Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 03/02/2005 23:25, colin AT s-m-i-t-h.com wrote:

> ...
>
> Dave is quite correct. Ugaritic supplies us with abundant evidence that
> the form H$tXWH is an H-$-T stem used with the root XWH. The $ is a
> frequent causative element in Semitic languages (along with Aleph in the
> case of Aramaic) as is /S/ in Egyptian. ...
>  

It may be worth noting that existence of this kind of H$T- stem does not 
imply existence of a Shafel stem. Arabic has an 'ista- stem which 
clearly corresponds to H$T-, but no basic Shafel. Syriac has 'itta- 
which is probably also related.

The pattern can be explained if we see here two separate prefixes, which 
were probably originally something like $A- for causative and $AT- for 
reflexive, and when they were put together they became $AT$A-, which was 
transposed (as regularly in Hebrew Hitpael) to $A$TA-. Then, at a later 
stage in some languages only, word initial $- changed to H- in Hebrew, 
or a glottal stop in Arabic. But the $ which was not word initial 
remained, shifting to S in Arabic and coalescing in Syriac, giving H$T- 
in Hebrew, 'ista- in Arabic and 'itta- in Syriac. In fact the Akkadian 
forms seem to be more like $A- and $TA-, suggesting in the latter case 
that the two $'s coalesced into one.

But this is based on what may be a rather amateur understanding of the 
situation.

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



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