Sunday, June 15, 2025

J. J. M. Roberts on Discovering New Roots in Semitic Languages

  

There is no particular merit in "discovering" vast numbers of "hitherto unrecognized" Hebrew roots, particularly when the pas- sages being explicated make sense with the old established roots. Nevertheless, classical Hebrew undoubtedly possessed a much richer vocabulary than has been preserved in our limited corpus of texts, and where none of the old roots make sense in the context, as is certainly the case in Ps. xxii 17c, it is legitimate to suggest a new root. The only requirements are that the root be well-attested in a cognate language or languages, the difference in root consonants, if any, be explainable by the principles of Semitic phonology, and the meaning suggested for the new root be consistent with its attested meaning in the cognate languages and with the context in the other language where it is posited. (J. J. M. Roberts, “A New Root for an Old Crux, Ps. XXII 17c,” Vetus Testmentum 23, no. 2 [April 1973]: 251)

 

 

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