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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] verb forms - Isaiah 56:6-7 was dying you shall die

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>
  • To: Yonah Mishael <yonahmishael AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] verb forms - Isaiah 56:6-7 was dying you shall die
  • Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 19:01:45 +0100

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/





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