Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Trevor & Julie Peterson" <06peterson AT cua.edu>]

Joe wrote:

> The example in Syriac is unusual.  If memory serves me well, 
> I believe 
> Syriac is the only Semitic language that has a causative of 
> the copulative 
> verb, though I am subject to correction on that.  If that is 
> factually 
> correct, it is the exception that proves the rule.

What about Akkadian $ub$uum (C stem of bet-shin-alef)?

> Nonetheless, its 
> existence in Syriac is compatible with my hypothesis.  
> According to R. 
> Payne Smith's Syriac dictionary, the meaning for Syriac of 
> the Aphel of HW' 
> is "give existence, create" and is used in the expression "O 
> Divine power 
> who hast given existence to all things."  My hypothesis 
> suggested a meaning 
> of "increase existence for X," could be paraphrased "produces 
> [emphaizing 
> process] existence" and hence "create" [with an undertone of 
> process of 
> creation].

But now it seems like your hypothesis is a moot point. If you think the
meaning of the Syriac verb fits, then we've come full circle to a
perfectly reasonable meaning for the C verb from HWH. (BTW, I'm not
trying to disagree with your hypothesis. I agree with a lot of what you
said about the significance of the C and D stems, but I'm just not
convinced that it does much for the discussion at hand.)

> Since Hebrew had a perfectly good word for this 
> meaning (BARA') 
> there was little motive to use the Hiphil form of the verb, though of 
> course it could have done so.

Syriac has the same perfectly good word.
> 
> Trever, your point about medial W versus initial W is well 
> taken.  However, 
> I can only say that somewhere in Proto-NW Semitic medial W 
> changed to Y or 
> visa versa, for otherwise you would not have HAYAH "to be" in 
> Hebrew and 
> HAWAH "to be" in Aramaic.  That such a change regularly occurred for 
> initial proto-Semitic W is well known in which the direction 
> of change was 
> from W to Y.  By analogy it is plausible that it occurred in 
> Hebrew HAYAH 
> as well with Aramaic preserving the earlier form with medial 
> W that later 
> became Y in Hebrew of the Bible.  Does not the change from Y 
> to W seem less 
> likely given the trend in initial W?

Oh, I'm not disputing that the trend seems to go that way. I just
thought it was a sloppy argument to use the initial radical as the basis
without further qualification. Indeed, I think early on I suggested that
the form we're dealing with was either Aramaic or perhaps so early that
it would be hard to call it properly Hebrew or Aramaic. The question is,
when did the Y form arise--before or after Hebrew solidified as a
language?
> 
> As for the vowels, it is true that HAYAH as vocalized by the 
> Masorets does 
> not use the A vowel for imperfect preformatives Y, T and N 
> for the Qal 
> imperfect despite the guttural H first consonant.  I am not 
> sure that the 
> biblical writers as opposed to the Masorets didn't use the A 
> vowels. You 
> can't tell in an unvocalized text.  In any case, even the 
> Masorets do use A 
> vowels for preformatives of some First He forms such as the 
> Qal imperfect 
> of HALAM in Psalm 74:6 and Qal imperfect forms of HAPAK.  The form of 
> Yahweh is personal names seem to confirm an A vowel under the initial 
> yod.  If Yahweh is a verb (I cannot prove it is, but if it is), I can 
> explain the A vowel as influenced by the first guttural as 
> was in the case 
> of these verbs.  I would then posit that Hebrew by the time 
> the Masorets 
> vocalized the text ceased to use the A vowel for 
> preformatives of HYH, but 
> that archaic (perhaps pre-Biblical) Hebrew was using the A vowel 
> preformative when it created the form YAHWEH off of the verb HWH.

The other matter to consider is the general trend from an original
a-vowel in the preformative of West Semitic verbs to i. Indeed, if
anything, it seems that the presence of a guttural helped block the
shift that was going on otherwise. So again, depending on how far back
we're going in search of this vocalization, it has some weight to it.

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics