Opuscula Ugaritico-Accadico-Hebraica: Relative Particles, pa'am, and Amraphel

Abstract

The article deals with two questions concerning the relationship between Hebrew, Akkadian, and Ugaritic: the background of the relative particle šeC-/šaC- and the relationship between Hebrew pa'am ("time, foot") and Ugaritic pamt ("time") and p'n ("foot, leg"). In the former case, a model of morphological conflation is argued. In the latter, Northwest Semitic dialectology is discussed, and the origin of the name Amraphel is used as a comparandum and given a partially new explanation involving borrowing from an international scribal koine, which shows difficulty in pronouncing the voiced pharyngeal.