Re: [tied] Re: pronunciation of laryngeals

On Mon, 12 Feb 2001 17:02:23 -0000, MCLSSAA2@... wrote:

>What are the outcomes in Hittite of H1 H2 H3? [ezz-] for "eat" seems
>to show that PIE initial H1 dropped.

*h1 was dropped, *h2 > <h>, and *h3 sometimes zero, sometimes <h>
[this is unclear so far].

>If Hittite H largely represents
>PIE H2, a PIE pronunciation of H2 as Arabic [h.] in "Muh.ammad",
>becoming Hittite "ch" as in German or Scottish, is exactly paralleled
>by how it developed in Hebrew (written as the letter "heth" or
>"cheth") as its speakers were dispersed from their homeland in Roman
>times and many came to Europe and their pronunciation of Hebrew was
>thoroughly Europeanized.

The letter <heth> represents the merger (in Phoenician) of PSem. */x/
(velar) and */H/ (pharyngeal/epiglottal). It is unclear whether the
two sounds had already merged in Biblical Hebrew (despite the fact
that the Phoenician-derived orthography did not distinguish them). In
"Western" modern Hebrew, the pronunciation is [x], and it has merged
with <khaf>, the fricative development of */k/. But "Oriental" modern
Hebrew still distinguishes between <heth> (/H/) and <khaf> (/x/).


=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...