Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

If we are going to make conclusions based on sounds, it is best to understand
the fine points of phonology involved.

A good introduction available online (thanks Gary Rendsburg and Eisenbrauns)
is here (in pdf form):
http://jewishstudies.rutgers.edu/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=93&Itemid=158

There are several sounds in Proto Semitic that are in discussion here:
ayin - written in Hebrew and Aramaic as ayin, and written silent in the LXX
ghayin  - written in Hebrew and Aramic as ayin, and written as g in the LXX
sade1 - written in Hebrew and Aramaic as Sade
sade2 - written in Hebrew as Sade and in Aramaic as Teth
sade3 - written in Hebrew as Sade, in Old Aramaic as Qof, and in Official
Aramaic and later as Ayin
qof - written in Hebrew and Aramaic as Qof

The best explanation for "sade3"'s peculiar history is that in Old Aramaic, 
the
distinctions all the above sounds were maintained.
Of the above, Sade3 evolved in Old Aramaic to a sound that sounded most
closest to Qof, so it was written as Qof.  In Official Aramaic, Sade3 and 
Ghayin
merged, and so was now written as Ayin since it sounded closer to Ayin
than any other sound.  Later, Ayin and Ghayin merged in Aramaic.

In Hebrew, even if Sade3 was kept distinct from other Sade1/2, it did not
evolve to a sound close to Qof, and so did not undergo this peculiar history.
Eventually, it merged with the other Sade sounds.

This means, that the following paragraph is simply wrong:
"Accordingly, it is possible that in an ancient proper name in the Hebrew
Bible, a final Q may on some occasions not be a true qof/Q, but under Aramaic
influence may rather be representing the sound of an archaic Aramaic ayin,
that had a sound similar to Q."

In order to show a sound is a suffix in a quadriliteral word, one has to 
adduce
many similar examples.  For example, Diakonoff has suggested that final -b
may have been used to identify "animals of prey and harmful animals" in
Semitic or earlier.  To suggest this, he adduced the following examples,
among others:
)arnab - rabbit
(aqrab - scorpion
tha(lab - fox (in Hebrew, the final b dropped, but was maintained in
the placename
$a(labim).
Even this is not widely accepted in scholarship.

Best,
Yitzhak Sapir

Dictionary:
Following various discussions on this list, I've decided to attach a 
dictionary
for various words that may be used in a different sense than other people on
the list.  The purpose is not to say that other uses of the word are invalid 
or
to force a particular agenda but only to further explain the terms I use, and
thereby eliminate misunderstanding.  If anything, the purpose is to limit the
application of what I say to only the specific situations described in these
words.

scholarship - This term when I use it is meant to only describe the studies
and opinions that would normally be accepted by peer review by members
of academic institutions not affiliated with any particular religion.
'Scholarship', as I use the term, does include studies by members
of religiously affiliated academic institutions when those studies would be
accepted by peer review of members of  non religiously affiliated
academic institutions.