Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>]

----- Original Message -----
From: Trevor Peterson <06PETERSON AT cua.edu>

> >===== Original Message From Daniel Walin <danserve4x AT yahoo.com> =====
> >I
> >apologize for not transliterating the Hebrew, but I am
> >unaware of the system used by the list.
> 
> There is a recommended method, but pretty much everyone does what's right 
> in 
> their own eyes :-)
> >
> [snipped]
> >
> >If all three uses of the suffixes do in fact refer
> >back to the "my people," why is one suffix plural
> >while the other two are singular?  Is there a reason
> >for this, or is it a grammatically inconsistent aspect
> >of the language?
> 
> Good eye! 

<snip>
> Trevor Peterson
> CUA/Semitics

How many times have I read that and not noticed what Daniel Walin noticed?

The answer appears to be in the collective nouns. As English speakers, we use 
a constant confusion between singular and plural in collective nouns, an 
example from above, “…everyone does what's right in their own eyes”. Which 
spoken language doesn’t have such examples? I know that those who carefully 
follow correct literary style, such as mathematicians, will avoid such 
linguistic ambiguity, but everyone else will use what sounds best to his ear 
to communicate his thoughts. That’s true with every language I have studied. 
Why should ancient Hebrew be different?

Karl W. Randolph.
-- 
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