Conference Presentation
The Resh Riddle – Identifying the Biblical Hebrew Rhotic
Dr. Carlo Yehuda Meloni
Postdoctoral Researcher
Chair for Multilingual Computational Linguistics
University of Passau
Germany
Presentation Date & Time
9 November 2026
10:00 CET (Serbia time)
Conference
New Discoveries and New Directions in Biblical, Hebrew, and Theological Studies
European Hebrew Journal International Online Conference
Format
Live online via Zoom
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Abstract
This study re-examines the historical pronunciation of Biblical Hebrew reš by treating its phonological behavior as primary evidence for paleophonological reconstruction. A quantitative analysis of Tiberian Biblical Hebrew shows that reš's patterns distinguish it from guttural consonants, with which it has often been associated, and instead support its identification as the alveolar tap /ɾ/. This reconstruction also accounts for occasional alternations with /l/ and Greek transcriptions involving δ. I further situate the result diachronically, proposing that an earlier alveolar trill /r/ lenited to /ɾ/ and was later replaced, in the Tiberian pronunciation tradition, by a back rhotic. The study thus reconciles phonological, comparative, transcriptional, and medieval descriptive evidence.
Keywords
The Resh Riddle
Meloni's research on Biblical Hebrew resh began with his M.A. thesis at Tel Aviv University and has subsequently been developed in collaboration with phonologist Dr. Evan-Gary Cohen.
The study addresses the difficulty of reconstructing the phonetic realization of a rhotic consonant in an ancient, unrecorded language. Earlier accounts have variously described Biblical Hebrew resh as a posterior consonant, an alveolar or dental segment, or as having multiple realizations conditioned by phonological environment.
Meloni's analysis approaches the problem through the systematic examination of phonological behaviour and quantitative evidence. The resulting reconstruction identifies the Biblical Hebrew resh as an alveolar tap /ɾ/.
The wider diachronic model proposes a development from an earlier alveolar trill to an alveolar tap and subsequently to the posterior realization described in later Hebrew grammatical traditions.
Evidence considered in the research includes Biblical Hebrew phonological patterns, cross-linguistic typology of rhotics, comparative Semitic evidence and extra-biblical transcriptions of Hebrew words in cuneiform and Greek scripts.
About Dr. Carlo Yehuda Meloni
Dr. Carlo Yehuda Meloni is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Chair for Multilingual Computational Linguistics at the University of Passau, Germany. His research combines historical linguistics, linguistic typology, phonetics and phonology, Semitic linguistics, computational methods, statistical modelling and phylogenetic approaches to language evolution.
He received his Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Zurich, where he worked at the Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution. His doctoral research investigated syntactic hierarchy from an evolutionary and phylogenetic perspective, focusing particularly on clause-linkage constructions.
Meloni previously completed both his M.A. and B.A. in Linguistics at Tel Aviv University. His M.A. thesis, "The Reš Riddle: Identifying the Biblical Hebrew Rhotic," examined the historical phonology of Biblical Hebrew resh and forms the scholarly foundation for his EHJ 2026 presentation.
His research profile is notably interdisciplinary, bringing together traditional historical and comparative linguistics with quantitative, computational and phylogenetic methods. Alongside his work on syntax and language evolution, he has published research on computational reconstruction of proto-languages and on transcription and transliteration systems for Semitic languages.
Education & Academic Background
Ph.D. in Linguistics
2021–2025
Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution
University of Zurich, Switzerland
Doctoral thesis: Syntactic Hierarchy in Linguistic Evolution: A Phylogenetic View of Clause-Linkage
M.A. in Linguistics
2019–2021
Department of Linguistics
Tel Aviv University, Israel
M.A. thesis: The Reš Riddle: Identifying the Biblical Hebrew Rhotic
B.A. in Linguistics
2016–2019
Department of Linguistics, Minor in Biology
Tel Aviv University, Israel
Research Expertise
Selected Publications
Meloni, Carlo, Shauli Ravfogel, and Yoav Goldberg.
"Ab Antiquo: Neural Proto-language Reconstruction."
Proceedings of the 2021 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies (NAACL-HLT 2021), pp. 4460–4473.
Meloni, Carlo, and Johann-Mattis List.
"Towards a Unified Conversion Table for Semitic Transcriptions and Transliterations."
Computer-Assisted Language Comparison in Practice, Vol. 8, No. 2 (2025), pp. 107–112.
Meloni, Carlo Y., Chundra Cathcart, Erik J. Ringen, Jessica K. Ivani, and Balthasar Bickel.
"A Phylogenetic Perspective on the Syntax-Semantics Interface: A Case Study in Clause Linkage Constructions."
2025 preprint.
Meloni, Carlo Y., Chundra A. Cathcart, Jessica K. Ivani, Taras Zakharko, Erik J. Ringen, and Balthasar Bickel.
"Linguistic Evolution Minimizes the Amount of Syntactic Hierarchy in Grammar."
2025 preprint.
Meloni, Carlo Y., Jessica K. Ivani, Taras Zakharko, Guanghao You, Chundra A. Cathcart, and Balthasar Bickel.
"Writing Does Not Impact the Evolution of Syntax."
2025 preprint.
Meloni, Carlo.
The Reš Riddle: Identifying the Biblical Hebrew Rhotic.
M.A. Thesis, Tel Aviv University, 2021.
Prepared under the guidance of Dr. Evan-Gary Cohen and Prof. Hezy Mutzafi.
Research Presentation
In 2025, Carlo Meloni and Evan-Gary Cohen presented "The Resh Riddle – Identifying the Biblical Hebrew Rhotic" at the international conference 'r-atics, devoted to the phonetics and phonology of rhotic sounds.
The presentation developed the reconstruction of Biblical Hebrew resh using quantitative phonological analysis, cross-linguistic rhotic typology and comparative Semitic evidence.
Academic & Professional Links
University of Passau — Official Profile
www.geku.uni-passau.de/en/mcl/team/carlo-meloniChair for Multilingual Computational Linguistics
www.geku.uni-passau.de/en/mcl/ACL Anthology — Ab Antiquo Publication
aclanthology.org/2021.naacl-main.353/Tel Aviv University — Linguistics Department
en-humanities.tau.ac.il/linguistics/ma_theses1Conference Participation
Dr. Carlo Yehuda Meloni presents at the European Hebrew Journal International Online Conference 2026 on 9 November 2026 at 10:00 CET, Serbia time, with the presentation titled "The Resh Riddle – Identifying the Biblical Hebrew Rhotic."
Suggested Citation
Meloni, Carlo Yehuda. "The Resh Riddle – Identifying the Biblical Hebrew Rhotic." Invited presentation at New Discoveries and New Directions in Biblical, Hebrew, and Theological Studies, European Hebrew Journal International Scholarly Online Conference, 9 November 2026.
Attend Dr. Carlo Yehuda Meloni's Presentation
Join Dr. Carlo Yehuda Meloni live on 9 November 2026 at 10:00 CET for his presentation on the historical pronunciation and development of Biblical Hebrew resh. Registration gives participants access to the live EHJ International Scholarly Online Conference and twelve months of access to conference recordings.