1. It is not clear to me who these "Masoretes" are. Do you mean the NAKDANIYM?
-- yes (UH) 2. I would have expected a dagesh in the T of BITI (בתי), this T coming after a letter marked by a Xirek, no t followed by a Yod. I tend to think that the dagesh in the T preceded the nikud by possibly a thousand years, serving as an early reading clue or prop in the absence of vowels. 3. The plural, or any other inflected form, may have come from an earlier obsolete form of the singular. -- The simple answer is that the Hebrew, Phoenician, Ammonite "BAT" originated from the earlier "BNT". The Nun drupped out completely in the singular, but left a pronpunciation-trace in declensions, which existed still in the the Masoretes time. They heard it, and marked it with a dagesh. In the plural of original Nun remained, even in declensions. Compare with P"N verbs in imperfect Qal. One does not need to know Arabic to check this. The word 'bint' (daughter in Arabic) entered English usage during their colonial experiences. It can be found in every large English dictionay published in the UK. (UH) 4. I know they are irrelevant. I think we should refrain from relying on a hypothetically "reconstructed" language like "Akkadian", for which we are unable to verify for ourselves any claim made about it. -- The mystery deepens: again one make assertions about subjects with which one choses not to acquaint oneself. Your position clearly implies that biblical Hebrew had nothing in common with its sister NW Semitic dialects, or the wider linguistic horizon where it was in usage. Ezov Haqyr, Uri Hurwitz Great Neck, NY Isaac Fried, Boston University On Nov 3, 2010, at 1:11 PM, Uri Hurwitz wrote: > > > > <4. I am still waiting to see a good "proof", within the Hebrew > language, for an earlier existence of this spoken "gemination" (no > Arabic, please). > > > Isaac Fried, Boston University> > > > > Why don't you look at the declensions of Bat (daughter) > with the dagesh forte in the Tav. Then ask yourself why > the Masoretes put it there. > > Then take a look at the plural of this noun - Banot, and ask > yourself where the Nun came from. > > And a mystery: Since you're by choice ignorant of the > most basic Arabic, Proto-Semitic, Akkadian, Moabite, etc., > how can you know, one way or another , whether or not > these are relevant to biblical Hebrew. > > Finally, in today's Haaretz is a brief note about the translation > of the HB into modern Hebrew for children. > > http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/1196311.html > > Uri Hurwitz Great Neck, NY > > > > > > _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
