On Sat, 17 Feb 2001 21:41:18 -0000, "Lisa Jacqueline Emerson"
<
eris@...> wrote:
>I can't
>seem to get a straight answer on certain pronunciations in the old,
>middle-eastern languages. For instance, Anat/Anath or Asherah in
>Canaanite. Are the particular sounds I'm thinking of supposed to be
>pronounced as a /t/ (or, in Asherah's case, /s/) with aspiration or
>as a voiceless fricative? I've always assumed the former, but when I've
>read through certain materials, say, in Akkadian, I see things such
>as an s with a hacek. E.g., Ishtar (which I formerly thought to be
>/'ish·tar/) spelled as Is^tar (which would seemingly indicate it
>should be pn. /'if·tar/, the f being the esh fricative I don't
>know how to write out in normal text.)
Using /S/ for the "esh", Is^tar is indeed pronounced /iStar/.
'Asherah is also prounced with /S/ (/?aSerah/ < /?aSerat/), but
shouldn't be confused with `Ashtarte (/3aStarat/) = Is^tar (I use /3/
for <`ayin>, /?/ for <'aleph>). As it happens, the /S/ found in the
Akkadian and NW Semitic word for Ishtar/Astarte corresponds to an
Arabic /T/ (English "th", interdental fricative), which again should
not be confused with the <th> in Anat/Anath etc., which represents
Proto-Semitic *t (probably aspirated like Classical Greek theta, or
English initial /t-/, and in later Hebrew subject to frication when
ungeminated and post-vocalic [similarly b > v, p > f, d > D, k > x, g
> G]). The Proto-Semitic form for Venus would have been */3iTtar/
(usually notated *`it_tar), although the latest insights point towards
an original *c^ (English "ch") for the so-called "interdental" series
(likewise *d_ = /dz^/, *t_. (or *z.) = /c^./).
Maybe the following chart helps:
PSem PSem(trad.) Arabic Hebrew Akkadian
*b *b[1] b b, bh (=v) b
*p *p f p, ph (=f) p
(*p.) *b[2]
*d *d d d, dh d
*t *t t t, th, -h t
*t. *t. t. t. t.
*dz *z z z z
*c *s s s s
*c. *s. s. s. s.
*s *s^[1] s s^ s^, s
*dz^ *d_ d_ z z
*c^ *t_ t_ s^ s^
*c^. *t_. z. s. s.
*s^ *s^[2] h h s^
(*dL) ???
*tL *s'[1] s^ s' s^
*tL. *s'. d. s. s.
*L *s'[2] s^ s' s^
*g *g j g, gh g
*k *k k k, kh (=x) k
*k. *q q q q
*G *g. G (=g.) 3 (=`) h_
*x *h_ x (=h_) h. h_
*3 *` 3 (=`) 3 (=`) --
*H *h. h. h. --
*? *' ? (=') ? (=') --
*h *h h h --
*m *m m m m (>w)
*n *n n n n
*l *l l l l
*r *r r r r
*w *w w w (>v), y- --, w
*y *y y y y
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...