Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter_Kirk AT SIL.ORG]

Well, Brown-Driver-Briggs gives a different set of links: it derives 
em (mother), amma (cubit) and umma (tribe, people) from the root 'mm 
meaning perhaps "be wide, roomy", but ama (maid - with a single mem) 
from a conjectured root 'mh (actually 'my). Maybe Ugaritic etc has 
shed more light on such things since BDB's time, but 
Harris-Archer-Waltke seem to agree with BDB, though they don't specify 
any root for ama.

On the other hand, VanGemeren, the very latest book, suggests very 
plausibly that em for mother is an onomatopeic word. It is well known 
that in nearly all the world's languages the word for "mother" 
includes an m or n sound, because it is one of the first sounds a baby 
makes. That does not rule out ama, amma and umma being derived from 
it.

Peter Kirk



______________________________ Reply Separator 
_________________________________
Subject: aleph-mem
Author:  brady AT seanet.com at internet 
Date:    21/02/1999 15:30


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

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