Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 21/10/2004 05:33, Karl Randolph wrote:

> Peter:
>
> I started writing this off list to another person, but then realized that 
> this goes to the reason I brought up the question in the first place.
>
> Is the Arabic the only recognized cognate language similarity to BLG? ...

It is the only one mentioned in BDB, which was all I claimed before. 
Someone else gave further information from HALOT. I have now just opened 
up HALOT, and there is a mention there of an Egyptian possible cognate 
BRG, no meaning given, and a suggested link with BLQ which is "to 
appear" in Syriac, "to dazzle" in Mandaean(?), and "to gleam" in Arabic.

> ... With all the Hebrew uses of the root being pre-Exilic, making recorded 
> Arabic uses well over a thousand years later as well as in a different 
> language, how far can we trust the Arabic term to have the same meaning? Even 
> in contemporanious uses Hebrew and Aramaic terms sometimes had very different 
> meanings, Arabic, being so much later as well, is even further from Hebrew. 
> Already Mishnaic Hebrew shows marked differences with Biblical Hebrew, and 
> that was earlier than Arabic.
>
>  
Indeed we cannot be sure that the meaning is the same. But in most cases 
this kind of meaning change is either subtle or in rather obviously 
explainable directions.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/