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  • From: "B. M. Rocine" <brocine AT twcny.rr.com>
  • To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] origin of waw-consecutive
  • Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2005 15:47:10 -0400

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
6101 Court St. Rd.
Syracuse, NY 13026
(W): 315.437.6744




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