Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

The Hebrew PP אך AK (related to אח AX, 'brother' and חי XAY, 'alive'?) brings to mind the Latin 'ego', the German 'ich', and the English suffix -ic (related to -ik, -ish, -ing?).

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Jul 25, 2013, at 1:05 AM, Jonathan Mohler wrote:

On Jul 24, 2013, at 5:53 PM, Isaac Fried wrote:

What I have said is that I tend to think that corresponding to

את, אתה, אתם AT, ATAH, ATEM, 

Interesting to me is how wide spread this dental form is throughout European languages: tu, toi, ta, ti, du, thou, etc..

there was in use, in some corner of Hebrew

אך, אכה, אכם AK, AKAH, AKEM 

This one shows up in Bantu as 2sg affixes; accusatives ku and khu, genitives -ako, -akho

(a hint of which we find in אנוכי ANOKIY and אנחנו ANAXNU), that survived 

only as a "suffix" personal pronoun (PP) to express the "genitive", 

to wit, אמך IMKA = EM-AKAH, 'your mother'. 

cf. Swahili MAMAKO, 'your mother'

ANOKIY has a cousin as well: Swahili, -ANGU --> babangu, 'my father' and Luyia -ANGE omwanange, 'my son'

Another fossil is the אתי ATIY, instead of אני ANIY, left frozen as a "suffix" in the 

compound שברתי $ABARTIY = $ABAR-ATIY, 'I have broken'.

I never thought about this one.

The 1st person nominative subject prefix for the immediate future in Luyia is a nasalized derivative of *ATIY, NDA.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

Jonathan Mohler

Baptist Bible Graduate School

Springfield, MO

On Jul 24, 2013, at 5:20 PM, Jonathan Mohler wrote:

I don't have a theory for how the self-standing ATAH would engender the suffix -KAH.