[b-hebrew] Geminates

George Athas George.Athas at moore.edu.au
Mon May 18 19:15:36 EDT 2009


Let's take the 'theories and standards' thread on a meaningful tangent. Karl wrote:

"...I noticed
that several of the triliteral roots were in practice biliteral (two
letters) which were made into triliteral roots by the addition of a medial
waw or a doubling of the second letter. There are also a few quadraliteral
roots."

The geminate roots are actually not three consonants, but rather one normal consonant and a doubled second consonant. They often look like purely biconsonantal because Hebrew does not permit doubling (through the use of dagesh forte) of the first or final consonant of a word. However, if you look at the cognate forms in Arabic, which does permit doubling, you'll notice the phenomenon.



Regards,

GEORGE ATHAS
Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
www.moore.edu.au


More information about the b-hebrew mailing list