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  • From: Peter_Kirk AT sil.org
  • To: HarryJ_Harm AT kastanet.org, b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re[3]: ayin, how to
  • Date: Sat, 02 Jan 1999 12:31 -0500 (EST)



This sort of assimilation sometimes happens, but by no means always.
For example, the Udi people of Azerbaijan (now about 5000 people) have
retained a phoneme repertoire of about 52 sounds (including a full set
of pharyngealised vowels) although for more than 1000 years they have
been surrounded by Turkic speakers who use around 32 phonemes. One of
the factors affecting this is no doubt the sense of cultural,
religious etc distinctiveness of the people. But then note that the
Jews living in Europe lost their distinctive `ayins but those living
among Arabs etc kep theirs.

Peter Kirk


______________________________ Reply Separator
_________________________________
Subject: Re[2]: ayin, how to
Author: HarryJ_Harm AT kastanet.org at internet
Date: 01/01/1999 19:46


Jack Kilmon wrote:

<SNIP>
The Galilee was very Hellenistic, hence how much
influence did Greek have on the vocalization of
Galilean Aramaic by the Semitic populace? Did the
Semitic speaking Galileans adopt the gentler and
easier vocal gymnastics of Greek? Does this explain
the softer beyts and dropped pharyngeals?

It seems logical to me that a native language with
more complex gymnastics would "degrade" under a
heavy influence from a non-native language
introduced into the region. A more drastic example
might be Egyptian to Coptic...but is this pattern
considered when attempting to phoneticize Galilean
Aramaic?

=========================================================================

Dear B-Hebrew Listers,

Greetings from Mississippi.

I can't speak for Galilean Aramaic but I can for Choctaw, a Native
American language spoken in the US in Oklahoma and Mississippi. The
Oklahoma Choctaw speakers have dropped the lateral fricative which
English doesn't have and replaced it with the English 'th" sound. I
have also seen the same process happening with the grammar here in
Mississippi. Choctaw speakers are losing the aspects of their language
which English doesn't have, e.g., distant past tense, dual forms and
switch reference system. What is interesting is they are not adding
English constructions which they don't have, e.g., a broad pronoun
system which marks gender.

I wonder if something similar was happening in Galilean Aramaic. I
would expect similar changes if Greek were the majority language and
Aramaic the minority.

Sincerely,

Harry J. Harm :{)

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  • Re[2]: ayin, how to, HarryJ_Harm, 01/01/1999
    • <Possible follow-up(s)>
    • Re[3]: ayin, how to, Peter_Kirk, 01/02/1999

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