Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Ishinan" <ishinan AT comcast.net>]

I must apologize for my last message.  For some reason, the formatting went 
nuts and words ran together.  I have no idea what happened or why. 
Therefore, I am resending my original message with the hope that my computer 
will act responsibly this time :-) Ishinan


Beginning of the last post:

[ISHINAN] - Randall,  I hope I am not putting words in your mouth, if I do 
please correct me.

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Your following remark, in "Fact of language?" thread, caught my eye:

[RANDALL BUTH] - We know heezin האזין 'listen attentively'. But we don't 
know if or what *azan might have meant, if it existed. izzen, אִזֵֹן on the 
other hand appears to mean 'balance/arrange'

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[ISHINAN] - have seen a similar proposition expressed in Strong's 
etymologies # 238; 239; 241, and 3976, which when combined allude to a 
etymological linkage.


IN STRONG'S:

'azan  a primitive root (rather identical with ''azan' (238)  to broaden out 
the ear (with the hand), i.e. (by implication) to listen:--give (perceive by 
the) ear, hear(-ken). 'azan: through the idea of scales of a balance  as if 
two ears)


I believe a simple exercise involving comparing cognate languages can easily 
shed light on this matter. Of course this works only if you are a Semitist 
and believe in the comparative method.  Against this, there are those who 
will, off hand, strenuously disprove of the comparative method of 
investigation. To them I say, there is no need for you to bother reading 
further.  Life is too short to get upset about such things as "cooked up 
etymologies" as discussed below.

By "cooked up etymologies" I mean that there are a group of words in 
Biblical Hebrew as well in other languages that share the same spelling and 
the same pronunciation (as in the case of `azan) which are concocted as 
being linked together through a nonexistent Proto Semitic trilateral root 
'zn  (aleph+zayn +nun).

Yet here, this linkage made up by Strong or others, which denotes primarily 
the sense 1) of ear to ----> 2) to listen . 3) through the idea of scales of 
a balance as if two ears, is etymologically false, if one consider # 3 as a 
derivative.

Anyone wishing to review the results of the Semitic data in regard to these 
words, is invited to review the following facts:

In Ugaritic: in  M. Dietrich-O. Loretz- San-Martin, Die keilalphabetischen 
Texte aus Ugarit (Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1976), Text (KTU 1.3:IV.lf.) The word 
'udn (pl. 'udnm),is literally "ear,"  see also Caquot, André & Sznycer, 
Maurice. Ugaritic Religion. (State University Groningen; Leiden: E.J. Brill, 
1980.) Pl. VII-X, XVIII, XIX.

Ugaritic "udn" is the cognate of  B. Hebrew  'zn  which denotes in Deut. 
1:45; Isa 1:15; Jer. 7:16;  the sense of hearing  'zn;  to use the ear, to 
listen. In all three Semitic languages Ugaritic , B. Hebrew, and Arabic the 
medial letter is respectively written as delta, zayn and dhAl.


PHONOLOGY:

The Ugaritic letter delta (IPA 104 + 408) is a voiced dental plosive 
consonantal sound.

The Hebrew letter zayn (IPA 131) is a voiced alveolar fricative consonantal 
sound.

The Arabic letter dhAl  (IPA 133) is a voiced dental non-sibilant fricative 
consonantal sound.
(for those unfamiliar with Arabic this sound is found in English, as in the 
words "those" or "then". In English the sound is normally rendered "dh" when 
transliterated from Arabic.

NB. The sound dhAl is lacking in Hebrew, words like  [dhi'b] 'Wolf' and 
[dhahab] 'gold' in Arabic are respectively cognates to Hebrew [zeh'éb] and 
[zahab].  The initial Arabic dhAl here corresponds to the Hebrew zayn.

Meanwhile, in the world of the Ugaritic gods as among humans, the deities 
use balances for weighing. When it has been decided that the moon-god 
yarikhu will marry Nikkalu, the father of the bride places the standard of 
the balance (msb mznm), the mother of the bride places the scales the 
balance (kp mznm),and the sisters take care of the stone weights ('abn 
mznm). [mznm] is the cognate of BH mo'zn # 3976 root of 'zn cf. Arabic 
[MyzAn] balance root of [wzn]. In all three languages Ugaritic  B. Hebrew, 
and Arabic the medial letter is uniformly a zayn.

The letter zayn (IPA 131) in Hebrew and Arabic or Ugaritic zeta is a voiced 
alveolar fricative consonantal sound.

The forgoing phonological analysis and factual examples from cognate 
languages reveal an unambiguous discrepancy in the phonology of the Semitic 
cognate data. While this disparity of meanings combined with different 
phonetic letters clearly means that we are not dealing with the same related 
words.  H.B. 1)  [`azn] primary sense of ear ---> listen and 2) ['azn] 
(denoting balance and/or weigh) are simply not connected in any shape or 
form. The proto Semitic root of the former is actually  ['dhn] while the 
latter is [wzn/'zn.] The Hebrew examples are simply homonyms of the type 
known as homographs.

Any doubt about this outcome can be easily dispelled if one consults the 
Brown Driver & Briggs; a Hebrew and English Lexicon  pp. 23, and 24. The 
dictionary entries, show respectively, the various examples in cognates 
languages, which unequivocally support this conclusion.
Cooked up etymologies are sometimes awkward, though just about always 
interesting to uncover. The B. Hebrew [`zn] here, is a classical case of 
concocting a simile of two unrelated things, in this instance such as ears 
and balance.

PS.  if any of you need to review the pertinent JPEGs of the data, along 
with the BDB entries discussed above, please contact me privately and I will 
oblige.

Best regards

Ishinan Ishibashi

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Best regards

Ishinan Ishibashi