The Direct Object Marker /t-/ in Bar-Kosiba Hebrew: A Manifestation of Widespread Vowel Prosthesis in Post-Biblical Hebrew

What it is about

The full text is not in the library; this card rests on the abstract on the publisher's page, and its ideas are provisional. In the Bar-Kosiba (Bar Kokhba) letters of about 134–135 CE the object marker אֵת appears as a reduced t- written onto the next word, not only onto the article (ת־ה… > תה…) but also onto the interrogative מִי and other words. The usual account says t- came from אֵת fused with the article and then spread by analogy. Bunis argues instead from a sound change: post-Biblical Hebrew widely added a prosthetic vowel before initial consonant clusters, especially after the prepositions b- and l-, which made "et + CV-" sound just like "t- + prosthetic vowel + CV-"; speakers reanalysed the marker as a prefix t- on that model.

Ideas

• I1. In the comparison chapter, add the Bar-Kosiba t- as a dated step in the history of אֵת between Biblical את/־אֶת and Mishnaic Hebrew, with the two competing explanations and no verdict.
• I2. For any future tokenizer of non-Biblical Hebrew (letters, Mishnah manuscripts), a word-initial ת before ה or a noun should be tried as a split candidate (object marker + word), the way MACULA already splits prefixes; record it as a known variant, not a rule for the Torah.

For Mova

I1 is text for 12. Biblical, Mishnaic and Modern Hebrew compared and 11-mishnaic.md (pronouns and particles), and a cross-reference from 05-pronouns-particles.md (the object marker). I2 is a note for chapter 13's gaps (tokenizing texts outside MACULA). Nothing here changes the Torah trees.

Cite

The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. DOI 10.1093/jss/fgaf008

@article{bunis2025direct,
  title = {{The Direct Object Marker /t-/ in Bar-Kosiba Hebrew: A Manifestation of Widespread Vowel Prosthesis in Post-Biblical Hebrew}},
  author = {Bunis, Ivri J.},
  journal = {Journal of Semitic Studies},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1093/jss/fgaf008},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgaf008}
}

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo-2025-bunis-direct-object-marker-t-bar/