10-29-2014, 08:53 PM
Shlama Thirdwoe,
I know you asked Zechariah, but if you wish, I can provide some examples of what I believe to be at least helpful. My work is not in any way a claim to superiority, like so many others. Nor is it even an attempt at more clarity. It is a translation attempting to show the common concrete action meanings that all root words have in common. Most translations are attempts at taking what the Hebrew or Aramaic said, and rendering it in a way we today can understand; taking the ancient way of thinking and bringing it into today's way of thinking for us to understand.
Steve showed this when he wrote about the word nacham in Hebrew. He mentioned that it means 'comfort', and I definitely agree with that, for that is what we understand it to mean today. Translations of that Hebrew word will reflect what the word means to us today.
My translation attempts to take our minds back to the way the ancients might have thought, what it would have meant to them back then. Using that same example, nacham, according to its concrete meaning, is said to mean, according to Strongs, 'properly, to sigh', also according to the Theological Workbook of the Old Testament, 'The origin of the root seems to reflect the idea of "breathing deeply," and according to Gesenius, 'properly, onomatopoet. to draw the breath forcibly, to pant, to groan'.
The letters I believe help define these meanings, and so in my translation I render this word as 'sigh', which happens to capture the action one does whether in a positive way, as a sigh of relief, and refreshment, or in a negative way, as a sigh of regret. In English one would see the words 'Comfort' and 'Regret' and see them as having nothing to do with each other. In Hebrew though, they are the same word.
Another interesting example (to me) is the word for 'Mother', aleph,mem. If one were to read all of the occurrences of this word in an English translation, there would be one instance no one would be able to find. It is found in Ezekiel 21:21
For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver.
The word 'parting' is the only time this word is translated this way. Why? Because to translate it as 'mother of the way', would not make sense to us today. However, it did back then, for the word 'Mother' in Hebrew expresses the action where one branches off into more than one. My translation will reflect that, attempting to put the mind of the reader back into the ancient way of thinking...again, not as something to be thought of as superior, but as a tool for getting into the mindset of the ancient peoples.
Here is an explanation given by Edward Horowitz in his book 'How the Hebrew Language Grew', that gives the premise I am building upon:
How Two Letters Become Three
ROOTS WERE PROBABLY,
ORIGINALLY TWO LETTERED
...Scholars are fairly convinced that back of these three lettered roots lie old primitive two-lettered syllables. These two-lettered syllables represent some simple primitive action or thing. It does seem quite clear that there existed a bi-literal or two-letter base for many, if not most, of our three lettered roots. However, this can never be proven absolutely in all finality because the original Semitic language is lost beyond all recovery...
TWO LETTERED ROOTS
BECOME THREE LETTERED
The small number of two-lettered syllables began to be highly inadequate. In order to obtain additional words they would add a third letter to the primitive two-lettered root, by this means creating new words. This new word would generally have a sharper, more specialized sense that the primitive root. We are not sure exactly how this process was carried on, because it took place so very long ago in prehistoric times.
All this sounds like mere words; let us now get down to examples and to making ourselves very clear.
A simple illustration of the transformation from two to three-lettered roots is to be found in the group of words that have gimel-zayin as the first two letters. All of this group had the fundamental meaning of cutting with, of course, different shades of meaning. It is easy to see clearly how they are related, and in all likelihood, they were developed from the primitive two-lettered root, gimel-zayin.
Here is the list:
gimel,waw,zayin cut
gimel,zayin,resh cut, also - with metathesis gimel,resh,zayin, the root of gimel,resh,zayin,nun -axe
gimel,zayin,ayin cut
gimel,zayin,zayin to shear (sheep)
gimel,zayin,hey cut
gimel,zayin,mem a locust, one who eats the produce and thus effectively cuts it from the field.
gimel,zayin,lamed rob, to violently tear something away from somebody.
Each of the words in turn gave rise to many other words. For example from gimel,zayin,resh -cut we have mem,gimel,zayin,resh,hey -an ax, gimel,zayin,resh,hey -a decree. From gimel,zayin,ayin we have gimel,zayin,ayin -the stock of a tree; what's left after all the branches have been cut off. From gimel,zayin,zayin -shear, we have gimel,zayin,hey -sheared wool. gimel,zayin,hey is the root of gimel,zayin,yod,taw which means ?hewn stones?. From gimel,zayin,lamed we have gimel,zayin,lamed,hey -robbery.
Do not be surprised if so many of these comparatively few two-lettered roots mean to cut, to split, to slit, or slice. AFTER ALL, EVERYTHING THAT PRIMITIVE MAN DID IN THE WAY OF MAKING A LIVING FOR HIMSELF AND HIS FAMILY IN SOME WAY OR OTHER INVOLVED A CUTTING ACTION, whether it was wounding animals, felling trees, digging into the earth to plow or to find water, fighting his enemies, or dividing the prey that he brought home. The word ?cut? in the Kaufman ?English-Hebrew Dictionary? has over a hundred Hebrew translations, and actually there are even more...
In my translation, I am doing this very thing, with the exception of keeping every two letter root (what I call a marriage root) having its own distinct word. Every word with the gimel,zayin root I render as some form of shearing. Every word with the pey,resh root I render as some form of separating. Every word with the bet,resh root I render as some form of hewing. Every form of the gimel,dalet root I render as some form of slicing. Every form of the tsade,qof root I render as some form of constricting. These are just a sampling of the hundreds in my database. When it is all finished, I hope to have every word linked to the common everyday actions they might have been derived from.
As Zechariah mentioned, if anyone has any suggestions as to word definitions, or how to make this as user friendly as possible, I definitely welcome them.
