volume 10, issue 2, 2018, pages 159-164

DOI: https://doi.org/10.64438/sbsEGOI4275
Published online: 2018-12-01
Published in print: 2018-12-30

Abstract: In Biblical Hebrew the preposition bet is often absent before the nouns בית ‘house’ and פתח ‘opening, entrance, gate’. Scholars have noted that both the preposition and the initial consonant of the nouns are labials and the lack of the bet has been explained as possible haplology. The article presents the frequency of the forms with and without bet and, in the light of internal and comparative evidence, it is suggested that the two nouns have become partially grammaticalized.