To: "b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] PQH vs PTCh
Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2012 23:43:13 +0000
Uri is indeed correct. The letter peh (פ) was not drawn as a circle. That was
the letter ayin (ע). The original grapheme was a depiction of an eye (Heb:
עין), and the circularity was preserved when the Greek adopted the alphabet
and the letter became omicron. The letter peh was originally drawn as a loop
opened at the bottom, with the right side extending down. See the following
link for a good depiction.
Wasn't the circle a mark of the '(' 'Ayin' in all
early samples of the Alphabet?
Uri Hurwitz Great Neck, NY
hebrew] PQH vs PTCh
Bill wrschmidt wrote:
.........
In fact, in retrospect I don't think one can summarily dismiss the
possibility that the concept of opening in these verbs was originally
inchoate in the scribal practice of using a circle as a logogram to
represent the opening that Hebrew wordsmiths called peh, considering
that 1) the letter peh was by all accounts originally nothing but a
circle, and 2) words for mouths, per se, were derived from words that
referred more broadly to opening.