The Vocalic Phonemes of Tiberian Hebrew
Much has been written on the synchronic phonological analysis of Tiberian Hebrew. Most of the literature dealing with this problem, however, is based on outdated ideas about Tiberian Hebrew phonetics. This paper provides a new phonological analysis of the Tiberian Hebrew vowels based on the pronunci...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2018
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| In: |
Hebrew studies
Year: 2018, Volume: 59, Issue: 1, Pages: 193-207 |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Much has been written on the synchronic phonological analysis of Tiberian Hebrew. Most of the literature dealing with this problem, however, is based on outdated ideas about Tiberian Hebrew phonetics. This paper provides a new phonological analysis of the Tiberian Hebrew vowels based on the pronunciation of Tiberian Hebrew as reconstructed by Geoffrey Khan. This results in the identification of three phonemically short vowels, /ɛ̆ . ɔ̆/; five vowels that are underspecified for length, /i ɛ a ɔ u/; and five that are phonemically long, /ī ē ɔ ̄ ō ū/. I conclude that the Tiberian vocalization is largely phonemic, since every vocalic phoneme is always spelled with one and the same vowel sign. Moreover, the occurrence of five underspecified and five phonemically long vowels matches the description of the Hebrew vowels given by Joseph and David Qimhi, suggesting that they, too, aimed to capture the phonemic level of Hebrew phonology. |
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| ISSN: | 2158-1681 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Hebrew studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1353/hbr.2018.0009 |