[b-hebrew] Song of Songs 1:12

K Randolph kwrandolph at gmail.com
Sat Dec 11 20:21:47 EST 2010


On Fri, Dec 10, 2010 at 10:53 PM, Pere Porta <pporta7 at gmail.com> wrote:

>>> [Pere]
> No, I mean English: are there in the English language any nouns having a
> plural that ends in L (on in K or in M or in P or in T....)?

What does that have to do with Hebrew?

> So, Hebrew lacks the pattern "hofal of verbs ayin-waw + second person
> singular pronoun": this pattern is not found within the 9,000 pattern
> collection I've gathered.

There is a difference between Biblical Hebrew and English in the extent of
surviving literature. The number of words published each year in English by
native English speaking people far outstrips the total number of words found
in the total Tanakh. There are many words in Tanakh that are used only once,
which you know, likewise how many grammatical structures are found only once
in Tanakh? Can you rule out (other than saying that there are no other
examples of hophal ayin-waw verbs + second person singular pronoun) that
this is not a one-time example of that particular form? Your argument falls
flat until you can flesh it out more.

> By the way, do you really feel that Qohelet and Song are --or can be-
> from the same pen? These two books... aren't they of a quite different
> style?

First, the first line of both claim to be written by the same person.

Secondly, they both are in a more colloquial format than most other texts.

Yes, I would say that they both are similar stylistically.

> Hearty,
> Pere Porta
>> Karl W. Randolph.

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