Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

David:

On Mon, Dec 3, 2012 at 1:04 PM, David Kolinsky <hadeesh AT sbcglobal.net> wrote:

alveolar lateral fricative

I’m familiar with this sound from both Apache and Toisan languages.

But seeing during Biblical times the Sin and Shin were one and the same letter, with the same pronunciation, are you claiming that the Shin was also a voiceless alveolar lateral fricative?

Incidentally, I’ve seen evidence that Samek originally had the same sound as English “X”. So that other than dialectal differences, would it be rather unusual for the Sin and Samek to be confused? (During Mishnaic times it appears they had the same sound.)

Karl W. Randolph.