Single letter prefixes, w

Eleven of the 22 letters in Hebrew are used in grammatical forms. These are א ב ה ו י כ ל מ נ ש ת in SimHebrew a b h v i c l m n w t. Tet, ט, 't sounds like t, is a minor player on the grammatical team, occasionally changing place in a word, (a feature called metastasis that occurs with the letter taf also).

Of the main 11, the following act as single letter prefixes: b, h, v, c, l, m, and w. This last seems a late development in Biblical Hebrew, but is more common in modern Hebrew. It occurs a little over 150 times in the Bible, roughly 2/3 of these in the Song and Qohelet. So if it is a late development, then perhaps these books too are late.

For example, wli, pronounced as shli, reads 'that is mine'. Here it seems to me like an abbreviation of awr li. This occurs exactly twice in the Song of Solomon only. It forms a frame, 1:6 and 8:12. Note how this is not abbreviated in the alliterative verse 1: wir hwirim awr lwlmh. The song of songs which is of Solomon.

So here are two verses encompassing a whole book. And what a book. Of course you may think it is 'of Solomon' but be warned, single letter prefixes (in this case l) do not translate rigidly always into the same sense. Nor does the attribution to Solomon imply that the ancient king wrote it.

Song 1:6 and 8:12, a frame for the song

Song 1:6 is a unique musical phrase. Again there is a change of reciting note in bar 6 that is striking - mother mine! Perhaps the young one is a tad impetuous. Song 6:12 has the same sequence of accents as 4 other verses. Exodus 2:24, Joshua 8:28, Jeremiah 20:17, and Hosea 4:9. It occurs also as part of Genesis 39:15. One can read significance into these similarities, but I did not test the syllable counts, so the music, even if a similar shape, is not identical. Nor would the shape be easily remembered in this case. 

How many single letter prefixes can you see / hear (!) in these two verses? w (6), b (1), c (0), h (3), l (5), m(0), v(1). Have I got them all? In the case of wli I have to treat the l as the root - though really there is no root in the word. But I had to have a place to put every word exactly once in my concordance.

Here are the data and syllable counts. Note that there is much more to say about grammar for these verses. Perhaps we will come back to them for suffix analysis.

אַל־תִּרְא֙וּנִי֙ שֶׁאֲנִ֣י שְׁחַרְחֹ֔רֶת שֶׁשֱּׁזָפַ֖תְנִי הַשָּׁ֑מֶשׁ בְּנֵ֧י אִמִּ֣י נִֽחֲרוּ־בִ֗י שָׂמֻ֙נִי֙ נֹטֵרָ֣ה אֶת־הַכְּרָמִ֔ים כַּרְמִ֥י שֶׁלִּ֖י לֹ֥א נָטָֽרְתִּי		6 You will not stare at me that I am swarthy, that the sun has glanced on me. My mother's children were scorched by me. They set me up to mind the vineyards. My vineyard that is mine I could not mind.
v al-trauni wani wkrkort wwzptni hwmw bni aimi nikru-bi wmuni no'trh at-hcrmim crmi wli la n'trti	19 26

כָּרְמִ֥י שֶׁלִּ֖י לְפָנָ֑י הָאֶ֤לֶף לְךָ֙ שְׁלֹמֹ֔ה וּמָאתַ֖יִם לְנֹטְרִ֥ים אֶת־פִּרְיֽוֹ		12 My vineyard that is mine is before me. The thousand is for you Solomon, and two hundred for those who mind his fruit.
ib crmi wli lpnii half lç wlmh umatiim lno'trim at-priio	7 17

I asked chatgpt about the single character prefixes. It missed several and we had quite a conversation defining terms.