B-Hebrew: The Biblical Hebrew Forum

Also I noticed footnote 4. It is, however, a question whether, instead of a connecting syllable, we should not assume a special verbal form, analogous to the Arabic energetic mood (see l, at the end) and probably also appearing in the Hebrew cohortative (see the footnote on §48c).—As M. Lambert has ...

58l That the forms with Nûn energicum are intended to give greater emphasis to the verbal form is seen from their special frequency in pause. Apart from the verb, however, Nûn energicum occurs also in the union of suffixes with certain particles (§100o). This Nûn is frequent in Western Aramaic. In A...

Continued 58k Rem. The uncontracted forms with Nûn are rare, and occur only in poetic or elevated style (Ex 152, Dt 3210 [bis], Jer 522, 2224); they are never found in the 3rd fem. sing. and 1st plur. On the other hand, the contracted forms are tolerably frequent, even in prose. An example of ־ֶ֫ נּ...

Continued 2nd pers. ־ֶ֫ ךָּ‎ (Jer 2224 in pause ־ֶנְךָּ‎) and, only orthographically different, ־ֶ֫ כָּה‎ (Is 1024, Pr 211 in pause). 3rd pers. ־ֶ֫ נּוּ‎ (for ־ֶ֫ נְהוּ‎),[7] fem. ־ֶ֫ נָּה‎ for ־ֶ֫ נְהָ‎. [1st pers. plur. ־ֶ֫ נּוּ‎ (for ־ֶ֫ נְנוּ‎), see the Rem.] In the other persons Nûn energetic d...

It's a [i]nun energicum[i/]. 58i 4. A verbal form with a suffix gains additional strength, and sometimes intentional emphasis, when, instead of the mere connecting vowel, a special connecting-syllable[4] (ăn)[5] is inserted between the suffix and the verbal stem. Since, however, this syllable always...

Ok I just read John's comment. I think John is referring to the idea of an actual presence in the language of every passive. I'm thinking more in terms of potential usage. In my view every transitive verb has a potentially viable passive.

Yeah. I don't see why not. Language is open that way. I'm not sure why John would think differently.

I provided an example of an active verb that can't take a passive: flee, ברח. In fact, this applies to all movement verbs, which btw are intransitive. So the answer to your question is as I said before, No, not all actives verbs take a passive. Only transitive verbs can take a passive. Also a stativ...

No Ken. Some verbs won't have a passive because a passive sense would be absurd or incoherent. If a verb's qal meaning is stative it would be senseless to give it a passive form. For example in English we have the verb blush. It would make no sense to use it in a passive way. she is blushing[i/] mak...

I'm excited about your book Rolf. Congratulations!
This has always been my take on the pronunciation of the name. I am glad took hear that there's confirmation in Babylonian cuneiform text.