Biblical Hebrew Forum

[yochanan bitan <ButhFam AT compuserve.com>]

{rolf wrote}
>but most workers would agree that from the middle of the first
>millennium CE the Arabic prefix- and suffix conjugations were interpreted
>as aspects - completed or  un-completed actions, but from the tenth
century
>a change took place.  The Arabic-speaking grammarians borrowed the
>tense-system from the greeks, and the conjugations were now viewed as past
>and future tense. The participle, however, was not viewed as present
>tense, as was the case in Mishna-Hebrew (Middle-Hebrew).[end quote]

perhaps. 

as a speaker of both arabic and hebrew i can state that there is a distinct
difference in frequency and function of 'participle' in both, going all the
way back to the bible in hebrew's case. arabic (both classical and modern
spoken) regularly uses prefix verbs where biblical/mishnaic/ and modern
hebrew use participles (though not necessarily all in the same way).

the "tense-shift" in arabic may reflect genre. a main source of pre-islamic
arabic is poetry. and extremely 'distant/unclear' stuff, ask anyone who has
read one of the mu`alliqaat. i can't personally say much for prose because
i haven't read much plain-prose that i know is pre-10th century.

yoshua blau at hebrew u is a medieval arabic specialist and he is one who
leaned toward including a heavy dose of 'tense' in the view of biblical
hebrew tense-aspect-moods. 

aTyab tiHiyyaatika
w'alla yubaarik fiik
randall buth