Re: Consonant diacritics (was: Optimum number of symbols)

Om 22 May, John Cowan wrote:

> The assumption is that "sin" must once have represented something like
> /K/ (lateral fricative), as shown by the lateral sound in English "balsam"
> (< Latin < Greek), where the triliteral is bet-sin-mem.
>
    Interesting! I've known for a long time that the (Israeli) Hebrew word
for "perfume" is |bosem|, written bet-sin-mem. But, for some reason,
I never connected it to the English "basalm", let alone what the letter "l"
was doing there!
    This suggests that as recent as Greek-Roman times, Hebrew still possesed
a lateral-fricative.
    I can't leave here clear-headed,   ;-)
so, to muddy the waters again, let me just mention that my dictionary
(written in Hebrew), when showing Semitic cognates to |bosem|,
spells the Aramaic with a "samech" and the Arabic with a "shin"
(not a "sin" in sight!) and then goes on to say that it was borrowed into
Greek as |balsamon| (written in the dictionary in Latin characters).
    So my question would be, did ancient Hebrew really have a lateral
that didn't exist in Aramaic or Arabic, or was the "l" simply added in order
to satisfy Greek phonological rules? And, for that matter, who did the
Greeks get the word from in the first place? You can't just "round up
the usual suspects"! As I understand it,
all the peoples of the region were involved
in one aspect or another of the spice/perfume trade in those days.


Dan Sulani
-------------------------------------------------------
likehsna rtem zuv tikuhnuh auag inuvuz vaka'a

A word is an awesome thing.

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