Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 03/04/2005 18:19, Yitzhak Sapir wrote:

> ... 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. ...

While I can make some claim to be a linguist, in this case I have simply 
found some data for the word meaning "one" in other Semitic languages. 
There are in fact several, including classical Arabic, which have a form 
starting with alef (or equivalent) or a vowel (simplified transliteration):

Ugaritic: 'axd
Phoenician: 'xd
Hebrew: 'exad
Ma'lula: axxadh
Modern Mandaic: ehda (~ heda)
Classical Arabic: 'axad
Ge'ez (Ethiopic): 'axadu
Harari: axad

But the forms with initial w are found in Moroccan, Egyptian and Iraqi 
Arabic: waxed/waxid, also in Sabean: wxd. And forms without the first 
syllable are found in Achaemenid Aramaic: xd, Syriac: xad, Modern 
Mandaic: heda (~ ehda), and Tigrinya: xada. This suggests to me that it 
is unlikely that the forms with initial alef are simple extensions of 
forms with initial consonant - if they are, the extension must be much 
older than Hebrew or have happened independently several times.

> ... It's also
> possible that "yaxad" (together) and ")exad" (one) are
> simply unrelated words, one with an alef and one with a
> yod.
>  

I would explain the above data by suggesting that these have been two 
independent words which have existed alongside one another since early 
Semitic times - yaxad being a variant of early Semitic waxad/waxid. But 
I don't suggest two quite separate roots, rather that this was a very 
early doublet, or perhaps the w- or the alef was originally a prefix. 
But this must be speculative.

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



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