Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Randall Buth <randallbuth AT gmail.com>]

>
Do you think I'm right?

Pere Porta>

Of course, you are right on this.

Pi``el with middle-yod or waw would show their root letter
(le-shawwa`, le-tsawwot) and tended to not co-occur with a qal
verb of the same root, though we do have le-Hayyot and the
later le-qayyem.  In Ps 31 it would have facilitated
discussion if a proposer of a pi``el from א.י.ד alef.yod.dalet
would have produced a proposed form and then considered
whether or not the consonantal text would support such a
proposal.

the more interesting question may be:
why is this an issue needing multiple responses?
How can we explain a discussion about that which doesn't
exist and wouldn't exist?

Perhaps we can explain this as the product of someone
who doesn't deal with actual words but with grammar concepts
from 'first-year Hebrew': "Take m.'.d, delete 'm' as a pi``el participle
prefix, find a root related to alef-dalet." Or in reverse, "Take a root,
pi``elize it, and presto, a pi``el verb," but without giving consideration
as to whether the form is possible or supportable.

If מאד  m.'.d.  were a pi``el from a root '.y.d / '.w.d, it would have been
spelled m.'.y.d or m.'.w.d.
So מאד m.'.d cannot be a pi``el verb from '.y.d.
There is no debate in this case, one just cleans up the mistaken
proposal and moves on.

brakot le-shavua` tov,
Randall Buth


-- 
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicalulpan.org
randallbuth AT gmail.com
Biblical Language Center
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