...
And here is the important point: No study of Ugaritic of Akkadian verbs has
systematically distinguished between past tense and past reference!
... Moreover,
the apocopation which is seen in many WAYYIQTOLs relates to the last root
consonant and not to a final U. This means that if a short preterit was the
antecedent of Hebrew WAYYIQTOL, either Ugaritic YAQTUL or Akkadian
IPRUS could have been such an antecedent. Both forms hardly could be such an
antecedent, because their shortness is different.
...
Arabic resembles Ugaritic as far as the indicative/jussive distinctions are
concerned. In Arabic we find the following forms: indicative YAQTULU,
subjunctive: YAQTULA, jussive: YAQTUL, and energic: YAQTULAN(NA). So, the
Ugaritic opposition YAQTUL/YAQTULU is seen in Arabic in the opposition
between indicative and jussive. In Phoenician and Biblical Aramaic
indicative has final N while jussive does not have this N. Thus, the
indicative/jussive difference in these languages is between long and short
forms as well.
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