Comments on: HBRW WTHT VWLS GN (Hebrew Without Vowels Again)

By: Codex: Biblical Studies Blogspot » Blog Archive » MR HBRW WTHT VWLS (More Hebrew without Vowels)

Thu, 17 May 2007 14:08:14 +0000

[...] of the Presbyterian Theological Centre in Sydney, Australia sent me this poetic response to Jessica Shaver’s poem: TH MTRS [...]

By: Bob Macdonald

Bob Macdonald — Wed, 09 May 2007 20:26:19 +0000

Here’s an example I invented in response to a comment on the SBL article by Griffin on Killing a Dead Language (good arguments):

‘i lrn )nglsh frm ‘ bk
- works using mater lectiones to point the glottal stops.

By: Chris Weimer

Chris Weimer — Mon, 07 May 2007 19:23:53 +0000

I agree with Bob MacDonald. However, I think I have the poem still…

The alphabet is hard to master;
Reading back to frontâ€™s a disaster.
UNless heâ€™s read the clssifieds,
where truth, abbreviated, hides,
the would-be reader of the Bible,
presented with the text, is liable
to turn and run with shrieks and howels-
the hebrew Scriptures have no vowels!

Line 2, since there’s nothing to indicate that a vowel is needed, I went ahead and supplied “a” before “disaster” because otherwise it would sound awkward…

By: bob macdonald

bob macdonald — Mon, 07 May 2007 15:16:30 +0000

The idea is useful but the example immediately suffers from the absense of a letter – consonant – in English that represents a glottal stop. alphabet requires an aleph or an ayin to give a legitmate start to the syllable.