Re: Dental Fricatives

On Thu, 20 Feb 2003 13:30:58 -0600 Danny Wier <dawier@...>
writes:
> Also, if you compare certain Semitic languages:
> Arabic /T/ = Hebrew /S/ = Aramaic /t/
> Arabic /D/ = Hebrew /z/ = Aramaic /d/
> Arabic /D~/ = Hebrew /s~/ = Aramaic /t~/ (emphatics)
-

And sometimes you get Arabic /d~/ = Hebrew /s~/ = Aramaic /3/
as in |arD| = |eretz| = |ar`a|

> Biblical Hebrew [T] (lenited /t/) = Sephardic [t], Ashkenazic [s]
> Biblical Hebrew [D] (lenited /d/) = Sephardic and Ashkenazic [d]
> ~Danny~ (Dhanny or Zanny when lenited)
-

It's actually a bit more complicated than just that...
If i had my copy of the Encyclopedia Judaica article "Pronunciations of
Hebrew" i'd type up a list of different pronunciations for you, but there
are other pronunciations than just the two you mentioned.  There's the
Italian one that pronounces [T] as [d], as well as one or more of the
Yemenite ones that pronounced [D] as [T].  There are ones that preserve
one or both of original [T] and [D], as well as one (Mesopotamian?
Kurdish?) one that pronounced [D] as [d] everywhere except in the
pronounciation of God's name as well as the word [?EHO:D] 'one' in the
Shema, where it uses [D].


-Stephen (Steg)
 "no sig for you!"