Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Bekins <pbekins AT fuse.net>]

>>Still, the most commonly cited example of a vocal shewa is
>>S'DOM,which becomes SODOM in the LXX.  It's a bad example,
>>beause SD--- is an impossible start to a Greek word.   (We
>>see similarly issues in the American pronunciation of "Sri Lanka."
>>Almost everyone says"Shree..." because Enlglish words cannot start
>>with the sounds SR---.)

Joel, I don't have anything constructive to add to the larger  
question of vocal/silent schewa, and I agree in principle that the  
Greek evidence should be taken with a grain of salt, but doesn't  
Greek usually break initial consonant clusters with a prothetic  
vowel? Ie, they would have pronounced it /Isdom/ or something like that?

[Sri] --> [Shri] is not quite the same thing, I haven't studied it in  
detail, but at first glance this seems like an allophonic shift of  
[s]-->[sh] before [r] since we Americans pronounce a retroflex [r].  
If you say a flap [r] then [sri] is fine. We do allow consonant  
clusters to begin with [s] in general.

Peter Bekins 
> From kwrandolph AT gmail.com  Sat Sep  8 00:11:06 2007
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Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2007 21:11:05 -0700
From: "K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>
To: "b-hebrew Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
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Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] resource material was chalal-perforate/pierce?
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Isaac:

Maybe we use all these dictionaries because they are more accurate
than our speculations.

There are several words that have a chet preceding a lamedh, among
them XWL meaning to turn about vigorously, as in dancing, XYL to be
forceful, XLH to be soft (XLH the bread is probably connected with
softness, as in soft bread), XLL to pierce, bore a hole, as in making
a flute, XLL to make common, as in bringing into production, also used
to say that something is unimportant, even thought little of in
contrast to something that is set apart, special QD$ (I found this
interesting as the New Testament makes the exact same use of koinos
and hagios).

That there are greatly differing meanings to similar sounding words
unpredictable as to their meanings is common in languages, and
Biblical Hebrew is no exception.

Karl W. Randolph.

On 9/7/07, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:
> Bryant,
>
> It is not clear to me why we should use all these dictionaries, where
> we can use better, and to our greater advantage, our own brain.
> I looked up TWOT and saw that he suggests that XALAH [of the famous
> rhyme: I baked a little xalah, I baked it by myself, I put it in the
> oven, I put it on the shelf,...] is some kind of bagel or pretzel
> since its name implies that it is 'pierced'.
>
> Isaac Fried, Boston University
>
> On Sep 7, 2007, at 1:45 PM, Bryant J. Williams III wrote:
>
> > Dear Michael,
> >
> > Besides, BDB, I also use the following:
> >
> > 1)    William Holladay, *A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of
> > the Old
> > Testament,* Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company,
> > 1971.
> > Originally published by E.J. Brill, Leiden, Netherlands.
> >
> > 2)    R. Laird Harris, Editor; Gleason L. Archer, Bruce K. Waltke,
> > Associate
> > Editors, *Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament,* 2 Volumes,
> > Chicago: Moody
> > Press, 1980.
> >
> > In fact, regarding the issue of "chalal" versus "kalal," I would
> > refer to TWOT,
> > Vol. 1, page 288, "Halal."
> >
> > Rev. Bryant J. Williams III