Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Randall Buth <randallbuth AT gmail.com>]

> As the word 'KoSHeR' only appears once in the Bible,
> the example given, i.e. 'KoSHRoN' is based on usage
> and has no grammatical basis. Unless you are on the
> b-yiddish list?
> Leonard E Book
Before this thread starts chasing its tail it might be
good to point out that Karl did not vocalize k.sh.r.
and that 'KoSHRoN' is not the accepted vocalization
of כשרון kishron 'skill', nor is KoSHer an accepted
vocalization anywhere in the Bible. The adjective/participle
KaSheR does appear once in the Bible, Est 8.5. The verb
in a couple of other, Ecc. 11.6, 10.10.

Having said that, the suggestion that KShRWN means
"profiting, he who is profiting [sic--RB]" is equally strange.
The -wn suffix is more commonly 'abstract, abstract result'
than referring to a doer, "he who . . .". (It does occur in
proper names fairly frequently [e.g. Shim`on, Hebron], but
that doesn't make any common nouns an "agent, doer, patient"
with a "+human" attribute, to speak semantically.)

> y.sh.r.w.n

was interesting because Yeshurun is the
traditional vocalization as a poetic proper name for
Yisrael. While Yeshurun MAY be related to y.sh.r,
it does not follow the nominal patterns listed below and
it might also be related to a root sh.w.r.
Also interesting is the comparison with the name Yisrael:
the community has not remembered its primary name Yisrael
as "sh" but as "s", Yisrael, and not connected to y.sh.r.
If someone disallows the sign "shin" for the sound [s],
did Yisrael forget its own name? I don't think so. It
means that the community considers Yeshurun and Yisrael
to come from two different sounding roots, even though
they might look the same graphically. And whether the "y"
is part of the root, or not, becomes a question for
Yisrael and Yeshurun. (Yisrael from S.R.Y.+ El.)
Most commentators have held that Yeshurun comes from
*yashur, pa`ul of y.sh.r, but that word doesn't exist in
the language. So Yeshurun remains an enigma as to its
etymology.

Language is a team sport, it is a means of communication
within a community. There are several noun patterns that
are recorded for -WN, including pi``alon, pi`lon, pa``alon,
and pe`alon (using p.`.l for any root consonants). A community
speaking the language can keep these words apart, while
someone peering at the consonantal text can only guess as
to how many words, or which word, a set of consonants
with -WN refers.
Back to Yeshurun: there is no other example of *pe`ulun in
Hebrew. Even-Shoshan (the dictionary, not the concordance)
does not even list the pattern among the 242 patterns he attests,
neither *yepulun nor *pe`ulun. Interesting.
Unresolved.

A basic rule of thumb for any suggestions is that the
new suggestion would create smaller problems than older
readings. E.g. last week a reading for Ex 14.2 n.k.H.w
t.H.n.w was suggested as 'two verbs' on the grounds
that it is possible for two verbs to occur together in
Hebrew. But this was done without discussing the extra
problems such a suggestion would cause in context:
e.g. what would the shift from  'qatal-TAM'
to 'yiqtol-TAM' have meant in the context?
Why the shift from 3p plural to 2p pl for two verbs so
closely connected as to not bother to use 'waw' "and"?
For those reasons, and more, a reading of n.k.H.w as a
verb was not a credible suggestion. (In addition, there is
no unambiguous example of n.k.H as a verb in the Bible,
and adding a movement idea to the "non-verb" is likewise
unnecessary. The question of whether qal and pi`el encode
'perfect' and 'imperfective' was also a non-starter in a
follow-up thread.)

So if someone wants to discuss the etymology of the -WN
nominal forms, go right ahead. It has been done before and
will be done again. And they need to keep in mind
all of the examples, like `itsabon "pain", ri'shon "first",
`elyon "high" [root: `.l.y], niqqayon "cleanliness" [root:
n.q.y], piqqadon "deposit", pitron "solution",
aHaron "last", `erabon "pledge", maTmon "stored wealth",
Hippazon "haste", zikkaron "memory",
shabbaton "Sabbath-esque", pidyon "redeemed" [root: p.d.y],
pa`amon "bell", tsawwaron "necklace"   etc.,       etc.,
and Hesron 'lack', ra`yon 'pursuit, thought' [root: r.`.y],
kishron 'skill, advantage-producing-practicality'.
And the results need to be less problematic rather than
more problematic.

מועדים לשמחה

Randall Buth

>>It seems to me that when Hebrew adds a suffix ון -WN to a verb,
>> that that changes the verb to a noun having the meaning -ing that
>> action. By extension, that can include the object or person doing
>> that action.
...
>> E.g. כשרון from כשר to be profitable, hence profiting, he who is profiting.
>> Another שגעון being crazy.
>> The example that got me started today was ישרון from ישר to be straight,
>> hence morally upright,
>> leading to ישרון referring to the person who is acting straight, righteous.


-- 
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicallanguagecenter.com
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