From: Richard Wordingham
Message: 4756
Date: 2005-04-18
> Richard Wordingham wrote:_ro:'sh_
> >
> > Peter T. Daniels wrote on Sunday, April 17, 2005 5:47 PM
> > > Richard Wordingham wrote:
> > >> Peter T. Daniels wrote on Sunday, April 17, 2005 2:30 PM
> > The same
> > goes for the raphe in _ma:la:kh_ 'messanger, angel'. Words like
>And a total red herring which I misremembered. I apologise for
> You left the ' out of 'angel'! IIRC it's mal'ak.
> > 'head' suggest that the quiescence had been going on for a longtime (though
> > perhaps the original vowels isn't as in Arabic _ra's_), and thevocalism of
> > _ri:'sho:wn_ 'first' does not look recent. Does the Septaguintshow any
> > evidence that final aleph as still pronounced? I know it showsthat resh
>A possible mechanism in such cases would be if an anaptyctic vowel
> How could it do so? There's no <'> in Greek.
> > could still be gemimate (e.g. _Sarra_ for 'Sarah'), but does itshow any
> > sign of geminate gutturals?not
>
> It shows that `ain/ghain had not merged, and IIRC that H and x had
> merged.vowels,
>
> > >> >> vowels (but not between vowels) had been absorbed into such
> > >> >> lengthening them. That's how Latin 'a' derives from theletter for a
> > >> >> glottal stop, aleph.have /'/
> >
> > >> > No, Greek alpha is /a/ instead of */'/ because Greek doesn't
> > >> (or the other consonant sounds represented by the Phoenicianletters
> > >> that were turned into vowel letters).that 'f', 'u',
> >
> > >> How about digamma for /w/? Surely you haven't forgotten
> > >> 'v'Where does
> > >> and 'y' all derive from waw?
> >
> > > Nothing to do with the transfer from Phoenician to Greek.
> > So where does 'f' come from? Where does digamma come from?
> > upsilon come from?Waw >
>
> There's no f in Greek. Or even Etruscan. It's a Latin innovation.
> digamma. Upsilon is a later development -- is it in all theepichoric
> alphabets?Digamma *is* the Greek 'f' - used for /w/ of course. I don't know
> > >> What about the use of he for /e/ and heth fortherefore closer
> > >> /h/? Was that because Greek /h/ was [x] at the time and
> > >> toargument that
> > >> the sound of he than of heth? I admit I can't think of any
> > >> /h/ wasn't [x] at the time. Just how arbitrary was the use ofaleph, he
> > >> andwas
> > >> ayin for /a/, /e/ and /o/ rather than some other pemutation?
> >
> > > There was no /h/ in the variety of Greek for which the alphabet
> > > derived. That's why the two breathings were invented, centurieslater.
> > > He > e, heth > long e.According to the same chart, almost all the epichoric alphabets
> There is no <h> in Greek. Latin <h> is Greek Eta.