Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 18/04/2007 04:13, Yonah Mishael wrote:
> ...
> To some extent I can see this in Latin in the present tense of the
> first person singular, but for the most part I don't think this is the
> case that the two line up so clearly:
>
> AMARE - to love (present tense)
> amo (ego)*
> amas (tu)
> amat (-)
> amamus (nos)
> amatis (vos)
> amant (-)
>
> They did not even have a static form of the third person pronoun until
> late in the development of the language. I don't think your theory can
> account, even in Latin, for the various formatives (for example, the
> -av- of the perfect tense) that create a verb form. Though it seems
> more plausible to Hebrew specifically, I cannot imagine that this one
> language developed any differently than the many others that were in
> use in ancient times or those of which we can observe the development
> through written history (such as English, German, and Spanish). Though
> it is an interesting theory, it just doesn't seem to be how language
> works.
>
>   
Yonah, you can't see this clearly in Latin because the fusion actually 
took place much earlier. If you look back at reconstructed 
Proto-Indo-European, see the examples I gave earlier, the 
correspondences are much more clear. Despite what Uri wrote, that "this 
is the realm of sheer speculation", this is in fact as clearly 
demonstrated as anything can be from the remote past. This is how 
language works, even if you have to look a bit beyond Latin 101 to see it.

--
Peter Kirk
E-mail:  peter AT qaya.org
Blog:    http://www.qaya.org/blog/
Website: http://www.qaya.org/