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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Phinehas & Peleg - pe > phi

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: MarjorieAlley AT cs.com
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Phinehas & Peleg - pe > phi
  • Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2005 11:33:06 +0100

On 19/09/2005 04:43, MarjorieAlley AT cs.com wrote:

Hi ---

I am curious about why the hard pe in the Hebrew names Pinchas (English Phinehas) and Peleg are spelled with a phi instead of a pi in the LXX.

Why did the LXX spirantize the pe when they transliterated the names? Does this reflect a different Hebrew pronunciation of the names or is there some other reason?


The answer is a simple one: Greek phi was not a "spirant" or fricative at the time when the LXX was translated, but was an aspirated plosive, in fact just like English p.

I note that LXX generally used kappa for Hebrew qof and khi for Hebrew kaf, also tau for Hebrew tet and theta for Hebrew tav. This is probbaly because the "emphasised" consonants qof and tet were not aspirated in Hebrew and so rendered as the non-aspirated kappa and tau, whereas kaf and tav, and probably also pe, were aspirated in Hebrew and so rendered with aspirated khi, tau and pi.

At a later stage, sometime during the Hellenistic period, the aspirated plosives changed into fricatives - in all environments in Greek, but not word initially in Hebrew. The anomalies which Karl notes may date from a time when these changes were in progress.

And I wonder why the English transliteration carried over the phi for Phinehas, but not for Peleg?


I suspect this is because more familiar names like Phinehas were kept in their traditional Greek or Latin forms, whereas less well known ones like Peleg were conformed to the Hebrew.

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



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