As always, Yigal knows his material. However, one can add the following observation: of the hundreds of place names in the Heb. bible, only a small number end in -ayim, whatever this suffix means. As he points out, in a few cases the dual represents only one alternative.
Micrayim may well be a case of a dual, since the ancient Egyptians under the Pharaohs distinguished between 'upper' and 'lower lands' of Egypt. It is also not an accident that the Arabs, who entered that country long after Pharaonic Egypt ended, named the country Misr, which is sing, and call it by this name to this day. Dual forms exist in Arabic of course. I have no opinion about the etymological development of Mem Carei Resh root, nor about the MT 'Yerushalayim' vocalization, except the assumption that the -ayim suffix is late. In my opinion the LXX transliteration, is closer to the original name, as is the much much earlier mention in the execration texts. As for the source of the name Syria, Uzi, two people gave different amswers. I'm familiar only with the one given by Yigal. The most delightful part of these exchanges was John's report that even nowadays people responded to a "bi adoni" greeting. Uri Hurwitz _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
