Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics
Get access
Subject: Language And Linguistics
Edited by: Geoffrey Khan
Associate editors: Shmuel Bolozky, Steven Fassberg, Gary A. Rendsburg, Aaron D. Rubin, Ora R. Schwarzwald, Tamar Zewi
The Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics Online offers a systematic and comprehensive treatment of all aspects of the history and study of the Hebrew language from its earliest attested form to the present day.
The Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics Online features advanced search options, as well as extensive cross-references and full-text search functionality using the Hebrew character set. With over 850 entries and approximately 400 contributing scholars, the Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics Online is the authoritative reference work for students and researchers in the fields of Hebrew linguistics, general linguistics, Biblical studies, Hebrew and Jewish literature, and related fields.
Subscriptions: Brill.com
Associate editors: Shmuel Bolozky, Steven Fassberg, Gary A. Rendsburg, Aaron D. Rubin, Ora R. Schwarzwald, Tamar Zewi
| Help us improve our service |
The Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics Online offers a systematic and comprehensive treatment of all aspects of the history and study of the Hebrew language from its earliest attested form to the present day.
The Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics Online features advanced search options, as well as extensive cross-references and full-text search functionality using the Hebrew character set. With over 850 entries and approximately 400 contributing scholars, the Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics Online is the authoritative reference work for students and researchers in the fields of Hebrew linguistics, general linguistics, Biblical studies, Hebrew and Jewish literature, and related fields.
Subscriptions: Brill.com
Vocalization, Babylonian
(6,877 words)
The term Babylonian vocalization is used to refer to a group of related systems of vocalization that were developed in medieval Babylonia (corresponding broadly to modern Iraq). It was used mainly in medieval biblical manuscripts, but is attested also in manuscripts of other types of Hebrew texts, in particular rabbinic texts and
piyyuṭ. This type of vocalization came to the attention of modern scholarship in the middle of the 19th century, when Abraham Firkovitch discovered a number of Biblical manuscripts containing it in Chufut Kale (Crimea). T…
Vocalization of Medieval Hebrew Poetry
(1,907 words)
Numerous medieval manuscripts of Hebrew poetry are vocalized with Tiberian vocalization signs. Many of these display some amount of irregularity in the application of the graphemes, as well as evidence of non-standard vocalization practices. A large number of such manuscripts that deviate from standard Tiberian vocalization have been preserved in the Cairo Genizah and it is upon this corpus that the following description is based. The majority of the manuscripts of Hebrew poetry in the Cairo Gen…
Vocalization of Modern Hebrew
(3,453 words)
Modern Hebrew is most often written with
scriptio plena and without vocalization. Vocalization is regularly used only in particular types of texts: dictionaries, poetry, books for children and for students of Hebrew, and some religious literature. In other texts vocalization is not used consistently. 1. The Development of the Norm The normative vocalization rules for the current language are published by the Academy of the Hebrew Language. In general they are based on the vocalization of the Bible; the Academy decides on the vocalization of for…
Vocalization of Modern Hebrew and Colloquial Pronunciation
(1,520 words)
The rules for the application of the vocalization and the vowel letters of Modern Hebrew, like its spelling rules in general, are authorized by the Academy of the Hebrew Language. These rules are rather complex, and most of them are no longer known to the general public, even educated speakers. Nowadays, the pronunciation ‘respecting’ these rules is only used by newsreaders, and some linguists and purists. The pronunciation of Modern Hebrew has undergone many phonological changes, as a result of…
Vocalization of Rabbinic Texts
(3,032 words)
1. Overview The aim of this entry is to survey the background and describe the main features of vocalization in rabbinic texts (Mishna, Talmud, and Midrash). The vocalization of rabbinic texts differs in several respects from biblical vocalization: (a) there was never an authoritative reading tradition for rabbinic texts; (b) the vocalization systems employed in rabbinic texts never reached a stage of uniformity; (c) the Tiberian vocalization of the Bible often exerted influence on the vocalization of rabbinic texts, obscuring the genuine reading traditions. These three aspects…
Vocalization, Palestinian
(2,081 words)
