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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Hebrew grammar, (was Zech 6:8)

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>
  • To: Herman Meester <crazymulgogi AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Hebrew grammar, (was Zech 6:8)
  • Date: Thu, 01 Dec 2005 22:45:51 +0000

On 01/12/2005 22:28, Herman Meester wrote:

...

I like the idea that the innovation of C1-gemination has something to
do with the disappearance of final short vowels. These things don't
happen in a week time, they must have overlapped. Too bad Hebrew
spelling is what it is, we can't see these short vowels, making all
our thinking about the subject rather speculative per se.


I don't think this version can possibly work. On your hypothesis C1-gemination is common to Hebrew and Arabic and so predates the split between these languages. But the disappearance of final short vowels in Hebrew postdates this split - in fact probably by many centuries - as classical Arabic still had final short vowels. So you can't make C1-gemination a general phenomenon depend on the disappearance of final short vowels. You could make the spread of this phenomenon from nouns to verbs so dependent, but that turns out to be more or less the same as my "adding the definite article to the start of yaqtul to distinguish it from yaqtul(u)".

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





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