Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Uri Hurwitz <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>]

    Uzi, as was poined out, it is important to remember
 that  Aleph and Ayin  are completely different letters.
 For example, compare Oved with Ayin to Oved with Aleph.
 So incidentally different are Quf and Kaf, Tet and Tav.
 True, this difference is totally lost in modern Hebrew
 pronounciation. A similar process existed already
 in Hellenistic time.

    As for Aramaic, both forms for 'Land' which Yigal
 mentioned are derived  from the earlier form Ard(.),
 the last letter , D(.)ad in Arabic, , did not exist 
 in BH, where it changed into a Tzadi -- "Eretz".

  Jeremiah 10:11 is indeed an intersting example
 that at least in one period, as reflected in this verse,
 both Aramaic forms co-existed peacefully! 


    Uri Hurwitz                         Wilmington VT  




I'm not totally sure that it's the same thing, but the early Aramaic word
"arqa", land, (equivalent to Hebrew "erec") later becomes "ar'a", that is,
qof becomes ayin. If you look at Jeremiah 10:11 you'll find both forms in
the same verse!

Yigal Levin







--- On Tue, 7/6/10, Uzi Silber <uzisilber AT gmail.com> wrote

Uri, so it would sound like a yemenite ayin? is there any biblical or aramaic 
hebrew example of this phenomenon?
 


 
On Tue, Jul 6, 2010 at 12:06 PM, Uri Hurwitz <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com> wrote:

     In many Arab speaking regions the regular colloquial pronounciation of 
the letter Quf is  an 'A', a gluttal stop, which in this case because of the 
Hiriq could be transliterated as "'e ".

     That would explain it.
       

      Uri - not Uzi - Hurwitz               Wilmington, VT