I. Hebrew
Hebrew belongs to the Western group of Semitic languages (the word “Semitic” comes from Shem, the eldest son of Noah). It is closely related to the language of ancient Ugarit, and to Phoenician and Moabite. *Canaanite is only known from occasional words in the *Amarna letters. It was probably the mother tongue of Hebrew. In the OT it is called “the tongue (lit. ‘lip’) of Canaan” (Is. 19.18) or “of Judah (2 R. 18.26s; cf. Is. 36.11 ss and Neh. 13.24). The designation “Hebrew” first appears in the prologue to Sirach (Ben Sira, ca. 180 BC).
A feature of the Semitic languages is the three consonant root which acts as a kind of framework for a series of vowel combinations. The insertion of this combination of vowels in the frame gives it the specific meaning. In kōhēn, for example, khn would be the consonant frame and oe the vowel combination. The strength of oe is roughly equivalent to that of the present participle in Cast., so kōhēn“(the one who is) ministering.”
The Hebrew script. comes from North Semitic or Phoenician (* Writing). It consists of 22 consonants (later a distinction was made between š Y ś, so they became 23). It is written from right to left. It contains several sounds that we do not find in the Indo-European languages; p. eg emphatic consonants (ṭḳ Y ṣ) and the ˓ayin (˓) laryngeal. The latter was often transliterated by the gamma in gr., as, for example, in “Gomorra”. When Hebrew was no longer widely spoken, a system of signs was inserted above, below, and within the consonants, to indicate the correct vowels (* Texts and versions).
This vocalization represents an important synchronic stage in Hebrew, and is the result of a highly enlightened and reliable tradition, as shown, for example, by the care with which it observes the distinction that originally existed between certain vowels of “noun” and “adjectival” verbs. ”, in which modifications of the consonant frame reveal their primitive forms. There are also a number of extraalphabetic signs, and punctuation and intonation. for the heb. biblical, the pronunciation that is most adopted is Sephardic (Judo-Spanish).
The scribes scrupulously avoided any change in the consonantal text. When they suspected the existence of a transcription error, or in cases where a word no longer had a decent use, they placed the word they considered correct or preferable in the margin and added the vowels of that word to the one in the text (above the which a small circle was often placed). Consonants in the text are called Keṯı̂ḇ (“what is written”), and those on the margin Qerē’ (“what should be read”).
Hebrew does not have an indefinite article. The definite article (ha-) is placed as a prefix of the noun. Its use differs, in many details, from the use of the definite article in Spanish. For example, demonstrative pronouns and adjectives take it when used attributively with a given noun in their reference (eg, the book, the this; the man, the fat man). It is also used with a member of the class or with something previously mentioned.
In nouns in Heb. gender and number are distinguished. Gender is grammatical: both animate and inanimate things are assigned gender. Generally the feminine has a specific ending (-a). A number of feminine nouns, however, have no ending, but their gender is indicated by adjective-verb agreement. Hebrew also has a specific ending for the dual, which is largely limited to members of the body that exist in pairs; the case endings were soon discarded, but some traces remain.
There are two main classes of verbs: those with noun cognates, and those with adjectival cognates. Generally speaking, the verb “noun” is dynamic; while the “adjectival” (often called “stative”) is static. The verb primarily indicates the type of action, and distinguishes two main aspects: the complete action (perfective) and the incomplete action (imperfective). For the perfective the pronominal element goes as a suffix, for the imperfective as a prefix. In the perfective, gender is distinguished in the third person singular and in the second person plural. Hebrew has a number of verb forms for certain categories of action, such as frequentative, causative, tolerative, etc.
Chart of the Semitic language family including Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic.
Nouns are formed in different ways: through a variety of vowel combinations, and with or without the addition of certain consonants. When consonants are used they usually go as prefixes, the most common being m and t. The singular is widely used as a collective, with the result that the feminine ending is sometimes used as a singular: e.g. eg śē˓ār‘hair’, śa˓arâ (fem.), ‘a hair’. The zero forms, that is, those in which a morphological element common to a class is missing, are quite common; are (fem.), ‘flocks’, cf. ṣō˒n ˒ōḇeḏôṯ‘lost sheep’, where ôṯ indicates the missing element. The noun that precedes a genitive reduces its vowels to a minimum and omits the definite article. The group is treated virtually as an inseparable compound. Possessive pronouns appear as suffixes of the noun.
