Biblical Hebrew Forum

["George Athas" <gathas AT hotkey.net.au>]

Hi Vadim!

> I always wondered, If the grammar is so complicated, how did the ancients
> spoke these languages, anyway? Surely it looked to them simpler than that.

Good point. I think the traditional understanding ('conversive waw') is the 
complicated way of seeing things. It involves saying that an imperfect means 
uncompleted action, but when a waw is attached it means completed action, and 
the for some reason the form sometimes shortens when the waw is attached. 
It's much simpler and makes more sense of more things to say that the 
Imperfect is a totally different type of verb to the Preterite.

Nevertheless, Occam's Razor (the most simple explanation is right) should not 
guide us here. We need to look at the evidence of the language itself.

Best regards,

GEORGE ATHAS
Lecturer in Biblical Languages
Southern Cross College
Sydney, Australia