Biblical Hebrew Forum

[fred burlingame <tensorpath AT gmail.com>]

Hello Isaac;

Thanks for your comments.

I have reproduced below the significant segment of your post:

"At some point Hebrew started to use the location of the pronouns for the
purpose of indicating time. A suffixed pronoun came to be seen as indicating
"past", as in $ABAR-TA = $BAR-ATAH, 'you broke', and a prefixed pronoun came
to be seen as indicating "future", as in TA-BO = ATAH-BO."

I draw the following conclusions:

a. time changes constantly;

b. time changes all temporal things continually;

c. time changes the hebrew language constantly;

d. the masoretic text "photographic snapshot" of the language reveals the
ongoing, but incomplete, evolutionary process at that moment in time, of the
language assigning tenses to the two hebrew verb forms:

i. prefixed pronouns for future tense; and

ii. suffixed pronouns for past tense; and

iii. the vav conversive.

Is that a fair assessment?

regards,

fred burlingame




On Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 6:13 PM, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:

>  Hebrew has no time markers (as they exist in sign language through the
> clapping of the fore hand on the aft hand, and vice versa); there are no
> right-arrow and left-arrow for before and after: $ABAR< broke earlier,
> $ABAR> will break later. Hebrew has only roots and identity markers with
> which to form its words.
>
> In the minimal (QAL) form, say, GAMAL (camel? rewarded?), the personal
> pronouns need to be added separately, but in other "heavier" forms
> (BINYAN-IYM, MI-$QAL-IYM) the personal pronouns are written attached to the
> root or are inserted inside it.
>
>  To point out that ATAH is actually a female, another HI) = IY is tacked at
> the end: TA-BO-IY. Yet in spoken Hebrew ANI BA MAXAR 'I will come tomorrow',
> is commonly heard, and clearly understood. I also often hear ANIY YA-BO
> instead of ANIY A-BO.
>
> Since there is no essential difference between the QAL (sans attached
> personal pronouns) form, and, say, the PIEL (a later development? with two
> internal personal pronouns) form, they may be advantageously employed to
> slightly alter the meaning of the act, for instance, SAPAR, 'counted',
> versus SIPER, 'recounted'. Sometimes one may want to use $ABAR and $IBER
> alternatingly for poetic flair, or it may be mandatory for the proper
> understanding of the act, as in $IPEC, 'renovated', with $APAC not being in
> use.
>
>
> Isaac Fried, Boston University
>