Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Kevin Riley" <klriley AT alphalink.com.au>]

Jim

You are jumping to conclusions again.  The use of double vowels to represent
long vowels is not uncommon when transcribing Arabic.  It is also not
uncommon to see Arabic from Syria and Lebanon transcribed according to
French spelling.  That explains 'S'uur' and 'Sour'.  In both cases what is
being indicated is a long /U/, not two vowels.  While the same long /U/ is
represent by W in Hebrew, it is not always so and the vowel can simply be
omitted.

Scholars are unsure of the exact feature represented by emphatic consonants.
 Arabic and Aramaic dialects tend to use pharyngealisation, Ethiopian
dialects use glottalisation.  There are also instances of laryngealisation
and velarisation.  Most assume glottalisation was the original feature, but
that can only ever remain a theory unless we do develop time machines, or
find recordings taken thousands of years ago that we can find a way of
playing.  I don't expect either to happen in my life time, so every
conclusion about early Hebrew and proto-Semitic can be answered with 'but it
is only a theory', and people can continue to believe in positions for which
there is no evidence.

I think someone has already pointed out that 'ideal spelling' was probably a
foreign concept for most people throughout history - even the concept of 
correct' spelling had a hard time being established.

Kevin Riley

-------Original Message------- 
 
From: JimStinehart AT aol.com 
Date: 2/06/2009 4:15:25 AM 
To: yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com; b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org 
Subject: Re: [B-Hebrew] Phonetics of Ayin 
 
 
Yitzhak Sapir and Kevin Riley: 
 
1. Thank you for clarifying that I was, in Yitzhak’s words, “taking 
Various typographical schemes too ‘literally’.” If I catch what the two of
you 
Are saying, the first letter in Tyre was definitely an emphatic, but 
Scholars are not so sure exactly what type of an S sound it was over time. A

Hebrew ssade in the Bronze Age was an emphatic, whereas a Hebrew sin was not
 so 
The more logical choice for the Hebrew spelling of the first letter in Tyre,

Other things being equal, would have been a ssade, not a sin. 
 
2. Yitzhak continues: “Third, the word "cur" means mountain, or rock, or 
Peak.” 
 
Yes, but in the Bible, Tyre is not usually spelled CWR. Rather, Tyre is 
Usually spelled CR. CR is not a nice word. It means “adversary, foe”. By 
Stark contrast, famed scholar Gordon Wenham notes that CWR as a common word 
Is “a divine epithet”, meaning a divine-like rock, a symbol so grand and 
Positive that it is an eminently suitable symbol for YHWH in the Bible. 
 
3. Yitzhak presses this point further: “You already KNOW that Tyre is 
Spelled in the 
Amarna letters with the underdotted S.” 
 
Wm. Moran has “Surru”, with an underdotted S. Anson Rainey has “cur-RI”, 
Where a c is a ssade. 
 
Neither of those is very close to the way Tyre is usually spelled in the 
Bible. CWR would be close, but CR is not very close. 
 
4. Student linguist Lameen uses as one spelling: “S’uur”. That’s not 
Very close to the normal Biblical spelling. S’uur has two vowels, whereas CR

Has none. 
 
5. On English language websites about Lebanon, the spelling is often “Sour” 
. That’s not very close to the normal Biblical spelling. Once again, it’ 
S two vowels vs. None. 
 
6. In the Bible, the normal spelling of Tyre is simply: CR. Yes, the 
First letter is O.K. But in unpointed text, why is this a two-letter word, 
With no vav/W? 
 
Whereas CWR as a common word is a divine epithet, CR as a common word is an 
Insult, meaning “foe, adversary”, as at Genesis 14: 20. 
 
7. Biblical authors were usually unwilling to spell Tyre as CWR. Perhaps 
that’s because CWR as a common word is a divine epithet, suitable for YHWH, 
And as such not deemed suitable for the arrogant island city-state of Tyre. 
That left two alternatives for spelling Tyre: %WR or CR. %WR had almost 
The same sound as CWR in the Late Bronze Age, except that a non-emphatic S 
Was substituted for an emphatic S. The two sounds were clearly 
Distinguishable, yet nevertheless similar. The meaning of %WR would
presumably be “power” 
, which is not openly insulting, and which focuses on Tyre’s power in a 
Large swath of Upper Galilee. CR seems to be as much a deliberate insult as
it 
Does an innocuous “defective” spelling. As noted above, CR means “foe, 
Adversary”. In unpointed text, CR is not a nice way to spell the name Tyre, 
Nor is it very accurate. It can also be confusing, as at Joshua 19: 35 the 
Bible refers to a town near the Sea of Galilee in unpointed text as CR. 
 
If we look at Joshua, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah and Jeremiah, which include 
What are usually considered the first references in the Bible to Tyre, we
see 
CR 14 times, and CWR only once. Joshua 19: 29; II Samuel 5: 11; 24: 7; I 
Kings 7: 13; 9: 11, 12; Isaiah: 23: 1, 5, 8, 15, 17; Jeremiah 25: 22; 
27: 3; 47: 4. The only exception is I Kings 5: 1 [5: 15]. 
 
What’s going on here? The Biblical authors do not seem to be making a 
Concerted effort to use the ideal spelling of Tyre, which presumably should
be 
CWR, not CR. 
 
Jim Stinehart 
Evanston, Illinois 
 
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