Searching parameters for Hebrew

[Bielikov]

Hi, two questions.

 

1. How do I set up a search for words that begin with וַיּ ?

2. How do I indicate blank letters in searches, where the letters can be any letters?

 

Many thanks!

[Helen Brown]

In short, you will use the wildcard symbols, * to stand for any number of characters, and ? to stand for a single character. The ? can be modified to make it more specific. Please see this section of the Help files: Biblical Research and Analyses > Search Criteria > Searches Using Symbols.

[David Lang]

Assuming you're looking for inflected forms in which a waw is prefixed to a form beginning with yodh-hiriq, try this: "*וַ =יִּ=" <OR> "*וַ =יִ=".

 

The quotation marks indicate that you are looking for inflected forms. The equals sign before each word indicates that you want Accordance to pay attention to the vowel points (otherwise Accordance ignores them). I used an OR to account for the presence or absence of a dagesh in the yodh. Finally, the asterisk after the yodh-hiriq represents any sequence of letters.

 

Hope this helps.

Edited September 4, 2019 by David Lang

[Bielikov]

 

Assuming you're looking for inflected forms in which a waw is prefixed to a form beginning with yodh-hiriq, try this: "*וַ =יִּ=" <OR> "*וַ =יִ=".

 

The quotation marks indicate that you are looking for inflected forms. The equals sign before each word indicates that you want Accordance to pay attention to the vowel points (otherwise Accordance ignores them). I used an OR to account for the presence or absence of a dagesh in the yodh. Finally, the asterisk after the yodh-hiriq represents any sequence of letters.

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

 

"*וַ =יִּ=" <OR> "*וַ =יִ="

 

Hello, David, thanks so very much for your help. I tried to use the exact phrase with the quotes, and I keep getting two errors. One of them is that it switches me from letters search to word search, and then it tells me that the selected word cannot be found. Any suggestions?

 

I did have some success, however. For instance, if I tried something simpler, such as "=וַ"

 

I think I am having trouble entering the data. For instance, the keystrokes to enter the data in this textbox to message you back are different than those in the search box. So, I am doing something very basically wrong. I could only make it work, see at the very bottom, copying your dagesh within the yod, which I can type into this textbox but not the search one in Accordance. Any ideas? So here I can type וַיּ

In short, you will use the wildcard symbols, * to stand for any number of characters, and ? to stand for a single character. The ? can be modified to make it more specific. Please see this section of the Help files: Biblical Research and Analyses > Search Criteria > Searches Using Symbols.

 

Thanks for this explanation, Helen.

Edited September 6, 2019 by Bielikov

[Bielikov]

SEE LAST ENTRY, COULD NOT DELETE THIS QUESTION.

Edited September 6, 2019 by Bielikov

[Bielikov]

I finally had success typing this into the search box "=וַ =יּ*" sorry, it works perfect but when I cut and copied it here it reverses.

 

How about doing the one simple search such as this one, but with only two letters that follow it? When I replace the * with a ?? it doesn't like it.

 

This particular search is doing what I wanted, thanks so much to both of you. It is yielding missing root letters, which I was particularly interested in, as well as three root letters. Once again, thanks to both of you.

Edited September 6, 2019 by Bielikov

[David Lang]

Yes, when you copy and paste the search arguments here, the order of the characters gets jumbled. I actually rearranged the symbols in my initial search argument so that they would look right in my forum post. Give the following search a try and see if that gets you the results you're looking for:

 

Looks right but will not copy and paste correctly: "??וַ" ???@"י="

Looks wrong but should copy and paste correctly: "=וַ" ???@"י??"

 

Let me explain what this search is doing. The equals-vav-patach will look for that exact inflected form. This is followed by three question marks which are not in quotation marks, which will look for all three consonant lexical forms. The @ symbol then connects that lexical form with the inflected form which follows. The inflected form is indicated by the quotations, and consists of a yodh followed by two other consonants, indicated by the two question marks. Thus, this search finds va + an inflected form beginning with yodh in which one root letter is missing.

 

Note that the inflected form does not have an equals sign or any vowel points. Apparently doing an exact search (indicated by the equals sign) with the question-mark wildcard will fail unless you specify the correct vowels. The solution is simply to leave out the equals sign.

 

Hope this helps.

Edited September 6, 2019 by David Lang

[Bielikov]

Yes, when you copy and paste the search arguments here, the order of the characters gets jumbled. I actually rearranged the symbols in my initial search argument so that they would look right in my forum post. Give the following search a try and see if that gets you the results you're looking for:

 

Looks right but will not copy and paste correctly: "??וַ" ???@"י="

Looks wrong but should copy and paste correctly: "=וַ" ???@"י??"

 

Let me explain what this search is doing. The equals-vav-patach will look for that exact inflected form. This is followed by three question marks which are not in quotation marks, which will look for all three consonant lexical forms. The @ symbol then connects that lexical form with the inflected form which follows. The inflected form is indicated by the quotations, and consists of a yodh followed by two other consonants, indicated by the two question marks. Thus, this search finds va + an inflected form beginning with yodh in which one root letter is missing.

 

Note that the inflected form does not have an equals sign or any vowel points. Apparently doing an exact search (indicated by the equals sign) with the question-mark wildcard will fail unless you specify the correct vowels. The solution is simply to leave out the equals sign.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Hello David, thanks so much! You have gone way above the call of duty in helping me. It works fantastic! Do you know if anyone has published a PDF with examples and commands for searches? Once again, many, many thanks!