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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] language level

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  • From: Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>
  • To: fred burlingame <tensorpath AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] language level
  • Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2011 21:04:59 -0500

1. The two words are of the same root XL, 'pile up'.
2. The Hebrew root refers to a material state. The words derived from it acquire by usage and context their specific meaning.
3. I am of the opinion that all Hebrew roots are a fusion of single consonant roots. This is how the language developed. The letter L ,thus, represents elevation, and its appearance in a root always indicates this. For example: EL, 'a lofty being', AL-EH, 'leaf', LUL, 'ladder', ALILAH, 'tall story, plot, libel', UL, 'grownup', and so on.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Jan 29, 2011, at 8:12 PM, fred burlingame wrote:

Hello Isaac;

Thanks for your helpful comments.

If I understand you correctly, the two words in question, אחל (alef, chet, lamed) and וחלו (waw, chet, lamed, waw), both belong to the same root family.

I am not sure however, how this large root family (that you describe) arises. Are you saying that the single consonant ל (lamed) forms the single root for this family of words/verbs? I see only lamed as the single common thread in these roots.

Are you suggesting that the fundamental root of all hebrew words includes a single letter? And, in this instance, the developers of the language then proceeded to build a family of related two and three letter roots and word meanings around this single letter?

I look forward to hearing your response.

regards,

fred burlingame
On Sat, Jan 29, 2011 at 6:22 PM, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:
The root XL is a member of the root family: GL, XL, KL, QL, GLL, HLL, XLL, KLL, QLL, of the basic sense of 'enclose, contain, include, collect, mount, pile up, put together'. It contains the single-consonant root L for elevation. The other root X is as in XAY, 'alive', or in AX, 'brother'.
We have from this root the words: XOL, 'sand dune', XALON, 'window', XALIYL, 'flute' (essentially a GALIYL or a M-XIL-AH enclosing an empty XALAL), XALAH, 'a shaped heap of baked dough', XEIL, 'bulwark, embankment', XAYIL, 'strength, substance, potency', MA-XOL, 'dance, moving around, moving collectively', MA-XAL-AH, 'illness, an ill inclusion, bending over'.
The three-consonant root is not God-given, and it stands to reason that the Hebrew language was not born complete with it.

Isaac Fried, Boston University






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