Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Paul Zellmer" <pzellmer AT sc.rr.com>]

Hi, Pere.

In nouns, most of the time, the feminized form (the one ending in -H) is a
more generic term for the concept.  Take, for example, )KL and )KLH.  The
first is the normal word for food, the second is anything considered edible.
Or )X and )XWH: brother and brotherhood.  But you are right, the pairs are
generally close, almost undistinguishable synonyms.  To our western minds,
I'm not sure how to describe a more generic "light".

In verbs, you will find the H appended to imperatives.  This is a more
emphatic form of the command.  And it is found throughout the Tanach,
regardless of the relative age of the writing.

Hope this helps,

Paul Zellmer

-----Original Message-----
From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Pere Porta
Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2011 12:12 AM
To: Isaac Fried
Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org; Nir cohen - Prof. Mat.
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] What does H add?

Hi, friends.
We find here and there in the biblical text some words that appear in two
versions: without H and with H.

1 Nouns:
In Gn 1:3 we have )WR, light; in Est 8:16 we have )WRFH, light.

2. Verbs:
In 2Sa 2:22 we have SWR, turn aside! while in Rt 4:1 we have SWRFH, same
meaning.

They appear as being quite and mere synonyms.

My questions are:

1. Are they really synonyms? Does the suffix H introduce some shade into the
meaning of the word that has H compared with the word that lacks H?

2. Do you know of other similar pairs, either nouns or verbs?

3. Would there be a good reason for these variants? I mean: maybe some
evolution of the language (older writings like Genesis versus newer writings
like Esther or 2Samuel versus Ruth) would explain this difference?


What do you think about this?


-- 
Pere Porta
(Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain)
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