Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Peter Kirk" <Peter_Kirk AT sil.org>]

The Azerbaijani word for elephant is "fil" which I guess is a loan from
Arabic. If so, this differs from the Hebrew only by the regular change
Hebrew p <=> Arabic f.

Peter Kirk

-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan D. Safren [mailto:yonsaf AT beitberl.ac.il]
Sent: 01 November 2000 12:12
To: Biblical Hebrew
Cc: Biblical Hebrew
Subject: Re: "elephant" in Hebrew


I don't have an Akkadian dictionary handy, but if Iremember correctly,
the Akkadian word for elephant is "iru" (long i) making it almost
certainly a cognate of Heb "piyl", with an lmnr interchange.
Sincerely,

--
Jonathan D. Safren
Dept. of Biblical Studies
Beit Berl College
44905 Beit Berl Post Office
Israel