To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: Eve/Chavvah.
Date: Mon, 08 Jul 2002 11:10:57 -0400
At 05:03 PM 7/8/2002 +0200, Ian Hutchesson wrote:
>
>It is in the change from one language (or phonetic
>system) to another that we learn things about
>pronunciation. We learn from the transliteration of
>Caesar in Hieroglyphic (and others) that the initial C
>was pronounced /k/ and not /s/ as we get from the
>French, or /t$/ as the Italians insist.
>
>
This is also true of Talmudic (that is, Roman-Byzantine Period) Hebrew,
which always has a qoph for the latin "c" = qeisar, provinqiyah (=province)
etc.
The Hebrew spelling of the French "glosses" used by Rashi in his 12th
century commentaries is a key to medieval French pronunciation.
Dr. Yigal Levin
Dept. of Philosophy and Religion
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga TN 37403-2598
U.S.A.