Since the discussion was far afield from pi``el verbs showing three root consonants, I thought I'd start a separate thread.
One item that intrigues me is the dating and history of Greek 'balsamon'. If coming directly from Semitic we need to explain more than the '-ls-'. The 'a' vowel is not really Canaanite. Hebrew shows a *u vowel [bosem] and Phoenician was likely the same, since their shifts went in the opposite direction *a->o, not *o->a. Ex 30.23 does show one example of besem, which could explain another word *basm. More to the point, the Hittite/Ishmaelite[!] name Basmat raises the question of a different intermediary language, or perhaps the preservation of an older form of the word in a Canaanite name. Since I'm travelling and without easy access to a library with Hittite materials, I'll leave the follow up to the list. -- Randall Buth, PhD www.biblicalulpan.org [email protected] Biblical Language Center Learn Easily - Progress Further - Remember for Life _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
