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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] comparative historical linguistics was Re: Nun-Tav-Vet root

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  • From: "Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>
  • To: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] comparative historical linguistics was Re: Nun-Tav-Vet root
  • Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2006 19:18:47 +0000

On 11/28/06, K Randolph wrote:

On 11/27/06, Peter Kirk wrote:
> ... How did Hebrews know to
> pronounce their word for "bull" shor rather than sor, when the Aramaic
> is tor? But shor fits the reconstruction from the common ancestor. And
> that's a quick example from memory.
>
Another example is TLTH for three.

Here's where research is needed, a person who knows both Biblical
Hebrew and Aramaic, is there a pattern that wherever the Hebrew
sibilant is changed to a T in Aramaic, that it is the shin and not the
sin that is changed? My knowledge of Aramaic is too limited to do the
research, but I am curious what the answer would be.

Yes. Sin in Hebrew does not correspond to Aramaic Taw but to Aramaic
Sin and Samekh (This, apparently because of a greater tendency in
Aramaic to replace Sin with Samekh). Whenever there is such a
correspondence in such a word, the corresponding word in Ugaritic and
Arabic will have a "th". Other Hebrew Aramaic Correspondences can be
seen at: http://www.bartleby.com/61/JPG/proto.jpg
(I already showed you this table, and presumably you looked at it).

As you can see, there are two places where Hebrew has $ in the table,
one corresponding to Aramaic t and one corresponding to Aramaic $. Sin
in Hebrew corresponds to Aramaic s. The correspondences are very regular
and occur in a large number of words which is what makes it possible to
construct such a table. Coming to a realization that such a list of
correspondences exists and of its regularity is the reason I wanted you to
read some Aramaic and Ugaritic.

Yitzhak Sapir




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