(לשון קומראן בין המקרא ללשון חז"ל (עיון בסעיף במורפולוגיה

The article investigates an item in the morphology of classical Hebrew (Hebrew Bible, Sirach and Qumran, and mishnaic Hebrew): the 3rd masc. and fem. pl. pronominal suffixes of nouns ending in -oth, found in both a short suffixed pronominal form (שמותן,אבותם) and a long suffixed pronominal form (שמותיהן,אבותיהם). Examination of the distribution of these forms revealed the following: a. The short pronoun predominates in the early books of the Hebrew Bible, whereas the long pronoun predominates in the late books. In mishnaic Hebrew the long pronoun is used almost exclusively. (Note that, in Chronicles, which is closely linked to the books of the First Temple period, the short pronoun is still widely current. In tannaitic Hebrew, forms of the short pronoun not attested in the Bible, for example, מזונותן, גגותן,מעשרותן [biblical גגותיהם], may still be found.) b. In Sirach the short pronoun predominates and in Qumran texts as well it is much more frequent than the long pronound. These findings contrast with the ones culled from the late biblical books of the Second Temple period and from tannaitic Hebrew. In my opinion, the overall data from these Hebrew texts indicate that two parallel types of language are involved: the first is a language type in which the long pronoun predominates and the short one is abandoned, reflected in the late biblical books and in tannaitic Hebrew (does this type perhaps reflect spoken language?). Nonetheless, it also draws on the second type to an extent. In the second language type, which is more conservative, the short pronoun predominates. This type is reflected by Sirach and by the Qumran texts (does it perhaps reflect the conservative character of a written language represented by literature?), but also draws on the first type.