The Vowels and their transformations in Biblical Hebrew
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2317-8051.cllh.2022.200973Keywords:
Vowels, Hebrew, Vowel reductionAbstract
This study aims to analyze the process of transformation of vowels in the Hebrew language, in the classical or biblical period, starting from the traditional vowel triangle of Semitic languages, and to show that this developed vowel system dates back to Proto-semitic. Starting from the three vowels /a/, /i/ and /u/ we try to show how the Hebrew vowels developed, generating 2 more vowels, namely the /e/ and /o/. As in Hebrew the ligament of a suffix to a word, verb or noun, leads to the displacement of the stressed syllable, thus causing a vowel reduction in the pretonic or pro-pretonic syllable. A phenomenon that deserves to be studied, because how would one understand what happens to the word dāvār, which in the singular construct becomes dǝvar and in the plural dǝvārim and in the plural construct divrê. This study aims to explain and analyze this phenomenon, showing that it is also important for the understanding of vowel changes that happen today in spoken Hebrew.
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