Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Why do you say 'reused', Karl? it's a fundamental part of the the yiqtol form. In Arabic there are subjunctive and indicative forms, yaqtala as against the yaqtalu, and I think this probably held in early Canaanite. But these two forms are conjoined in Hebrew due to loss of final vowels. So it's an inherent function.

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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On 29 May 2013, at 12:50, K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com> wrote:

When a language has a limited number of forms, sometimes a form is reused to indicate a different function than its primary function. An example in English is the plural “were” reused to indicate the optative mood, e.g. “If I were …” and “Were he …”.

I have found that the Yiqtol is reused often to indicate the subjunctive modal use, also to express intent, possibility, and other (modal?) uses.