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  • From: David Kummerow <farmerjoeblo AT hotmail.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Verbal Aspect (was Tenses - Deut 6:4)
  • Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2007 17:46:50 +1100

Oppps. Before someone corrects me, let me correct myself. Feature 3 should read: Qal 3ms, 3fs, and 2ms of hollow verbs.

David Kummerow.

I should add that it is not just a-vowel + gemination that is diagnostic in BH of the preterite/narrative past tense verb (aka wayyiqtol) but also the following:

1. Hiphil 3ms, 3fs, and 2ms of all verbs except final-heh;
2. apocopation of 3ms, 3fs, and 2ms of final-heh verbs;
3. Qal 3ms, 3fs, and 2ms; and
4. Preterite and jussive do not take the the third-person pronominal suffixes augmented with nun (I can't remember if this is complicated by the gradual use of the long cohortative form being used for the first-person preterite/narrative past tense verb, though).

Regards,
David Kummerow.


Gday Bob,

I would argue that the Masoretes are recording exactly what they heard, ie a-vowel + gemination of the first root consonant. Rolf will argue differently based upon his assumptions.

But it depends, also, on what you mean by "original". Original at the time of the Masoretes, original to 1000-400BC, or original to proto-Hebrew? Some (eg Andersen 2000: 20, 51; Müller 1991; Revell 1984: 443) explain the gemination as having arisen so as to preserve the vowel quality in order to be distinct from a reduced /we/. Others argue that the a-vowel and gemination are the remnants of a clitic; see McFall 1982: 217-219 and Hatav 2004 for proposals.

Andersen, T. David. 2000. “The Evolution of the Hebrew Verbal System.” Zeitschrift für Althebraistik 13: 1-66.
Hatav, Galia. 2004. “Anchoring World and Time in Biblical Hebrew.” Journal of Linguistics 40: 491-526.
McFall, Leslie. 1982. The Enigma of the Hebrew Verbal System: Solutions from Ewald to the Present Day. Historic Texts and Interpreters in Biblical Scholarship 2. Sheffield: Almond.
Müller, Hans-Peter. 1991. “wa-, ha- und das Imperfectum consecutivum.” Zeitschrift für Althebraistik 4: 144-160.

Regards,
David Kummerow.

Thanks for all the contributions on this subject. In spite of the rather
confusing terminology - all those kill and be killed verbs - it has been
informative of linguistic issues and the disagreements.

I found a useful paper at
http://www.basicsofbiblicalhebrew.com/images/wayyiqtol1.pdf

I find it curious, that the form of the waw conversive, or not, is contained
in the vowel markings and a dagesh forte.

Does the dagesh occur in the original or is it also a Masoretic invention?

Bob

Bob MacDonald
Victoria BC
http://gx.ca
http://bmd.gx.ca










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