Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Arnaud Fournet" <fournet.arnaud AT wanadoo.fr>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Will Parsons" <wbparsons AT alum.mit.edu>
To: <fournet.arnaud AT wanadoo.fr>
Cc: <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>; <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, July 25, 2010 8:40 PM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Pharaoh Khepera'a in Jeremiah 44:30


> On Sun, 25 Jul 2010 05:05:55 +0200, "Arnaud Fournet" 
> <fournet.arnaud AT wanadoo.fr> wrote:
> >

> > I have a problem with Khepera being compared with Hophra.
> > The pronunciation kh_p_r is archaic Egyptian. Coptic is palatalized sh_p
> > Archaic *khapar > Coptic shop
> > Phonetically something is wrong.
>
> What evidence is there that Egyptian ḫ/kh was pronounced [ʃ] at the time 
> of
> Jeremiah?  The time between "archaic" Egyption and Coptic stretches over a
> lo-o-o-ng time, and I'm unaware of any confusion between ḫ/kh and š/sh in
> classical Egyptian.

> William Parsons
***

Hieroglyphic Egyptian already has things like kh m m = sh m m "to be hot" 
which indicates that the tendency to palatalize is very old in the language.
As regards the verb kh p r I don't have an idea when it became palatalized.

Arnaud Fournet