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  • From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] A question on the segollate words
  • Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2004 10:44:55 -0500

Dear Vadim,

Thank you for the reference. I see that DeCaen also belives in CVCVC origin
of segholates, unlike Gesenius. However, DeCaen concentrates on late
Tiberian dialect when, indeed, the second vowel turned into shwa. I try to
answer why this transformation took place.

HH: I think DeCaen was agreeing with Gesenius. After all, he cites the same section of GKC that Peter Kirk earlier mentioned, and that section says:

The supposition of monosyllabic ground-forms appeared to be required by the character of forms now existing in Hebrew, as well as in Arabic, etc. But there are strong reasons for believing that at least a large proportion of these forms go back to original dissyllabic bases with a short vowel in each syllable.

HH: The word "dissyllabic" corresponds in meaning to the form CVCVC given by DeCaen. The prefix "di-" implies "two." The theory is that these CVCVC forms eventually shortened to the monosyllabic segholate forms, which later regained a final vowel syllable. So the development in syllables was 2-1-2.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard




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