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

On Wed, 22 May 2002 01:21:32 EDT Josh Roth <Fuscian@...> writes:
> I thought this holds for all versions of Hebrew - where is it
> different? Or
> are you thinking of the possible ancient lateral fricative
> pronunciation?
> Josh Roth
> http://members.aol.com/fuscian/eloshtan.html
-

Well, whether he was or not, i remember reading that in certain (probably
mostly extinct now) Lithuanian and Moroccan accents, |shin| and |sin|
were pronounced the same, as a sort of mid-way sibilant between /s/ and
/S/.  I don't remember if |samekh| was thrown in to the mix too, though.
My father pronounces the word |yesimkha| ("may he make you", with a
|sin|) in the parents-to-children sabbath blessing as /j@SImxO/, with a
|shin| - although i have no idea whether that's because our ancestors
were in the North-Eastern Ashkenazic dialect zone (they were) or if its
just because someone up my ancestral line didn't pay attention to where
the dots are :-P

Interestingly, assuming that the verb |lashim| were to exist, as opposed
to |lasim| ("to put", the infinitive of |yesimkha| above), it would
probably mean something like "to give a name/reputation (from |sheim|)",
changing the blessing from "may God make you like Efrayim and Menashe" to
"may God give you the name/reputation/legacy of Efrayim and Menashe".


-Stephen (Steg)
 who recently typed up the huge Gabwe dialect chart

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