11. Abstract Nouns Ending in -ūt

Elitzur (2018a) examines the occurrence of abstract nouns ending in -ūt in the Masoretic tradition of the Hebrew Bible, noting a distinct pattern that distinguishes the Pentateuch from other biblical texts. His analysis highlights that these nouns are relatively rare in the Pentateuch and often written defectively, while they are more frequent and usually spelled plene (with waw) in the Prophets and Writings. Elitzur investigates specific examples such as גַּבְלֻת ‘twistedness’ and עֵדֻת ‘testimony’ to support this observation. He raises the question of whether the defective spelling in the Pentateuch signifies a historical mismatch between written and spoken forms or if many words with defective -ūt originally ended with a different suffix, later adapted under changing linguistic norms.

Building on and extending Elitzur’s study, the discussion reveals the complexities of diachrony in Hebrew, particularly regarding the -ūt endings, which are often deemed characteristic of later forms of the language. Cohen (2012) has challenged this characterisation, arguing that their distribution is comparable within both the Torah and later texts. The chapter problematises this viewpoint, suggesting that the focus should be on the frequency of tokens rather than on mere number of lexemes. Among other things, it is pointed out that the orthographic discrepancies in the usage of -ūt in the Torah could reflect underlying morphological differences, i.e., that they might represent a later reinterpretation of forms that originally had different suffixes. Ultimately, the evidence suggests a complex interplay between orthography and morphology, underscoring the challenges in tracing the historical development of these noun forms in biblical Hebrew.