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From: Ruud Harmsen <rh@rudhar.com>
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Subject: Re: PTD was the most-respected of the AUE regulars ...
Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2024 08:01:49 +0200
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Sun, 28 Jul 2024 15:06:32 +0000: jerry.friedman99@gmail.com
(jerryfriedman) scribeva:

>On Fri, 26 Jul 2024 17:29:10 +0000, Christian Weisgerber wrote:
>
>> On 2024-07-26, Steve Hayes <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> wrote:
>>
>>> On Thu, 25 Jul 2024 12:41:13 -0700, HenHanna <HenHanna@devnull.tb>
>>>>       The instance I remember most was when he (PTD) opined that Most
>>>>Chinese words consisted of 2 Chinese characters.
>>
>> It's not wrong just because PTD said it.  Over on Language Log, the
>> eminent sinologist Victor Mair also keeps pointing out that the
>> Chinese thinking that a Chinese character/syllable equals a word
>> is just not true and that most of the Chinese lexicon is made from
>> a combinations of two morphemes and rendered in two characters.
>
>Mair contributed a chapter to Daniels and Bright, so he was probably
>the source for PTD's knowledge of that.
>
>>> In his own field he had some useful information, but outside his field
>>> he could be very dogmatic about things that he simply got wrong.
>>
>> But what _is_ PTD's area of actual expertise?  Writing systems, I
>> guess, supported by the fact that he co-edited a book on the topic?
>
>
>He's also written a book on writing systems.
>
>https://www.amazon.com/Exploration-Writing-Peter-T-Daniels/
>
>As you probably noticed, his guest post on Language Log on writing
>systems was well received.
>
>> Semitic languages, maybe--or am I already misled by my own total
>> ignorance there?
>
>He knows a lot more than I do about all of the Semitic languages
>except Hebrew, but on the other hand he wrote
>
>'Hebrew does not have subordinating conjunctions. It uses parataxis, not
>hypotaxis. KJV tried to translate literally, word by word, so "and" was
>used
>wherever wa-(and allomorphs) appeared.'
>
>https://groups.google.com/g/alt.usage.english/c/MZ7qGDVppiU/m/4h_E2sqqBAAJ
>
>The subject was the King James Bible, but it was still misleading
>not to say that modern Hebrew has several subordinating conjunctions
>and uses them often.  

He was talking about Biblical Hebrew. Now you start about Modern
Hebrew. Not the same grammar.

Initial waw in Biblical Hebrew was indeed mistranslated as "and" in
English and "en" in Dutch etc., because in reality it was an aspect
and tense reversing prefix or some such:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vav-consecutive

>(Note how effectively that could lead to an
>argument.  "That doesn't apply at all to modern Hebrew."  "The
>subject is obviously Biblical Hebrew."  "But...")

There you have it.

>More to the point, the statement is not true even of Biblical Hebrew.
>It has /fewer/ subordinating conjunctions than modern European
>languages and uses hypotaxis /less/, but it does use hypotaxis.  For
>instance
>
>'asher or she- 'that, which, what': "I am that I am"
>
>ki 'that, because, when': "And God blessed the seventh day, and
>sanctified
>it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created
>and made.'  (The "which" there is 'asher again.)

This is far beyond me, so I have no take on it.

>k- 'like, as': "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth
>my soul
>after thee, O God."
>
>l-ma`an 'so that': "Therefore choose life, that thou and thy seed may
>live."
>
>The statement that the KJV used "and" whenever "wa-" appeared is
>very close to true, I believe.  However "Therefore" in "Therefore
>choose life" is u-, an allomorph of wa-, as PTD put it.  (I just noticed
>that.)

So he did (and does) have knowledge of Hebrew grammar after all.

BTW, isn´t it quite impolite to gossip about someone who himself
cannot be present to comment if he so chose?