Biblical Hebrew Forum

[fred burlingame <tensorpath AT gmail.com>]

Hello Isaac;

Thanks for your helpful comments.

If I understand you correctly, the two words in question, אחל (alef, chet,
lamed) and וחלו (waw, chet, lamed, waw), both belong to the same root
family.

I am not sure however, how this large root family (that you
describe) arises. Are you saying that the single consonant ל (lamed) forms
the single root for this family of words/verbs? I see only lamed as the
single common thread in these roots.

Are you suggesting that the fundamental root of all hebrew words includes a
single letter? And, in this instance, the developers of the language then
proceeded to build a family of related two and three letter roots and word
meanings around this single letter?

I look forward to hearing your response.

regards,

fred burlingame
On Sat, Jan 29, 2011 at 6:22 PM, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:

> The root XL is a member of the root family: GL, XL, KL, QL, GLL, HLL, XLL,
> KLL, QLL, of the basic sense of 'enclose, contain, include, collect, mount,
> pile up, put together'. It contains the single-consonant root L for
> elevation. The other root X is as in XAY, 'alive', or in AX, 'brother'.
> We have from this root the words: XOL, 'sand dune', XALON, 'window',
> XALIYL, 'flute' (essentially a GALIYL or a M-XIL-AH enclosing an empty
> XALAL), XALAH, 'a shaped heap of baked dough', XEIL, 'bulwark, embankment',
> XAYIL, 'strength, substance, potency', MA-XOL, 'dance, moving around, moving
> collectively', MA-XAL-AH, 'illness, an ill inclusion, bending over'.
> The three-consonant root is not God-given, and it stands to reason that the
> Hebrew language was not born complete with it.
>
> Isaac Fried, Boston University
>
>