Is BBH wrong in describing yashav as strong in the paal perfect?

A place for those new to Biblical Hebrew to ask basic questions about the language of the Hebrew Bible.
Forum rules
Members will observe the rules for respectful discourse at all times!
Please sign all posts with your first and last (family) name.
Post Reply
ralph
Posts: 196
Joined: Sun Jan 22, 2017 7:20 am

Is BBH wrong in describing yashav as strong in the paal perfect?

Post by ralph »

Is BBH wrong in describing yashav as strong in the paal perfect?

In Basics of Biblical Hebrew p142, chapter 13 Paal Perfect strong verbs

He lists

yashav as being strong.

I know that yashav in the paal perfect follows the same pattern as strong verbs but is he correct or incorrect to describe yashav as strong?

I'd have thought yashav is considered to be 1-Yud regardless of stem and regardless of whether it's (perfect/imperfect...), and that 1-Yud like all categories of weak root, are considered weak regardless of stem and what i'll call subcategory (perfect/imperfect/cohortative......)

BBH is using the word weak to mean both a)a match to I-G or II-G e.t.c. and plus b)one that has an impact in that stem and subcategory, so one that causes an irregularity relative to the strong form. Then he calls it weak.

Whereas I think maybe the normal definition of weak is if it matches one of those forms I-G, II-G . e.t.c. regardless of the form that the root is in. And so a root may have a weak letter that in one form won't affect it but that doesn't make it strong. It's still weak.

Ralph Zak
Ralph Zak
Schubert
Posts: 83
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 2:05 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Is BBH wrong in describing yashav as strong in the paal perfect?

Post by Schubert »

Ralph, I think the explanation for BBH's treating the Qal perfect yod as a strong verb is as follows.

On page 132 (para 12.12), they say that yod is considered weak only when it appears "as the first consonant of the verbal root and only in certain conjugations." As you noted, on page 142, they treat yod Qal perfect verbs as strong. On page 184, they treat yod Qal imperfect verbs as weak. Part or perhaps all of the rationale is that the Qal perfect yod paradigm is identical to that for a strong verb, whereas the yod imperfect paradigm differs from that for strong verbs.

Jouon-Muraoka appears to take a position consistent with your view: yod verbs are 100% weak even though the Qal perfect paradigm is identical to that for a strong verb.

The material in Gesenius is interesting if somewhat dense to read. On page 522, the paradigm for a yod verb is in a table dealing with weak verbs, even though the Qal perfect is identical to the strong. The discussion at paras. 69 – 71 is of interest.

I'm not sure if BBH are unique in treating the Qal perfect yod verbs as strong but there are clearly those who agree with your view.
John McKinnon
Post Reply