Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Nir cohen - Prof. Mat." <nir AT ccet.ufrn.br>]

given the arab tha'alab for fox, can we interpret this archeological 
toponym as pre-hebrew "foxes"? 

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nir cohen 

On Wed, 5 Jan 2011 20:45:17 -0500, Isaac Fried wrote
> Methinks that first came the root $L 'tall', (actually, I think that 
>  first came the single-consonant roots $ and L), then came the 
> words:  $ALAH, 'pull up' (related to TALAH), MI-$OL, 'road, path,
>  DEREK  SLULAH', $UAL, 'fox', $UL, 'fringe', $ALAL, ' (piled up) 
> booty', E $EL, 'tree', $ALO$, 'three', *$AL$ELET, 'chain', *$LULIYT, 
> 'puddle',  etc.
> 
> Isaac Fried, Boston University
> 
> On Jan 5, 2011, at 7:36 PM, Nir cohen - Prof. Mat. wrote:
> 
> >>> or to put it another way; what was the language of the gov't; of  
> >>> the >>
> > priests; of the aristocracy; of the peasants on the street; of the  
> > middle >>
> > class; .... of lord& master to the servant in the home?
> >
> > fred would give a kingdom (which?) to find out in what language(s)  
> > samson
> > talked with delilah and bil'am with his mule. here i give just one  
> > case study.
> >
> > samson's story is really about semitic puns, mostly easy ones (was  
> > he teaching
> > the philistines basic applied semitic lessons? no, because
> > delilah's name is already semitic!).
> >
> > but one of the puns i only uncovered reading my arabic dictionary:  
> > the story
> > of the torched foxes. the question is: why did samson choose foxes  
> > and not,
> > say, wolves for his torches?
> >
> > clearly, because of their tails!!!
> >
> > it happens that torch in arabic is sha'le and fox in hebrew is shu'al.
> >
> > then, which etymology came first for the root "$(L": torch or wolf?
> >
> > a plausible answer is that there is some similarity between the  
> > shape of the
> > torch fire and the fox tail, giving an ancient common semitic word,  
> > on which
> > samson created his jem.
> >
> > interestingly, the arabic word for fox is th(lb, which maybe is  
> > more ancient,
> > or maybe just closer to aramaic, considering the th --> sh  
> > transformation.
> > conclusion: fox came before fire?
> >
> > in a very long shot, in indo-european can "fox" and "foco/fogo",  
> > "zorro" and
> > "zoroaster" be related in a similar way ? i wouldnt bet fred's  
> > kingdom on it.
> >
> > nir cohen   
> >
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