Re: Proto-Semitic (was Re: markjjones@HOTMAIL.COM)

--- Rob Haden <magwich78@...> wrote:
> Here is my hypothesis about the Proto-Semitic stops.
> It seems that there was a three-way opposition
> between voiceless, voiced, and glottalized stops.
> However, there was probably not a glottalized
> bilabial stop, as that phoneme is extremely marked
> and thus very rare in language.  So, we get the
> following:
>
> Glottalized: *(p') *t' *k'
> Voiceless: *p *t *k
> Voiced: *b *d *g
>
> Later on, it seems as though *k' became *q.  In
> Arabic, *p > f and *g > j, probably via phonetic (>
> phonemic) aspiration and then lenition.  There was
> also aspiration and lenition in Hebrew and Aramaic.
>
> I think it's also possible that Proto-Semitic, or
> its ancestor at some point, had an earlier uvular
> stop series, with at least *q and *q' (the voiced
> uvular stop is extremely marked).  These may have
> become the phonemic glottal stop and/or (one of?)
the
> pharyngeal fricatives.
Makes sense. It might explain where Arabic got the
voiced pharyngeal fricative, which, IIRC, is very rare indeed.


	

	
		
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