[b-hebrew] Re: PS /g/
Uri Hurwitz
uhurwitz at yahoo.com
Tue Nov 16 11:44:42 EST 2004
Yigal Levin <leviny1 at mail.biu.ac.il> wrote:
>.....BTW, Ayin/Ghayin has a similar history. Early Semitic obviously had both.
Arabic retains both to this day. Canaanite and Phonician lost the
distinction early enough so that the alphabet has only one letter. In Hebrew
at least, the distinction was retained in speach as late as the Hellenistic
Period; that's how Greek knows to spell names like "Gaza" and "Gommorah"
with a G. However in this case, by the time of the masoretes the distinction
had been lost."
Yes, and also in proper nouns such as 'elem , with an Ayin, comp. to ghulam, same meaning, in Arabic with a Ghayin; or Tsa'ir , again with an Ayin comp. to s.aghir -- "small " in Arabic, adj., with a s(.) and a Ghain.
Uri
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