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  • From: David Kummerow <farmerjoeblo AT hotmail.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Any meaning to the Dagesh?
  • Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:14:41 +1100


Hi George,

From memory, I think Tropper argues for a /han-/ morpheme from comparative Semitics (Tropper 2001), which, due to the semantics of the morphemes involved, is more likely typologically (see Miller 2004).

All of this means that Isaac's claim that dagesh representing gemination can be done away without consequence is fallacious -- etymologically, phonetically, and morphologically speaking.

Miller, Cynthia L. 2004. “Methodological Issues in Reconstructing Language Systems from Epigraphic Fragments.” Pages 281-305 in The Future of Biblical Archaeology: Reassessing Methodologies and Assumptions. Edited by James K. Hoffmeier and Alan Millard. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Tropper, Josef. 2001. “Die Herausbildung des bestimmten Artikels im Semitischen.” Journal of Semitic Studies 46: 1-31.

Regards,
David Kummerow.




To back up David Kummerow on this one, if you do some comparative linguistics, particularly with Arabic, it is possible that the gemination which is part of the Hebrew article is, in fact, an assimilation of lamed. That is, it could be that the Hebrew article is /Hal-/. The problem is, we have no way of being sure about this in Hebrew, because the article never appears on its own without articulating a substantive of some kind. However, the Arabic parallel is suggestive. The consonant /lam/ in Arabic is often run into the following consonant, producing an effective gemination of that consonant.



Regards,

GEORGE ATHAS
Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
www.moore.edu.au






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