Re: Second invention of the alphabet?

Michael Everson wrote:

>At 19:00 -0400 2004-05-27, Peter T. Daniels wrote:
>
>
>
>> > "Veyz" is not a Unicode name, it's a term used in the Yiddish context for
>>
>>
>>> bet with rafe. It normally occurs only in words of Hebrew origin.
>>> The Unicode name is HEBREW LETTER BET WITH RAFE.
>>>
>>>
>>There's no justification for /z/; it's the spirantization of /t/, and
>>the name of the letter is veys.
>>
>>
>
>Argue with Weinreich then. (You can't as he died in 1967.)
>

I've mostly heard it pronounced with /z/, or at least *partly* voiced.
It's from spirantized /t/, yes, yielding /s/, but then there was some
assimilation from the voiced vowel before it. I think it's something
like the way in my idiolect of English, if you've got a "long" vowel, it
has to have /z/ as the final consonant in the word after it, and not /s/
(cf. "ice" vs. "eyes", "mouse" vs. "rouse"). Since the "ey" is long in
that sense. Or something. (thus, "beyz, veyz," but "ches, tes").

~mark