Biblical Hebrew Forum

[David Kolinsky <yishalom AT sbcglobal.net>]

Vadim, 
I have a book The Early History of the Alphabet by Joseph Naveh.  On page 67 
he states, "the curved diagoal strokes of the kaf, mem, nun and pe are 
cursive developments."  Unless I am misunderstanding him and the diagrams in 
his book, what he is saying is that the original forms of these lettes are 
the sophit forms and that, overtime, the primary and medial position forms 
developed naturally because the tendency in writing cursive is to run the 
last part of the previous letter into or toward the following letter.  Hence 
the downward strokes of these letters curved upward.  There is no indication 
from him that this was anything more than an epigraphic phenomena.  No 
indication that it had anything to do with phonetics.  I am a lay person and 
I have no idea how his ideas have been received or whether he is considered 
an authority in his field.  Just thought you would be interested.  
 
Thank you for your response to my posting,
 
david kolinsky
Monetery, CA
 
 
Hebrew certainly has the features of place-sensitive phonetics: the 
sophits. They are written differently because they were pronounced 
differently in the word-end position. Clearly, pronouncing final m, n, c 
is not an easy job.

Vadim Cherny
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Karl:

Not sure if you consider carbon science proof, but scarabs of Thutmose III 
were found in a stratum at Tell el-Daba along with lumps of pumice ejected 
from the eruption of Thera collected into the corner of a storeroom. The 
eruption is carbon-dated to the late 17th century BCE. Even the layer itself 
at Tell el-Daba has been a carbon-date to the 17th century. There is really 
no way, in the face of this evidence, that the scarab and its owner date to 
the 10th century.

Tory Thorpe