Re: Arabic 'sura' (?)-- a question

 >From: David Peterson <DigitalScream@...>
 >
 >    It's not really an [h], is it?  It has the same form, but it's always
 >been called "taa marbuta" when I've seen it, and it always carries the two
 >dots.

        Right, but it's a clever trick to say "hey, sometimes this is
an 'h', but a lot of the time you have to pronounce it like a 't.'"

 >       Is this related to all those words in Hebrew that have a silent /h/ at
 >the end of them?  Wow!

        Of course.  Also, think about the Hebrew feminine plural,
'-ot'.  Arabic and Hebrew are kissing cousins, which quite surprised
an Orthodox Jewish co-worker of mine.  I forget how it came up, but I
went through "my king, your king, etc." in Arabic, but in Hebrew
letters.  He was amazed.

--
wm,
planting the wisdom of historical linguistics wherever he goes :)