Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Uri Hurwitz <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>]

  On Mon, Feb 22, 2010 at 3:55 PM, Randall Buth wrote:

> I almost follow you, except that classical Arabic
 has a dual graph for this, the 'ta marbutta'. The Arabs
 wrote a 'h' shape just like BH, and then added> two dots
 to show the 't' sound.>

     Randall, there is a good reason why the term "Ta
 Marbut(.)a" is used - it literally means a 'tied Ta', as
 if the the two edges of the mostly flat Ta got tied
 together.
     Had it been the Ha, the term would have been
 something like " Nuqt(.)atein Ha".

   Thus is also answered the quote bellow, a delightful
 example of comment by someone who knows not what he
 is writing about:

  >  It is hard to explain why both Hebrew and Arabic chose
 to add an "h"  type letter to denote the feminine that
 alternates between t and h.  Why  wouldn't Arabic choose
 >something based on ta and alif? >

  As for the Tanwin in Arabic or Mimation in Akkadian, the
 case endings we touched upon briefly in the past, the
 question whether these forms preceeded the colloquial ones,
 including BH, is indeed fascinating. By plain logic the
 latter came first.
   But all this takes us too far afield.

  Ha)ud He(ashen,

  Uri

  Uri Hurwitz                             Great Neck, NY