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Journal of Semitic Studies 2009 54(2):383-388; doi:10.1093/jss/fgp004
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©The author. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the University of Manchester. All rights reserved.

Articles

Plural Based Duals

Jason Bembry

Emmanuel School of Religion

While most dual forms in the Hebrew Bible are built upon the singular base, there are several examples where the plural form is the base of the dual noun. The inserted -a- vowel, a characteristic of plurals in North West Semitic, appears in these words, indicating that it is the plural base upon which the dual ending is added. These forms are likely caused by an erroneous assumption about the word delet ‘door’, which constitutes the most examples of this phenomenon. The word delet was assumed to be a III-he noun, not a qvtl noun. On analogy with other III-he nouns that present a medial -a- vowel in their dual forms, delet assimilated to this same pattern. Select qvtl nouns with a liquid consonant in the middle position followed the pattern of delet and thus created these inconsistencies. The pattern was then applied to two other non-qvtl nouns resulting in further inconsistencies.


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