David: On Tue, Mar 15, 2011 at 4:04 PM, David Kolinsky <[email protected]>wrote:
> Karl and Randall, > > Randall: I agree with you absolutely, only those roots that are R-(-H = > R-(-Y are candidates for (רעיון) Ra(YoN. > The problem I have with that is meaning. The three times it is used in Qohelet, 1:17, 2:22, 4:16, none have the idea of feeding. It is used in parallel to trouble. It is used in contrast to joyfulness. All the contexts indicate displeasure. To repeat again, no matter how well a form may indicate a certain etymology, if the meaning is not there, the speculated etymology is to be rejected. > Unlike Karl, I strongly believe that cognates from other semitic languages > can be used to INFORM Hebrew etymology, but I do not believe that it is > determinative ie) it must be taken with a grain of salt. > We may not be as far apart as you think here. I have nothing against consulting cognate languages. In fact, for some of the lesser known terms in Biblical Hebrew, such consultation may be the only way we can get enough context to understand a word. But not always. But the better known a word is in Biblical Hebrew, the less usefulness becomes consulting cognate languages. > Cordially, > > David Kolinsky > Monterey CA > What could be the sticking point here is the tradition that all Biblical Hebrew verbs have a triliteral root. I question that tradition. True, the majority of verbs have triliteral roots, and I strongly oppose those attempts to split those triliteral roots to get to some speculated etymologies, but there is a minority that seem to act as if they had biliteral roots, and a very few as quadraliteral roots. R(( seems to be one of those roots, and that understanding allows it to be recognized as a possible root for R(YWN in Qohelet. The contexts and meaning seem to back that up. Karl W. Randolph. _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
