Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

Dear All,

Since I'm sure we've run through the guard interrogative/definite article
example quite a bit, and since my example of the queen and her king
seems to have lost something in the translation, I figured some more
examples might be useful:

qivcu "gather them!" 1 Sam 7:5
qibbacu "they gathered" Joel 2:6

xizqu "be strong!" Deut 31:6
xizzaqu "they strengthened" Jer 5:3

sifru "count!" Ps 48:13
sipparu "they told" Ps 75:2

limdu "learn!" Is 1:17
limmadu "they learned" Jer 9:4

$ivru "buy" Is 55:1
$ibbaru "they broke" 2 Ki 11:18

Some more varied ones:

qinnim "nests/compartments" Gen 6:14
qinim "lamentations" Ezekiel 2:10

$ilxo "his weapon" 2 Chron 23:10
$illaxo "he sent him away" 2 Sam 3:22

nicca "ripe fruit" Is 18:5
niccah "its flower" Gen 40:10

middavar "over the words of" 2 Sam 19:44
midbar "desert" Ex 19:1

miggava(ot "of the hills of" Is 2:2
migba(ot "hats" Lev 8:13

There even appears one case where a dagesh qal appears phonemic:
licvo "to be on duty" Nu 4:23, Num 8:24
licbo "to fight against" Is 31:4
However, [b] and [v] are already known to be phonemic in Tiberian
Hebrew.  In fact, in the above example, perhaps Num 4:23, 8:24 are
derived from the Qal of cwy but have come to be spelled as lcb)
because the Qal is so rare.  If this is the case, it might suggest
the w > v shift in Israel was very early.

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Yitzhak Sapir