Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Uri Hurwitz <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>]

   Hello Will,

   You're right about the original meaning of the English terms "nunation" 
and "mimation", but Yigal used the first in a broader, different sense.

   Let's see what he will say.

   Uri Hurwitz

   


 Hello Yigal,

On Sat, 29 Jun 2013 22:02:40 +0300, Yigal Levin <Yigal.Levin at biu.ac.il> 
wrote:
> "Nunation", using a nun for the plural instead of mem, is a well-know
> phenomenon of Mishnaic Hebrew, apparently due to Aramaic influence. As Ken
> mentioned below, it is also well-known in the DSS. It was fairly standard in
> the Hebrew of the Second Temple period and later. Even in the Iron Age, it
> appeared in Moabite and Ammonite. Not surprising to find it in Daniel,
> considering the fairly late date of its composition, and the fact that the
> writer was obviously bi-lingual.

I would agree that the phenomenon is due to Aramaic influence, but I
hesitate at your usage of the term "nunation" to describe it.  As I
understand it, "nunation" and "mimation" refer to the use of /n/ or
/m/ in inflexional singular case endings (already dropped in Biblical
Hebrew).  If my understanding is incorrect, feel free to correct me!

--
Will Parsons