Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Yaakov,

I will write B for the hard Hebrew bet, V for a soft bet, and W for  
waw, and recall, in connection with what you are saying, the useful  
latter-day override to the BGDKP"T rule: HIT-XAVER [not HIT-XAWER],  
'he became friendly with someone', as opposed to HIT-XABER, he  
hitched himself to something', both from the root XBR.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Jun 29, 2008, at 3:47 AM, Yaakov Stein wrote:

> Yitzhak
>
> > The modern inventory of Proto-Semitic sounds is as follows ...
>
> This is not very different from Rabin's table. In fact, he references
> various possibilities including the ones you mention, and rejects
> several of them.
> In any case, my point in bringing this up was that although in
> proto-Semitic
> there were triplets, interchanging the consonants from the triplets
> did change the meaning of the word. This is NOT the case for bgdkpt.
> (Of course our friend Isaac will probably add that some of these
> changes might have only "somewhat" changed the meaning.)
>
>
> > Some of these sounds remained in use for a long time.
> > See Steiner's article here:
> http://sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/JBL1242.pdf
>
> Yes, I have seen this already, and think it is very interesting.
> However, it refers to two specific changes that are much later than
> what I was talking about.
> (Similarly, one could study the loss of differentiation between het  
> and
> chaf,
> or ayin and aleph in modern Hebrew.)
>
>
> > On bgdkpt, the following remarks are also worthwhile: ...
>
> Thanks for the pointers. I will go through them.
>
> > As for your comments regarding Hurrian, Hurrian does not have a  
> > bgdkpt
> rule.  It has a different rule: ...
> You mention that in your opinion Rabin is dated material.
> Is that also the case for Speiser ? Although the articles in which he
> proposes that Hebrew and Aramaic
> borrowed the bgdkpt phenomenon from Hurrian are from 1939 and his book
> is from 1941,
> I could not find a more recent book on Hurrian language than his.
>
> If I understood correctly, your information on Hurrian obstruents is a
> quote. Can I ask from what ?
>
> >  On the issue of Nuzi law, see Victor Avigdor Hurowitz, "Expelling  
> > the
> Bible from the Biblical Period," in "The Controversy over the  
> Bible" ed.
> Levine and Mazar (Hebrew, ??????? ?? ???? ???????? ?????).
> Specifically, p. 48.
>
> Thanks. I'll look it up.
>
> Yaakov (J) Stein
>
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