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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Richard Steiner on Sin and Shin

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>
  • To: Kevin Riley <klriley AT alphalink.com.au>
  • Cc: B Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Richard Steiner on Sin and Shin
  • Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2007 23:31:20 +0000

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/





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