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  • From: Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>
  • To: david.l.steinberg AT rogers.com
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Biblia Hebraica transcripta
  • Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2008 23:45:13 -0500

David,

I have looked in the site of your post and this is what immediately caught my attention:
1. It is inconceivable that the Hebrew root (LM has the evolved meaning of 'conceal', which as an act holds a supposition as to an implied intention by the actor. Neither is there any support I can see for the "other" (LM meaning 'agitated'. The two words (ELEM, 'youth', and TA-(ALUMAH, 'mystery, concealment', come from the same root essentially meaning 'amass, bury under', and the artifice of two "different" [the tricky argument of phonemes versus phones] letters ayin becomes thus unnecessary. Otherwise, we would need, methinks, a third root (LM [and a presumed third "proto-semitic" ayin?] for (OLAM 'eternity, creation'.

2. Trying to, even remotely, relate NAXAL-AH, 'property', and NAXAL, 'pool, stream' via 'water, irrigation' is in my opinion a grave mistake. Different Hebrew words derived from the same root need not be notionally related --- there need not be any "horizontal" relationship whatsoever between different Hebrew words derived from the same root. Consider, for instance, the example of $EBER, wreakage', and $EBER, 'grain, sustenance'.
I am inclined to think that the root NXL is a variant of the roots XLL and KLL, 'include'. Thus NAXAL MAYIM, 'body of water' is a variant of MI-KAL HA-MAYIM of 2 Samuel 17:20 [in present day Hebrew ME-KAL is 'container', and ME-KAL-IT, is 'tanker'] , and we are relieved by this of the need for the artifice of two "different" original het letters.
There are, of course, otherwise at least two evidently equvalent het letters in Hebrew: xet and he.

Isaac Fried, Boston University
On Feb 29, 2008, at 9:11 AM, David Steinberg wrote:

I have been working on ancient Hebrew poetry (see Biblical Hebrew Poetry
and Word Play - Reconstructing the Original Oral, Aural and Visual
Experience <http://www.houseofdavid.ca/anc_heb.htm>
http://www.houseofdavid.ca/anc_heb.htm ) and came across Wolfgang
Richter's enormous /Biblia Hebraica transcripta/ series. The only
problem I have had in understanding his reconstruction of the biblical
texts is due to some of the various signs he has used and his handling
of gemination.

He wrote a series of books in German outlining his approach. However, at
the beginning of his volume on Genesis he boiled it down into a few pages.

My German is non-existent so I asked two native German speakers to
translate the key points. One was a journalist and the other and
academic librarian. They both said that they could not really understand
his terminology.

Does anyone know of an English guide to Richter's symbols and methods?

David Steinberg

Tel. 613-731-5964

http://www.houseofdavid.ca/

David.Steinberg AT houseofdavid.ca <mailto:David.Steinberg AT houseofdavid.ca>

<mailto:David.Steinberg AT houseofdavid.ca>

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