🌅 We move into the culture of Sefarad by unpacking a famous (and famously vicious) controversy over Hebrew grammar that broke out in the late ninth century.
I absolutely love that there was a period in History where people got fired up about grammar! Its fascinating to see how different areas of Torah resonate with different generations. Like a jewel with many facets, the Torah refracts new glimmers of meaning as it is turned in the hands of each age.
"This would be like if you could hear the difference between a kamatz gadol (אָ) and a patach (אַ)."
All systems of grammar that are based on the Tiberian system must have an audible difference between a patah and kamatz (the distinction between kamatz gadol and katan is itself a product of the Spanish grammatical tradition). Otherwise they would just be the same thing. The distinctive feature of Spanish grammar in this regard is that the distinction between a patah and a kamatz is identified (solely or primarily) with length. This is quite characteristically Spanish not just because it involves importing classical Arabic grammar into Hebrew, but also because of the imperious assumption that because Spanish Jews treated these vowels as phonemically identical then so must the Tiberian system.
Yes, thank you adding this precision. The lack of sound difference was local to Sefarad (and perhaps other areas, but not universal across time and space, as you note).
I absolutely love that there was a period in History where people got fired up about grammar! Its fascinating to see how different areas of Torah resonate with different generations. Like a jewel with many facets, the Torah refracts new glimmers of meaning as it is turned in the hands of each age.
It's that wonder of Torah unfolding that makes this such a passion of mine!
"This would be like if you could hear the difference between a kamatz gadol (אָ) and a patach (אַ)."
All systems of grammar that are based on the Tiberian system must have an audible difference between a patah and kamatz (the distinction between kamatz gadol and katan is itself a product of the Spanish grammatical tradition). Otherwise they would just be the same thing. The distinctive feature of Spanish grammar in this regard is that the distinction between a patah and a kamatz is identified (solely or primarily) with length. This is quite characteristically Spanish not just because it involves importing classical Arabic grammar into Hebrew, but also because of the imperious assumption that because Spanish Jews treated these vowels as phonemically identical then so must the Tiberian system.
Yes, thank you adding this precision. The lack of sound difference was local to Sefarad (and perhaps other areas, but not universal across time and space, as you note).