Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Jerry Shepherd <jshepherd53 AT gmail.com>]

Hi Will,

 

You have provided some interesting information here, and made a somewhat plausible case for your position.  However, there are two significant problems as I see it.

 

(1) You rightly state, "the two situations are not entirely parallel."  And I believe the differences in the two situations are more substantial than you seem to allow.

 

(2) You rightly state, "Lacking a time machine we cannot be absolutely sure, but we can
reconstruct this with a fair degree of confidence."  Actually, I don't have the same level of confidence you do in your reconstruction.  What is your actual evidence that a reader of a Latin text imposed a French pronunciation on it?  I agree with you that replacing a I sound with a J sound would have been a "normal phonological development in the evolution of Latin into Old French."  But I would need to see greater evidence that an 11^th century French speaker, when trying to read and pronounce a Latin text, would have made that change.

 

Perhaps one of the Latin experts on the list, Barry Hofstetter could chime in and give us his take on this.

 

Blessings,

 

Jerry

Jerry Shepherd

Taylor Seminary

Edmonton, Alberta

jshepherd53 AT gmail.com