Regarding
<quote>
the transliteration of Artaxerxes: the first Xi in the name
corrosponds
to the Hebrew and Aramaic X$ ... but the second one in Hebrew, such
as
all the times in Nehemiah and in Ezra 7:7, 11 were written with a
samekh,
while Ezra in his Aramaic portions, e.g. Ezra 4:4, 7:21
transliterated
the /x/ with a sin/shin.
</quote>
Problem here is you are trying to compare a Greek form with
Hebrew/Aramaic - whereas you should be trying to compare them with the
original Persian (Old Iranian). As you say - the first X$ in
Hebrew/Aramaic is a match for the first Persian sibilant. But the
second Persian sibilant had no corresponding sound in Greek, Hebrew or
Aramaic. So each substituted the nearest available sound in their own
language. In Persian, the original sound was like a sibilant version of
-thr- (as in three). (In Babilian the first sibilant was written "k$"
and the second as "ts", in Egyptian the first was X$ the second "s$").
Regards
Joe Baker ===========\
Perth |
Western Australia ===/