Tiberian vocalization

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Tiberian Hebrew is an oral tradition of pronunciation for ancient forms of Hebrew, especially the Hebrew of the Tanakh, that was given written form by masoretic scholars in the Jewish community at Tiberias in the early Middle Ages, beginning in the 8th century. This written form employed symbols, called nequddot (for vowels) and cantillation signs, added to the Hebrew letters. Though the written symbols came into use in the early Middle Ages, the oral tradition they reflect is apparently much older, with ancient roots.

The Tiberian system of vocalization for the Tanakh represented its own local tradition. Two other local traditions that created written systems during the same period are referred to geographically as the vocalization of the "Land of Israel" (not identical to Tiberias) and the Babylonian vocalization. The former system had little or no historical influence, but the Babylonian system was dominant in some areas for many centuries, and even survives to this day. Unlike the Tiberian system, which mostly places vowel points under the Hebrew letters, the Babylonian system mostly places them above the letters, and is thus called the "supralinear" vowelisation.

As mentioned above, the Tiberian points were designed to reflect a specific oral tradition for reading the Tanakh. Later they were applied to other texts (one of the earliest being the Mishnah), and used widely by Jews in other places with different oral traditions for how to read Hebrew. Thus the Tiberian vowel points and cantillation signs became a common part of Hebrew writing.

1 Phonology
2 Syllable Structure
3 Hebrew Bible Editions Today
4 Bibliography
5 External links

[edit] Phonology

The usual Hebrew Grammar Books do not teach Tiberian Hebrew as described by the early grammarians. As a matter of fact, the prevalent view in some of these grammars is the use of David Qimchi's system of "short" and "long" vowels. The values assigned to the Tiberian vowel signs reveals a Sephardi tradition of pronunciation (the dual quality of qames as [ɑ], [o]; the pronunciation of simple schwa as [ɛ]).

The phonology of Tiberian Hebrew can be gleaned by the collation of various sources:

1) The Masoretic text itself, yields some examples (the examples below are taken from Norman Henry Snaith's edition of the Hebrew Bible).

2) The Aleppo Codex of the Bible, and other ancient manuscripts of the Tanakh, cited in the margins of early codices, which actually preserve direct evidence of the application of these rules in the Hebrew Bible in a graphic manner, e.g. the widespread use of chateph vowels where one would expect simple schwa. Most prominent, the use of chateph chireq in five words under a consonant which follows a guttural vocalized with regular chireq, as described by I. Yeivin.

3) The explicit statements found in books of grammar near the 10th and 11th Centuries C.E., such as: The Diqduqé hata'amim of Aaron ben Moses ben Asher; the anonymous works entitled Ta'amé haMiqra (G. Khan and Ilan Eldar attribute it to the Karaite Abu Alfaraj Harun), and Ma'amar haschewa (published by N. Allony); the works of medieval Hebrew grammarians, such as Abraham Ibn Ezra, Judah ben David Hayyuj. In the last two, it is evident that the chain of transmission is already breaking down.

4) Ancient manuscripts which preserve other similar dialects of Hebrew or Palestinian Aramaic, but vocalized in Tiberian signs in a "vulgar" manner, which reveal a "phonetic" spelling, rather than a "phonemic" spelling. This is the case of the so called "Pseudo-Ben Naphtali" or "Palestinian-Sephardi" vocalized manuscripts. These confirm some of the rules enumerated below.

5) Other vocalization traditions such as: the vocalization of the Land of Israel; and, to a lesser extent, the Babylonian vocalization.

6) The transcriptions of the Biblical text made by the members of the Karaite community into Arabic characters, and vocalized with Tiberian signs, help us get a glimpse of the pronunciation of Tiberian Hebrew. This is especially true with regards to syllable structure (which is marked in Arabic by matres lectionis, and the sign sukun).

7) Various oral traditions, especially the oral tradition of Yemenite Hebrew Pronunciation, and the Karaite tradition. The Yemenite tradition has preserved old Tiberian features, such as the pronunciation of schewa according to its proximity to gutturals or yod; some features of its own, and others which were taken from the Babylonian pronunciation.

Vowels

Tiberian Hebrew distinguishes seven vocalic qualities, regardless of length: [i],[e],[ɛ],[ɐ],[ɔ],[o],[u]. There are four special signs to denote ultrashort vowels, whose phonemic value is [ɛ],[ɐ],[ɔ].

Mobile schwa was originally pronounced as [ɐ] and thus, was identical to chateph pathach.

The simple schwa sign changes its pronunciation depending on its position in the word (mobile or quiescent), as well as due to its proximity to gutturals or yod.

