athematic verbs

Classical Hebrew morphology and syntax, aspect, linguistics, discourse analysis, and related topics
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Saboi

athematic verbs

Post by Saboi »

I being study how verbs are formed in Ancient Hebrew and discovered athematic verbs, in which the 1st person pronoun is attached to the root as a prefix.

אני עשה "I do"
אני תן "I give" .

אני־תן > נ־תן > נתן

In the 1st person future, the verb is written אתן, the initial נ drop out.
אני־תן > א־תן > אתן

(Athematic)
נאר
נבא
נחל
נצב
נשא
נשק
נפש
נפל
נסך
Isaac Fried
Posts: 1783
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 8:32 pm

Re: athematic verbs

Post by Isaac Fried »

Lee Mcgee says
I being (begin?) study how verbs are formed in Ancient Hebrew and discovered athematic verbs, in which the 1st person pronoun is attached to the root as a prefix. אני עשה "I do"
(Athematic) נצב
First, congratulations on your new discovery. Second, there seems to be no Hebrew root נצב. In Gen. 24:13
הִנֵּה אָנֹכִי נִצָּב עַל עֵין הַמָּיִם
the two radical letters of נִצָּב are but צב, the initial נִ is the contracted personal pronoun אני, 'I' for the actor, used also for אתה and הוּא, in what we call now the Nifal verbal form. Thus:
נִצָּב = אני-צב
In Judges 3:22 we encounter the name נִצָּב, 'haft'
וַיָּבֹא גַם הַנִּצָּב אַחַר הַלַּהַב
NIV: " Even the handle sank in after the blade"
KJV: "And the haft also went in after the blade"
Here too נִצָּב = אני-צב, except that the אני here is the haft. If we prefer to see נִצָּב, 'haft', as derived from a root נצב, then נִצָּב = נ-היא-צב, with the internal PP referring to the haft.

Two other example to nouns with an initial אני are:
נִדְבָּךְ = אני-דבך = אני-דבק, 'tier'
and
נִבְרֶשֶת = אני-ברש-את = אני-פרש-את, 'chandelier'.

Isaac Fried, Boston University
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