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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] The perspective of this native speaker of Modern Hebrew of Biblical Hebrew tenses

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] The perspective of this native speaker of Modern Hebrew of Biblical Hebrew tenses
  • Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 20:41:34 +0000

On 27/11/2004 22:29, Rolf Furuli wrote:

...

The data above includes only WAYYIQTOLs. The table which the comments above relates to, refers to 715 WAYYIQTOLs of 1st person singular/plural. Of these, 101 have a paragogic he ("cohortative"), 51 are apocopated; 103 could have been apocopated but are not; and 460 could not be apocopated. This shows clearly that non-apocopation was the trend for 1st person-forms; the opposite of what we would expect if a short form was sought whenever possible because the antecedent was a short YAQTUL.

Does this in fact apply to WAYYIQTOLs, which for the first person start vav-qamats-alef or vav-patah-nun-dagesh? I can only find 669 words starting with these combinations, and very likely some of them are not verbs at all. So what are the otherat least 46? Does you in fact also include WEYIQTOL forms, in which the vav is generally pointed with sheva?

I ask because it seems that the otherwise rare WEYIQTOL form is relatively common in the 1st person singular. For example, I looked at these forms of the common (&H or `asah "do", in 1st person singular only. I found:

11 examples which start with vav-sheva and are not apocopated, and all seem to have future or modal meaning (GEN 35:3; EXO 32:10; NUM 14:12; DEU 9:14; 12:30; 1SA 20:4; 2SA 9:1,3; 24:12; 1CH 21:10; NEH 6:13) - these are clearly WEYIQTOL forms;

5 examples which start with vav-qamats and are apocopated, and apparently have past meaning (DEU 10:3; EZK 12:7; 20:9,22; 24:18) - these are WAYYIQTOL forms;

2 examples which start with vav-qamats and are not apocopated, and have past meaning (EZK 20:14; DAN 8:27). These are indeed non-apocopated WAYYIQTOL forms, but it is interesting that they are both in late books, and that only one of the five examples in Ezekiel is not apocopated.

These are all the words in the Hebrew Bible written consonantally as vav-alef-ayin-shin and vav-alef-ayin-shin-he.

Tentative conclusion: in the first person, WEYIQTOL forms are not apocopated, but WAYYIQTOL forms are mostly but not always apocopated. Does your data contradict this?

So I started a further search and found 143 words starting with vav-qamats-alef and ending with he. These will include most but not all of the non-apocopated 1st person singular WAYYIQTOLs, as well as cases of. These also include a large number of cases of paragogic he, i.e. he added on after the end of the normal verb root, the opposite of apocopation (and common practice with the cohortative). I don't have time to look at all of these, but it is interesting that the huge majority of both non-apocopated forms and paragogic hes are in the books from Ezra onwards, in the English Bible order, in other words generally either late or poetic books. There are only two of them in the Pentateuch: DEU 1:16,18. This suggests that there is a late tendency to add paragogic he to first person WAYYIQTOLs by analogy with cohortatives.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/






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