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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: "Dr. Joel M. Hoffman" <joel AT exc.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] YHWH derivation - Elohim
  • Date: Thu, 05 May 2005 17:09:05 +0100

On 05/05/2005 16:29, Dr. Joel M. Hoffman wrote:

It also accords well with the fact that the Israelites seem to have
used their matres lectiones for other important tasks, including
adding a Hey to the names of their Patriarch (AVRM --> AVRHM),
Matriarch (SHY --> SRH) and deity (ELYM --> ELHYM).


This cannot be an adequate explanation for the form 'LHYM. The he as a root letter is found in other Semitic languages, including Arabic "Allah", "ilaha" etc, Aramaic "elah", all with a fully pronounced (not mater lectionis) he. So it can hardly be a Hebrew invention, or one dating from after the introduction of matres lectionis which was not long before the Exile.


We can rule Arabic out right away, because the writing comes from the
middle of the first millenium CE, almost 1,500 years too late to be
relevant. (Right?)


No, we cannot, unless we postulate:
(a) Arabic "Allah" is a loan word from Hebrew "Elohim", rather than coming from a common Semitic heritage;
(b) The Hebrew -iym plural suffix was lost before this loan - consider also the Hebrew singular form Eloah (with a real sounded final he);
(c) Arabic, which is very much a spoken language with a rather weak and late tradition of writing, has acquired a phonological feature taken from writing - and from writing of a different language; such pronunciations according to spelling are known in highly literate languages, but are highly improbable in Arabic.

Aramaic is trickier, for two reasons.
We don't know have any clear idea how a final HEH was pronounced. A
pronounced final /h/ sound is rare in the world's languages, but
common in the world's writing systems, leading one to conclude that
written H's aren't usually pronounced. Of course, part of the reason
final unpronounced H's are so common goes back to the matres
lectiones, so any application of current generalities to
pre-matres-lectiones writing is dubious. And we left not knowing
enough about final H's back then.


But we have strong evidence for a sounded final H (which really is not that rare in the world's languages, just that it is not so common in Indo-European languages) from Arabic "Allah" (listen to any Arab saying this!) and from the Masoretic pointing of Hebrew Eloah and Aramaic Elah, both with mappiq in the he indicating clear pronunciation.

But we also don't have enough (any?) pre-Hebrew Aramaic writing to
come to any clear conclusion about Aramaic. Typical of current
thinking is Beyer's claim that "Ancient Aramaic in written form
appeared in the 11th cent. b.c. ... [but] the oldest witnesses to it
are inscription from [...] the 10th-8th [centuries]" (K. Beyer _The
Aramaic Language_ [1896, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht]) But such a claim,
which only narrows down the introduction of Aramaic writing to perhaps
200 years, is not precise enough to date Aramaic writing before Hebrew
matres lectiones.


Again we have the objection that Aramaic is highly unlikely to have acquired a pronunciation according to the spelling of another language.

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



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  • [b-hebrew] YHWH derivation - Elohim, Peter Kirk, 05/05/2005

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