Jonathan, I at least was speaking about _forms_ of the prefix verb that are most clearly found in Classical Arabic and other West Semitic languages. In Arabic the three forms of the prefix verb are: yaqtulu - the basic form traditionally called the indicative mood yaqtula - traditionally called the subjunctive mood yaqtul - traditionally called the jussive mood
Arab grammarians call all three moods collectively المضارع /al-muDāri'/ 'the similar'. Individually they are المضارع المرفوع 'the similar ending in -u', المضارع المنصوب 'the accusative similar' (both forms generally end in -a) and المضارع المجزوم 'the apocopated similar'. In function, the subjunctive mood works following certain particles that give the verb a meaning of potentiality: 'that' أن /'an/ 'in order' لِـ /li-/ كَيْ /kay/ and combinations of the above. 'until' حتى /Hattā/ 'will not' لن /lan/ The jussive is used as a first and third-person imperative (more rarely as a polite second person imperative) with the particle لِـ /li-/ (I incorrectly wrote /la/ on a previous post). It is also used with the negative particle لم /lam/ as a negative equivalent of the perfect (suffix tense). And it is used in the same way as the perfect in the apostasis of a conditional sentence. There's also an energetic jussive used for commands, in Arabic always after the negative particle لا 'not' also used with the imperative. It is a modification of the jussive appending /-n/ or /-nna/. Rather like נא after a cohortative of jussive, I suppose. The suffix form, incidentally, they call الماضي 'the carried out, the accomplished' (the Latin perfectum is about right). John Leake ---------------------------------- ان صاحب حياة هانئة لا يدونها انما يحياها He who has a comfortable life doesn't write about it - he lives it ---------------------------------- On 30 May 2013, at 06:48, Jonathan Mohler <[email protected]> wrote: > > To all who have contributed to this discussion: > > I would like to add my own contribution, but before I do so I would like us > to define the difference if any between subjunctive and jussive. This is a > source of confusion for me, even after four years of Greek and Hebrew. I > recently worked through Robert Chisholm's workbook on Jonah and Ruth. > Chisholm often uses the expression "this imperfect is jussive in meaning." I > suppose he means the form is imperfect, but the pragmatic use is jussive. I > would prefer if he just called the form a yiqtol or wayyiqtol. > > As to the issue with the subjunctive, I have never heard a clear definition > by an English speaking teacher. Does subjunctive refer to form or function? > I was raised in the French part of Belgium. I took Dutch as a second language > and German as a third. As an adult I spent 12 years in Kenya, where I > learned Swahili and Luyia. I speak English, French and Swahili natively, and > the others conversationally. Every one of these languages uses subjunctive > to express a jussive. For this reason I think I am confused as to the > difference between the two. > > Jonathan E Mohler > Baptist Bible Graduate School > Springfield, Missouri, US > > > On May 29, 2013, at 11:00 AM, John Leake wrote: > >> Indeed, Krahmalkov maintains that the tripartite distinction between >> indicative, subjunctive and jussive was strictly maintained in Phoenician, >> and that this continued into Neo-Punic. In the last phases of Punic the >> subjunctive was orthographically represented, but the subjunctive and >> jussive were always distinguishable from the indicative since Phoenician >> maintained the final nun of the 2nd and 3rd persons plural in the indicative >> prefix form) > > _______________________________________________ > b-hebrew mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
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