Re: The display of *kholam* on PCs

From: Chris Jacobs (c.t.m.jacobs@hccnet.nl)
Date: Wed Mar 05 2003 - 13:27:49 EST

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    ----- Original Message -----
    From: "Dean Snyder" <dean.snyder@jhu.edu>
    To: "Unicode List" <unicode@unicode.org>
    Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2003 4:57 PM
    Subject: Re: The display of *kholam* on PCs

    > Chris Jacobs wrote at 12:54 AM on Wednesday, March 5, 2003:
    >
    > >But why do you call the kholam a "high left dot"?
    > >
    > >As far as I know it can appear high left or middle, to indicate that it
    > >should be pronounced after the consonant, or right, to pronounce it before.
    > >So the meaning of a shin with two dots above it is ambiguous,
    >
    > In classical Hebrew KHOLEM always represents a trailing vowel, i.e. it is
    > always pronounced after the consonant over which it is written. [In fact
    > I can't think of ANY vowel sign in classical Hebrew which represents a
    > pronunciation that precedes the consonant to which it is associated,
    > ignoring, for obvious reasons, written/read (kethib/qere) orthographies,
    > where the vowels indicate what is to be read in spite of the consonants
    > that are written.] And so the graphemic sequence SHIN KHOLEM is never
    > ambiguous in classical Hebrew. (I don't know about modern Israeli Hebrew.)

    "When holem precedes א, the point is placed on the
    upper right of the letter, as with יֹאמַר (yō’mǎr).
    When it follows the א, the point is placed on the
    upper left, as in אֹבֵד (’ōbhēdh). When holem precedes
    שׁ, the points coincide, as with מֹשֶׁל (mōšěl).
    When holem follows שׂ, the points again coincide as
    with שֹׂטֵן (sōṭēn). The letter שֹׁ will be "šō" to
    commence a syllabe, e.g., שֹׁמַע (šōmǎ‘), and "ōs" in
    other places."

    [ R.K. Harrison, Teach Yourself Biblical Hebrew ]

    In the Bagster Polyglot Bible, Hebrew-English Old Testament, translation Everard van der Hooght,
    Genesis 1.3 "weyyomer elohiem" "And God said"
    the holem is clearly above the aleph, not above the yod.
    I see in fact _another_ example of a holem to the right, which Harrison did not mention:
    the holem in "elohiem" is above the he, not above the lamed.

    > About the only "unusual" orthographic phenomenon I can think of related
    > to KHOLEM is that when it occurs after SIN it "shares the same dot" with SIN.

    And if those dots were above different letters there were no reason why they should share.

    > Respectfully,
    >
    > Dean A. Snyder
    > Scholarly Technology Specialist
    > Center For Scholarly Resources, Sheridan Libraries
    > Garrett Room, MSE Library, 3400 N. Charles St.
    > The Johns Hopkins University
    > Baltimore, Maryland, USA 21218
    >
    > office: 410 516-6850 mobile: 410 245-7168 fax: 410-516-6229
    > Manager, Digital Hammurabi Project: www.jhu.edu/digitalhammurabi
    > Manager, Initiative for Cuneiform Encoding: www.jhu.edu/ice



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