Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Bearpecs AT aol.com]

In a message dated 8/1/2005 3:16:06 AM Eastern Daylight Time,  
furuli AT online.no writes:

These  numbers clearly suggest that phonological reasons and/or the tendency
to  cut off endings in Hebrew words are the reasons behind apocopation and
not  that the antecedent to the apocopated WAYYIQTOLs is a short  preterit
YAQTUL  while the antecedent to the WEYIQTOLs and the YIQTOLs  is a long
present/future YAQTULU.



Doesn't this ignore the comparative Semitic data?
 
 
_The Origins and Development of the Waw-Consecutive:  Northwest  Semitic 
Evidence from Ugarit to Qumran_ by Mark S. Smith (Scholars Press,  1991), 
p.12:
"The converted imperfect derived from independent usage of the *yaqtul  
preterite, attested in both the Amarna and Ugaritic texts... the *yagtul  
preterite 
survives in numerous Semitic languages in specifically marked  environments."
p. 13: "... the BH converted perfect may be traced to the future uses of  
*qatala in apodoses of BH conditional sentences as in Amarna and  
Ugaritic...."
 

 
Hayyim Obadyah
, MPA
New York, New  York 10027