The נו- suffix
Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 1:54 pm
Has anyone done a study of the נו- suffix, appended on both verbs and nouns?
The question came up for me during the discussion of Hosea 6:2 with the word יקמנו being understood as “he will raise us up”. The usual understanding of the suffix is that it refers to the first person plural. But I had originally read that verse as “he will raise him up” on the third day with the suffix referring to the third person singular.
Curious, I then looked up words ending in נו-, there are well over 2000 in Tanakh, and found 27 verses in Genesis where the נו- suffix refers to the third person singular (omitting ממנו from the counting), another 14 in Exodus, 21 in Leviticus. Was this something that was earlier and not later? As I was reading Psalm 93, I noticed verse 12 has it too.
Does anyone have any reason or pattern as to why sometimes a nun is inserted before the waw in the third person singular suffix?
Karl W. Randolph.
The question came up for me during the discussion of Hosea 6:2 with the word יקמנו being understood as “he will raise us up”. The usual understanding of the suffix is that it refers to the first person plural. But I had originally read that verse as “he will raise him up” on the third day with the suffix referring to the third person singular.
Curious, I then looked up words ending in נו-, there are well over 2000 in Tanakh, and found 27 verses in Genesis where the נו- suffix refers to the third person singular (omitting ממנו from the counting), another 14 in Exodus, 21 in Leviticus. Was this something that was earlier and not later? As I was reading Psalm 93, I noticed verse 12 has it too.
Does anyone have any reason or pattern as to why sometimes a nun is inserted before the waw in the third person singular suffix?
Karl W. Randolph.