Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Vadim Cherny <vadimcherny AT gmail.com>]

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?
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------
>
>
> [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