Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] RE: niphal-sorry and sorry

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Maurice A. O'Sullivan" <mauros AT iol.ie>
  • To: "wattswestmaas" <wattswestmaas AT eircom.net>
  • Cc: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.Ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] RE: niphal-sorry and sorry
  • Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 12:52:10 +0100

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





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page