--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...> wrote:
> On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 06:05:50 +0000, Glen Gordon <glengordon01@...>
> wrote:
>
> >Marco inputs:
> >>Akkadian /eru:/ is not from /*weru:/.
> >
> >Alright. Where _is_ it from?
>
> The usual transcription erû(m) (not eru:) suggests a contracted
vowel,
> probably /i/ + /u/. I think the form can be reconstructed as
*weri?-u(m)
> (acc. *weri?-a(m), etc.), but that's based on old notes, I'm not
100% sure.
>
> An interesting word in this context is the Hebrew for copper, <?
arad>
> (aleph-resh-daleth).
There's some interesting confusion here. Back at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/28813 , _nehhoshet_
was given as Hebrew for 'copper' (<hh> = heth, first <e> = shewa,
second <e> is seghol), but in Numbers 21:9 this word is used to
describe the 'brazen serpent' made by Moses, which in the modern
translations is described as being made of *bronze*. Ben-Yehuda's
Modern Hebrew-English dictionary translates _nehhosheth_ as 'copper,
brass', while for 'bronze' it gives _?arad_ ! For non-
metallurgists, brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, but English
_brass_ once included 'bronze'.
Unitl Miguel admitted an error with _?arad_ (which the same
dictionary give as 'bronze'), I wondered if the confusion had been
complete. It's common enough - bronze can be though of as hardened
copper, and British gold is also hardened, without a change of name.
Richard.