mahlab

Does anyone know the pronunciation of the Arabic word
"mahlab", the source of mahlab (or mahalab) cherry.
Mainly, I'm interested in the pronunciation of the
"h".  Is it /h/ or /x/ or something else?

I'm revising my C-a dictionary and have decided to
treat Arabic |h| and |H| differently.  /h/
dissappeared as a phoneme in the VL period and was
deleted from all Visigothic borrowings at the same
time.  Early Greek borrowings suffered the same
deletion.  But during the Arab-dominated period /h/
re-emerged as a phoneme when initial /f/ > /h/ before
/i/ or /e/.  So Arabic /h/ will stay while /x/ will
"harden" to /k/ spelled |c|.  So mahlab will be either
"macuava" or "mahuava" . . . or maybe it should be
"malava" . . .

Adam


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Fached il prori ul pañeveju mutu chu djul atexindu.
-- Carrajena proverb