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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Lev 21:18 - Passive Participle

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>
  • To: Karl Randolph <kwrandolph AT email.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Lev 21:18 - Passive Participle
  • Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 11:31:20 +0000

On 30/10/2005 01:27, Karl Randolph wrote:

Peter:

This brings up the question which trumps what? Does internal evidence trump cognate languages, or the other way around?

If within Biblical Hebrew there is only one meaning evidenced for a lexeme, ...


There is no easy answer to your question. But there is an easy answer to the question which is in fact relevant here: Does absence of internal evidence trump evidence from cognate languages, or the other way around? I don't see any way in which absence of evidence can trump evidence!

...

(Further, the two Arabic roots look as if they could have come originally from one root that first became dialectic differences, that later became phonemic.)


All I can say is that there is no evidence that such processes have ever happened in the Semitic languages, whose root structure is extremely stable over millennia.

The only way to resolve this disagreement is to find documents that show a development of Hebrew indicating that it originally had the extra sounds. So far there has been no sign of those documents. So we'll have to agree to disagree.


No, Karl, I will not agree to disagree, although I will not pursue a pointless discussion for long. There is ample evidence available, from cognate languages and from transliterations, for this development of Hebrew, even though it is not in actual Hebrew documents because the Hebrew alphabet never made this particular distinction.

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





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