When the simple schwa appears in any of the following positions, it is regarded as mobile:

a) At the beginning of a word. This includes the schwa (originally the first of the word) following the attached particles bi-,ki-,li- and u-. Examples: וּזֲהַב [ʔuzɐˈhɐv] Genesis 2:12; בִּסֲבַך [bisɐˈvɐx] Psalms 74:5.

b) The schwa following a reduced dyphtong. Examples: נֵלֲכָה-נָּא [ˌnelɐxɔnˈnɔ] Exodus 3:18; אֵלֲכָה נָּא [ˈʔelɐxɔ ˈnɔ] Exodus 4:18.

c) The second of two adjacent schwas, when both appear under different consonants. Examples: אֶכְתֲּבֶנּוּ [ʔɛxt̪ɐˈvɛnnu] Jeremiah 31:33; וָאֶשְׁקֲלָה-לֹּו [wɔʔɛʃqɐlɔlˈlo] Jeremiah 32:9.

d) The schwa under the first of two identical consonants. Examples: בְּחַצֲצֹן [bɐћɐs̴ɐˈs̴on] Gen. 14:17; צָלֲלוּ [s̴ɔlɐˈlu] Exodus: 15:10.

e) The schwa under a consonant with dagesh forte or lene. Examples: סֻבֳּלוֹ [suɓbɔˈlo] Isaiah 9:3; אֶשְׁתֳּלֶנּוּ [ʔɛʃt̪ɐˈlɛnnu] Ezekiel 17:23.

f) The schwa under a consonant which expects gemination, but is not marked thus, because it belongs to א ה ח ע ר. And sometimes even י ל מ when preceded by the article. Examples: מְבָרֲכֶיךָ [mɐvɔrɐˈxɛxɔ] Genesis 12:3; הַמֲדַבְּרִים [hɐmɐðɐɓbɐˈrim] 2 Chronicles 33:18.

g) In case a quiescent schwa was followed either by a guttural or yodh, it would turn into mobile according to the rules given below. Ancient manuscripts support this view. Examples: נִבֳהָל [nivɔˈhɔl] Proverbs 28:22; שִׁבֲעַת [ʃivɐˈʕɐθ] Job 1:3.

h) Any schwa with the sign metheg attached to it, would change an ultrashort vowel to a short, or normal length vowel. For this, the ancient manuscripts can only give us a clear picture, since, with time, later vocalizers added to the number of methegs found in the Bible.

All other cases should be treated as zero vowel (quiescent), including the double final schwa, and the schewa in the word שְׁתַּיִם [ˈʃt̪ɐjim] ("two", feminine), read by the Tiberian Masoretes as אֶשְׁתַּיִם [ʔɛʃˈt̪ɐjim]. This last case has similitudes with phenomenons occurring in the Samaritan Pronunciation and the Phoenician language.

With respect to its proximity to gutturals and yodh:

a) It would change its sound to imitate that of the following guttural. וּקֳהָת [ʔuqɔˈhɔθ] Numbers 3:17; וְנִזְרֳעָה [wɐnizɾɔˈʕɔ] Numbers 5:28.

b) It would be pronounced as chireq before consonantal yodh. Examples: יִרְמִיָהוּ [jirmiˈjɔhu] Jeremiah 21:1; עִנִייָן [ʕiniˈjɔn] in Maimonides' autograph in his commentary to the Mishnah.

Consonants

Tiberian Hebrew has 33 phonemes represented by 22 letters.

Of these, the most salient characteristics of Tiberian Hebrew are:

- Waw conjunctive was read, before פ מ ב, as אוּ [ʔu], rather than וֻ [wu](as is the case in some eastern reading traditions).

- The possible double pronunciation of yodh. "Soft yodh" always, as consonantal yodh; and "hard yodh" when with dagesh, pronounced similar to the Arabic djim [ʒ].

- In segolates of II Yod, the point under such consonant is not a chireq, but a mappiq, thus, indicating it should be pronounced as a diphthong and as one syllable and not as a two-syllable word.

- The double pronunciation of Resh (Resh dagesh and Resh rafé). Even though there is no agreement as to how it was pronounced (perhaps an apical flap for the soft, and an apical trill for the hard sound, since most oriental communities have these phones), the rules of distribution of such dual pronunciation is given in Diqduqé hata'amim: "Soft" resh before Lamed or Nun, the last two being vocalized with simple schwa; and after Zayin, Daleth, Sin / Samekh, Taw, Tzadi, Teth, punctuated all of them with simple schwa. Hard Resh pronounced thus in all other instances. It was preserved only by the population of Ma'azya which is in Tiberias.

- A possible triple pronunciation of taw. There are three words in the Torah, Prophets and Writings of which is said that "the Taw is pronounced harder than usual".

[edit] Syllable Structure

a) Closed syllables tend to have short vowels. If accented, the vowel is long.

b) Open syllables are always long.

[edit] Hebrew Bible Editions Today

Some time after the close of the Masoretic Era, many of these old features were corrected in manuscripts, or never even marked graphically, and eventually were forgotten, since no Jewish community continued the Tiberian tradition to the last detail (to tell the truth, each community had its own tradition of pronunciation and assigned its phonetic values to the Tiberian signs). This is even more noticeable in our days, where new editions of the Hebrew Bible (except for those based on reliable, ancient manuscripts as diplomatic texts) have changed all of these features of ancient orthography and vocalization for the sake of spelling consistency and to adhere to Jewish Law. Since these days, Israeli Hebrew and traditions such as the Sephardi and Ashkenazic pronounce schwa as [e].