Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

To obtain the root of a Hebrew word I remove from it all attached  
prepositions (admittedly, it is not always clear if a first letter is  
grammatical or radical, as in the word TAMAR), then I remove from it  
all, internal and external, personal pronouns (in other words I shed  
from it all vowels), then I ignore the letters aleph, ayin, and final  
he, which I consider mere filler letters, and am left with the root.
Thus, the root of AB, 'father, cloud, thick', is B. The root of E$,  
'fire', is $. The root of 'EL, 'god', is L. The root of GA!, 'touch',  
is G. The root of OR, 'light', is R. The root of QUM, 'rise', is QM,  
the root of QIYR, 'wall', is QR. the root of ARBA, 'four', is RB. The  
root of ECBA, 'finger', is CB. And so on.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Jan 30, 2011, at 8:21 AM, Paul Zellmer wrote:

> Again, the language that we know as Hebrew has triliteral roots.