Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Randall Buth <ButhFam AT compuserve.com>]

shalom Rodney, 

> Does a weqatal in a string of
>wayyiqtols or a wayyiqtol in a past-tense weqatal sequence present no
>meaningful distinction? 

They absolutely show a distinction. veqatal in a vayyiqtol string is 
the "other" TAM. A vayyiqtol in a veqatal string is the "other" TAM.
both are exactly like a yiqtol (=veqatal)  in qatal (=vayyiqtol) string 
and a qatal (=vayyiqtol) in a yiqtol (=veqatal) string (Yes this happens). 

As for a historic present thesis of vayyiqtol. That's not Hebrew, but 
a dead end alley pursued by robert Young in the 19th century. One 
way to switch to the past in a string of present settings is to use 
vayyiqtol. X+qatal works, too, of course.

blessings,

Randall Buth, PhD
Director, Biblical Language Center
www.biblicalulpan.org
and Lecturer, Biblical Hebrew
Rothberg International School
Hebrew University