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b-hebrew - [b-hebrew] XBR vs. ubburu: Hebron

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  • From: Peter Bekins <pbekins AT fuse.net>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] XBR vs. ubburu: Hebron
  • Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2009 10:58:55 -0500

Only if the letter in question is an initial letter that later got lost in
Akkadian/Assyrian. The permanent loss of an initial letter logically implies that it was not an integral part of the root, but rather was a mere prefix.

Jim,

The change of the 5 laryngeals to aleph which I alluded to in an earlier post - (, ), ḥ, h,and ġ - is a merger which is not conditioned by the position of the letter in the word. That is, ALL ḥ (note this is Yitzhak's X. not X_ which was preserved) changed to aleph. It has nothing to do with being in initial position. Thus Hebrew BXR 'to choose' = Akk bêru 'to choose'.

However, even if it was only in initial position such a change would no more prove that it was a prefix than American English /hello/ versus British English /'allo/ proves that h- is a prefix and that the original word was 'lo'.

Peter Bekins



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