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Paragogic Nun
In Hebrew morphology, the paragogic ''nun'' (from paragoge 'addition at the end of a word') is a ''nun'' letter () added at the end of certain verb forms, without changing the general meaning of the conjugation. Its function is debated and may involve a modal change to the meaning of the verb. Occurrences It occurs most commonly in the plural 2nd and 3rd persons of imperfect forms. Examples include: 'you shall live' as instead of , 'you shall inherit' as instead Deuteronomy 5:33. It is a common phenomenon, appearing 106 times in the Pentateuch, but has unequal distribution: 58 occurrences in Deuteronomy, none in Leviticus. Explanation The general meaning of the verb form is not altered by the added ''nun'', and grammarians have proposed various explanations for the phenomenon: an archaism preserved as a matter of style, a syntactic or phonological rule that is not consistently applied because of hypercorrection, etc. * Recent inquiries suggest that the paragogic ''nun'' con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hebrew Language
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved throughout history as the main liturgical language of Judaism (since the Second Temple period) and Samaritanism. Hebrew is the only Canaanite language still spoken today, and serves as the only truly successful example of a dead language that has been revived. It is also one of only two Northwest Semitic languages still in use, with the other being Aramaic. The earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date back to the 10th century BCE. Nearly all of the Hebrew Bible is written in Biblical Hebrew, with much of its present form in the dialect that scholars believe flourished around the 6th century BCE, during the time of the Babylonian captivity. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as '' Lashon Hakodesh'' (, ) since a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
