Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Cohen, Izzy" <Izzy_Cohen AT bmc.com>]

> I WAS NOT JOKING about ... the God that 
> worked 6 days and rested on the 7th

It is interesting (to me) that bet-resh-aleph BaRa?
Gen 1:1 means "to create". But the same letters 
are used in Talmudic Hebrew heh-vet-resh-yod-aleph 
HiVRi? with the meaning "to recover, recuperate". 

Compare English creation with recreation
[1350-1400; ME recreacioun (< MF recreation) < LL 
 recreatio = amusement, L: restoration < recrea(re) 
 (see RECREATE) + -tio - TION]

So, the same two apparently unrelated meanings 
are (near) homonyms in both languages.

There are far more concepts than there are short 
words, so it is not surprising that many words 
are homophones. That is, they sound similar, whether 
spelled alike or not, but represent two or more 
semantically unrelated meanings.

What is (to me) surprising is that the SAME 
groups of concepts are often represented by a 
homonym in different languages and these 
homonyms are usually not related phonetically. 

Example 1. (these may be distant cognates)

Hebrew tzadi-lamed-lamed TzaLiL combines the 
unrelated meanings of 
[sound, tone, tune, castanets, whirring, etc.], and 
[dive, sink, plunge, submarine, etc.], and 
[grow dark, cast shadow, umbra, penumbra, etc.].

English has sound-1 [tone, noise, etc.] and sound-3 
[measure/test depth, Puget sound, dive or plunge 
downward (as a whale), etc.]. English also has near 
homophones, such as {sing / sink}, {plink, plunk / 
plunge}, and {cast <shadow> / castanets}.

Example 2.

Hebrew resh-bet-heh RaVaH combines the meanings of
[rabbi, teacher, master, culture,  civilization, 
 learning, education, rearing, etc.], and
[lord, master, sovereign, General, champion], and
[enlarge, grow, increase, multiply, breed, much, most, 
 great quantity, abundance, numerous, multitude, etc.], 
and [gentleman, courtesy, gracious], and
[generalize, imply, inclusive, important, at the most].

English has {rabbi / rabbit = bunny, abundance},  
{master (noun) / master (verb) (knowledge) / most},
{amplify / imply}, {generalize / general in the army}, 
{champion a cause / champion (noun)}, {great / gracious}.

Example 3. 

English {board of wood / board of directors) is matched 
by Hebrew aiyin-tzadi 3eTZ = tree, wood and
yod-aiyin-tzadi Ya3eTZ = consult, council, advise, advice.
Hebrew Va3aD = committee sounds a bit like English WooD,
especially when pronounced by a native German speaker.

Vatican < Va3aD + KoHaNim = a committee of priests ?

Example 4.

Hebrew bet-resh-aleph BaRa[GHT] = [create] and  
[health, strength, rest, recuperate]. Compare English
{create / recreation} {take a break / bring forth}. 
Now you know why God rested after the Creation.

OK. Can anyone on the list do this with Hebrew and 
*other* languages?

Perhaps the extent to which the same unrelated concepts 
combine as homonyms across languages is a measure of the
closeness of those languages in a cladistic sense... 
even though the most obvious mechanism for spreading 
this phenomena is:

  A sound sequence, for example Hebrew MiSHPaT, means 
  a "gramatical sentence" and the "verdict of a judge" 
  in language A. When a speaker of language A becomes
  a speaker of language B (due to marriage, immigration, 
  etc.), he learns the translation of one of these 
  meanings in language B, for example Latin sententia = 
  decision, but uses that translation for *all* the 
  meanings that he associated with the original sound 
  sequence in language A.

dosh kham < D'RiSHaT SHaLoM XaM = warm regards,
Israel "izzy" Cohen
izzy_cohen AT bmc.com
>From furuli AT online.no  Sun Feb  9 05:00:46 2003
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Date: Sun, 9 Feb 2003 11:00:10 +0100
To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
From: furuli AT online.no
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] LORD
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Dear Stephen,

Thank you for this reminder. I apologize to gfsomsel for answering an 
off-list posting of his on the list. This was an accident.


Best regards

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo



>I suppose sometimes it is unclear whether a particular
>piece of correspondence was made on-list or off-list,
>especially in the heat of the moment, but please double-
>check and do not copy off-list messages to the list.
>
>Stephen Carlson
>
>--
>Stephen C. Carlson                        mailto:scarlson AT mindspring.com
>Synoptic Problem Home Page   http://www.mindspring.com/~scarlson/synopt/
>"Poetry speaks of aspirations, and songs chant the words."  Shujing 2.35
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