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  • From: Trevor Peterson <06PETERSON AT cua.edu>
  • To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: etter names
  • Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2001 10:23:07 -0500


>===== Original Message From "Lisbeth S. Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu> =====
>If the het is a pharingial fricative, what is the kaf?

I think khaf would be considered a velar fricative. I'm by no means a native
speaker of any Semitic language, but if I understand them correctly, it may
help to think of the two different German ch sounds, as in ich and buch, and
add to that the pharyngeal fricative het. They're all formed by slowing the
flow of air through the oral cavity, but the sound in ich is furthest forward
on the hard palate, then buch (which I take to be basically the same sound as
khaf) on the soft palate, then het furthest back in the pharynx. The sound is
made similarly to the way that you pretend you're choking (at least in
essentially the same position). Just make sure that you release the
constriction enough to still let the air pass through. There actually is one
more distinction to make, which is between glottal consonants and pharyngeal.
Glottal consonants are actually pronounced at the opening of the windpipe,
while pharyngeals are just above it. Aleph is really the only glottal
consonant in West Semitic, but the emphatics in other Semitic languages
(South
Semitic, like Ethiopic, and possibly East Semitic, like Akkadian) are
glottalized.

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics





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