On 09/10/2006 08:12, Yitzhak Sapir wrote:
> ...
> I would like to suggest a different theory. In the article on
> Afroasiatic in the
> Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages, Huehnergard
> suggests that in West Semitic, the perfective adjective of the Proto Semitic
> replaced the inherited Semitic form yaqtVl perfective form (contrasted
> with the inherited Semitic form yaqattVl form). Following the same lines
> of argument as suggested by Goerwitz for noun vs verbal pausal forms, we
> might suggest the following development:
>
> 1) the perfective adjective replaced the perfective verb in sentences of the
> form: *bayta wathibna ("we lived in a house") from the previous: bayta
> yawthVb. this did not occur in sentences of the form: wayawthVb bayta
> ("and he lived in a house") because adjectives were not used as often at
> the beginning of the word.
> 2) this created a situation in which yawthVb and yawaththVb at the middle
> of the sentence were confused or reanalyzed as prefix-verbs contrasted
> with "suffix verbs" which developed from the perfective adjective.
> 3) by analogy, the waw in such cases was analyzed as a waw conversive
> and so applied to the adjective
>
>
If I understand this correctly, and to restate it in terms more like
Hebraists are used to, you are suggesting that the QATAL form in Hebrew
derives from some kind of participle, with subject suffixes, with a
perfective meaning.
Apart from this, the distinction between perfective
and imperfective was more one or word order, with WAYYIQTOL X as
perfective and WE-X YIQTOL as imperfective.
This kind of development process makes reasonable
sense.
So, this kind of process may have happened. But if it did, it must have
happened way back in proto-Semitic history, as the distinction between
prefix and suffix forms is found at least in all West Semitic languages
(from memory).
So what is the particular relevance to Hebrew? I suppose
you could argue that this was the situation in proto-West Semitic
languages, but WAYYIQTOL had been lost in all but Hebrew
before the time of the earliest inscriptions. Is that in fact what
you would suggest?
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