[Mesorah] She'ata / Sha'ata

[HayyimObadyah at aol.com]

RE:  Even the Niqqud of Tanach was not settled until the Masoretes circa 700
CE

This is correct if "settled" means authoritatively documented, put into
writing and accepted by the community.  I think there's often confusion when
people talk about "niqqud" as to whether they are talking about the vowel
sounds or the vowel points.  The scholarly consenus is that the Masoretes
documented a living reading tradition.  I.e., they were not "settling" the
vowel sounds or the cantillation itself, but were creating systems by which
to record the vowel sounds and cantillation that were used in the
traditional reading of the text.  While there were minor differences between
the Eastern and Western traditions, these truly are extremely minor.  And
many of the differences between individual Masoretes or Masoretic schools
(Ben Asher v. Ben Naftali) do not represent differences in reading but
recording.  (Putting hateph vowels under nongutteral letters or not, for
exampe, was a dispute about how to record the pronunciation, not about how
it was pronounced.)

that said, I agree that niqqudoth were applied to prayer books too late to
guide us reliably on the pronunciation of the framers.

-----Original Message-----
From: mesorah-bounces at lists.aishdas.org
[mailto:mesorah-bounces at lists.aishdas.org] On Behalf Of R. Rich Wolpoe
Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2012 1:27 PM
To: David Cohen; mesorah-bounces at lists.aishdas.org; mesorah at aishdas.org
Subject: Re: [Mesorah] She'ata / Sha'ata


DC
« It's hard to prove what was going on in the pre-nikkud era.

-- D.C.»

Indeed how can anyone invoke the Niqqud of anshei K'nesses hagdolah?

Even the Niqqud of Tanach was not settled until the Masoretes circa 700 CE

And there are still different schools  on that too
Shalom and Regards, RRW
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