Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/48

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

FIRST PART

ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES OR THE SOUNDS AND CHARACTERS

CHAPTER I

THE INDIVIDUAL SOUNDS AND CHARACTERS

§5. The Consonants: their Forms and Names.

(Cf. the Table of Alphabets.)

Among the abundant literature on the subject, special attention is directed to: A. Berliner, Beitrage zurhebr. Gramm., Berlin, 1879, p. 15 ff., on the names, forms, and pronunciation of the consonants in Talmud and Midrash; H. Strack, Schreibkunst u. Schrift bei d. Hebräern, PRE.³, Lpz. 1906, p. 766 ff.; Benzinger, Hebr. Archäologie², Tübingen, 1907, p. 172 ff.; Nowack, Lehrbicch d. hebr. Archäologie², Freiburg, 1894, i. 279 ff.; Lidzbarski, Handbuch d. nordsem. Epigraphik, Weimar, 1898, i. I73ff.; also his art. 'Hebrew Alphabet,' in the Jewish Encyclopaedia, i, 1901, p. 439 ff. (cf. his Ephemeris, i. 316 ff.); and 'Die Namen der Alphabetbuchstaben', in Ephemeris, ii. 125 ff.; Kenyon, art. 'Writing,' in the Dictionary of the Bible, iv. Edinb. 1902, p. 944 ff.; Nöldeke, 'Die semit. Buchstabennamen,' in Beitr. sur semit. Sprachwiss., Strassb. 1904, p. 124 ff.; F. Praetorius, Ueber den Ursprung des kanaan. Alphabets, Berlin, 1906; H. Grimme, 'Zur Genesis des semit. Alphabets,' in ZA. xx. 1907, p. 49 ff.; R. Stübe, Grundlinien su einer Entwickelungsgesch, d. Schrift, Munich, 1907; Jermain, In the path of the Alphabet, Fort Wayne, 1907.—L. Blau, Studien zum althebr. Buchwesen, &c., Strassb. 1902; and his 'Ueber d. Einfluss d. althebr. Buchwesens auf d. Originale', &c., in Festschr. zu Ehren A. Berliners, Frkf. 1903.

The best tables of alphabets are those of J. Euting in G. Bickell's Outlines of Heb. Gram., transl. by S. I. Curtiss, Lpz. 1877; in Pt. vii of the Oriental Series of the Palaeographical Soc., London, 1882; and, the fullest of all, in Chwolson's Corpus inscr. Hebr., Petersburg, 1882; also Lidzbarski's in the Jewish Encycl., see above.

[a] 1. The Hebrew letters now in use, in which both the manuscripts of the O.T. are written and our editions of the Bible are printed, commonly called the square character (כְּתָב מְרֻבָּע), also the Assyrian character (כְּ׳ אַשּׁוּרִי),^[1] are not those originally employed.

Old Hebrew (or Old Canaanitish^[2]) writing, as it was used on

↑ The name אַשּׁוּר (Assyria) is here used in the widest sense, to include the countries on the Mediterranean inhabited by Aramaean; cf. Stade in ZAW. 1882, p. 292 f. On some other names for Old Hebrew writing, cf. G. Hoffmann, ibid. 1881, p. 334 ff.; Buhl, Canon and Text of the O.T. (transl. by J. Macpherson), Edinb. 1893, p. 200.
↑ It is tacitly assumed here that this was the mother of all Semitic alphabets. In ZDMG. 1909, p. 189 ff., however, Prätorius has shown good grounds for believing that the South Semitic alphabet is derived not from the Mêšaʿ character, or from some kindred and hardly older script, but from some unknown and much earlier form of writing.

[1] The name אַשּׁוּר (Assyria) is here used in the widest sense, to include the countries on the Mediterranean inhabited by Aramaean; cf. Stade in ZAW. 1882, p. 292 f. On some other names for Old Hebrew writing, cf. G. Hoffmann, ibid. 1881, p. 334 ff.; Buhl, Canon and Text of the O.T. (transl. by J. Macpherson), Edinb. 1893, p. 200.

[2] It is tacitly assumed here that this was the mother of all Semitic alphabets. In ZDMG. 1909, p. 189 ff., however, Prätorius has shown good grounds for believing that the South Semitic alphabet is derived not from the Mêšaʿ character, or from some kindred and hardly older script, but from some unknown and much earlier form of writing.

[1]

[2]