Tiberian Hebrew

Closeup of Aleppo Codex, Joshua 1:1

Tiberian Hebrew is the canonical pronunciation of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh committed to writing by Masoretic scholars living in the Jewish community of Tiberias in ancient Judea c. 750–950 CE. They wrote in the form of Tiberian vocalization,^[1] which employed diacritics added to the Hebrew letters: vowel signs and consonant diacritics (nequdot) and the so-called accents (two related systems of cantillation signs or te'amim). These together with the marginal notes masora magna and masora parva make up the Tiberian apparatus.

Though the written vowels and accents came into use only c. 750 CE, the oral tradition they reflect is many centuries older, with ancient roots. Although not in common use today, the Tiberian pronunciation of Hebrew is considered by textual scholars to be the most accurate reproduction of the original Semitic consonantal and vowel sounds of ancient Hebrew.

Sources

Page from Aleppo Codex, Deuteronomy

Today's Hebrew grammar books do not teach the Tiberian Hebrew that was described by the early grammarians. The prevailing view is that of David Qimchi's system of dividing the graphic signs into "short" and "long" vowels. The values assigned to the Tiberian vowel signs reveals a Sephardi tradition of pronunciation (the dual quality of qames (אָ) as /a/, /o/; the pronunciation of simple sheva (אְ) as /ɛ̆/).

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

• The Aleppo Codex of the Hebrew Bible and ancient manuscripts of the Tanakh cited in the margins of early codices, all which preserve direct evidence in a graphic manner of the application of vocalization rules such as the widespread use of chateph vowels where one would expect simple sheva, thus clarifying the color of the vowel pronounced under certain circumstances. Most prominent are the use of chateph chireq in five words under a consonant that follows a guttural vocalized with regular chireq (as described by Israel Yeivin) as well as the anomalous use of the raphe sign over letters that do not belong to בגדכפ"ת or א"ה.
• The explicit statements found in grammars of the 10th and 11th centuries, including the Sefer haQoloth ספר הקולות of Moshe ben Asher (published by N. Allony); the Sefer Dikdukei ha-Te'amim (ספר דקדוקי הטעמים Grammar or Analysis of the Accents) of Aaron ben Moses ben Asher; the anonymous works entitled Horayath haQoré הורית הקורא (G. Khan and Ilan Eldar attribute it to the Karaite Abu Alfaraj Harun); the Treatise on the Schwa (published by Kurt Levy from a Genizah fragment in 1936), and Ma'amar haschewa מאמר השוא (published from Genizah material by Allony); the works of medieval Sephardi grammarians including Abraham Ibn Ezra and Judah ben David Hayyuj.

In the last two, it is evident that the chain of transmission is breaking down or that their interpretations are influenced by local tradition.

• Ancient manuscripts that preserve similar dialects of Hebrew or Palestinian Aramaic but are vocalized in Tiberian signs in a "vulgar" manner and so reveal a phonetic spelling rather than a phonemic spelling. These include the so-called "pseudo-Ben Naphtali" or "Palestinian-Sephardi" vocalized manuscripts, which generally conform to the rules enumerated below, such as pronouncing sheva as /ĭ/ before consonantal yod, as in /bĭji/ בְּיִ.
• Other traditions such as the vocalization of the Land of Israel and (to a lesser extent) the Babylonian vocalization. Each community (Palestinian, Tiberian, Babylonian) developed systems of notation for pronunciation in each dialect, some of which are common among the traditions.
• Transcriptions of Biblical text into Arabic characters and then vocalized with Tiberian signs (by members of the Karaite community); they provide an aid to pronouncing Tiberian Hebrew, especially for syllable structure and vowel length (which is marked in Arabic by matres lectionis and the sign sukun).
• Various oral traditions, especially that of Yemenite Hebrew pronunciation and the Karaite tradition; both have preserved old features that correspond to Tiberian tradition, such as the pronunciation of schwa according to its proximity to gutturals or yod.

Phonology

Vowels

This vowel chart gives a general idea of the vowel space of Tiberian Hebrew. It is not meant to be a precise mapping of the tongue positions, which would be impossible to do anyway since there are no native speakers of Tiberian Hebrew.

Figurines holding Tiberian vowel diacritics. Limestone and basalt artwork at the shore in Tiberias.

