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

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