Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

Yigal,

You are right. I would not play such games with the Phoenicians; with  
them I would limit myself to shesh-besh. Do you think it is a mere  
accident of nature that the square Hebrew letters he and xet are  
nearly identical?

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Sep 6, 2007, at 11:15 PM, Yigal Levin wrote:

> Isaac,
>
> Such playing with the shapes of the letters might look impressive  
> in modern
> Hebrew (actually originally Aramaic) block letters, but Hebrew was
> originally written using the older ("Pheonician") forms of the  
> letters, most
> of which are different enough so that such games don not work.
>
>
> Yigal Levin
>
>
>
> > No, it's a different letter, and they are different roots, those with
> > a kaf and those with a chet
> >
> >
> > Shoshana,
> >
> > You are right, but for diversity there is a kaf and there is a xet.
> > The letter kaf is merely the letter xet turned upon its side. A he is
> > a xet with a disconnected left leg, a qof is a he with an elongated
> > leg, and gimel is a cross legged he.
> >
> > Isaac Fried, Boston University
>
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