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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] etymolo

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: Karl Randolph <kwrandolph AT email.com>
  • Cc: Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] etymolo
  • Date: Mon, 04 Apr 2005 23:09:21 +0100

On 04/04/2005 22:47, Karl Randolph wrote:

Uri:

My objection to "proto-semitic" is not that such a language may have existed,
but the specific form postulated for it. In particular, I think that the concept that
all the phonemes ever expressed in a semitic language had to have been in proto-semitic
(I may have overstated this). As I understand it, the theory is that languages only
lose phonemes, and don't gain them.

But this stands in direct contradiction to the documented history of some
languages. ...


Karl, it is by no means presupposed that Semitic languages never gained phonemes. Indeed the standard reconstruction includes such processes. For example, in earlier biblical Hebrew as in Arabic there were no separate phonemes /f/ and /v/, for [p] (perhaps aspirated) and [f] were contextual variants of the phoneme /p/, and [b] and [v] were variants of the phoneme /b/. But as certain vowels were contracted the situation arose in which separate /f/ and /v/ phonemes had to be recognised, for both [p] and [f], and both [b] and [v], could now occur contrastively in a few environments, specifically after a consonant and before a vowel. This is why dagesh qal/lene has to be written to disambiguate Hebrew pronunciation.

No doubt scholars better than you and me have considered carefully whether this kind of mechanism could explain the distinction between for example `ayin and ghayin which is found in Arabic and Ugaritic, whereas in later Hebrew, and apparently in Phoenician, there is no distinct ghayin. And these scholars have concluded that the more probable mechanism in this case is loss of an original distinction. They may of course be wrong. But if you wish to claim that they are, you need to provide proper evidence to back up your claim, rather than inaccurate accusations of methodological errors.

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



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