The conjunctive waw or vav conjunctive (Hebrew: ו' החיבור ''vav hakhibur'') is the
coordinating conjunction
In grammar, a conjunction ( abbreviated or ) is a part of speech that connects words, phrases, or clauses'','' which are called its conjuncts. That description is vague enough to overlap with those of other parts of speech because what consti ...
meaning 'and' in
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
, spelled with the letter
vav.
It is a
proclitic—i.e., although its
syntactic
In linguistics, syntax ( ) is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituency ...
distribution is that of an independent word, it is pronounced as a
prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Particularly in the study of languages, a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the word to which it is affixed.
Prefixes, like other affixes, can b ...
attached to the word following it. In
Modern Hebrew
Modern Hebrew (, or ), also known as Israeli Hebrew or simply Hebrew, is the Standard language, standard form of the Hebrew language spoken today. It is the only surviving Canaanite language, as well as one of the List of languages by first w ...
, it is typically pronounced /ve/, though a
prescriptivist tradition recommends pronouncing it as /u/ when followed by a
consonant cluster
In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fie ...
or
labial consonant
Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. The two common labial articulations are bilabials, articulated using both lips, and labiodentals, articulated with the lower lip against the upper teeth, b ...
, maintaining a pattern from the
Tiberian pronunciation of
Biblical Hebrew
Biblical Hebrew ( or ), also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language, a language in the Canaanite languages, Canaanitic branch of the Semitic languages spoken by the Israelites in the area known as the Land of Isra ...
.
It is distinct from
waw-consecutive, which is the Biblical use of vav as a prefix on
verb
A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
s.
Conjunction of two nouns
Primarily two
noun
In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...
s may be joined by conjunctive vav without equation, for example ''Moshe v-Aron'' ("Moses and Aaron"). Conjunctive vav may however indicate
hendiadys
Hendiadys () is a figure of speech used for emphasis—"The substitution of a conjunction for a subordination". The basic idea is to use two words linked by the conjunction "and" instead of the one modifying the other.
Hendiadys in English is ...
where two nouns are equated. An example is found in two examples from
Leviticus 25 where the nouns ''ger'' "stranger," and ''toshav'' "sojourner," are joined by conjunctive waw and usually construed as a hendiadys. However, in Numbers 35:15, each noun is accompanied by the repeated
preposition
Adpositions are a part of speech, class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in, under, towards, behind, ago'', etc.) or mark various thematic relations, semantic roles (''of, for''). The most common adpositions are prepositi ...
al prefix ''lo-'' "to," as in "to-the stranger and (''vav'') to-the sojourner," which indicates two distinct concepts.
Conjunction of two verbs
Waw-conjunctive may also be used or omitted between two verbs. In imperative sentences such as "sit and wait" the use of the waw between the two verbs is particularly common in
maskilic literature, but there are no clear cut semantic considerations regulating the use of vav conjunctive.
[Lily Kahn ''The verbal system in late enlightenment Hebrew'' p271]
References
Hebrew grammar
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