Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

That's the one.

Chris, without having read the article, my understanding is that Ayin and
Ghayin, as well as the two Het's, were distinct phonemes in early Canaanite,
and preserved in Proto-Canaanite script and in Ugaritic. However, when what
we often call the paleo-Hebrew alphabet (which was actually a Canaanite
invention that was adopted by Israelites, Arameans, Moabites etc.) became
stabilized, these letters were combined, probably because the Canaanites had
stopped pronouncing them as distinct sounds. And while Hebrew still did
retain the different sounds, Hebrew scribes did not bother "inventing"
special signs for them. As long as Hebrew was a spoken language this was no
problem, just as native English speakers know when a C or a G is "hard" or
"soft". Remember, that only a small minority of the population could read
and write anyway. The fact that the Greek translators of the third century
BCE or later knew to translate a Ghayin as Gamma and Ayin usually as a
vowel, or Het as either Chi or Eta, shows that the differences were still
pronounced at that time. But by the time diacritics were introduced, the
differences is pronunciation were gone. Unlike, by the way, Shin and Sin,
which were preserved.

Yigal


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>
To: "b-hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2005 11:49 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Ayin and Ghayin


> On 9/8/05, Yigal Levin wrote:
> > Hi Chris,
> >
> > I seem to recall that the latest issue of JBL (124/2) has a paper on
just
> > this question, but I don't have the details at home, and the SBL website
> > won't let non-members (my membership has lapsed and I have not
> > renewed it) even view the table of contents.
> >
> > Yigal
>
> Hello Yigal,
>
> The Table of Contents was posted here:
>
http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2005_06_01_paleojudaica_archive.html#111956086134932304
>
> You're probably referring to the third article:
> On the Dating of Hebrew Sound Changes H > H and G > and Greek
> Translations (2 Esdras and Judith)
> RICHARD C. STEINER
>
> Yitzhak Sapir
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>