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

Abstract In the Hebrew Bar-Kosiba letters (circa 134-135 CE), the direct object marker was reduced to t-, which can precede any element, such as the definite article /haC-/ and the interrogative /mī/ ‘who’. The emergence of t- has been explained as originating in combination with the definite article, where the direct object marker /ʾVt/ was phonologically reduced, after which, reduced t- was analogically extended to other combinations. I propose a different explanation: widespread vowel prosthesis in post-Biblical Hebrew, and specifically with the mono-consonantal prepositions /b-/, /l-/ had caused the phonetic realization of the direct object marker combined with any /CV-/ sequence, i.e., in [ʔVθ. CV-] to become ambiguous as to the phonological value of the wordinitial [ʔV-]. On analogy to combinations realized with a prosthetic vowel, especially involving the two mono-consonantal prepositions, the phonetic form of the direct object marker, combined with any following /CV-/ sequence, was reanalyzed as representing /t-/.