Dunash

Dunash (ADONIM) ben-Tanim, the Babylonian, born at Irak about AD 900, was educated at Keirawan by the celebrated Isaac Israeli (q.v.), and died about 960. At the age of twenty he had become so proficient in Hebrew learning that he was able to write an elaborate critique of the works of Saadia, besides writing also a special Hebrew grammar containing a comparison of the linguistic characteristic of the Hebrew and Arabic languages, and a commentary on the Book of Creation. His writings (mostly yet in manuscript) are often referred to by Aben-Ezra and other expositors. Dunash was the first who maintained that the Hebrew language has diminutives, which are effected by the endings וֹן and וּן; e.g. אֲמַינוֹן, 2Sa 13:20. Aben-Ezra opposes this opinion, and asserts that the Hebrew language has no diminutives; but Ewald, in his Grammar (c. 167), has espoused Dunash's opinion. — Kitto, Cyclopcedia. 1:710; Furst, Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon, Preface, page 25.