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  • From: "Eduard C Hanganu" <eddhanganu AT hotmail.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Re: Compound Words in Hebrew
  • Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2004 07:41:24 -0500



Hello to all!

Are there compound words in Hebrew? A friend with whom I have been discussing this matter states:

"Concerning the "evening morning", I was inclined, as you say, to consider this phrase as a unit, and somehow it is a unit, but not a compound word. In Hebrew, compound words stand in a special connection called status constructus (or s'michut), where the second noun has a free (absolute) state, and the first one is bound (construct) to the second one, usually modified and linked to the second by a makkef (kind of hyphen)."

"That the two are considered as separate nouns, is visible in v. 26, where the reference back to them is in form of two definite nouns "ha‘éreb wehabbóqer", which is quite strange for our European languages, but in Hebrew it is usual (e.g. Num 3:46: literally "the redemption of the three, of the seventy and of the two hundreds", meaning: "the redemption of the 273 people"). So the unity of the evening and of the morning is not to be understood as a compound word, but as a syntactical and rhetorical/poetical form, an intentionally obscure phrase, fitted for the apocalyptic manner of expression (as "a time, two times and half a time"; or "70 weeks"). It is quite transparent that the expression is encoded. All apocalyptic is encoded language. Especially when it comes to the length of time to the end, or the identity of the most dangerous enemies of God."

My question is purely morphological, and please, allow me to repeat it: does the lexicon of the Hebrew language include COMPOUND words? And if the answer is affirmative, what is the Grammar that discusses this matter?

Thanks for your help!


Eduard

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