Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Søren Holst <sh AT teol.ku.dk>]

Good evening

There's a little about it in E.Y. Kutscher "A history of the Hebrew
Language" p. 6, with references to Ullendorf's article "What is a Semitic
language?" + the classical works of Bergstrasser, Th. Noldeke's "Neue
Beitrage zur semitischen Sprachwissenschaft" (1910) and J.H. Greenberg in
"Word" 6 (1950). Don't have time to go hunting for any of it right now, but
thought I'd pass it on.

shalom uvrakha
Soren Holst
Copenhagen

> -----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
> Fra:  peter_kirk AT sil.org [SMTP:peter_kirk AT sil.org]
> Sendt:        1. oktober 1999 00:39
> Til:  Biblical Hebrew
> Emne: Re: 4 Misc. Questions
> 
> Dear Brian,
> 
> No-one seems to have given you the type of answer I think you were 
> looking for to your first question:
> 
> 1. I am looking for some bibliography on the 3 letter reconstructions 
> being artifical in BH roots. If the first two radicals are the same 
> and the third is different but are connected words isn't the 3 letter 
> root concept forced?
> 
> I guess you are referring to cases in which several BH roots with 
> similar meaning share one or two consonants. The same happens in other 
> Semitic languages. There seems to be two separate processes. For 
> example GKC 30g notes the set of roots KRR, KRH, KWR and )KR, and the 
> set DKK, DWK, DK) and DKH, which seem to be derived from the biliteral 
> roots KR and DK expanded in different ways into triliterals. However, 
> the set of roots in GKC 30h all seem to have the idea of cutting: QCC, 
> QCH, QCB, QCP, QC(, QCR; Q+B, Q+L, Q+P; KSH, KSS, NKS (Syriac); GZZ, 
> GZH, GZM, GZ(, GZL, GZR; GDD, GD(, GDH, GDP, GDR; XDD, XDL, XDQ, XDR, 
> XD$; XWS, XWC, XZH, XZZ, X+B, X++, X+P, XSL, XSS, XSP, XCB, XCH, XCC, 
> XCR; these look like an original biliteral root with (mostly) a suffix 
> (B,P,(,R,L,M,Q,$ are attested here). See GKC for some further 
> explanation, but this is of course dated. There is some discussion (at 
> a common Semitic level) in "Comparative Semitic Linguistics" by 
> Patrick R. Bennitt (Eisenbrauns 1998) pp.62-64 but this does not go 
> beyond pointing out the issue and its potential links with common 
> Afro-Asiatic and even with Indo-European. Can anyone take this 
> further?
> 
> Peter Kirk
> 
> 
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