Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>
> 
> Karl Randolph wrote:
> 
...
> 
> I think it might be worthwhile for you to get acquainted with the
> consonantal texts of the DSS and the Samaritan Pentateuch.
> These have additional consonantal methods for elaborating vowels.
> So even if you think the Tiberian pointing is "invented", you will have
> additional grammatical information dated to the last centuries BCE
> that would be useful for differentiating the forms.

Are there any sites on the internet to view these varient forms? The only 
places I have found have been either paper or purchased, both costing many 
hundreds of $$ that I don't have.
> 
> > The above pattern has neither the place nor the need for a "shafel"
> > form.
> 
> What would you make of the Polel and Hitpolel forms?  (consider
> verbs: Romem and Hitromem, from the root rwm).  In my opinion,
> because of its evolution, Shafel is an alternative for Hiphil.  In any
> case, languages develop naturally.  They aren't designed by
> language architects so that they have a clear set amount of forms
> that can't be broken.  There will be irregular forms of all sorts.
> 
You have the shafel form based on speculation on one verb, and that one 
example is disputed, even as early as Ibn Ezra. To have a shafel as an 
alternate for hiphil, you need more than one disputed example, which you 
don't have.

I have no problem with irregular verbs, but to claim that a complete 
grammatical structure can be built on one disputed example somewhat escapes 
me.

I get the impression that modern scholars think that the ancient Hebrews were 
rather dull people without any originality nor ability to use picturesque, 
indirect speech. Since I believe that the ancients were just as capable of 
playing with language as any of their modern descendents, I have no problem 
with "I am darkened (because) which the sun glimpsed me" as a picturesque way 
of saying that "I've been out in the sun and I am tanned."
> 
> Yitzhak Sapir

Karl W. Randolph.
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