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E 0372 (TO) GIVE
Thje verb " to give " is of
Germanic origin .
H 1044 ב ה י
Concept of root : give
away
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Hebrew word
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pronunciation
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English meanings
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ב ה י
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yahav
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to give
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Related English words
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to give
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Comparison between European words and
Hebrew
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Languages
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Words
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Pronunciation
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English meanings
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Similarity in roots
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Hebrew
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ב ה י
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yahav
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to give
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y . h . b <
* h .
b
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Old Saxon
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geban
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geban
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to give
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g . b
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Old English
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giefan
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to give
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g . f
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English
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to give
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to give
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g . v
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Latin
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habere ;
-
praehibere >
praebere
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habére
;
-
préhibére
>prébére
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to have, hold ;
to give
away
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h . b
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Proto-Semitic *YAHAB < *HAB --- *GĒB Proto-Germanic < *HĀB- Indo-European
In entry E 0429 (Hebrew 0017 , root "
א
ה
ב , ahav" ), we argued that there has been a basic root of only two consonants, " * H . B". This ancient root carried the message of " to hold something" . It is related to English " to have " and can be seen again in this entry, in which the person gives away what he has held. This changed concept, from holding to ceding something, may have been expressed by adding the prefix " Y ", that originally should have been a " W ".
It is anyhow important to note that a prefix " W " that develops into " Y " , in Hebrew expresses the concept of "to be, to become ", that is not easily to be recognized in "yahab = to give".
The difference seen between the " V " in "to give" and the written B in "yahav" is of none importance if Old Saxon "geban" is introduced in the comparison. The B-sound in many cases, like here in Hebrew, has changed into W or V. Old English had an F !
Note:
- Hebrew and English. The hypothesis is that the guttural G in English and its sisters correspond with the guttural H in Hebrew. This is clearly confirmed in the information in the Note on Proto-Semitic here below.
Note:
- Proto-Semitic . As a confirmation of our supposition, we see that our Hebrew root " י ה ב , Y . H . B ", has been preceded by a Proto-Semitic " * ו ה ב, W . H . B ". This is also based on the existence of this first consonant "W" in Ethiopian wahāba and in Arabic wahaba.
And yet this cannot be all. In Tigre "häba" and Tigrai "habä" we see surprising verbs for " to give". This is a strong indication that first the initial " W " as found in Arabic and then its successor " Y " seen in Hebrew, in fact are prefixes. Perhaps just prefixes of a neutral kind, for the pleasure of speaking which can be a very important factor in the development of language. Yet it is very important to note that we find in Hebrew these prefixes in a several cases not as neutral, but with a message of "to be". A few examples are seen in entry E 0487 (Hebrew 1068).
+
Thus Proto-Semitic may have developed the root as usually supposed, with the prefix " W- ", but it must have had also that other root " * ה ב , H . B " , that is then the original one, obviously related to Indo European.
Clearly not all daughters of Proto-Semitic left their mother's house at the same moment.
The actual Hebrew form is found also in Aramaic and " י ה ב , yehav = to give".
Note:
- Germanic, Latin and Hebrew. There is some debate about the possible change of meaning of a root from "to have" into "to give". Fact is that the two can live on together, as in German "haben" and "geben" . But some adaptation must take place to avoid, at least later on, confusion. We see three different solutions already.
The first is that in Latin, where "habere = to have, hold" receives a prefix to become "praehibere" that comes to mean "to give" in various forms, such as "to hand to, hand over, offer, leave to, procure, give".
The second solution would be a change in the initial consonant, from H into G or GH. This we see between English "to have" and "to give". This second option has been used in Hebrew as well, but with another end, as shown in entry E 0429 (Hebrew 0017). Thus it was not of possible use for the meaning-shift into "to give" .
Consequently :
The third solution, adapted by Hebrew, was adding a new initial consonant, W, later Y, to express this necessary new meaning of "to give away what one holds".
These kinds of "solutions" or "developments" should non be seen as found in some scholars study, but are the essence of living growth of languages.
Note:
- Latin "praehibére", mentioned in the previous note, later abbreviated into "praebére" , has maintained the cited meanings.
Note:
- Proto-Germanic must already have had the initial "G" that is found in all old and new Germanic languages. Interesting is the "Y"-sound in Old Frisian "jeva", that confirms that the "G", out of which that "J " has developed, had been present for some time.
Probably the second consonant was still "B", though the process of developing this into "V" may have started in Proto-Germanic. In fact we see both versions used in Old Saxon . Gothic "giban" and Old High German "geban" have the "B" that remained as well in modern German "geben". English, Dutch "geven", Middle Dutch "gheven" , Old Swedish "giva, gæva" show "V", dat is a development out of "B". Old Norse went further with "gefa", comparable with Old English "giefan".
As to the vowel, we see the "A" used in nouns and in verbal forms of the past, but the basic vowel must have been either "E" as in German, Old Saxon, Dutch and Old Norse, or " I " as in Gothic, partially Nordic and English. It is to be noted that Old English had "giefan". So Proto-Germanic should have been "*G Ē B -" or "*G Ī B -", or rather both, using further a vowel "A", long as well as short, in some verbal forms and nouns.
Note:
- Indo-European. Latin "do, dare", Greek "didomi", Russian "dawatj" , Old Indian "dadati" and other groups use for "to give" a different root. So we have no information that would allow a hypothesis for Indo-European, besides the possibility that the words "to give" and "geben" are the result of a later specific Germanic development. This means an Indo-European "*H Ā B-", that indeed may have existed.
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| Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 15/12/2012 at 18.17.03 |
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