Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 28/06/2007 23:19, Brak wrote:
> The reason why I am so concerned about this is because I am writing a 
> computer program that allows you to enter a root and the form you want 
> it in, and it would give it to you.
>
> So if you entered $MR, Qal Perfect 3MS the program would give you  $FMAR
> Or if you entered (ZB, Nif'al Imperfect 1CP the program would give you 
> N"(FZ"B
>
> So hence the words BRK and KRT are causing a big problem.
>
> Is Hebrew so haphazard that such a program would be impossible to 
> create, that basically every word really has to be treated is if it is 
> in a world of its own? I mean what is the logic for BRK and KRT to be 
> treated different?
>
>   
I understand your frustration, John, but it may be that there is in fact 
no logic here. Sometimes real language is arbitrary. You can find plenty 
of arbitrary irregular verb forms in English, as in almsot every real 
language. In fact Hebrew is much less irregular than English, given the 
special rules for verbs with gutturals etc. But it is not always uniform 
and regular.

My advice would be to treat the forms of BRK as the rule and the very 
few anomalous forms of KRT and a few other verbs as exceptions, as GKC does.

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