Dear Torsten,
Hebrew qirya: 'town' is the correct citation. However, it appears to come
from a root *q-r-y, of which the qal (normal) stem qa:ra: 'to meet, befall'
and pi`el (intensive) qe:ra: 'to board up, to seal'.
q-r-t doesn't seem to have much representation in Hebrew. All I could find
was qeret '(small) town'.
3i:r 'city' f. has the doubly irregular plural 3a:ri:m (masculine ending on
a feminine noun.) I can't find any related verb - 3-w-r means blind, and
3ayir means 'young ass'. 3o:r f. 'skin, hide' might be related.
My source, in case you wish to quote it, is Ben Yehuda's pocket
English-Hebrew, Hebrew-English Dictionary.
I've replied off-list because I don't think there's much interest in the
topic, but feel free to post it if you want to.
Richard.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Wordingham" <richard@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2003 4:09 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: Enclosed Places
--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
> I wonder what happens when I throw Semitic q-r-t "enclosed place"
> into this melée?
<snip>
But I suppose Hebrew qirya: 'city' offers
an interesting parallel. (I'd better check it - I only remember it
in the construct form, qiryat.) Do you want Hebrew 3i:r 'city' as
well? ('3' = ayin.)
<snip>