Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

George,
> Prompted by some recent threads, I want to ask the list whether anyone 
> thinks there is any
> connection between Lud (Lydia in Asia Minor) and the 'Luz' of Jdg 1:26 
> which is said to be
> the name of a Hittite city built by a former citizen of Bethel-Luz? Can we 
> posit any of
> the zayin-daleth development which we see in Aramaic in the two names here?

I can only give a secondary source, but Cyrus Gordon on p. 30 of 
the first fascicle of his Ugaritic Textbook gives a chart of various 
consonant-changes (or variations, if one prefers) among several 
semitic languages including Arabic, Ugaritic, Ethiopic, Hebrew, 
Aramaic and Akkadian (which he spells Accadian).  In the second 
column, soft d (d with an underscore in his transliteration pattern) 
is the same sound in Arabic and a couple of Ugaritic texts, hard d 
in Ugaritic and Aramaic but z in Ethiopic, Hebrew and Accadian as 
well as what he calls "Old Aramaic divergences."  See also the 
discussion on p. 26-27.  So there does seem to be some prima 
facie phonetic evidence for such a sound variation.  Beyond that, I 
can't say with any certainty.


Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart that I may fear your name.
                                   Psalm 86:11