Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Uri,

You are right. Since school days I am being constantly reminded that  
the Dagesh forte in the TAV of ATAH is to account for a "missing" or  
"assimilated" NUN. But I have hard time accepting this. Is it  
conceivable that the NAKDANIM would mar the sacred text for a reason  
that is practically utterly irrelevant? Do we care as we read the  
Torah that at some point AT was possibly ANT, and BAT was possibly  
BANT? If I remember correctly this is also the reason given for the  
Dagesh following MI- and HA-. Do you believe it? The speculation that  
the discarded NUN did not go away quietly but rather left a faint  
remainder in the form of a "slight emphatic pronounciation as still  
heard in Masoretes time" is not easy for me to accept either.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Apr 18, 2007, at 9:53 AM, Uri Hurwitz wrote:

> Isaac Fried wrote, inter alia:
> "Uri,    The relationship between Hebrew and Arabic is enigmatic
>
>  and I am not prepared to be sucked now into this murky
>
>  vortex. "...
>
>    Arabic preserves many Proto-Semitic features which are
>
>  common to all Semitic languages. Just one small example:
>
>  Heb. ATTAH compared with Arab. ANTA. Notice the Dagesh
>
>  forte in the Heb. Tav which compensates for the original Nun
>
>  that had been there and is preserved in the Arabic. In Hebrew
>
>   it was assimilated to the next letter, but marked its former
>
>  presence by the slight emphatic pronounciation as still
>
>  heard in Masoretes time and marked by them as a dagesh.
>
>     To cite just one more example :the exact same process
>
> occurred in verbs. Notice the imperfect of NPL in Qal, where
>
>  the Nun drops and is commpensated with a dagesh.
>
>
>
>    As for the pre-historical devlopment of Semitic languages
>
>  or human languages in general, this is the realm of sheer
>
>  speculation.
>
>     Uri
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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