Re: Beijing, Zhongguo, etc. (was Re: 'out-' affix in conlangs?)

On Sat, Aug 16, 2008 at 10:39 PM, Eugene Oh <un.doing@...> wrote:

> On Sun, Aug 17, 2008 at 2:16 AM, Alex Fink <000024@...> wrote:
>
> >
> > Hebrew did [w] > [j], though I don't know in what context.  My memory
> dimly
> > suggests that Hebrew for 'rose' is something like /jered/, from a Semitic
> > prototype with *w- ('rose' with a shape like /ward/ was something of a
> > Wanderwort).
> >
>
> Google's not good for searching for sound changes, I find. :\ Though thanks
> for the example! Is any Hebrew-speaker around who can shed more light on
> this? (:

Hebrew had such a change word-initially. See for example Arabic /walad/ vs.
Hebrew /jElEd/ 'boy'. A certain amount of morphophonemic variation was
created - 'to be born' shares the same root, but still contains /w/:
/l@hiwwaled/. (And in Modern Israeli Hebrew of course /w/ is pronounced /v/,
but that's another matter.)

The ubiquitous conjunction /w@/ 'and, but, change tense', did not undergo
this change.

And the word for 'rose' actually didn't either. My etymological dictionary
says it's a borrowing, ultimately from Iranian.

Josh Roth

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