Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

BA is translated as 'come', but it essentially means 'is here', 'is  
present', 'materialized', 'appeared', 'is substantial', and by  
implication 'thickened', 'acquired bulk'. I walk with my 5 years old  
granddaughter the streets of RAMAT-AVIV, by her home, and she will  
say to me SABA, BA LIY GLIYDAH, 'SABA, I desire Ice cream', which is  
a remarkably pertinent usage of the verb BA. The greatest semitist of  
the land (or for that matter the university of Oslo) could not have  
surpassed this in cleverness and deep understanding of the Hebrew  
language.
To return to the single-letter roots, I think that it should be  
obvious that GL, 'mound' =GAAH+ ALAH. In Hebrew:

גל = גאה+עלה  גבע=גאה+עבה

Isaac Fried, Boston University
.
On Jan 30, 2011, at 11:25 PM, fred burlingame wrote:

> Hello Isaac;
>
> Thanks for your explanation.
>
> If the base meaning of letter ב = thick, how does that conclusion  
> fit with the word בוא ? I thought that your meaning of the root  
> letter "bet" in the verb "bo" meant "to be?"
>
> regards,
>
> fred burlingame
>
> On Sun, Jan 30, 2011 at 8:29 PM, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:
> The letters aleph and ayin are meaningless, they are mere filler  
> letters. The words AB אב 'father', and AB עב 'cloud', are  
> sounded today exactly the same way (but have different plurals). We  
> know by context if it is cloud (namely, the thick klutzy clod of  
> water hanging in the heavens), or it is father (namely, the thick  
> klutzy clod of flesh and bones sitting at the head of the table,  
> and rumored to have sired the children around him). So is final he.  
> Thus, P (of the meaning 'up') is the root of both APAH אפה  
> 'baked', and PAAH פאה 'extend'. AP עף is 'up', and so is AP  
> אף 'nose'.
>
> Isaac Fried, Boston University