PLURAL BASED DUALS.

While most dual forms in the Hebrew Bible are built upon the singular base, there are several examples where the plural form is the base of the dual noun. The inserted -a- vowel, a characteristic of plurals in North West Semitic, appears in these words, indicating that it is the plural base upon which the dual ending is added. These forms are likely caused by an erroneous assumption about the word dekr 'door', which constitutes the most examples of this phenomenon. The word delet was assumed to be a Ill-he noun, not a qvtl noun. On analogy with other III-he nouns that present a medial -a- vowel in their dual forms, delet assimilated to this same pattern. Select qvtl nouns with a liquid consonant in the middle position followed the pattern of delet and thus created these inconsistencies. The pattern was then applied to two other non-qvtl nouns resulting in further inconsistencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Semitic Studies is the property of Oxford University Press / USA and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)