1. Introduction The term ‘Palestinian vocalization’ refers to a type of vocalization system that was used during the Middle Ages to represent the Palestinian pronunciation tradition of Hebrew and Jewish Aramaic. The Palestinian vocalization system was used alongside the Tiberian system for some time, but fell out of use probably around the 10th or 11th century (Alloni 1963:31–32). All the texts we possess with Palestinian vocalization originate from the Cairo Genizah. The first text was published …
Vocalization, Palestino-Tiberian
(2,123 words)
1. Introduction The term ‘Palestino-Tiberian vocalization’ (for alternative terms see below, section 3) refers to a type of vocalization that used Tiberian signs to represent a non-Tiberian pronunciation tradition of Hebrew and Aramaic. Its two salient characteristics are an extended use of
dagesh and
rafe, and the free interchange of
qameṣ and
pataḥ , on the one hand, and
ṣere and
seghol, on the other. Unlike its Tiberian counterpart, Palestino-Tiberian vocalization never consolidated into a uniform system, and manuscripts differ as to the principles of its application. Palestino…
Voice
(2,102 words)
1. Definition ‘Voice’ or ‘diathesis’ refers to the relation between an action and its participants (Agent; Patient), as expressed in a clause by the verb and its arguments. Following Classical Greek grammar, a distinction is traditionally made between active, passive, and middle voice. A clause is said to be active when the agent performing the action occupies the position of subject, and the patient affected by it the position of object. In the most common type of passive construction (which may be referred to as the ‘basic passive’, cf…
Voicing
(1,153 words)
Voicing is present when vibration of vocal folds occurs during the production of a segment (vocal folds and vocal cords are used here interchangeably). If the vocal folds vibrate, the segment is voiced, but if they are open and air flows freely with no vibration, the segment is voiceless. Physiologically, voicing occurs when the air flowing from the lungs through the glottis into the vocal tract is impeded by closing and opening the vocal folds. This cyclic vibration can be either voluntary, when voicing is initiated, or involuntary when proper pressure differences exist. Initiating voi…
Voicing
(1,153 words)
Voicing is present when vibration of vocal folds occurs during the production of a segment (vocal folds and vocal cords are used here interchangeably). If the vocal folds vibrate, the segment is voiced, but if they are open and air flows freely with no vibration, the segment is voiceless. Physiologically, voicing occurs when the air flowing from the lungs through the glottis into the vocal tract is impeded by closing and opening the vocal folds. This cyclic vibration can be either voluntary, when voicing is initiated, or involuntary when proper pressure differences exist. Initiating voi…
Date:
2014-10-01
Vowel Harmony
(681 words)
1. Introduction Vowel harmony systems constrain the distribution of vowels in languages, so that vowels in words must have identical feature values. Vowel harmony may affect stems, affixes, and epenthetic (i.e., inserted) vowels. Turkish is a case in which vowel harmony affects affixes as shown in (1). The high vowels in the accusative suffix have the same values for roundness and backness as the stem vowels: (1) Turkish vowel harmony (Kenstowicz 1994:25) Nominative Accusative Gloss
yel
yel-i ‘wind’
dal
dal-ɯ ‘branch’
kol
kol-u ‘arm’ In Wolof (Niger-Congo: Senegal), harmony req…
Vowel Length: Biblical Hebrew
(2,946 words)
The length of vowels represented by the vowel signs in Tiberian Biblical Hebrew is largely predictable from syllable structure and the placement of stress. Vowels are pronounced long when they are either (i) in a stressed syllable or (ii) in an open unstressed syllable. Elsewhere the vowel is pronounced short. Examples: מֶ֫לֶךְ [ˈmεːlεχ] ‘king’, יִשְׁמַ֫ע [jiʃˈmaːʕ] ‘he hears’, חָכְמָ֫ה [ḥɔχˈmɔː] ‘wisdom’, הַה֫וּא [haːˈhuː] ‘that’, מִח֫וּץ [miːˈḥuːṣ] ‘outside’. In the orthography short [u] is predominantly represented by
qibbuṣ, e.g., יֻקַּ֫ם [yuqˈqaːm] ‘he will be avenged’, b…
Vowel Length: Modern Hebrew
(484 words)
Israeli Hebrew possesses the following vowel phonemes:
a, e, i, o, u. Vowel length is environmentally determined and not phonemic; it tends to be affected by degree of stress, and pretonic lengthening may also occur, mostly in open syllables (Pretonic Lengthening: Modern Hebrew). In one class of cases, however, vowel length may be argued to have re-emerged as a semi-distinctive feature. When a glottal (אʾ or ה
h) or pharyngeal (עʿ) consonant is lost, a two-vowel sequence arises; if the two vowels are identical, they merge into a single long vowel: תעבוד
taʿavod ‘you will work’ >
taavod >
ta:v…
Vow Formulae: Biblical Hebrew
(2,658 words)
A vow is a sacred voluntary and conditional promise to dedicate oneself or members of one’s family or community to a special obligation that goes beyond usual social or religious requirements. Vows are explicitly voluntary, but once made, vows become binding. Hence, vows often involve promises of tangible gifts (frequently a sacrifice) to a deity if that deity responds positively to the petition of the individual (a wish granted, a danger escaped, or a difficult undertaking accomplished) or a pr…