Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>]

In addition to Randall's comments, the phenomenon of adding aleph at the 
beginning of a noun is normal in Semitic. As Randall mentioned, it probably 
serves to break up an initial consonant cluster. It's able to do this quite 
effectively because it's a glottal stop and adds minimally to a word.

Adding a samekh to the end of a root, however, is another thing entirely. If 
the samekh on פרדס is an addition to a Semitic root, how did it get there, 
and what does it mean? And why could you not argue that the pe was added at 
the beginning?


GEORGE ATHAS
Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
www.moore.edu.au