Information AboutQ're Perpetuum |
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A "perpetual" ''Q're'' differs from an ordinary ''Q're'' in that there is no note marker and no accompanying marginal note — these are certain commonly-occurring cases of ''Q're''/''Ketibh'' in which the reader is expected to understand that a ''Q're'' exists merely from seeing the vowel points of the ''Q're'' in the consonantal letters of the ''Ketibh''. For example, in the Pentateuch , the third-person singular feminine pronoun היא ''hī'' is (for some unknown reason) commonly spelled the same as the third-person singular masculine pronoun הוא ''hū''. The masoretes indicated this situation by adding a written diacritic symbol for the vowel {Link without Title} to the pre-masoretic consonantal spelling h-w-' הוא (see diagram). The resulting orthography would seem to indicate a pronunciation ''hiw'', but this is meaningless in Biblical Hebrew, and a knowledgeable reader of the Biblical text would know to read the feminine pronoun ''hī'' here. Many scholars hold the view that "Yehowah" (or in Latin transcription "Jehovah") is a pseudo-Hebrew form which was mistakenly created when Medieval and/or Renaissance Christian scholars misunderstood the common ''Q're perpetuum'' of the partial vowel points of Adonai written together with the consonants of the Tetragrammaton YHWH (in order to indicate that written YHWH should be pronounced aloud as "Adonai", as was the usual Jewish practice at the time of the masoretes). This would be a mistake of exactly the same type as reading ''hiw'' for the ''Q're perpetuum'' of the third-person singular feminine pronoun. |