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

From:Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@...>
Date:Thursday, March 10, 2005, 15:14
On Mar 10, 2005, at 5:05 PM, Rob Haden wrote:
> On Tue, 8 Mar 2005 21:05:42 +0100, Steven Williams > <feurieaux@...> > wrote: >> Makes sense. It might explain where Arabic got the >> voiced pharyngeal fricative, which, IIRC, is very rare indeed.
> I think it's rare cross-linguistically, but it's reconstructed for > Proto- > Semitic itself. Most modern and historically attested Semitic > languages > don't have it, though. To my knowledge, Arabic and (some of?) the > South > Arabian languages are the only ones that still have it. > - Rob
Not according to what i've seen... Sure we're talking about the right sound? voiced pharyngeal fricative(/approximant) = `ayin If i remember correctly, this sound is attested in almost all Semitic languages, except for Akkadian (which collapsed almost all of its 'gutterals', leaving only /x/). -Stephen (Steg) "levity is good. it relieves tension, and fear of death." ~ terminator 3