the Berasit Hebrew Dictionary

This article relies heavily on points raised in the diacritics page, so it is recommended to read that first.

Due to wide spelling variances in any given word in ancient Hebrew, determining correct lexicography and etymologies can be difficult. As a result, there are many Hebrew words which have traditionally been split into multiple words. In some cases there appears to be contextual justification for differential semantics having been applied. In other cases, the spelling variance may have incorrectly led to an unjustified semantic split.

As this phenomenon affects a large number of words, only a small sampling will be examined as examples.

akel is unanimously translated as meaning “eat”. It is used 800 times in the Hebrew scriptures, but with an incredible 480 different spellings!

Many of these spellings include a variety of affixes which as we have already determined show a statistically low correlation with their traditional ostensible meanings.

Within the root word itself, according to the diacritics the first vowel is variously written as א אְ אֱ אֲ אָ אֹ running the range of sounds from long and short A, long and short E, and even a long O.

The second vowel sound is indicated by diacritics on the כ, and includes כָ כַ כֵ כֹ, again running through a range of A, E, and O sounds.

We are left with an acceptable range of pronunciations including ekel, ekeel, ekal, ekayl, ekol, eekel, eekeel, eekal, eekayl, eekol, akel, akeel, akal, akayl, and akol, all of which are supposed to mean “eat”. This is a ridiculous proposal. It is absurd to imagine that any naturally occurring language would have fifteen different ways of pronouncing a simple bi-syllabic root.

aqah uses 416 different spellings for the 978 instances of this simple word meaning “took”.

do hanah, pereket, tsow

In light of these examples, we can conclude with some confidence that the apparent pronunciation differences between two (apparently) “similar root words” does not imply that the roots are different. Conversely, we can be confidant that a root word is consistent in meaning regardless of any perceived pronunciation changes erroneously implied by interpreting diacritics as factors in pronunciation.

This is an important point to consider when examining key words such as the following:

shem

el

see also ghost vowels