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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] English phonaesthetical cells in Hebrew

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  • From: Vadim Cherny <vadimcherny AT gmail.com>
  • To: Ishinan <ishinan AT comcast.net>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] English phonaesthetical cells in Hebrew
  • Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2010 02:06:04 +0200

Thank you. It seems to me that whatever few phonaesthetical clusters exist in English are imported from Hebrew (or W.Semitic, at any rate) which is almost entirely phonaesthetical language: almost all Hebrew three-letter roots share the meaning based on their two-letter root base.

Vadim Cherny


On Mar 20, 2010, at 11:23 PM, Ishinan wrote:

[VADIM CHERNY]: English sl- phonaesthetical cell may be related to Hebrew samech-lamed which means "to push down".
Phonaesthesia is built into Hebrew where three-letter roots share their two-letter root cell's meaning. In English, the origin of phonaesthesia are obscure. Might not such roots enter the Romance and Germanic languages from Semitic?


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[ISHINAN]: Hi Vadim, Nothing new here, what is currently known in the West as "Phonaesthesia" is a branch of linguistics developed a millennium earlier (8th c.) in both Arabic Abdjad science and Jewish Kabbalah. The latter directly influenced John Locke work's on phonosemantics.

For example, the cluster "qT" in Classical Arabic gives: qTT, q T`, qTm, qTl and qTf - all expressing variants of the sense of cut. Note {T= emphatic t}

Speaking of the devil, your proposition of English 'cluster' sl- phonaesthetical cell, definitely shares something in common with Classical Arabic.

The following examples are shared with Germanic languages:

(from root: sll) sla'l = long slices cut from a camel's hump.

(from root: slt) slt "slit" rent, cut off.

(from root: slkh) slkh {*1} = "slough", stripped off as in snake's skin sloughs off. *1 (Kh = chet)

(from root slq) slq = hit hard, hard blow, flayed or simply "slugged" hard with a whip .

(from root slT {*2} slyT-h = sharp cutting tongue, used in describing a clamorous woman (cf. Ar. shalaq) or a women of ill repute, loose in morality or simply a "slut". *2 {T= emphatic t}.


While the following examples are shared with Romance languages:

(from root sl') sla' = fat butter oily substance, salve, selp.

(from root slf ) slf = salve, oiled or greased leather water bag.

I hope this helps in answering your main question: "Might not such roots enter the Romance and Germanic languages from Semitic?"



Ishinan Ishibashi





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