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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: Uri Hurwitz <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Re: PS /g/
  • Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 11:44:33 +0000

On 15/11/2004 03:44, Uri Hurwitz wrote:

Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il> wrote:


.....Phoenician certainly had Samekh.
Does anyone remember a case of Phoenician Sin (that is, of a Shin being used
for an /s/)?

Yigal


Not off hand,( can't locate my KAI at the moment).
It it is interesting that there are are cases where the persumed proto-Semitic Sin becomes a Shin in BH -- compare Shams in Arabic to Shemesh .
Also, one should keep in mind that the original Tha did not have a special
letter in Heb., and other NW Semitic dialects, and becomes a Shin in BH --
compare Thaur in Arabic to Shor.

Does anyone have a definite idea about the difference in original
pronounciation between the Samekh and the Sin?


Here is a summary of part of Patrick Bennett's reconstruction from "Comparative Semitic Linguistics", using Unicode for the phonetic symbols with an English-based equivalent following:

Proto-Semitic Old Babylonian Syriac Hebrew Classical Arabic

θ (th) š (sh) t/θ(th) š (sh)=shin θ (th)
ð (dh) z d/ð(dh) z=zayin ð (dh)
θ̣ (th dot) ṣ (s dot) ṭ (t dot) ṣ (s dot)=tsade ẓ (z dot)
t t t/θ(th) t/θ(th)=tav t
d d d/ð(dh) d/ð(dh)=dalet d
ṭ (t dot) ṭ (t dot) ṭ (t dot) ṭ (t dot)=tet ṭ (t dot)
s s s s=samekh s
z z z z=zayin z
ṣ (s dot) ṣ (s dot) ṣ (s dot) ṣ (s dot)=tsade ṣ (s dot)
ś (s acute) š (sh) s ś (s acute)=sin š (sh)
l l l l=lamed l
ẓ́ (z acute dot) ṣ (s dot) ʿ (ayin) ṣ (s dot)=tsade ḍ (d dot)
š (sh) š (sh) š (sh) š (sh)=shin s

In Bennett's phonetic alphabet, ś (s acute) is a voiceless lateral fricative, and ẓ́ (z acute dot) is an emphatic voiced lateral fricative.

It would be an interesting exercise to fit Hebrew words with cognates into this chart. For example, the last consonant of Hebrew 'erets must derive from the ẓ́ (z acute dot), because the Aramaic cognate has ayin, and the Arabic has ḍ (d dot).

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/






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