Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

It is indeed time consuming, yet you can accomplish it in a life  
time, but you need to trust that Hebrew is fully and entirely  
systematic. First you look at the single-consonant ( I consider  
aleph, ayin, and a final he as just filler letters) verbs, for  
instance: ABAH (root B), ASAH (root S), ALAH (root L), GAAH (root G),  
CAAH (root C), QAAH (root Q), RAAH (root R), and continue from there.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Jan 30, 2011, at 12:55 AM, fred burlingame wrote:

> Hello Isaac:
>
> I appreciate your comments.
>
> Do you look at all of the descendants of lamed; and then all of the  
> descendants of chet? And then make informed decision about what the  
> two letters, chet and lamed, mean in isolation?
>
> While perhaps not complex, that seems a fairly large and time  
> consuming exercise. Each letter enjoys 21 possible combinations  
> with one other letter? And the permutations grow a lot more for  
> three letter combinations? (not to mention usages from there).
>
> regards,
>
> fred burlingame
>
> On Sat, Jan 29, 2011 at 11:16 PM, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:
> I looked at all the Hebrew roots and their descendant words to  
> verify this. Language is a very very simple device and, as it  
> developed spontaneously, it must have very very obvious structure.
>
> Isacc Fried, Boston University
>
> On Jan 29, 2011, at 11:09 PM, fred burlingame wrote:
>
> > Hello Isaac;
> >
> > Thanks for your instructive comments.
> > It sounds reasonable that one letter roots give rise to two and  
> > three letter roots.
> >
> > But how do you arrive at the base meaning of the single letter  
> > root? By reasoning back from the revealed meaning (via usage) of  
> > the descendant two and three letter roots?
> >
> > regards,
> >
> > fred burlingame
> > On Sat, Jan 29, 2011 at 8:04 PM, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:
> > 1. The two words are of the same root XL, 'pile up'.
> > 2. The Hebrew root refers to a material state. The words derived  
> > from it acquire by usage and context their specific meaning.
> > 3. I am of the opinion that all Hebrew roots are a fusion of  
> > single consonant roots. This is how the language developed. The  
> > letter L ,thus, represents elevation, and its appearance in a root  
> > always indicates this. For example: EL, 'a lofty being', AL-EH,  
> > 'leaf', LUL, 'ladder', ALILAH, 'tall story, plot, libel', UL,  
> > 'grownup', and so on.
> >
> > Isaac Fried, Boston University