0408_hu page

E 0431 HE

The word " he " is of Germanic origin .

H 0408 א ו ה

Concept of root : H as defining element

Hebrew word		pronunciation				English meanings
א ו ה		hu				he

Related English words				he

Comparison between European words and Hebrew
Languages	Words		Pronunciation		English meanings		Similarity in roots
Hebrew	א ו ה		hu		he		h (u)
Greek	ό		ho		he		h (o)
English	he				he		h (i)
Dutch	hij		h(ei)		he		h (i)
Norwegian	han		han		he		h . n

Proto-Semitic HŪ --- HĒ, *HĪ Proto-Germanic

The vowels in the words in Greek and Hebrew are of the same little family composed of O, U and Ü, that is related to the consonant W.

Note:

Note:

Germanic and Hebrew have several pronomina and articles that begin with H. :

   English             Dutch                 Norwegian            Hebrew                  language

   1      3,4            1       3,4                1       3,4               1         3,4                   cases

   he     him         hij      hem            han      ham          hu     lo(le ho)

   they them       zij      hun             de        dem          hem   lahem

                                       hen

One may suppose that the H with which so many pronomina begin , (and also the Dutch definite article "het" = "it" ), is akin to the Hebrew definite article "H". Thus also English "he" ands "him" are derivations from composed words. As is known in Old English "it" was still "hit".

Note:

Hebrew with the letter L forms prepositions of direction. An interesting example is the use of this preposition to form the infinitive of verbs, exactly as English does with the preposition of direction "to".

In the example of this entry Hebrew uses the L to indicate the third and fourth case. It is helped by a vowel ( A in "lahem") that in the case of the single form "lo" has been absorbed together with the H of the first case, as the example shows.

Note:

Proto-Semitic. The use of the " H " as the basic element of personal pronouns in the third persons must have been present in Proto-Semitic, as it is found in many languages : Phoenician, Moabite, Aramaic, Ugaritic, Arabic etcetera, often with the "U"-vowel seen in Hebrew. A hypothesis "*H Ū " is possible.

It is very interesting to see that in some Semitic languages an " S " or " SH " is used. Mahri has " he " and " se " and Akkadian " shū ".

Note:

Proto-Germanic. The use of the " H " as the basic element of personal pronouns in the third persons must have been present as well in Proto-Germanic, as it is again found in many languages : Old Saxon, Old English, Old Dutch and Old Frisian all had "HĒ , Hī", besides extended forms. In Gothic "himma" = "to him" and "hina" = "him" the first part corresponds with the just mentioned languages.

Note:

Indo-European. There is a hypothesis of "*ki", based on Latin "cis"= "on this side"and several words for "this", as Old Irish "cē", Old Slavic "sĭ" and Lithuanian "shìs". Further is added Greek "ekei" = there". A problem perhaps is that the personal pronouns are not much used in many languages. But for example Latin has "is" = he". Russian and sister languages have "on". It is difficult to find a common origin for these Indo-European words.

We must prefer to point out the more clear similarity between Semitic and Germanic, as so often is the case.

Created: Tuesday 6 November 2007 at 22.30.54 Updated: 24/10/2012 at 14.38.46