Biblical Hebrew Forum

["James Spinti" <JSpinti AT Eisenbrauns.com>]

James,

Are you aware of the multi-valency of cuneiform symbols? The same symbol
can represent many sounds; that is one of the reasons it took quite some
time for Akkadian to be deciphered.

James
________________________________
James Spinti
Marketing Director, Book Sales Division
Eisenbrauns, Good books for more than 30 years
Specializing in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Studies
jspinti at eisenbrauns dot com
Web: http://www.eisenbrauns.com
Phone: 574-269-2011 ext 226
Fax: 574-269-6788 

-----Original Message-----
From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of James Christian
Sent: Friday, January 22, 2010 10:32 AM
To: Randall Buth
Cc: Hebrew
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] GAGA Hebrew ?! (was Perception . . .)

P.P.S. Your data from Akkadian only shows neighbouring people working at
the
same level of perception. That of the level of the syllable. The fact
that
they discerned more is not indicative of the perception of those who
implemented the Hebrew alphabet. It just shows that the two groups
perceived
a different number of unique syllables at a level high enough to be
worth
encoding the difference. Again. The sooner you acknowledge this the
sooner
we can start having a serious linguistic discussion.

James Christian
<snip>