Biblical Hebrew Forum

[peter_kirk AT sil.org]

Dear Bryan,

Thanks for your reply to my posting re relative timing. For some 
reason (I think a glitch in the SIL mail server) I did not get any 
b-hebrew messages yesterday, but I found yours on the website. I would 
be grateful for an E-mail copy of your reply.

I suspect that the nub of the matter may well be what can be 
considered subordinate. We should not assume that Hebrew fits a nice 
Indo-European pattern in which subordinate clauses are marked by 
unambiguous subordinating conjunctions. Niccacci's idea that shift of 
the verb from first to second place in some sense marks subordination 
may be closer to the real thing.

After all, German marks subordination by shifting the verb - usually 
to the end, but there is also a direct parallel to Vince's 
old-fashioned English example, with a past subjunctive verb in first 
position marking an irrealis conditional clause. If I remember 
rightly, "if I were here, I would..." can be either "Wenn ich hier 
wa"re,..." or "Wa"re ich hier,...", both of which have the verb 
shifted from the normal second position, and in the second there is no 
other indication of subordination.

Peter Kirk