Tiberian Hebrew phonemic vowels^[2]

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Close-mid	e	o
Open-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Open	a
Reduced	ă ɔ̆ (ɛ̆)1

1. marginal

The vowel qualities /a e i ɔ o u/ have phonemic status: אָשָׁם הוּא אָשֹׁם אָשַׁם (Lev. 5:19) and אָשֵׁם 'guilty', אִם 'when' and אֵם 'mother'.^[3] /ɛ/ has phonemic value in final stressed position רְעֶה רְעִי רָעָה, מִקְנֶה מְקַנֵּה, קָנֶה קָנָה קָנֹה, but in other positions, it may reflect loss of the opposition /a/: /i/.^[3] By the Tiberian period, all short vowels in stressed syllables had lengthened, making vowel length allophonic.^{[4][nb 1]} Vowels in open or stressed syllables had allophonic length (such as /a/ in יְרַחֵם, which was previously short).^{[5][nb 2]}

The Tiberian tradition possesses three reduced (ultrashort, hatuf) vowels /ă ɔ̆ ɛ̆/ of which /ɛ̆/ has questionable phonemicity.^{[6][7][nb 3]} /ă/, under a non-guttural letter, was pronounced as an ultrashort copy of the following vowel before a guttural (וּבָקְעָה [uvɔqɔ̆ˈʕɔ]) and as [ĭ] preceding /j/, (תְדַמְּיוּנִי [θăðammĭˈjuːni]). However, it was always pronounced as [ă] under gutturals: חֲיִי [ħăˈji].^[8][9]

Orthography

The simple sheva sign changes its pronunciation depending on its position in the word (mobile/vocal or quiescent/zero), as well as due to its proximity to certain consonants.

In the examples given below, it has been preferred to show one found precisely in the Bible which represents each phenomenon in a graphic manner (i.e. a chateph vowel), although these rules still apply when there is only simple sheva (depending on the manuscript or edition used).

When the simple sheva appears in any of the following positions, it is regarded as mobile (na):

• At the beginning of a word. This includes the sheva (originally the first of the word) following the attached particles bi-,ki-,li- and u- and preceded by metheg (the vertical line placed to the left of the vowel sign, which stands for either secondary stress, or its lengthening). Examples: וּזֲהַב /ˌʔuːzăˈhaːv/ Genesis 2:12; בִּסֲבָךְ /ˈbiːsăvɔx/ Psalms 74:5. But is not pronounced if there is no metheg; that is, they form a closed syllable.
• The sheva following these three vowels /e/, /ɔ/, /o/, except for known types of closed syllables (and preceded or not, by metheg). Examples: נֵלֲכָה-נָּא /ˌneːlăxɔˈnːɔː/ Exodus 3:18; אֵלֲכָה נָּא /ˈʔeːlăxɔː ˈnɔː/ Exodus 4:18.
• The second of two adjacent shevas, when both appear under different consonants. Examples: אֶכְתֲּבֶנּוּ /ʔɛxtăˈvɛːnːuː/ Jeremiah 31:33; וָאֶשְׁקֲלָה-לֹּו /wɔːʔɛʃqălɔˈlːoː/ Jeremiah 32:9 (except for at the end of a word, אָמַרְתְּ /ʔɔːˈmaːrt/).
• The sheva under the first of two identical consonants, preceded by metheg. Examples: בְּחַצֲצֹן /băˌћaːsˤăˈsˤoːn/ Gen. 14:7; צָלֲלוּ /sˤɔːlăˈluː/ Exodus: 15:10.
• The sheva under a consonant with dagesh forte or lene. Examples: סֻבֳּלוֹ /suɓbɔ̆ˈloː/ Isaiah 9:3; אֶשְׁתֳּלֶנּוּ /ʔɛʃtăˈlɛːnːuː/ Ezekiel 17:23.
• The sheva under a consonant which expects gemination, but is not marked thus, for example, the one found under ר. And sometimes even מ when preceded by the article. Examples: מְבָרֲכֶיךָ /măvɔːʀăˈxɛːxɔː/ Genesis 12:3; הַמֲדַבְּרִים /haːmăðaɓbăˈʀiːm/ 2 Chronicles 33:18.
• In case a quiescent sheva was followed either by a guttural or yodh, it would turn into mobile according to the rules given below, if preceded by a metheg. Ancient manuscripts support this view. Examples: נִבֳהָל /niːvɔ̆ˈhɔːl/ Proverbs 28:22; שִׁבֲעַת /ʃiːvăˈʕaːθ/ Job 1:3.
• Any sheva with the sign metheg attached to it, would change an ultrashort vowel to a short, or normal length vowel. For this, only ancient, reliable manuscripts can give us a clear picture, since, with time, later vocalizers added to the number of methegs found in the Bible.