Ronen
I know you asked Zechariah, but if you wish, I can provide some examples of what I believe to be at least helpful. My work is not in any way a claim to superiority, like so many others. Nor is it even an attempt at more clarity. It is a translation attempting to show the common concrete action meanings that all root words have in common. Most translations are attempts at taking what the Hebrew or Aramaic said, and rendering it in a way we today can understand; taking the ancient way of thinking and bringing it into today's way of thinking for us to understand.
Steve showed this when he wrote about the word nacham in Hebrew. He mentioned that it means 'comfort', and I definitely agree with that, for that is what we understand it to mean today. Translations of that Hebrew word will reflect what the word means to us today.
My translation attempts to take our minds back to the way the ancients might have thought, what it would have meant to them back then. Using that same example, nacham, according to its concrete meaning, is said to mean, according to Strongs, 'properly, to sigh', also according to the Theological Workbook of the Old Testament, 'The origin of the root seems to reflect the idea of "breathing deeply," and according to Gesenius, 'properly, onomatopoet. to draw the breath forcibly, to pant, to groan'.
The letters I believe help define these meanings, and so in my translation I render this word as 'sigh', which happens to capture the action one does whether in a positive way, as a sigh of relief, and refreshment, or in a negative way, as a sigh of regret. In English one would see the words 'Comfort' and 'Regret' and see them as having nothing to do with each other. In Hebrew though, they are the same word.
Another interesting example (to me) is the word for 'Mother', aleph,mem. If one were to read all of the occurrences of this word in an English translation, there would be one instance no one would be able to find. It is found in Ezekiel 21:21
For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver.
The word 'parting' is the only time this word is translated this way. Why? Because to translate it as 'mother of the way', would not make sense to us today. However, it did back then, for the word 'Mother' in Hebrew expresses the action where one branches off into more than one. My translation will reflect that, attempting to put the mind of the reader back into the ancient way of thinking...again, not as something to be thought of as superior, but as a tool for getting into the mindset of the ancient peoples.
Here is an explanation given by Edward Horowitz in his book 'How the Hebrew Language Grew', that gives the premise I am building upon:
How Two Letters Become Three
ROOTS WERE PROBABLY,
ORIGINALLY TWO LETTERED
...Scholars are fairly convinced that back of these three lettered roots lie old primitive two-lettered syllables. These two-lettered syllables represent some simple primitive action or thing. It does seem quite clear that there existed a bi-literal or two-letter base for many, if not most, of our three lettered roots. However, this can never be proven absolutely in all finality because the original Semitic language is lost beyond all recovery...
TWO LETTERED ROOTS
BECOME THREE LETTERED
The small number of two-lettered syllables began to be highly inadequate. In order to obtain additional words they would add a third letter to the primitive two-lettered root, by this means creating new words. This new word would generally have a sharper, more specialized sense that the primitive root. We are not sure exactly how this process was carried on, because it took place so very long ago in prehistoric times.
All this sounds like mere words; let us now get down to examples and to making ourselves very clear.
A simple illustration of the transformation from two to three-lettered roots is to be found in the group of words that have gimel-zayin as the first two letters. All of this group had the fundamental meaning of cutting with, of course, different shades of meaning. It is easy to see clearly how they are related, and in all likelihood, they were developed from the primitive two-lettered root, gimel-zayin.
Here is the list:
gimel,waw,zayin cut
gimel,zayin,resh cut, also - with metathesis gimel,resh,zayin, the root of gimel,resh,zayin,nun -axe
gimel,zayin,ayin cut
gimel,zayin,zayin to shear (sheep)
gimel,zayin,hey cut
gimel,zayin,mem a locust, one who eats the produce and thus effectively cuts it from the field.
gimel,zayin,lamed rob, to violently tear something away from somebody.
Each of the words in turn gave rise to many other words. For example from gimel,zayin,resh -cut we have mem,gimel,zayin,resh,hey -an ax, gimel,zayin,resh,hey -a decree. From gimel,zayin,ayin we have gimel,zayin,ayin -the stock of a tree; what's left after all the branches have been cut off. From gimel,zayin,zayin -shear, we have gimel,zayin,hey -sheared wool. gimel,zayin,hey is the root of gimel,zayin,yod,taw which means ?hewn stones?. From gimel,zayin,lamed we have gimel,zayin,lamed,hey -robbery.
Do not be surprised if so many of these comparatively few two-lettered roots mean to cut, to split, to slit, or slice. AFTER ALL, EVERYTHING THAT PRIMITIVE MAN DID IN THE WAY OF MAKING A LIVING FOR HIMSELF AND HIS FAMILY IN SOME WAY OR OTHER INVOLVED A CUTTING ACTION, whether it was wounding animals, felling trees, digging into the earth to plow or to find water, fighting his enemies, or dividing the prey that he brought home. The word ?cut? in the Kaufman ?English-Hebrew Dictionary? has over a hundred Hebrew translations, and actually there are even more...
In my translation, I am doing this very thing, with the exception of keeping every two letter root (what I call a marriage root) having its own distinct word. Every word with the gimel,zayin root I render as some form of shearing. Every word with the pey,resh root I render as some form of separating. Every word with the bet,resh root I render as some form of hewing. Every form of the gimel,dalet root I render as some form of slicing. Every form of the tsade,qof root I render as some form of constricting. These are just a sampling of the hundreds in my database. When it is all finished, I hope to have every word linked to the common everyday actions they might have been derived from.
As Zechariah mentioned, if anyone has any suggestions as to word definitions, or how to make this as user friendly as possible, I definitely welcome them.
Ronen