Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 6:08 AM, George Athas wrote:
> Does anyone have any thoughts as to why the root YR$ (to possess, 
> dispossess) takes a
> hireq vowel (rather than patah) after the resh in Deut 4.1 and 22? The form 
> in both verses is
> Qal Weqatal 2mp: וִירִשְׁתֶּם — wiyri$tem.

The standard Semitic Qal form marks differences between various verbs
using the second
vowel (the "theme vowel").  Verbs of action are denoted with -a-.
Verbs of state are denoted
with -i- or -u-.

$amar - guard (action)
kaved - heavy (state)
qat'on - small (state)

The imperfect form of the verb differs based on the type:
$amar -> yi$mor
kaved/qat'on -> yikbad / yiqt'an

See on this the following in Muraoka's grammar, p. 127:
http://books.google.com/books?id=Zhjd_m5hIeIC&pg=PA127

According to Segert's Ugaritic grammar, -i- denotes a changeable
state, and -u- denotes a
permanent state (p. 55):
http://books.google.com/books?id=LizxaT7eMqMC&pg=PA55

According to Sivan's Grammatical Analysis and Glossary of the NWS
Vocables in Akkadian
Texts of the 15th-13th C BC from Canaan and Syria, the qatala is used
for the active voice,
qatila for intransitive verbs representing the passive voice, and
qatula for the stative (p. 136)

The grammar of the Masoretic vocalization does not preserve these
vowels in all cases.
However, there are some various cases where the vowels are preserved:

$ame(u - Judges 2:17
$amia( - Jer 36:13
$amiti [$ami(ti:] - EA 362, 5

A nice verb to compare in this regard is $)L "ask" where the Ugaritic
consonantal text
shows us the theme vowel is -i-.

YR$ may also a case of the i vowel being preserved.  Compare
ya-ri-$u-nu- in a personal name
from RS 8.213.  Published here: http://www.jstor.org/pss/4196061  See
also Daniel Sivan's
discussion of the qatila pattern on p. 141 of the above mentioned
book.  (However, while
Sivan mentions forms of yr$ in the glossary, all with an -i- vowel, he
does not mention them in
this section.  All the forms in the glossary are apparently from
personal names).

In addition to grammatical factors (verb of state vs verb of action)
there are also phonetic
factors involved (as mentioned by Sivan and Muraoka).

See also Schniedewind's Primer on Ugaritic:
http://books.google.com/books?id=L2T_4KVwpTQC&pg=PA55

Yitzhak Sapir