[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
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