Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On Sat, May 30, 2009 at 11:18 PM, Yitzhak Sapir wrote:

> You can read all about the evidence and its analysis here, in the article
> by Robert Woodhouse:
> http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go2081/is_2_123/ai_n6292692/
> "The Biblical Shibboleth Story in the Light of Late Egyptian Perceptions
> of Semitic Sibilants: Reconciling Divergent Views", JAOS 123:2 (2003),
> pp. 271-289.

In reviewing this article, it appears that this online transcription of the
article's text makes it hard to follow the arguments.  In many places,
paragraphs are just crossed out for no reason.  More significantly, the
transcription of the various grades of s [s, sh, etc] are all represented
as "s" in the text.  Woodhouse's basic conclusion as presented on p. 12:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go2081/is_2_123/ai_n6292692/pg_12/
is that near high vowels (i and u) the original s sound became more
sh-like in Cisjordan, while remaining s in Transjordan.  When asked to
pronounce the Transjordanian [subbultu] ("shibbolet"), the Cisjordanians
heard the first /s/ as closer to Samekh (/s/, but possibly realized as
affricate [ts]) than to shin (/sh/, realized as [s] in all positions in
Transjordanian).

Yitzhak Sapir