Judah ben David Hayyuj יהודה חיוג'
the man who found that the Hebrew root always has three letters
Born at Fez about 945, he moved to Cordova about 960—just at the height of the quarrel between Menahem and Dunash. He studied with Menahem; how closely, the sources differ.
Before him it was held that Hebrew roots could have one, two or three letters. He showed that all are triliteral, and that the appearance of short roots arises because the letters alef, he, vav and yod drop out in certain positions or turn into one another. Hence his books: on the weak letters and on the doubled verbs.
It looks like a small thing and it is a turning point. While the root is unknown one can neither compile a dictionary nor explain a form nor interpret a verse by the meaning of its word. After Hayyuj all this became possible, and all later work on the language and on the interpretation of the Bible—Ibn Janah, Ibn Ezra, Radak—proceeds from him.
He wrote in Arabic; he was translated into Hebrew later, Abraham ibn Ezra among the translators.
On the timeline
Places
Related
Sources
Rishonim
- Hayyuj's books on the weak and doubled letters — the demonstration of the triliteral root
Scholarship
- Encyclopaedia Judaica, "Hayyuj, Judah ben David" — Fez and Cordova, the relation to Menahem, the influence on Ibn Janah
- Reference literature: years of life — the years of birth and death by the agreed count of the reference literature; where the source says «about», it is marked as such
Basis: documents and evidence.