Peter T. Daniels scripsit:

> Or, maybe, Hebrew writing was transformed by the Masoretes, so now there
> are in fact two ways of writing Hebrew, the old-fashioned way, which
> retains most of its abjadity, and the new-fangled way, which never
> really did catch on, which pretty much achieves alphabeticity?

Perhaps. But what is the evidence for a sharp line of demarcation?
It seems to me that Hebrew writing stands on a continuum between the
pure abjad of the scrolls and the pure alphabet of the study texts,
with the great bulk of written Hebrew standing in the middle.

(Alternatively, one could view the vowel points like the accents,
as a meta-level imposed on a pure abjad.)

--
John Cowan cowan@... www.ccil.org/~cowan
Female celebrity stalker, on a hot morning in Cairo:
"Imagine, Colonel Lawrence, ninety-two already!"
El Auruns's reply: "Many happy returns of the day!"