Biblical Hebrew Forum

["B. M. Rocine" <brocine AT twcny.rr.com>]

Forwarded on behalf of Rodney Duke:

Dear Colleagues,

I just read a book review of:
Mark S Smith, The Origins and Development of the waw-consecutive: 
Northwest Semitic Evidence from Ugarit to Qumran (Atlanta, Ga.: Scholars 
Press, 1991) by Gary Rendsburg [(Hebrew Studies 34 (1993) 203-5].

Smith accepts the dominant theory from G. Bergstraesser (1918) that 
waw-consecutive (WC) is derived from a yaqtul preterite, and relies on 
Lambdin’s (1971) explanation of the doubling of the following consonant 
as “junctural doubling.”  However, Rendsburg argues for the Young-Gordon 
theory that WC come from Egyptian iw sdm-n-f and that both forms are 
comprised of the same four elements, although not in the same order: an 
existential particle (w), pronominal indicator (y), past tense marker 
(n), and a verbal root.  The dagesh in wayyiqtol in the assimilated nun 
of the past tense marker.  Rendsburg posits an original *han-, cognate 
to Arabic 'al (hal- in Bedouin dialects), and the thesis that this form 
was commonly used in areas where Egyptian administration was strongest, 
accounting for its absence in Phoenician, etc.

I would appreciate learning from the b-hebrew list members some of the 
arguments for and against the Young-Gordon theory of the Egyptian origin 
of waw consecutive.
Thanks!

Rodney Duke
Dept. of Phil. & Rel.
Appalachian State University
Boone, NC

--
B. M. Rocine
Living Word Chruch
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