Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Maurice A. O'Sullivan" <mauros AT iol.ie>]

At 11:24 12/09/2004, wattswestmaas wrote:

> I mean I get really super fed up after having learned the RULES, and then
> LEARNING the DEVIATIONS from the rules and then learning the deviations from
> the deviations --  just when i think that I am getting somewhere, along
> comes some irritating EXCEPTION to the DEVIATION from the
> DEVIATION!??!!??!?!?!?!?

My advice would be: stop feeling sorry for yourself, and start by 
establishing what the rules and REGULAR paradigms are, then ( and only then 
) go on to explore the exceptions, deviations, call them what you will.

You cited Gesenius in an earlier posting. Go to section ( 51 ) for the 
treatment of the Niphal, and in (b) you will see:

>> The features of Niph'al are accordingly in the perfect and participle 
the prefixed Nûn, in the imperative, infinitive, and imperfect, the Dagesh 
in the first radical. These characteristics hold good also for the weak 
verb. In the case of an initial guttural, which, according to § 22 b, 
cannot take Dagesh forte, the omission of the strengthening invariably 
causes the lengthening of the preceding vowel (see § 63 h).<<

That, it seems to me, is a basic rule -- which you clearly have not yet 
learned.
As for paradigms, the listings, at the back of the book, begin with strong 
verbs, and you might note that some are marked with an asterisk. They are 
marked thus so that, as noted on p.507:
 >> those forms which are to be especially noticed by the beginner are 
marked throughout by an asterisk as model forms.<<




Maurice A. O'Sullivan
mauros AT iol.ie

"When you know a thing, to hold that you know it, and when you do not know 
a thing, to allow that you do not know it: This is knowledge."
Confucius