Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On 3/7/07, David Kummerow wrote:
> As a sometimes-user of such terms, I'll provide a comment.
>
> I can't speak for others, but I do not use the terms to imply that there
> is not some variability in spelling as you say. Since the usual paradigm
> root is qtl these days, a quick representation using English characters
> of the verbal paradigms using this root is as you've given them. If you
> have a better suggestion for formal labels, I'm happy to use them. But
> other terminology does start to get cumbersome, eg conjunction + short
> prefix verb, etc.

A quick but more accurate representation with the root QTL is:
VAYYIQTOL
VIYIQTOL
VAQOTAL

I would suggest using the root SPR, as it is a complete verb, it is actually
attested in Biblical Hebrew, and it has a P for a BGDKPT (B and P being
the simplest BGDKPT letters to represent in latin characters).  Furthermore,
this one P is at the exact place where we would want it -- that is, to 
indicate
whether it was affected by a vowel in between the first and second root 
letters.

For the person, I would suggest using second-person to avoid the problem
of the initial Y prefix.  For suffix forms, it also allows for an
indication that there
was no lost vowel between the verbal root and suffix.  This gives:
VATTISPOR
VATISPOR
VASOFARTO

The above accurately indicates the differences and similarities of the verbal
paradigm as realized by the Massoretes.

Yitzhak Sapir