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Tip 3.8 Searching for Weak Hebrew Verbs RSS
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Biblical Hebrew contains verbs that are classified as either strong verbs or one of Enter y our address Subscribe
eleven varieties of weak verbs. In this Classroom Tip we will show how to search using
the Command Line for Hebrew lemmas that are weak verbs.
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using wildcards and range operators. Due to the fact that the WTM Westminster
Hebrew OT Morphology is searchable by its lemma or lexical form we can take
advantage of the three-consonant lemma form for each Hebrew word and search for
classes of weak verbs. In order to conduct the searches listed in this Classroom Tip,
change the Command Line search version to the Hebrew morphology version WTM.

In each of our searches for weak Hebrew verbs, we will use a combination of wildcards
and the known consonant or consonants for the Hebrew lemma. Since the question
mark wildcard (?) always represents one character in a Command Line search, this
wildcard will be used to replace a single character in the lemma.

Since we are searching for Hebrew verbs, we will include @v* as the morphological
codes following the lemma. If you wish to search for the word in specific verb stems,
aspect, person, gender, number, or state, you could apply the correct morphological
codes using the Morphology Code Help on the Command Line.

The following examples indicate what to type on the Command Line to execute
searches for weak verbs. Each search is conducted using the WTM morphologically-
tagged Hebrew version.

In order to type on the Command Line the brackets [ and ] to contain the group of
letters used in the search for II-Yod and II-Waw verbs without the final ‫ה‬, you will need
to press the Insert key on your keyboard. When you press this key, the Command
Line enters selected English characters instead of Hebrew characters where there is a
conflict. A blinking red box appears in the upper right-hand corner of the Command
Line when the Insert key has been pressed.

Name Alternate Name Command Line Search

I-Nun Pe Nun .??‫@נ‬v*
I-Aleph Pe Aleph .??‫@א‬v*
III-Aleph Lamed Aleph .‫@??א‬v*
III-He Lamed He .‫@??ה‬v*
I-Yod Pe Yod .?? ‫@י‬v*
II-Yod Ayin Yod .?‫@?י‬v*
II-Yod verbs .[ ‫@? י ]אבגדהוזחטיכלמנסעפצקרשׁשׂת‬v*
without final ‫ה‬ (the characters in brackets
are tfvrqczp[snmlkyjxzwdgba)
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II-Waw Ayin Waw .?‫@?ו‬v*
II-Waw verbs .[ ‫@? ו ]אבגדהוזחטיכלמנסעפצקרשׁשׂת‬v*
without final ‫ה‬ (the characters in brackets are
tfvrqczp[snmlkyjxzwdgba)
I-Guttural Pe Guttural .??[‫@]אהחרע‬v*
II-Guttural Ayin Guttural .?[‫@?]אהחרע‬v*
III-Guttural Lamed Guttural .[‫@??]אהחרע‬v*
Geminate Double Ayin .‫@?בב‬v*
(search on each pair of consonants
to obtain the entire list of Geminate
verbs)

I, II & III-Guttural Verbs

We have seen in Classroom Tip 1.15 that range operators such as the braces { and }
and the brackets [ and ] are used to group characters. If you enclose the various
guttural letters inside brackets at the position of the guttural letter for a desired search
you can quickly find all instances of that type of verb. By grouping the guttural
characters you can conduct one search to find verbs that contain any of those
characters.

In order to type on the Command Line the brackets [ and ] to contain the group of
guttural characters, you will need to press the Insert key on your keyboard. When you
press this key, the Command Line enters selected English characters instead of
Hebrew characters where there is a conflict. A blinking red box appears in the upper
right-hand corner of the Command Line when the Insert key has been pressed.

Geminate Verbs
Geminate verbs are more root specific in their search syntax. In this type of search you
must enter a specific Hebrew letter as the identical second and third Hebrew radical
when typing your search on the Command Line. See the example listed in the table
above.

You can conduct an 'or' search on the Command Line using the forward slash (/)
instead of the period and then enter each pair of consonants. In this way you can
search for every Geminate verb using one search. For example, you would type

/‫@?בב‬v* ‫@?גג‬v*

and the remaining consonant combinations to find all of the Geminate verbs.

Compiling the Results of Your Searches

In our previous searches for weak Hebrew verbs we were able to find all the verses
where each type of verb appeared. Once we have conducted a search we can develop
lists of the particular verbs that appear in each root type and to view the forms that they
take in the Hebrew Bible. The Word List Manager will allow us to compile such lists.
Begin by conducting a search over one of the types of weak Hebrew verbs, then use
the Word List Manager to create a list of the weak Hebrew verbs.

Open the Word List Manager by pressing the F8 key or by navigating to Tools
| Analyzing the text | Word List Manager.
Within the Word List Manager click on the button “Load or Generate Word List”
Under "Version" choose "WTM Westminster Hebrew OT Morphology".
Under "Source" choose “Load words from a Bible version”.
Set "Verse Range" to Gen 1:1 - Mal 3:24
Under "Other options" uncheck all checkboxes.
Click "Create list".
Select File | Save (as IEL file for later use, or for GSE). Be sure that you do not
include any spaces in the name that you use. It would also be good to begin
the name of the file with the abbreviation of the search version you used, in this
case WTM. For example, a good file name for a list of I-Nun verbs would be
wtm_I-Nun.iel. If you include spaces in the file name, you will be unable to use
the file as a search tool on the Command Line.

Using Your Word List

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Now that you have created IEL lists of weak Hebrew verbs, you can use these lists in
future searches. These lists can be used as search tools on the Command Line or in
the Graphical Search Engine.

On the Command Line, set your search version to WTM. Place your cursor on the
Command Line, then clicking your right mouse button to open the context menu. Select
"Insert Word List File Name", then select the desired word list that you created
previously. This word list now functions as a word on the Command Line. In order to
restrict the list to only verbs, add the morphology code "@v*" after the filename. For
further information and examples of including word list searches on the Command Line,
see Classroom Tip 3.3.

To use the IEL lists in the Graphical Search Engine (GSE), open the GSE, then double-
click on the word box. Set the search version at the top of the word box to WTM. At the
bottom of the word box select the radio button for "Inclusion/exclusion list (IEL)". Click
the button to "Load IEL", then select your IEL list. Create the rest of your GSE search,
and then run the search.

By having lists of the weak Hebrew words created ahead of time, you can use these
lists in future searches.

You can use the word lists in the same way that you would use individual
lemmas in a search.
Because you did not specify the morph codes when you created your IEL list,

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you can specify the exact form of the lemmas that you want to search by adding
the @ sign, followed by the appropriate morphological codes.
You can use the word lists in phrase searches.

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