Biblical Hebrew Forum

[fred burlingame <tensorpath AT gmail.com>]

Hello Isaac:

Thanks for your comments.

I appreciate your analysis.

I don't understand however, the visual trick that moves the letter vocalized
as "bet" and appearing as ב into the letter vocalized as "waw" and appearing
as ו . I suppose that the sounds "BA" and "WA" could be mistaken for one
another. I also understand that you refer to this process more precisely
as waw becoming a variant of bet.


regards,

fred burlingame


On Sat, Jan 29, 2011 at 11:30 PM, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:

> The letter B is the root of BA, 'come', which is 'to be' (BA it is not a
> process but the state of being present). So, WAYIGA$ sounds to me
> BA)-HIY)-GA$, which is exactly what it is. Writing W for B is just a visual
> trick to momentarily blind us. The word ZIYB-AH, 'pus' is disgusting, but
> ZIYW-AH, 'shine, emit electromagnetic pus', is a cute Hebrew girl's name.
>
> Isaac Fried, Boston University
>
>  On Jan 29, 2011, at 11:49 PM, fred burlingame wrote:
>
>  Hello Isaac;
>
> That was a clever turn of a phrase.
>
> How do you reach the conclusion that the root, single letter B, means
> basically "come, be, exist, have substance?" By reasoning back from the
> actual usages of the descendant or child, two and three letter roots?
>
> Does your paragraph "2" below imply a past tense for the "qatal" form,
> subject to usage exceptions?
>
> Very interesting that the ancient hebrew language enjoyed more flexibility
> than the modern language. It sounds like the evolution of languages mirrors
> the evolution of governments ... more and more rules.
>
> regards,
>
> fred burlingame
>
> On Sat, Jan 29, 2011 at 8:33 PM, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:
>
>> 1. Grammaticalization made the language ever more formal and rigid, yet,
>> WA-YI-$LAX essentially means (it come to pass that)-(he)-(send).
>> 2, "qatal' is just short for he-qatal-him, the past being the "natural"
>> tense for an act.
>> 3. I don't give a hoot for the opinion of "mainstream" educators, book
>> sellers and academics. They are to me the ox snugly following the rut.
>> 4. The letter B is the root of BA, 'come, be, exist, have substance'.
>>
>> Isaac Fried, Boston University
>>
>>
>>
>
>