Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Will Parsons <wbparsons AT alum.mit.edu>]

On Tue, 7 Aug 2012 16:05:23 -0500, James Spinti <jspinti AT eisenbrauns.com> 
wrote:
> Philip,
> 
> It is related to Bel in that the Akkadian dropped the Ayin over time
> and the two vowels reduced to an e sound. Babel is from an entirely
> different root.

I would make a slight amendment - The Akkadian form /bel/ is not the
result of a contraction from *baal, but is the normal reflex of an
earlier *ba`l, with the Akkadian /e/ vowel the normal result of an /a/
being coloured by the lost /`/ consonant.  The hypothetical form *ba`l
would regularly result in the Hebrew /ba`al/ (note the mil`el accent).

I have to admit, I find it hard to see why on a phonetic basis a /`/
(`ayin, assumed to be realized phonetically as the pharyngeal [$(Q*~(B])
would colour a neighbouring [a] sound to [e], but that seems to be the
pattern in Akkadian.

> On Aug 7, 2012, at 3:18 PM, Philip Hardy wrote:
> 
>> Is word Baal related to Babel or Bel?

-- 
William Parsons
$B&L&G(B $B&U&A&I&M&E&R&H&A&I(B, $B&A&K&K(B' $B&E&I&M&A&I(B.