Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Henry Churchyard" <churchh AT crossmyt.com>]

> Subject: Masculine and Feminie Nouns
> From: "Tony Costa" <tmcos AT hotmail.com>
> Date: Tue, 04 Sep 2001 19:15:11

> Just a few questions.  Why are Hebrew words like LaYLaH (night),
> 'OTH (sign) and BBaYiTH (house) considered masculine when the word
> for night has a final he preceded by a qames, the sign of the
> feminine ending, and the words "sign" and "house" both end in a
> final taw, also typical of a feminine noun or substantive? I can
> understand that 'aV the word for "father" is masculine even though
> in its plural form it is feminine 'aVOTH, but the 3 nouns I
> mentioned can be confusing to a novice in biblical Hebrew.  Best
> regards, Tony Costa

"Laylah" doesn't have the feminine ending at all, but probably a
locative ending; this can be seen from the position of the accent,
and the fact that the final written letter _he_ of this form never
becomes a _t_ in the construct state.  In "bayith", the "t" is part
of the noun stem, and so not part of any ending (similarly with
"'oth").

--
Henry Churchyard   churchh AT crossmyt.com   http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/