Biblical Hebrew Forum

[yochanan bitan <ButhFam AT compuserve.com>]

[rolf wrote]
that the short forms of the cognate
languages are not preterites (b) and that there is no difference between
yiqtols and wayyiqtols in unpointed texts (c)[end rolf]

this last point is irrelevant. 
it only means that the unvocalized graphic system is underdifferentiated. 
[the same argumentation could 'prove' that there were no distinctive
intonation patterns in BH and could go a long way towards getting rid of
vowels.]

one of the 'givens' for BH must be a veyiqtol vs vayyiqtol distinction.
there was no motivation or evidence of a 'massive massoretic conspiracy',
which would be necessary for removing the above distinction. 
likewise, comparative semitic with lam yaktub forms showing up in arabic [a
short prefix past tense] show that this is a phenomenon that goes back to
the roots of west semitic.

by omitting a veyiqtol/vayyiqtol distinction your results will be
invalidated. talmy givon [linguist] asked great questions but got invalid
answers for exactly this reason [among others] in his twentyyear old word
order article.

blessings
randall buth