Biblical Hebrew Forum

[John Leake <jesleake AT yahoo.co.uk>]

I've always assumed it was a calque on Egyptian t3wy, 'the Two Lands' as a name for Egypt. It's the dual of t3, 'land'. But that's just an assumption.

Huehnergard has mSrm in Ugaritic as /miSrāmi/, a dual like the Hebrew, but I don't know why he's sure it's not the plural /miSrūmi/. He may derive that from Hebrew, so that's not a secure comparative.

It's meSrēn in Syriac and mSryn in the Elephantine papyri - but is does Reichsaramäisch still have a dual? Jewish Palestinian Aramaic uses /miSrayim/, but that's going to be tied to the Hebrew, isn't it?

MuSru (mSr in the old Aramaic Sfire inscriptions) is supposed to be another country, isn't it?

John Leake

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ان صاحب حياة هانئة لا يدونها انما يحياها

He who has a comfortable life doesn't write about it - he lives it

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