Page 32 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew
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CHAPTER 1   THE       STRUCTURE         OF    THE      HEBREW


              LANGUAGE



                                    CHAPTER 1



                  The Structure of the Hebrew Language





          1.1  The Structure of a Hebrew Word (Biblical Only)

          The  Hebrew  language  has  a  unique  structure  unmatched  by  other  languages.
          While in other languages, words represent agreed-upon conventions that attach
          no special meaning to the constituent letters, in Hebrew each letter has a unique
          meaning, which is conferred upon the word, thus partaking in the buildup of
          the word’s meaning. In that respect, the Hebrew language is comparable to the

          language of chemistry, where the name of a composite reflects its constituent ele-
          ments—for example, water is denoted by H 2O. One may think of written Chinese
          as perhaps coming closest to the Hebrew language in that parts of the characters
          create a gestalt meaning.
             The internal order of the letters in a Hebrew word is also a major player that,
          to a large extent, determines the meaning of the word. As in the language of
          chemistry, where the composite’s unique characteristics are decided both by the
          atoms comprising its molecules and by their internal layout, so in Hebrew the

          position of a letter determines its influence, or weight, in shaping up the word’s
          meaning. The earlier a letter appears, the more significant its contribution to the

          meaning of that word.
             A list of the Hebrew letters, with the letters’ names and their approximate
          English equivalents, is given in Table 1.1.
             In their pure and authentic form, as used in the Bible, Hebrew words have
          a three-letter root (though some have two- or even four-letter roots). The root
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          of the word determines its meaning. For example, the word “child” (yeled  in
          Hebrew) has a three-letter root, the Hebrew equivalent of the English letters ILD.
          This root serves to generate a variety of words associated with delivery (giving
          birth to), which is expectable. In other cases, the link between words sharing the
          same root and seemingly conveying disparate meanings is not straightforward,

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