Orthographic (linguistic) Variants
There are 197 variations in the sources classified as OV(l). Of these 42 involve possible
differences in dialect or pronunciation and 155 involve differences in grammatical form.
The most common variations categorised as possible differences in pronunciation are
those that involve terminal h- on various forms, such as on pronominal suffixes, inde-
pendent pronouns, 2ms, 2mpl and 2fpl verbal afformatives, and cohortative forms in the
indicative mood. See note above for a complete description of these forms and the rele-
vant literature.
Other less frequent variations that may relate to pronunciation or dialect include the eli-
sion of guttural consonants (Q166, Q642), assimilated or non-assimilated nun in first po-
sition (see specifically variant Q230, Q232, Q234 and Q237 in 4QExod-Levf), and the
elision of III heh in 4QGeng and 4QGenk (Q93 and Q103 respectively).
Regarding the variant grammatical forms the most common types encountered are
changes in the tense or aspect of verbs. These typically involve the interchange of dura-
tive and perfective (e.g. Q10, Q447), or waw consecutive plus imperfect and waw con-
junctive plus perfect (e.g. Q132, Q220), but can include the presence or absence of
paragogic nun (e.g. Q14, Q171, Q686), though the function of this latter feature is de-
bated – see note above. More rarely one finds the use of waw to mark qameṣ ḥāṭuf or
shewa (for which see note ), different genitive constructions for numerals (Q8) or infini-
tive constructs (Q153), and infinitive constructs with and without prepositions (Q24).