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  • From: Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>
  • To: Brak <Brak AT neo.rr.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Taw added to Verbs
  • Date: Sat, 12 May 2007 21:04:09 -0400

John,

OK, let's take a short [QACAR] grammatical step forward. The actors in Genesis 3:17 are God and ADAM, God speaks and ADAM listens. The third "actor"---the forbidden fruit, as well as the act of having eating it, hover in the background. The first verb of the verse is ) AMAR, 'said'. It is in the QAL, 'light', form, namely the root )MR with just two inserted 'A' sounds to facilitate its pronunciation [remember what I said earlier, 'A' means nothing]. This verb form is without any attached or inserted personal pronouns, and by default it refers to a fait accompli. If you wish to explicitly say "he said" you need to preposition or post-position the separate personal pronoun HU: HU )AMAR, or )AMAR HU. Notice that )AMRU = )AMR-U = )AMR- HU is 'said they'. In Genesis 3:17 it is merely )AMAR and not the full HU )AMAR since it is contextually evident that God [HU] did the saying. For a female it is HI )AMR-AH, with a last [now attached] HA for 'she'. Notice that it is not )AM[A]RAH---one 'A' sound is "snatched away" (elided) so as to leave the word with only two vowels, as is the taste of the Hebrews.
Next comes the inflected verb $AMA(TA = $AMA(-ATAH, 'hear you', proper English: 'you heard', from the root $M(. The context makes it clear that this TA is 'you' with reference to ADAM. The word $AMA(TA contains by default three 'A' sounds, but not four. I would put a tiny hiatus after the schwa under the letter AYIN and say $AMA([ ]TA rather than $AMA([A]TA as I often hear [you may safely ignore the schwa mobile and schwa quiescent business].
Next comes VATO)QAL = VA-TO-)QAL from the root )QL, 'eat'. The preposition VA, the "VAV conversive" according to traditional grammarians, is in my opinion but a variant of the substantive BA, 'come', corresponding to the English 'be'. I would translate it as 'then'. Clearly TO is a personal pronoun of the AT, ATAH kind, standing here also for ADAM. It is possible that this form is used instead of TA for euphonic reasons as it sounds clearer and better then the AAA bleating of *VA-TA-)QAL [asterisk denotes an unused form]. But I am not excluding the possibility that TO harbors two personal pronouns, one for ADAM and one [as we contextually understand it] for the thing eaten. Thus, possibly, TO = T-O = AT-HU. If so, then the translation of VATO)QAL = VA-AT-HU-)QAL is 'then you he [the fruit] eat'. Contextually we also understand that the speaker refers to a past event.

Since we are at it let's consider some verb forms from the last two chapters of Leviticus. on 25:4 we find TIZRA(, from the root ZR(, 'plant'. We may look at it as TI-ZRA(, 'you plant' or T-I-ZRA(, you it [your field] plant'. Next we find TIZMOR = TI-ZM-O-R, from the root ZMR, 'prune'. The internal O is a personal pronoun standing for the vine in need of pruning.
On 25:5 we find QC-IY-R-KA, from the root QCR, 'reap'. Here the internal IY is a personal pronoun standing for the wheat itself , and the last KA for 'you' in the sense of 'your'. In the genitive Hebrew uses the personal pronouns AK, AKAH, AKEM, AKEN in place of AT, ATAH, ATEM, ATEN.
Thus QAC-YI-R is the noun 'harvest', but QC-O-R is the exhortation 'harvest!', and QAC-E-R is 'shorten!' Q-U-CAR is 'he [HU] was made short', which is the same as HU-QCAR. Yet QAC-U-R is 'he [U = HU] is harvested', while QACR-U is ' harvest they = they harvested'.
on 25:9 we find the interesting form TA-(AB-IY-R-U, from the root (BR, 'pass', It contains the three personal pronouns TA, YI, and U standing for Israel, the ram's horn, and every individual of the congregation. It translates then, thus: ' you [the addressee] pass it [the sound of the SHOFAR], all of you'. Indeed TA-)ABR-U, 'you pass, all of you' does not contain an internally inserted pronoun as there is no reference here to an external object being also carried over.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On May 11, 2007, at 5:08 PM, Brak wrote:

Actually all the "theorizing" has been helpful. After my initial
question, which was due to me forgetting about the feminine third person
form, I then proceeded to ask the purpose for the seemingly redundancy.
I mean we know that "the woman" is speaking - so I was wondering why the
need to add "she". Why not just have H)#H )MR "The woman said ....", but
instead the text has "And she said, the woman, .....".
To me it looked a little redundant. So the responses I have gotten have
been helpful.

Now I wish to expand the question one step further:
If you were translating the word WAT.O)MER by itself, how would one go
about translating it?
I currently assume there isn't a way to do so.

The reason I ask is in a verse like Gen 3:17 you have L")MOR LO) TO) KAL
Now it is usually translated as "saying, you shall not eat", but
couldn't also be translated "saying, she shall not eat".



B"H
John Steven

"If you don't behave as you believe, you will end by believing as you
behave."
-Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.

[cut]
John,

You are on the right track. All you need is just organize and
systematize your thoughts. I said it before and I will say it again.

1. The Indo-European languages have thoroughly destroyed the
structure of their mother tongue. They have bungled their root system
and forgot all about their original internal system of personal
pronouns.

2. For some reason Hebrew is left in nearly pristine form. It is
nearly as ADAM and EVE invented it in their boundless cleverness
still fresh from the tree of knowledge.

3. Every word in the Hebrew language is composed of a root and
personal pronouns, that's all. Every Hebrew vowel excepting 'A' is a
personal pronoun. In nouns the personal pronouns refer to the object,
while in verbs (acts) the personal pronouns refer to the actors.

3. The (compound) separate personal pronouns ANI, ANOKYI, ATAH, AT,
HU, HI, ANU, ATEM. HEM, HEN, can not be inserted between the radical
letters lest they confuse the root.

4. The word TIRCAX is actually two words that have come close
together. They are TI-RCAX, where TI is a variant of AT or ATAH
standing for the actor-addressee. Since TI is gender indifferent
Hebrew adds (H)YI for the female at the and, TI-RCX-YI. So LO TI- RCAX
reads exactly as you say it does: "no you kill". For the girls it is:
"no you kill she". For the many Hebrew adds (H)U, TI-RCX-U, and so
on. When many speak for themselves they say NI-RCAX, where NI is a
variant of ANI and ANU. The single speaker contacted ANI to the mere
E, E-RCAX, "I kill".

Isaac Fried, Boston University
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