Of well, I usually ask stupid ignorant questions, and admittedly, these questions are way over my head and really just grasping at straws, and you should feel free to dismiss them according to as they obviously appear to be ignorantly posed.
Your long list of "please clarifies" is interesting. It means you are able to read and know Hebrew without any of the knowledge needed to understand those questions. I was fortunate to learn some Arabic from a Christian priest from Mossul, Iraq. He also tried to teach me (western) Syriac - but without much success. I also learnt some Akkadian to try to read the Amarna correspondence some years ago. So for me, Hebrew is one of a family, perhaps for you Hebrew is more
sui generis. Those two different approaches of ours don't need to get in the way of communication, because we are working towards the same goal, but from different assumed knowledge starting points.
SteveMiller wrote:What do you mean by: case ending system
I mean like the system of endings in Akkadian (and other semitic languages)
[I'm sorry, I don't know why the table has moved itself down the page]:
Number and Case | Masculine | Feminine |
Nominative singular | šarr-um | šarr-at-um |
Genitive singular | šarr-im | šarr-at-im |
Accusative singular | šarr-am | šarr-at-am |
- |
Nominative dual | šarr-ān | šarr-at-ān |
Oblique dual | šarr-īn | šarr-at-īn |
- |
Nominative plural | šarr-ū | šarr-āt-um |
Oblique plural | šarr-ī | šarr-āt-im |
The same sort of thing is true for Classical Arabic too, only the situation there is much more complex.
SteveMiller wrote:What do you mean by: marked
That is my imprecise language, I mean, "Why can't I see the cases spelt out in writing". My thinking is coming from Arabic where the case endings of the words are not always written / spoken - but they could be added if required. The OT is a formal book, I was wondering why they were not written. Probably an "off" question.
SteveMiller wrote:What do you mean by: changes to construct forms
The dropping of the מ for example when it means "of".
SteveMiller wrote:What do you mean by: Emphatic forms
This is a term from Aramaic, for one of the three types of nouns. If it is not the same in Hebrew, then don't worry about it.
SteveMiller wrote:What do you mean by: nunation
Putting the "n" on the unemphatic forms, such as you can see in the singular forms in Akkadian table. It is something that was drilled into me when I was studying formal Arabic. If you don't recognise it don't worry about it.
On the whole, I believe that having a reading knowledge of a language is superior to knowing a few little details like what I am asking about here.