Re: USAGE: Initial "and" (was Re: The Babel Text)

Steg Belsky eskribiw:

> On Saturday, February 14, 2004, at 10:51  PM, Roger Mills wrote:
> > Steg I believe gave us the Hebrew line about
> > Shinar the other day, and it began with v(+vowel)-.
>
> I didn't give the Hebrew about Shin`ar,
That was me, Yitzik who's been trying to push some Biblical Hebrew
into students' heads for last three years...

> but i can tell you about the "and".
> It's part of the Biblical Hebrew verb form known as
> |vayyiqtol|, formed by |va-| ("and") plus the jussive imperfect
> (|yiqtol|) form of the verb, with the initial consonant of the
verb
> geminated when possible.
I'm not sure if it is a jussive. It is just a truncated imperfect
(if a verb is weak). Jussive always carries additional
subjunctiveness.

> When you have a series of verbs in this form, it's a narrative
style
> used to describe actions in sequence, in the past.
That is why "vayyiqtol" is often called "narrative past". These
forms use "consecutive vav", and unite phrases into sequences. Often
you can translate it as "after that".
But, "and" doesn't always work like this. There is also a
"disjunctive vav". It is added to nouns in the beginning of
sentences. It shows a BREAK in sequence. A new topic begins, so you
can translate it as "as for".

> In this case, we have:
> (verse 1) and [the land] was...
It starts with a consecutive vav: "Vihi kol haaretz" etc., that
shows that it is not a new passage, but it continues the previous
story about the nations after the Flood.

> (verse 2) and [as] they traveled... and they found... and they
settled...
> (verse 3) and they said...
All the following phrases are united into one sequence with a
consecutive vav, till a new topic begins in verse 12 (without any
conjunction), by a demonstrative "elle" (these).

-- Yitzik