Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jack Kilmon" <jkilmon AT historian.net>]

I wonder if the pharyngeal fricatives are not relics, or living "fossils" of 
the back clicks from the earliest proto-languages of early humans in Africa 
and that survive in the click languages of the !Kung or San and Xhosa and 
Hadzabe.  These go back at least 40,000 years and perhaps even further.  My 
opinion is that these click sounds may have had their origins in early 
hunting communication by early humans (maybe as far as H. erectus) imitating 
animal sounds to communicate.  Their use as consonants probably migrated to 
the Semitic languages from Africa through Egypt.

Jack Kilmon

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Isaac Fried" <if AT math.bu.edu>
Sent: Thursday, December 09, 2010 10:28 PM
To: "Uri Hurwitz" <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>
Cc: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] one-to-one rendering of olam (was: Song of 
Songs1:12)

> I am sorry, but in my humble opinion, "proto-Semitic" is a legend. A  very 
> deep Ayin may indeed come close to a G or even an R.
>
> Isaac Fried, Boston University
>
> On Dec 9, 2010, at 10:41 PM, Uri Hurwitz wrote:
>
> >   Sorry, these are two different roots. The first is
> >  indeed (LM.
> >    The second is derived from the root GHayin LM.
> >  The proto-Semitic Ghayin was written already in the
> >  ancient paleo-Hebrew script with the same letter that
> >  served the letter (YIN.
> >
> >   Compare the name of the city (azah. To this day
> >  the ancient pronounciation is preserved in the English
> >  spelling Ghaza, and, of course, in normal Arabic
> >  spoken and written use where it retains a separate letter.
> >
> >     Uri Hurwitz                              Greay Neck, NY
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > As I have already observed the word OLAM ( עולם ) is of the root
> > (LM ( עלם ), which certainly can not mean 'hidden, secrete,
> > conceal'. To wit: this is also the root of ELEM and ALMAH ( עלם,
> > עלמה ), 'young adults', which are not hidden, and have nothing to
> > hide.
> >
> > Isaac Fried, Boston University
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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>
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