Clark’s terminologies use two basic concepts. The first concept is “families of words,” related to one another in one of two ways:
- Gradational Variants – GV
- Derivational Variants – DV
The other concept is “sound alikes,” which he calls phonetic cognates. There are many words which sound similar. These are noted to have a similar thread of meaning. That thread that ties together that group of words is listed as Cognate Meaning – CM.
Another time I will explain where the variant and the cognate concepts come from, but this time, we are covering some basics, and not diving too deeply.
Before going further, please note that these are simply the most basic concepts in the EDBH. There is much, much more, but these are a good place to begin the journey. My apologies for having to go through some of these basics to help you understand. I know these basics are not exciting.
Hirsch deals only with Hebrew, not Aramaic. Hirsch deals only with three-letter Hebrew roots, from which many other words are derived. The EDBH does explain how some other words are derived from the roots. The listings in the EDBH show none of the added Masoretic vowel pointing. The roots are consonants only, and are verbs, as the Hebrew language is based upon verbs (and as we have noted previously, action verbs).
I want to show you photos of two listings from the EDBH, two related words. Generally I will give the page number from the EDBH if I share a listing.
Things to note. First is a listed Biblical Hebrew Word. To its right on the page are some definitions. e/c means explanation/commentary which give some verse references and examples of how interpreters have translated The word in that verse (it might be Hirsch’s interpretation or another scholar’s interpretation). The verses are chosen carefully to make certain points. in the second listing, notice after entry 1, and a verse, there is another verse listed after “also.” Often these “also” verses are quite revealing and might not necessarily use the listed word, but might share another place where the same point is made, or might use one of the cognates.
After GV are listed words that are in the same family that demonstrate gradations of meaning. Note the entry is short there, not necessarily listing the entire definition as indicated above. The DV in the second word shows it is derived from that family of words. At the bottom of each is CM, cognate meaning, followed in brackets by a listing of all the phonetic cognates (PC) of that word.
Again, this is an overview so you can see what the listings in the Dictionary entail.
© June 2020 logandspeck.com please cite if copying