Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Peter Kirk wrote:

> Now I don't take BDB as the top authority on Akkadian (and it doesn't 
> mention Ugaritic because it is too old - but it is what I have to hand), 
> but it seems to suggest that mû and šamû are regular singular nouns 
> which also have plural forms. Have I misunderstood BDB? Or is it wrong?

I'd have to say you've understood correctly, but it's wrong. The study 
of Akkadian has come a long way in the past century, so I wouldn't go 
too hard on BDB. I'm not familiar enough with the history of the 
discipline to know exactly how things have changed since then; what I do 
know is that muu is nominative plural in form and mee is oblique plural. 
The difference is one of case; all attested forms of these two words 
look plural in number. I can cite sources on that if you like.

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics