Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Christian <jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>]

I don't see any Indo-European aspects of my analysis. My analysis is based
on the assumption that when folk go about inventing an alphabet their
perception of sounds influences the choices they make. And anyway, while
we're on the subject syllables are the most obvious and natural choice of
linguistic unit whatever the language. In fact it is impossible to pronounce
most consonants in isolation (this is language independent). Even when you
think you are pronouncing a consonant in isolation it almost certainly has
schwa on the end.

James Christian

2010/1/22 George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>

> 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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