Hebrew
Modern Hebrew shows a limited set of mutation alternations, involving spirantization only. The consonants affected may be stem-initial, stem-medial, or stem-final.
Radical | Spirantized |
---|---|
p | f |
k | x |
b | v |
For example, some verbs show mutation between tenses and conjugation classes:
- "he wrote", "he will write"
- "he sank" (transitive), "he sank" (intransitive)
Some nouns show mutation between masculine and feminine, between singular and plural, or after prepositions:
- "a king", "a queen", "kings", (spoken Hebrew, )
- "a bear" (masc.), "a bear" (fem.), "bears" (masc.), "bears" (fem.)
- "a house", "in a house" (in spoken Modern Hebrew:
But some words do not have alternations:
- "he hacked", "he will hack"
- "good", ~ "goods"
- "a kibbutz", "in a kibbutz"
In some limited cases, initial mutation can signal adverbial status in spoken Modern Hebrew:
- "a request", "please" (spoken or written, "בבקשה"), "please" (spoken, informal).
Read more about this topic: Consonant Mutation
Famous quotes containing the word hebrew:
“Many will entreat the favour of the prince: and every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts.”
—Bible: Hebrew Proverbs 19:6.
“The Lord is thy keeper; the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.
The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil; he shall preserve thy
soul.
The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.”
—Bible: Hebrew Psalm CXXI (l. CXXI, 58)
“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
—Bible: Hebrew Proverbs, 29:18.
President John F. Kennedy quoted this passage on the eve of his assassination in Dallas, Texas; recorded in Theodore C. Sorensons biography, Kennedy, Epilogue (1965)