3. The Short Yiqṭol as a Separate Verbal Morpheme in CBH

Chapter 3 discusses the short yiqṭol as a separate verbal morpheme in Classical Hebrew. The theory of consecutive tenses hides the true nature of the short yiqṭol. On one hand it is put out of sight as ‛jussive’, as if jussive were not also a yiqṭol; on the other, the indicative short yiqṭol is put out of sight, concealed in one of the principal verb forms, that of wa(y)-yiqṭol. It is shown that the short yiqṭol, with both meanings, is inherited from Proto Semitic. It has cognates in other ancient Semitic languages like Akkadian (iprus), Amorite, Ugaritic, Amarna Canaanite, and the most ancient inscriptions of Aramaic. Even in the archaic Hebrew poetry, the short yiqṭol could function as a ‘free’ narrative verb form, without the restriction to a discourse continuity clause-type, wa(y)-yiqṭol. The impression given by the theory of consecutive tenses, that there is only one yiqṭol, is false. It is typologically false, and also false in the synchronic state of Classical Hebrew. The short yiqṭol is distinctively short in some positions but not in others. Classical Hebrew was able to cope with the partial homonymy between the short yiqṭol and the long yiqṭol by a restriction of word order.