On Tue, 15 Jun 2004 02:36:44 -0700, Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org> wrote:
>So it is possible that "sky" goes back to something like "there
>water", but if so the naming must go back at least to proto-Semitic
>times - perhaps even to Adam in the garden!
I thought the standard etymology for »shamayim« was »mayim« (waters)
plus the causative prefix »sha-« known from related Semitic languages.
Has this etymology been rejected?
It seems to me, that if the etymology was »sham« + »mayim«, there
would be a problem in explaining why »shamayim« only has one m.