Biblical Hebrew Forum

["K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Pere:

On Nov 27, 2007 9:05 PM, <pporta AT oham.net> wrote:

> > Your argument is very clear to me, except that I still don't see HOW
> > the particle, to use your terminology, -UT turns a noun into an
> > abstract noun.
> >
> > Isaac Fried, Boston University
>
> __________
>
> Melek, king  ---------> malkut (malk-ut), royalty (1Ch 29:25)
>
> How can this -ut be explained as a combining of personal pronouns?
>
> For confirmation: in Israeli Hebrew.... there are plenty of cases where a
> final -ut means an abstract concept:
>
> 1. adom, red ---------> admut, redness
> 2. pikeaH, seer (Ex 4:11)  ----------> pikHut, cleverness
> 3. sefer, book ---------> sifrut, literature
> etc. etc.
>
> Pere Porta
> Barcelona (Spain)
>
> Or to give some examples from Biblical Hebrew:)YL strength in the sense of
forcefulness, )YLWT the more abstract power,
GR sojourner, GRWT sojourning
YLD, YLDH boy, girl, YLDWT childhood
MW$Y( savior, MW$YWT salvation
ML)K messenger, ML)KWT message
MRD rebel, MRDWT rebellious
and many more.

(I hope I listed only those pronounced with a -ut above, an unpointed text
leaves possibility to mistakes)

Languages are messy. Sometimes there's no rhyme or reason for certain rules,
and then to be perverse, sometimes languages don't follow their own rules.
You can't use mathematical certainty to study languages.

Karl W. Randolph.