Adjectives can be used either as a predicate, when they do not take the definite article and generally precede the noun, or attributively, when they follow the noun and take the definite article if the noun has it. Also the adjective can take the definite article, and can be used independently with noun value. The comparison is made using the preposition min, ‘since’, equivalent to cast. “more than”. The highest degree referring to quantity is often left unexpressed, e.g. eg “the good”, that is “the best”, or the superlative is expressed by means of a phrase consisting of a singular form followed by a plural; p. eg “song of songs”, ie the greatest, or the best song.
The use of numerals shows certain peculiarities. One and two agree in gender with their noun, but three to ten do not agree. This may indicate a late introduction of grammatical gender.
The noun, or “verbless” sentence, in which the predicate consists of a noun, pronoun, or adjective, is widely used. Generally when translating we add some part of the verb “to be”, e.g. eg “Abraham’s servant (am) I.” In sentences with a finite verb, the order of the words generally follows the following pattern: verb, subject, complement. With the accusative the heading is often used ˒eṯ. If the object consists of a pronoun, it can be added to the accusative particle, or it can be added as the enclitic form of the verb. An indirect object consisting of a preposition and a pronominal suffix usually comes before the subject. If there is an adverbial extension, it generally follows the complement. In cases where in cast. we would normally use the impersonal “one”, e.g. eg in “one says,” in Heb. the second or third person of the masculine singular, or the third of the plural, is applied.
The most distinctive feature of the Hebrew style is its syndetic or coordinative character, that is, the predominance of the simple conjunction “and”, and the infrequent use of subordinating conjunctions. Compared to Castilian it might seem less abstract to us. In Hebrew, for example, extensive use is made of terms related to physical attitudes to describe psychological states, or the organs of the body are related to mental attitudes. It is extremely difficult for people accustomed to the Indo-European way of speaking to dissociate their minds from the original meanings; this is especially so when a work is full of them, such as Song of Songs.
The images used in Hebrew come largely from the things and activities of daily life. They therefore have a universal quality and lend themselves easily to translation. Hebrew uses all the common figures of speech: parable (eg 2 Sam. 12), simile, metaphor, e.g. eg “star” or “lion” for hero, “rock” for refuge, “light” for life and divine revelation, “darkness” for pain and ignorance.
Hebrew, as well as general linguistic usage, makes constant use of anthropomorphic expressions, that is, the transfer or adaptation of terms of parts of the human body and of human activities to the inanimate world and to other conditions in which, strictly speaking, they are not applicable. . These expressions have their origin in the metaphor and correspond to the heading “extension of meaning”, an apparently essential element in languages in general. They occur frequently in other Semitic languages, as well as in Hebrew. In Akkadian, for example, one refers to the keel of a ship as the “backbone” to which the “ribs” are attached. In Hebrew we speak of the “head” of a mountain, the “face” of the earth, the “lip” (coast) of the sea, the “mouth” of a cave, the “go” of water (a verb that is often used elsewhere for “walking”). These expressions and others have obviously become fossilized metaphors. When these expressions are applied to the activities or attributes of God, it would not be linguistically acceptable to take them literally, or to base theories of beliefs on what are intrinsic modes of expression dictated by the very nature of communication. linguistics.
Elliptical expressions, by means of which the semantic content of an entire sentence is invested in a single member of the group, are quite common, e.g. eg the omission of “voice” after “lift up” in Is. 42.2 (cf. °vrv1). Although in the OT (1 Samuel 9.9) we have one of the first references to semantic changes, there is little evidence of change in Hebrew over the centuries. It is possible, however, that many parts have been revised to conform to standard Hebrew, perhaps that of a late pre-exilic Jerusalem. We can find traces of dialects in some books, e.g. eg Ruth and parts of 2 Kings. In Esther, Chronicles, and other places we can see later forms of the language. Given the circumstances, it would not be easy to detect terms taken from other languages related to Hebrew. Examples are hêḵāl‘temple’, from ac. ekallu‘palace’, which in turn came from the Sumerian e gal‘big house’; argāmān‘purple’, comes from Hittite.
Thanks to numerous ancient texts in sister languages that have been recovered, it has been possible to acquire a more precise understanding of some points. There is a danger that in the excitement produced by new discoveries ill-founded proposals arise that contravene intrinsic protections of the language that prevent…