Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Matthew Anstey" <manstey AT portal.ca>]

Gday Vince, Jim, Jonathon, and others,

A few points about some of today's postings:
1. As Jim West said, G=Qal, D=Piel, a system LaSor was using long
before Seow. It is quite neat, but not many people know it. for
instance Nc24s3 means niphil wayyiqtol 1cs with 2fs suffix. I like it,
but I reserve it for my own noting taking.
2. I'm not sure why you omitted psa 9 from your list Vince, as 9-10
are usually taken as a single composition. Psa 21 seems the odd one
out to me, as it has no features of northern hebrew, which are
succintly presented in Rendsburg, Linguistic Evidence for the Northern
Origin of Selected Psalms, 1990, SBL Monograph series. This short book
provides an excellent summary of dialectical differences in BH. Psa 17
is not included in his analysis, but I think it shows several NH
features.
3. Concerning unpointed G and P participles, the problem is of course
very pronounced in Qumram Hebrew, as they cannot use their normal
'waw' trick to differentiate all the verb forms. However, in my (not
extensive) experience of reading it, it is usually straightforward
when one considers the valencies. Often there is a difference in
"transitivity" or in Aktionsart if you use this category. And
naturally certain stems we know prefer one binyamin to another.
Another factor perhaps concerns the historical drifts that may be
occuring. I'd check Segal or equivalent on Mishnaic Hebrew to see
which way the stems are heading in general.


With regards,
Matthew Anstey