Grammar - illustrating some common single letter prefixes

I found a verse (1 Chronicles 12:24) with prefixes c, m, and h just by scanning on a filter. A little more work on my part allowed me to see the count of the use of these common prefixes: c (caf) is used 3,168 times as a prefix, m (mem) 17,419, v (vav) 60,131, h (heh) 34,070, b (beth) 15,386, and l (lamed) 17,689.

So prefixes are very commonly used. We need to get a handle on them and the variability of their usage. I was surprised, having not looked at my programming, how I had not included 'h' in my single character prefixes. The reason is perhaps -- I don't remember -- that h has a number of different uses as a prefix in both verbs and nouns.

If you look at a lexicon like BDB, you will of course find a long essay on each letter. I wonder if it could be made easier to absorb. Every one of the grammatical team of letters needs such an essay, as do the weak letters that appear or disappear in various word forms, and the strong ones that rarely disappear or metastasize. Perhaps I will find specific memorable verses that will illustrate the various letter prefixes. Verses with combinations of prefixes are relatively easy to find. E.g. there are 1211 verses that contain words with both prefixes c and m.

But not to be too dependent on counting, we still need to see and hear things in their context in order to learn by example.

Here first is the music for this randomly chosen verse 1 Chronicles 12:24.

1 Chronicles 12:24

This verse is a contrast to the well known verses of the first two posts on the grammar of love. 1 Chronicles 12:24 is not exactly my or anyone's favorite on which one could hang all the law and the prophets. It's more about the political and personal violence that pervades our social structures.

The music with the beginning ornament (telisha-gadola) connects this verse to the prior verse. This connection I find holds whenever the first note of a verse is not the tonic. The pattern of accents (telisha-gedola, tarsin, yetiv, silluq) opens a verse 5 times in the Scripture: Genesis 18:30, 32, Jeremiah 46:27. 28, and occurs mid-verse twice 2 Kings 3:11, Jeremiah 41:5. (If you drop the silluq, the count is 56.) None of these have the strange single note recitation as in bar 2 above. This makes the translator wonder if there is not an element of criticism or appeal in the use of 'head' for this so called company. That is one reason why I have let 'gang' stand as the gloss.

24 וְ֠אֵלֶּה מִסְפְּרֵ֞י רָאשֵׁ֤י הֶֽחָלוּץ֙ לַצָּבָ֔א בָּ֥אוּ עַל־דָּוִ֖יד חֶבְר֑וֹנָה

לְהָסֵ֞ב מַלְכ֥וּת שָׁא֛וּל אֵלָ֖יו כְּפִ֥י יְהוָֽה ס

cd valh mspri rawi hklux lxba bau yl-dvid kbronh 

lhsb mlcut waul aliv cpi ihvh s

And these (v/alh) are the count of (m/spr\i) the gangs (raw\i) of the ready-armed h/klux (a three word construct chain) for the host (l/xba). They came (ba\u - vav pronounced as u is the third person plural suffix for the perfect) to David (yl-dvid) toward Hebron (kbron\h - final h suffix denoting toward),

to bring around (lhsb) the kingdom of Saul (mlc\ut waul construct) to him (al\iv), according to the mandate of Yahweh. (c/pi ihvh - lit. according to the mouth of HaShem another construct form) S

A brief example of how a random verse can be taken apart grammatically word by word, phrase by phrase.