Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 1:44 PM, Randall Buth wrote:
>> I would see $bty as a rare alternative form of y$bty.  See also Judges
>>19:11, rd
>> instead of yrd.
>>Yitzhak Sapir
>
> This needs a little tightening up, but I agree.
>
> In Judges we can simply read as it is: "rad",
> presumably from a root r.d.d. with a meaning similar to y.r.d.
> So in Judges we have a rare dialectical word that isn't otherwise used.
> But it is attested in the ktiv and MT.

If we are willing to see rd as a "rare dialectical word" from the root r.d.d
we can use the same logic to see it as a "rare form" from the root y.r.d.
But see HALOT where r.d.d means "subjugate" making it unlikely to be
from r.d.d.  In contrast, its suggestion (same entry) to tie it to Akkadian
radu "cloudburst, downpour" is reasonable.

> However, I agree that we migh have a dialect homonym
> shavti 'I sat' (from root sh.w.b.)

No.  I see it as an alternative form of root y.sh.b.  Not any hypothetical
root sh.w.b.  This is why it is important if rd is also from y.r.d. as it 
gives
us a secondary attestation of this form.  The main driving idea is to see
it as a vestige of some analogy or morphological change in language.
Such a restricted form would be understandable in Ps 23 (poetic text
speaking about actions in the Temple) but less understandable in Ju 19.
A different idea is to see the waw as part of the verb form.  That is, this
preserves the ancient pre-NWS initial waw.  It is, in fact, pronounced
with almost exactly the same vowels and stress as the corresponding
NWS word (*wa'thab-) in Masoretic pronunciation: va'shav-.  This would
suggest that initial *w > y in NWS is an analogical/morphological change
rather than a phonetic one, a reasonable assumption in any case since
phonetic changes are oblivious to word-initial position).  Such a verb
form would be expected with a qamats in the first syllable in Masoretic
pronunciation, reflecting a lengthening of that vowel at some point in
time.  But perhaps it had already been analyzed as wa- = "and" by the
time of such lengthening.

Yitzhak Sapir