Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Isaac Fried" <if AT math.bu.edu>]

  _____  

The Indo-Europeans have given their language such a ruinous whack in the
past that by now it is linguistically all fogy and murky. Yet your question
is interesting and valid. I prefer to stick, though, to Hebrew.

 

First of all, what I mean by ‘I’ is the sound ‘ee’, as of the Hebrew XIRIK,
and what I mean by ‘U’ is the sound ‘oo’, as of the Hebrew SHURUK, or the
Hebrew KUBUTZ.

 

As an example as to how the insertion of vowels (i.e. universal personal
pronouns) turns a root into a noun etc., consider the Hebrew words אסיר
(ASIR=AS+I+R), ‘a prisoner’ and אסור (ASUR=AS+U+R) ‘is imprisoned’ (it may
also mean ‘IT is forbidden’). Both the ‘I’ and the ‘U’ infixes function
here, identically and universally, as an English ‘he’(again h+ee!)to turn
the root ASR into the statement ‘HE is a prisoner’, or ‘HE is in the state
expressed by the root ASR.’

 

Likewise: ASIRI=AS+I+R+I is ‘MY prisoner’, and ASIRO=AS+I+R+O is ‘HIS
prisoner’. Also, ASRU=ASR+U is ‘THEY arrested’, and USAR=U+(A)SR is ‘HE was
arrested.’

 

The English ‘er’ in prisoner=prison+er=prison+are is likewise a personal
pronoun. Separate (un-affixed) Hebrew pronouns are also compounds containing
consonants, but this is not for now.

Isaac Fried

 

 

On 24/11/2006 14:07, Isaac Fried wrote:

Recall what I said: The vowels I, U (as well as what I consider the latter,
O,E) represent in Hebrew personal pronouns. ...

 

I, U and 'E also represent the English personal pronouns, as spoken and
texted around here. Coincidence? Or are things actually not as simple as
this?

 

-- 

Peter Kirk

E-mail: peter AT qaya.org

Blog: http://speakertruth.blogspot.com/

Website: http://www.qaya.org/