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  • From: George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>
  • To: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Perception influenced the origin of the Hebrew alphabet?
  • Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:04:42 +1100

James,

The main issue I have with your discussion here is that it seems to be
approaching a Semitic language from a largely Indo-European perspective. I
think the discussion needs to pay far more attention to the actual
construction and internal logic of Semitic languages, especially the concept
of triliteral roots (that's not to discount biliteral and quadriliteral). I
don't think it's a question of active or passive use of vowels, but rather of
the function of consonants and vowels. Syllables are, I believe, a completely
secondary issue in word formation and alphabetic notation within Hebrew,
whereas in Indo-European languages it's far more important because they do
not have Hebrew's basic triliteral construction model.


GEORGE ATHAS
Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
www.moore.edu.au





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