Re: Just a Little Taste of Judean (Part 2)

FFlores wrote: "You mean (say) /aba/ = [aba] but /a:ba/ = [a:Ba]? Why's
that? Could it be that the long vowel is a product of a short vowel plus a
fricative, maybe /h/ or something of the sort, that when dropped caused a
compensatory lengthening?

The non-affected forms were originally geminate.
abba > aba (short vowel maintained from original gemination [closed
syllable]: ab-ba)
aba > a:va (long vowel maintained from original open syllable: a-ba)

and the like.

BB
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