[Mesorah] Kimchi's rules

[Sholom Simon]

>
> Which of these vowels did not exist before Kimchi? Surely they are all
> there in the Masoretic text. It seems to me to make more sense to say that
> Kimchi, rather than "inventing" anything, systematized and made consistent
> what existed before him.
>

Did the difference between a "chirik" and a "chirik followed by a yud"
exist at the time of the Masorites?  Same question with kubutz/shuruk.  In
other words, was there a tradition in the 10th century that these should be
pronounced differently?  Or that there was any difference between them
(other than how they looked)?

So, perhaps Kimchi didn't invent anything, but perhaps he systematized
something that did not go back to the 10th century?  (In other words,
perhaps he "invented" the notion that his pronunciation was part of the
mesora?)

-- Sholom
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