Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 10/01/2007 22:38, Kevin Riley wrote:
> ...
> The *letters* are not separate in any of the alphabets used in Canaan prior
> to pointed Hebrew. ...

I thought I had understood that a distinction was made in some of the DSS.

Yitzhak has also pointed out that a distinction was made in at least 
some of the Amarna letters. As these are syllabic cuneiform, they are 
not technically alphabets, but your statement could otherwise be confusing.

The letters are of course distinct in Arabic, which was certainly used 
in the land earlier known as Canaan before the time of the Masoretes. 
The difference depends on the three dots on Arabic shin, but this 
distinction was already made in 642 CE, see 
http://www.islamic-awareness.org/History/Islam/Papyri/PERF558.html 
(first letter of the last line is a dotted shin; an undotted sin is 
visible in the fifth word of this line).

--
Peter Kirk
E-mail:  peter AT qaya.org
Blog:    http://speakertruth.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.qaya.org/