Hebrew stress: Back to the future

Outi Bat-El*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

The paper addresses historical changes in the stress system of Hebrew, attending to the difference between Biblical Hebrew (script-based) and contemporary Hebrew (attested), and predicting the system of post-Hebrew; on the basis of experimental evidence and words from the periphery of the lexicon, it is predicted that the stress system of post-Hebrew will be similar to that of Biblical Hebrew. The predicted change from contemporary Hebrew to post-Hebrew is attributed to a combination of two factors: the inconsistency of the present system, and its incompliance with universal principles. The changes are addressed in terms of constraint reranking within the framework of Optimality Theory.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3-27
Number of pages25
JournalActa Linguistica Academica
Volume65
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2018

Funding

FundersFunder number
British Society for Geomorphology

    Keywords

    • Biblical Hebrew
    • Historical change
    • Modern Hebrew
    • Optimality Theory
    • Stress
    • Trochee

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