Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 27/01/2004 11:28, Yigal Levin wrote:

> Good point. I really don't have any biblical examples of the root NGB
> meaning "wiped". But Hebrew already has two words for "south" - "darom",
> which seems to be the basic term, and "yamin", which means "right" (as in
> "right hand"), and came to mean "south" to people for whom east was "qedem",
> west was "axor" and north was "semol". These terms are also known from
> cognate languages. So why another word? Perhaps "Negev" was FIRST a proper
> noun, which then came to mean "south" (anologous to "yam" meaning "west"
> even if you're in the Sinai, south of the Great Sea), and only came to mean
> "wiped" in later Hebrew.
>
> Yigal
>  
I had forgotten about "darom". This may be the basic term, although 
HALOT's only evidence is from languages derived from Hebrew. But then 
"negev" could also be the basic term. I don't see enough evidence to 
tell one way or the other.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
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