[b-hebrew] Hebrew -dialect of canaanite
Uri Hurwitz
uhurwitz at yahoo.com
Wed Jun 28 13:19:46 EDT 2006
Yitzhak Sapir wrote:
"I am not sure why someone thinks that "yhwh" is Aramaic.
It could just as well be Hebrew. I understand (based on
memory of past discussions here) that neither "hwh" nor
"yhwh" are attested or known prior to the 1st millenium BCE."
One can find HWH as the verb 'to be' in an Aramaic
inscription in a ninth/eigth BCE century Aramaic inscription. Check it in the KIA
(remember, the editorial language is German) under Aramaic
Inscriptions; whereas in the Hebrew inscriptions the verb is
HYH.
As for the root HYH in the Hebrew Bible for 'to be', it
is attested roughly 2000 times ( an electronic count here
would be helpful!); this can be compared with root HWH in the
HB, again for the verb 'to be', which appears 5 or 6 times.
Obviously the conclusion that the root HYH served as the
standard verb for 'to be' in Hebrew is not far fetched; very
rare occurrences of HWH in this verbal function would
have been under Aramiac influence.
Please keep in mind that the above remarks refer
specifically to verbs.
Uri
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