Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Uri Hurwitz" <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>
To: "Peter Kirk" <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
Cc: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 5:32 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Karnaim


>
>
> Peter Kirk
> >
> As the modern Hebrew speakers on this list have only confused me and
> others, I asked a someone I know who attended a Hebrew school in Israel,
> although actually a Christian Arab. According to him:
>
> rays (plural) = keranim, construct karne
> horns (plural) = keranot, construct karnot (?)
> horns (dual) = karnaim, construct karne
>
> He admits that his knowledge is imperfect. But would anyone choose to
> correct him?
>
> Peter Kirk
>
> The above is fine, but I would add that im Mod. Heb. Keren is also
commonly used for "fund" , and the pl. here is Keranot. Of course the
correct transliteration of the letter Quf is a  Q.
>
> Uri
>

As long as we're on this, I'd add that while the form "qeranot", construct
"qarnot" for "horns" (plural) is grammatically correct, most speakers of
modern Hebrew would actually use "Qarnaim/Qarnei" for "horns", even if there
were more than two, just like they would use "raglaim" for "legs", even of a
four-legged animal or of a table. A four-horned altar (such as that found at
Beer-Sheva) is a "mizbeah arba qarnaim", though "the horns of the alter"
would be "qarnot hammizbeah", following the biblical form.

Yigal

p.s.  Dilemmas, for some reason, don't have horns in Hebrew. ; )