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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Re: PS /g/

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  • From: gfsomsel AT juno.com
  • To: kwrandolph AT email.com
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Re: PS /g/
  • Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 23:00:14 -0500

On Tue, 16 Nov 2004 21:19:45 -0500 "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
writes:
> Yigal:
>
> How do you know that Phoenician did not have an /x/? After all, when
> they took over the alphabet from the Hebrews, don�t you think they
> would have retained the same pronunciations as did Hebrew? And it
> appears to me that as late as Ezra and Nehemiah, the samekh was the
> Hebrew /x/. (Of course, there could have been changes that neither
> of us guess at that would make both of us wrong.)
>
> My take on it is that the difference between the samekh and the sin
> was lost fairly late, around fifth century BCE in Aramaic, while in
> Hebrew I�m guessing that it was lost around 300 BCE. Those are
> also about the times that the sin and shin were differentiated as
> different sounds. All of these changes occurred long after the
> Greeks adopted the alphabet.
>
> Similarly, the Ayen/Ghayen split was after the Phoenicians, also
> Greeks and Etruscans adopted the alphabet (interesting, the Roman R
> in form looks more like pre-paleo-Hebrew writing than even
> paleo-Hebrew which the Greeks adopted, also they retained the Q and
> the S is a variation on the curvy sin/shin of some forms of
> pre-paleo-Hebrew, leaving me with the conclusion that the Romans did
> not adopt the alphabet through the Greeks).
>
> My read on the alphabet is that the ancient Hebrews had only 22
> consonants, which they retained to the time of the Babylonian exile.
> They were pretty isolated from other languages, so did not have much
> pressure to add phonemes. During and after the exile, especially
> after the time that most Jews spoke Aramaic in their daily lives,
> then Hebrew both added phones and phonemes from Aramaic, and lost at
> least one, if not two or more, that they had before the exile. One
> of the sounds that I think was an addition was the shin, or rather
> it was a shift of most /s/ sounds, but not all.
>
> Karl W. Randolph.
>
___________________

Karl,

I think you've got the order wrong. The Hebrew alphabet was derived from
the Phoenician, not the other way around. It's a simple matter of
historical evidence -- even if, theologically, you would like it to be
otherwise.

george
gfsomsel




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