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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] b-hebrew Digest, Vol 33, Issue 25

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Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>
  • To: "Dr. Joel M. Hoffman" <joel AT exc.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] b-hebrew Digest, Vol 33, Issue 25
  • Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2005 19:58:35 +0000

On 9/18/05, Dr. Joel M. Hoffman wrote:
> Re:
>
> > [...] all the letters which are both Hebrew shin and Aramaic shin,
> > are sin in Arabic. [...]
>
> Interesting indeed. Can someone recommend a good and accurate history
> of Arabic.

I suppose you are curious why there is a change between Arabic and Hebrew
as to which root letter represents an $ sound and which an s sound. Well, my
understanding is that originally $ and & were very similar to an /s/ sound,
and in fact, Samekh was not an /s/ sound. The three similar s sounds
simply merged differently, and in each case a different branch developed
to an $. I'd suggest you look up the following:

Hetzron, Robert, ed. The Semitic Languages

and

John Huehnergard, Afro-Asiatic, in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of
Ancient Languages

and a whole bunch of articles by Alice Faber. You might want to read
the article
by Woodhouse that I referred to in the following link:

https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/b-hebrew/2004-November/021353.html

Yitzhak Sapir




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