Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Will Parsons <wbparsons AT alum.mit.edu>]

Hi Ishinan,

On Sun, 21 Apr 2013 19:33:26 -0500, "Ishinan" <ishinan AT comcast.net> wrote:
>  Takb 53 wrote: "No need to thank me. It is my pleasure to help
>  others on their derecha (path)"
> 
> -------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Ishinan: Interesting in your response, is the use of "derecha" (sic)
> which I presume you mean 'derek' from 'darak'; a road (as trodden)
> hence a pathway, as in Prov 12:28.
> 
> In Hebrew: from 'darak' a road (as trodden); figuratively, a course
> of life or mode of action, often adverb:--along, away, because of,
> by, conversation, custom, (east-) ward, journey, manner, passenger,
> through, toward, (high-) (path-)way(-side), whither(-so ever).

I'm not sure that דרך/derekh is intended, but perhaps Spanish
_derecha_ (from Latin [_via_] _directa_)?  (My Spanish is a bit rusty,
so I'm not sure if Sp. _derecha_ can be used in this sense.)

> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Arabic has two cognates 'T.rq' and 'drg' (actually both are
> variations of two dialects in Old Arabic)
> 
> The first: T.rq  
> 
> Al-T.ariyq: the road, way, path, track.
> 
> ??????????? ?????? ??????? ?????? ?????? ????: ???????? ???????
> ????????? ?????????? ????? ??????? ?????? ???????? ??????
> 
> ?????? ?????: ???????. ????: ?? ??? ???? ??? ??????? ????? ??? ???
> ???? ?????

[more Arabic omitted]

I don't know if it's a problem at your end or my end, but the Arabic
you have cited is coming through in my mail client as a bunch of
question marks.  I *can* see the Arabic using Gmane under firefox, but
it would be nice to figure out how to get this to work properly using
regular e-mail.

...
> The semitic words were eventually borrowed into various Germanic
> languages: track (v.) "to follow or trace the footsteps of," 1560s,
> from track (n.). Related: Tracked; tracking. Middle Low German
> trecken, Old High German trechan "to draw".

Although there is certainly a phonetic similarity among Eng. "track",
Heb. דרך, & Ar. ﻃﺮﻳﻖ, I don't see that this necessarily indicates that
the English (and other Germanic forms) are derived from a Semitic
source.  Do you have other evidence that this is the case?

-- 
William Parsons
μὴ φαίνεσθαι, ἀλλ' εἶναι.