This page was corrected according to Additions and Corrections that appear in the 1910 edition.
[d] The names of the vowels are mostly taken from the form and action of the mouth in producing the various sounds, as פַּ֫תַח opening; צֵ֫רֵי a wide parting (of the mouth), also שֶׁ֫בֶר (=ĭ) 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[1] fullness of the mouth). קָ֫מֶץ[2] 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 Qibbûṣ.
[e] 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, Qübbûṣ.
[f] 2. As the above examples show, the vowel sign stands regularly under the consonant, after which it is to be pronounced, רָ rā, רַ ră, רֵ rē, רֻ rŭ, &c. The Pathaḥ called furtivum (§ 22 f) alone forms an exception to this rule, being pronounced before the consonant, רוּחַ rûaḥ (wind, spirit). The Ḥōlĕm (without wāw) stands on the left above the consonant; רֹ rō (but לֹ lō). If א, as a vowel letter, follows a consonant which is to be pronounced with ō, the point is placed over its right arm, thus בֹא, רֹאשׁ; but e.g. בֹאָם, since א here begins a syllable.
[g] No dot is used for the Ḥolem when ō (of course without wāw) is pronounced after śîn or before šîn. Hence שׂנֵא śônē (hating), נְשׂא neśō (to bear), משֶׁה môšè (not מֹשֶׁה); but שֹׁמֵר šômēr (a watchman). When ō precedes the śîn, the dot is placed over its right arm, e.g. יִרְפּשֹׁ yirpōś (he treads with the feet), הַנּֽשְֹׁאִים (those who carry).
In the sign וֹ, the ו may also be a consonant. The וֹ is then either to be read ōw (necessarily so when a consonant otherwise without a vowel precedes, e.g. לֹוֶה lôwè, lending) or wō, when a vowel already precedes the ו, e.g. עָוֹן ʿāwôn (iniquity) for עָווֹן. In more exact printing, a distinction is at least made between וֹ wo and וֹ (i.e. either ô or, when another vowel follows the wāw, ôw[3]).
- ↑ On the erroneous use of the term melo pum, only in Germany, for šûreq (hence also pronounced melu pum to indicate û), see E. Nestle, ZDMG. 1904, p. 597 ff.; Bacher, ibid., p. 799 ff., Melopum; Simonsen, ibid., p. 807 ff.
- ↑ The usual spelling קָמֶץ and פַּתַח takes the words certainly rightly as Hebrew substantives; according to De Lagarde (Gött. gel. Anz. 1886, p. 873, and so previously Luzzatto), קָמֵץ and פָתַח are rather Aram. participles, like Dageš, &c., and consequently to be transliterated Qâmeṣ and Pâthaḥ.
- ↑ Since 1846 we have become acquainted with a system of vocalization different in many respects from the common method. The vowel signs, all except וּ, are there placed above the consonants, and differ almost throughout in form, and some even as regards the sound which they denote: {Babylonian â/ā mark} = â, ā, {Babylonian ă/è mark} = tone-bearing ă and è, {Babylonian ê/ē mark} = ê, ē, {Babylonian î mark} = î, {Babylonian ô/ō mark} = ô, ō, {Babylonian û mark} = û. In an unsharpened syllable {Babylonian toneless ă/è mark} = toneless ă and è, and also Ḥaṭeph Pathaḥ; {Babylonian toneless ĕ mark} = toneless ĕ and Ḥaṭeph Seghôl; {Babylonian ĭ mark} = ĭ, {Babylonian ŭ mark} = ŭ, {Babylonian ŏ mark} = ŏ, and Ḥaṭeph Qameṣ. Lastly in toneless syllables before Dageš, {Babylonian ă mark} = ă, {Babylonian ĕ mark} = ĕ, {Babylonian i mark} = i, {Babylonian ŭ mark} = ŭ, {Babylonian å̆ mark} = å̆. Šewâ is {Babylonian Šewâ mark}. The accents differ less and stand in some cases under the line of the consonants. Besides this complicated system of the Codex Babylonicus (see below) and other MSS., there is a simpler one, used in Targums. It is still uncertain whether the latter is the foundation of the former (as Merx, Chrest. Targ. xi, and Bacher, ZDMG. 1895, p. 15 ff.), or is a later development of it among the Jews of South Arabia (as Praetorius, ZDMG. 1899, p. 181 ff.). For the older literature on this Babylonian punctuation (נִקּוּד בַּבְלִי), as it is called, see A. Harkavy and H. L. Strack, Katalog der hebr. Bibelhandschr. der Kaiserl. öffentl. Bibliothek zu St. Petersb., St. Petersb. and Lpz., 1875, parts i and ii, p. 223 ff. A more thorough study of the system was made possible by H. Strack’s facsimile edition of the Prophetarum posteriorum codex Babylonicus Petropolitanus (St. Petersb., 1876, la. fol.) of the year 916, which Firkowitsch discovered in 1839, in the synagogue at Tschufutkale in the Crimea. The MS. has been shown by Ginsburg (Recueil des travaux rédigés en mémoire... de Chwolson, Berlin, 1899, p. 149, and Introd., pp. 216 ff., 475 f.) to contain a recension of the Biblical text partly Babylonian and partly Palestinian; cf. also Barnstein, The Targum of Onkelos to Genesis, London, 1896, p. 6 f. Strack edited a fragment of it in Hosea et Joel prophetae ad fidem cod. Babylon. Petrop., St. Petersb. 1875. Cf. also the publication by A. Merx, quoted above, § 7 h, and his Chrestomathia Targumica, Berlin, 1888; G. Margoliouth, in the PSBA. xv. 4, and M. Gaster, ibid.; P. Kahle, Der masoret. Text des A.T. nach d. Überlief. der babyl. Juden, Lpz. 1902, with the valuable review by Rahlfs in GGA. 1903, no. 5; Nestle, ZDMG. 1905, p. 719 (Babylonian {Babylonian ă/è mark} = ע. According to the opinion formerly prevailing, this Babylonian punctuation exhibits the system which was developed in the Eastern schools, corresponding to and contemporaneous with the Western or Tiberian system, although a higher degree of originality, or approximation to the original of both systems of punctuation, was generally conceded to the latter. Recently, however, Wickes, Accents of the Twenty-one Books, Oxford, 1887, p. 142 ff, has endeavoured to show, from the accents, that the ‘Babylonian’ punctuation may certainly be an Oriental, but is by no means the Oriental system. It is rather to be regarded, according to him, as a later and not altogether successful attempt to modify, and thus to simplify, the system common to all the Schools in the East and West. Strack, Wiss. Jahresb. der ZDMG. 1879, p. 124, established the probability that the vowels of the superlinear punctuation arose under Arab influence from the vowel letters יוא (so previously Pinsker and Graetz), while the Tiberian system shows Syrian influence.
A third, widely different system (Palestinian), probably the basis of the other two, is described by A. Neubauer, JQR. vii. 1895, p. 361 ff., and Friedländer, ibid., p. 564 ff., and PSBA. 1896, p. 86 ff.; C. Levias, Journ. of Sem. Lang. and Lit., xv. p. 157 ff.; and esp. P. Kahle, ‘Beitr. zu der Gesch. der hebr. Punktation,’ and in ZAW. 1901, p. 273 ff. and in Der masoret. Text des A.T. (see above), chiefly dealing with the Berlin MS. Or. qu. 680, which contains a number of variants on the biblical text, and frequently agrees with the transcriptions of the LXX and Jerome.