The gutturals (אהח"ע), and yodh (י), affect the pronunciation of the sheva preceding them. The allophones of the phoneme /ă/ follow these two rules:

• It would change its sound to imitate that of the following guttural. וּקֳהָת /ˌʔuːqɔ̆ˈhɔːθ/ Numbers 3:17; וְנִזְרֳעָה /wănizrɔ̆ˈʕɔː/ Numbers 5:28.
• It would be pronounced as ḥireq before consonantal yodh. Examples: יִרְמִיָהוּ /jiʀmĭˈjɔːhuː/ Jeremiah 21:1; עִנִייָן /ʕiːnĭˈjɔːn/ in Maimonides' autograph in his commentary to the Mishnah.^{[nb 5]}

It must be said that, even though there are no special signs apart /ɛ̆/, /ă/, /ɔ̆/ to denote the full range of furtive vowels, these remaining four (/u/, /i/, /e/, /o/) are represented by simple sheva (chateph chireq (אְִ) in the Aleppo Codex is a scribal oddity, and certainly not regular in Hebrew manuscripts with Tiberian vocalization).

All other cases should be treated as zero vowel (quiescent, nah), including the double final sheva (double initial sheva does not exist in this Hebrew dialect), and the sheva in the words שְׁתַּיִם /ˈʃtaːjim/ and שְׁנַיִם /ˈʃnaːjim/, read by the Tiberian Masoretes as אֶשְׁתַּיִם /ʔɛʃˈtaːjim/ and אֶשְׁנַיִם /ʔɛʃˈnaːjim/ respectively. This last case has similarities with phenomena occurring in the Samaritan pronunciation and the Phoenician language.

Depending on the school of pronunciation (and relying on musical grounds, perhaps), the metheg sign served to change some closed syllables into open ones, and therefore, changing the vowel from short to long, and the quiescent sheva, into a mobile one.

That is referenced specifically by medieval grammarians:

If one argues that the dalet of 'Mordecai' (and other letters in other words) has hatef qames, tell him, 'but this sign is only a device used by some scribes to warn that the consonants should be pronounced fully, and not slurred over'.

— Abu al-Faraj Harun, Hidāyat al-Qāri (Horayat Ha-Qore), quoted in Yeivin (1980:283–284)

The names of the vowel diacritics are iconic and show some variation:

The names of the vowels are mostly taken from the form and action of the mouth in producing the various sounds, as פַּתַ֫ח‬ opening; צֵרֵ֫י‬ a wide parting (of the mouth), also שֶׁ֫בֶר‬) breaking, parting (cf. the Arab, kasr); חִ֫ירֶק‬ (also חִרֶק‬) narrow opening; ח֫וֹלֶם‬ closing, according to others fullness, i.e. of the mouth (also מְלֹא פּוּם‬ fullness of the mouth). קָ֫מֶץ‬ also denotes a slighter, as שׁוּרֶק‬ and קִבּוּץ‬ (also קבוץ פּוּם‬) a firmer, compression or contraction of the mouth. Segôl (סְגוֹל‬ bunch of grapes) takes its name from its form. So שָׁלֹשׁ נְקֻדּוֹת‬ (three points) is another name for Qibbúṣ. Moreover the names were mostly so formed (but only later), that the sound of each vowel is heard in the first syllable (קָמֶץ‬ for קֹמֶץ‬,‎ פַּתַח‬ for פֶּתַח‬,‎ צֵרִי‬ for צְרִי‬); in order to carry this out consistently some even write Sägôl, Qomeṣ-ḥatûf, Qûbbûṣ.

— Wilhelm Gesenius, Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar, §8d

Notes

References