On Sun, 2 Mar 2008 11:39:15 +0100, "fournet.arnaud"
<
fournet.arnaud@...> wrote:
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
>
>===
>
>Additional notes. The Phoenician alphabet had the following
>"sibilants":
>
>name sound shape
>(7) (d)zE:n dz ~ z "Z"
>(15) (t)samk ts ~ s "{Greek XI}"
>(18) c.adE: ts' "{like script p}"
>(21) s^e:n s^ "W"
>
>==========
>Original values :
>
>(7) *z
>(15) *ts > Semitic s
>(18) *s? or *ts?
>(21) *s
That is not entirely correct (because overly simplified).
The full story is something like this:
PAA may have had the following series of affricates and
sibilants (I'll use <.> for emphatics (glottalized/velarized
/pharyngealized), <c> for [ts], <3> for [dz], <s^> etc. for
post-alveolar shibilants, and <L> and <£> for a lateral
ficative and affricate, respectively):
dent/alv s c c. 3
postalv s^ c^ c^. 3^
lateral L £ £. -
Another possibility is that these series originally merely
represented palatalized allophones:
unpal. palat.
s s^
l l^ > L
t t^ > c^
t. t.^ > c^.
d d^ > 3^
k k^ > c
k. k.^ > c.
g g^ > 3
q q^ > £
q. q.^ > £.
G (G^ > dL)
That would simplify the original consonant inventory
considerably.
Traditional notation for Proto-Semitic relates to this as
follows:
PSem (trad.)
s s^ (Arabic s, Hebrew s^)
c s (Arabic s, Hebrew s)
c. s. (Arabic s., Hebrew s.)
3 z (Arabic z, Hebrew z)
s^ * (Akkadian s^, Arabic h, Hebrew h)
c^ t_ (Arabic t_, Hebrew s^)
c^. t_. (Arabic ð. (z.), Hebrew s.)
3^ d_ (Arabic d_, Hebrew z)
L s' (Arabic s^, Hebrew s', Phoenician s^)
£ * (South Arabic £, merged with s' elsewhere)
£. s'. (Arabic d., Hebrew s.)
The four remaining Phoenician sibilants have the following
origins:
[dz] *3, *3^ (trad: *z, *d_)
[s] *c (trad: *s)
[c.] *c., *c^., *£. (trad: *s., *t_., *s'.)
[s^] *s, *c^, *L/*£ (trad: *s^, *t_, *s')
Hebrew kept /s^/ from *s and *c^ (trad. *s^ and *t_)
distinct fron the lateral fricative /s'/ (< *L/*£), but
adopted the Phoenician alphabet where only the sign <shi:n>
(< *t_i:n "tooth") was available. This is the origin of the
s(h)ibboleth-thing, and the use of a dot to distinguish the
letter <shin> from <sin> (/s'/ eventually merged with /s/ in
Hebrew).
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
miguelc@...