Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Brady R. Johnson" <brady AT seanet.com>]

Greetings all,

I am a long time lurker on the list, not a scholar, but an interested
amateur.  In discussion with some others I have run across an interesting
question:  It began inauspiciously enough and appeared easy to answer, but
I ran into some difficulties that I figured many if not most of you could
probably answer easily.

Original question:  what is the root of "eemah" (mother)?  Is it aleph-mem?
Or aleph-mem-he?  I'm guessing aleph-mem.  I'm also guessing that's the
older form and that the addition of the "he" reflects an effort at
"feminizing" the noun as Hebrew developed into its own.  Am I barking at
the moon at this, or does it make any sense?

Part 2 of original question:  Is "amah" (identical spelling to "eemah" -
aleph-mem-he) derived from the same root?  Anyone know anything about how
the words developed?

The word "ooma" (nation,people) is spelled the same as "eemah" and "amah"
and I assume it also derives from the same root?  The meanings are
conceptually similar it seems - "mother", "maid" and "nation".  However,
"amah" also means "cubit", a word that I cannot fit into the theme of
woman/motherhood.  I am guessing that the similarity in spelling and
pronounciation is coincidental and that "cubit" is actually a borrowed word
from elsewhere?

Thanks in advance for you help!

Brady Johnson