Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

To All:

When I took the introductory class to Biblical Hebrew, I was taught that 
there are seven inflexions to Hebrew verbs: Qal, Niphal, Piel, Pual, Hiphil, 
Hophal, Hithpael, and that all verbs exhibited these forms.

Is the Piel a true, independent form? Or is it just a different conjugation 
of the Qal, in the same way as there are different conjugations in Spanish 
for -a and -o verbs?

When reading a pointed Tanakh, I noticed that if a verb is pointed as a Qal, 
it almost never has a Piel expression, or if Piel almost never Qal. When 
reading an unpointed text, it is usually impossible to recognize any 
difference between the two (except in the case of participles and possibly 
infinitives which introduce other questions). Hence my question above.

I also can’t tell any difference in meaning between Qal and Piel.

The Pual occures more often, but is that the Qal passive mentioned by George 
Athas recently?

Would not a more accurate picture be that there is a Qal conjugated as Qal 
and Piel, passive Qal (Pual), Niphal, Hiphil, Hophal, Hithpael? These at 
least have definitional distinctions that can be recognized as well as 
consonental variations that show up (usually) in an unpointed text?

Let me get behind my shield while you shoot your arrows . . . . ;-)

Karl W. Randolph.
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