Re: Middle voice

On Sat, 26 Sep 1998 14:15:35 -0400 John Cowan <cowan@...>
writes:
>Raymond A. Brown scripsit:
>
>> ACTIVE: gameo: = I marry [if I am a man]
>> MIDDLE: gamoumai = I marry [if I'm a woman]
>
>Until this century, women did not "marry", they "were married to"
>in English, so this usage didn't look so alien.   "Miss Jones was
>married to Mr. Smith on Friday."
>
>> The latter suggests that she gets the bloke to do this for her own
>advantage ;)
>
>Hmm.
>
In Hebrew the word for "to marry" is reflexive, _lehithhatein_.  The
"simple" (active) form of the root is used for the words _hhotein_ (male)
and _hhotenet_ (female), the parents-in-law.
Originally (probably due to a quirk in Jewish religious law), the word
for "to get divorced" was active-intensive _legareish_ for the man, and
passive/reflexive _lehitgareish_ for the woman.  Today the normal
reflexive _lehitgareish_  is used for both, as simply "to get divorced".

-Stephen (Steg)

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