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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, joel AT exc.com
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Phinehas & Peleg - pe > phi
  • Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2005 12:23:19 +0100

On 20/09/2005 01:39, MarjorieAlley AT cs.com wrote:

Dr. Peter Kirk wrote:

>>> True, but we are almost certain that phi was an aspirated plosive, at
least in classical times - perhaps not quite so certain for LXX times. <<<

Would you mind clarifying this for me? Are you saying that you do not necessarily agree with Dr. Hoffman that the LXX's "phi" in Pinchas/Phineas represented a Hebrew pronunciation which differed from the later Massoretic pronunciation?


I do not agree. Dr Hoffman seems to have assumed that for the LXX translators phi represented a sound like an English F.


You're saying that the phi might have been an aspirated plosive ( a "p" rather than an "f" ) when the LXX was written?


Not "might have been", almost certainly was. See http://biblicalulpan.org/PDF%20Files/PRONSYS1_US.pdf, by former (?) member of this list Randall Buth. Note the following from page 5:

the voiceless
fricatives are mainly post-1st century [CE]. ... For the voiceless consonants (φ, θ, χ),
the typical "Erasmian" soft pronunciations of φεῖ, θη̃τα and χεῖ [phi, theta, chi], common in academic circles today, were taken
directly from modern Greek. Historically, these "modern" sounds probably entered Greek pronunciation around the
end of the Roman Koine period.


I accept that some details of Buth's reconstruction are somewhat controversial, but the general picture seems clear.

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



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