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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Genesis 31: 47 - Suffix -UT

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  • From: David Kummerow <farmerjoeblo AT hotmail.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Genesis 31: 47 - Suffix -UT
  • Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 09:47:53 +1100


Hi Isaac,

Who said anything about "mechanical translation"? I thought we were attempting a semantic analysis here with this discussion? If so, BH melek and malkut equate semantically, or overlap semantically, with English "king" and "kingdom" respectively. The -ut suffix is joined to malk-, but crucially not to address the addressee and simultaneously point out some third-person referent. If anything, I would say that your own approach is far too "mechanical" in finding personal pronouns in every nook and cranny. Just because there is a 'u' and a 't' does not mean that we have to see a morphological makeup of one or two personal pronouns, only that we have here two phonemes, /t/ and /u/, which, unsurprisingly due to their phonemic status, are found in some personal pronouns also many, many other words and morphemes in BH.

Regards,
David Kummerow.


Pere,

The flow chart should go, methinks, this way

----------> MELEK, king

MLK, root
----------> MALKUT, kingdom, kingship

Now, matters become befogged because we jump from one language to another and think that by mechanical translation we achieve understanding. To understand the Hebrew you need to explain to yourself what MELEK and MALKUT mean without using the English equivalents, only the root MLK.

Isaac Fried, Boston University








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