Re: Case

On Thu, 15 Jul 1999 20:35:26 -0500 Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> writes:
>Steg Belsky wrote:
>> "Yeishu" ['jeSu:] is the common form.
>Cool, I always wondered what the original form was.
>> If it ended with an _-a_, it's an
>> epenthetic (i think that's the word) [a] stuck in *before* a
>_`ayin_.
>What's the `ayin?
What is it?  It's the 16th letter of the Hebrew Alphabet....one of the
4-and-a-half "gutturals", [? h H r 3].  (the half is the /r/, because it
varies widely in pronounciation across dialects, but it works like a
guttural).  It's also one of the two pharyngeal [H 3] letters, which draw
in an [a] before them when they end a word:

[noaH] "Noah", instead of *[noH].
[liSmoa3] "to hear", instead of *[liSmo3], according to the paradigm of
[liSmor].
[lismoaH] "to be happy", instead of *[lismoH].
[j@ho:Sua3] instead of *[j@ho:Su3].

It's a voiced pharyngeal sound, depending on dialect (when it's
pronounced at all) either a fricative or an approximant.

>--
>AIM screen-name: NikTailor

-Stephen (Steg)

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