹם pronounced as //ʔɛ̆ˈðom// 'Edom' versus Hebrew: אֲדֹמִי pronounced as //ʔăðoˈmi// 'Edomite'. pronounced as //ɔ̆// is clearly phonemic but bears minimal functional load. pronounced as //ă// is written both with mobile šwa (Hebrew: ְ) and hataf patah (Hebrew: ֲ).
- It is unclear that a reduced vowel should be considered a whole syllable. For example, a word's stress shifts to a preceding open syllable to avoid it from being adjacent to another stressed syllable skips over ultrashort vowels: Hebrew: עִם־יוֹ֫רְדֵי בוֹר pronounced as //ʕimˈjorăðe vor// 'with those who go down into the pit' Hebrew: מְטֹ֫עֲנֵי חָ֫רֶב pronounced as //măˈtˤoʕăne ˈħɔrɛv// 'pierced with a sword'. See
- These two rules, as well as the rule that metheg changes sheva from an ultrashort to a normal vowel, are recorded by Solomon Almoli in his Halichot Sheva (Constantinople 1519), though he states that these differences are dying out and that in most places vocal sheva is pronounced like segol. In Oriental communities such as the Syrians, these rules continued to be recorded by grammarians into the 1900s (such as Sethon, Menasheh, Kelale Diqduq ha-qeriah, Aleppo 1914), but they were not normally reflected in actual pronunciation. The rules about yodh and metheg, though not the rule about gutturals, is still observed by the Spanish and Portuguese Jews of Amsterdam: Rodrigues Pereira, Martin, 'Hochmat Shelomoh.
References
Bibliography
- Book: Bar-Asher, M.. Scripta Hierosolymitana Volume XXXVII Studies in Mishnaic Hebrew. 1998.
- Book: Blau, Joshua . Joshua Blau. Phonology and Morphology of Biblical Hebrew. 2010. Eisenbrauns. Winona Lake, Indiana. 978-1-57506-129-0.
- Book: Dotan, A.. The Diqduqe Hatte'amim of Aharon ben Moshe ben Asher. 1967.
- Book: Eldar, I.. The Art of Correct Reading of the Bible. 1994.
- Book: Ginsburg, C.D.. Introduction to the Massoretico-Critical Edition of the Hebrew Bible. 1897.
- Book: Golomb, D. M.. Working with no Data: Semitic and Egyptian Studies presented to Thomas O. Lambdin. 1987.
- Book: Hayyim, Z. B.. Studies in the Traditions of the Hebrew Language. 1954.
- Book: Janssens, Gerard. Studies in Hebrew historical linguistics based on Origen's Secunda. Orientalia Gandensia. 9. 1982. Uitgeverij Peeters. 978-2-8017-0189-8.
- Book: Malone, Joseph L.. Tiberian Hebrew phonology. 1993. Winona Lake, IN. Eisenbrauns.
- Book: Sáenz-Badillos, Angel. A History of the Hebrew Language. 1993. Cambridge University Press. 0-521-55634-1.
- Book: Yeivin, Israel. Introduction to the Tiberian Masorah. 1980. Scholars Press. 0-89130-373-1.
