In other words, the question is not what is the root, but rather what are the radical letters.
Isaac Fried, Boston University
On Jun 23, 2013, at 3:30 PM, Sasson Margaliot wrote:
John Leake wrote:
"I agree that they are possible, and indeed the biliteral root is supposed to be the origin of the triliteral root, but that's in the deeply obscure pre-history of the Semitic languages."
I do not agree with this statement. There seems to be a systematic way to identify the "biliteral" Root in many traditional 3-Roots, while working with Biblical Hebrew alone.
For example, for all "irregular" verbs, the Root is known. In the case of Lamed"Hey, the third consonant is not part of Root - it is a derivational suffix.
Similarly, there are many nouns that only have two root consonants.