Penult Stressing Replacing Ultimate Stressing in Pre-Exilic Hebrew

Abstract

In the article "The Antepenult Stressing of Old Hebrew and Its Influence on the Shaping of the Vowels" (AJSL, LVI [July, 1939], 225-30) I pointed out that in Hebrew the lengthening of an originally short vowel was due to the fact that this short vowel in a certain period bore the main stress of the word. But if we try to apply this observation to words and word forms such as debarim (from dabartm), maq6m (from maqdmum), sedaqt (from sadaqdtum), debardi (from dabardiia), debardy (from dabardihu), etc., a difficulty presents itself which might seem to indicate that these cases must be exceptions to the rule. As I showed in a paper on the plural formation in the Semitic languages (read in 1921 at the Deutsche Philologentag at Jena), the plural of ddbarum according to rule was dabardm) (gen.-acc. dabarim) in the oldest Hebrew, formed from the singular by lengthening the vowel of the case ending -um and moving the stress which in the singular rested on the antepenult to the now lengthened final syllable. The ultimate stress of the plural dedbarm of Massoretic Hebrew therefore would seem to be simply a continuation of the Old Semitic stressing, a fact which, however, in view of the conclusions drawn in the article just mentioned, would have offered no opportunity for lengthening the second a of dabarlm, since this form should regularly develop to **diberim and not to deb arim. Similarly, if the Massoretic forms mdq8m, seddqAt, debcarda, and debdrdy simply continued the Old Semitic