Can you explain what a "contract noun" is? Thanks, Jonathan E. Mohler Baptist Bible Graduate School Springfield, MO
On May 16, 2013, at 6:12 AM, George Athas wrote: > OK, Jonathan. But looking at how the words for 'eye' developed in languages > later than Biblical Hebrew and/or in different language families doesn't > really affect our understanding of Hebrew all that much. Those observations > you offer are interesting, but don't change things at all. > > The yodh in עין becomes a mater lectionis in constructed forms, but the > derivation of this word in Hebrew requires the yodh to be there as a > consonantal element within a consonantal cluster. It has come from original > *ayn. The yodh is not dispensable. The constructed forms are the result of a > vocalic shift in Hebrew which all contract nouns underwent. > > I haven't done the search on this, but does עין ever occur in a biblical text > without the yodh? If so, I'd be interested to know how many times. > > > GEORGE ATHAS > Dean of Research, > Moore Theological College (moore.edu.au) > Sydney, Australia > > From: Jonathan Mohler <[email protected]> > Date: Thursday, 16 May 2013 3:03 PM > To: George Athas <[email protected]> > Cc: B-Hebrew <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] b-hebrew Digest, Vol 125, Issue 24 > > George: > > This is not something I would die for of course, but a study of universal > eye words shows the yodh is generally dropped. The most important consonants > are the ayin and nun. Although the French oeuil, preserves the yodh in > pronunciation: uhy. The L is a shift from the nun, a common shift across > languages. It occurs in words like ocular, ogle, look. The Swahili 'ogle' > word is angalia, look. Also, the word for vision (dream, not physical) is > maono. Primitive words like these suggest to me that the double nun is > simply gemination to intensify the derivitive meaning. I speak here somewhat > blindly, no pun intended, since I have no experience dealing with how BH > handles gemination. In Bantu languages gemination functions much like the > piel binyan. For example, kata, cut and katakata, dice; or palilia, sweep, > where the two L's reflect the repetitive nature of sweeping. > > Jonathan E. Mohler > Baptist Bible Graduate School > Springfield, MO >
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