Re: [tied] *gHwer- 666 the beast

From: fournet.arnaud
Message: 50105
Date: 2007-09-29

In Attic,
we have *kwe > xx-ü-e > t-0-e
With xx being some palatal affricate/stop
ultimately surfacing in Attic as a dental stop.
 
In Coptic,
you also find some palatal affricates
ultimately surfacing as dental stops.
 
For example,
Hieroglyphs have tch and dj,
usually written as t and d.
We know from Egyptian rendering of foreign words,
that tch and dj are affricate,
but it is unclear what they were :
t : usually read [tch], used as a equivalent of samekh [ts]
in the word : soper = t p r in Egyptian.
My personal guess : [tç] with ç as in nicht [niçt].
d : usually read as a voiced dzh as in judge = dzhëdzh
I think it was a glottalized [tç?].
 
Whatever it was,
the Egyptian word s d m "to hear" became Coptic sôtm
with dental stop -t- being the outcome of the affricate d
 
In most words, t and d are rendered in Coptic as -t-.
 
My personal explanation, which is linked with guesses [tç] and [tç?]
Phonological constrast between t and tç became blurred with front vowels
i and e, so that t-i [t(j)i] with palatal outburst was close to tç-i with palatal spirant.
Ultimately, tç was reinterpreted as a variant of t and merged with t.
It is unclear whether the glottal feature of [tç?] was lost or is just unwritten in Coptic.
(my opinion is that it is not written : -t- stands for /t/ and /t?/
(the Coptic native reader knew what to say)
Coptic also exhibits s and sh (my guess [ç]) being variants in some words.
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: alex
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2007 7:28 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] *gHwer- 666 the beast



fournet.arnaud schrieb:
>
>
> Coptic is also an interesting place to look at,
> Although it is unfortunately fairly obscure.

is there any similar phenomenon to see?

Alex