Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

Chris, Ireland wrote:
> Hallo.  I am having a bit of a problem understanding the use of 
> the noun ATaK, for example in 1 Sam 2:3.

The verb used is Ayin-Taw-Quph.  The Ayin is not only a
separate consonant in Hebrew from Alef, but it also merges 
two originally separate consonants in Proto-Semitic, as
mentioned recently in the Alma/Betulah thread.  Not only
can regular roots have more than one meaning, but in this
case, it is also the possibility that the two are simply derived
from two originally different roots (one with Ayin and one with
Ghayin).  I'd have no problem with the idea that there was one 
root meaning "great" and used for both "great/old age" and 
"great words/arrogance," and another meaning "move."

As for the interchange of Alef and Yod, the two are separate
non interchangeable consonants.  However, they are often
"weak" in verbs and may have phonetically weakened from
one form to another.  In the case of )exad and yaxad, I might
suggest that the original root was "waxdu."  In Hebrew, the
initial waw became a yod in many cases, giving yahad
(another example is the move from waldu -> yaldu -> yeled, 
boy).  But in this case, perhaps in the case of the numeral, 
the waw dropped, giving "xdu", with no vowel between the
guttural Het and Dalet.  After a noun, as an adjective, this 
might be bearable ("one boy" - "yaldu xdu").  But as this
is hard to pronounce as a single word, Aramaic and Hebrew 
might have dealt with this differently.  In this case, Aramaic 
ended with "xad" and Hebrew might have added an extra 
alef to ease the pronunciation - ")exdu" and later, ")exad." 
I've got no idea how accurate this reconstruction is.  It 
seems to fit the few pieces of evidence I can seem to 
think of - Aramaic "xada" (one), Hebrew "exad" (one), 
yaxad (together/united), Arabic "waxad" (one).  But this
doesn't mean it's true.  It can be totally wrong!  I'm not a 
linguist.  I do think it does illustrate the various types of 
phonetic processes that can lead to such a phenomenon,
and it's a better explanation than nothing.  It's also
possible that "yaxad" (together) and ")exad" (one) are
simply unrelated words, one with an alef and one with a
yod.

The transliteration guidelines are available at: 
http://www.ibiblio.org/bhebrew/

Yitzhak Sapir