Jim, Since you are the only Hurrian expert on this list, we will all have to take your word for it.
Yigal Levin -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Monday, October 25, 2010 4:20 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [b-hebrew] Dagesh On another thread, Kenneth Greifer humorously wrote: “I have been on B-Hebrew for a few years, and I know that you can never fail if you discuss dageshes and schwas. You should see how excited they get if someone asks why a dagesh is someplace…. Be careful about asking too many questions about dageshes because you don't want to overexcite some of the older B-Hebrew members.” But all kidding aside, did the Hebrew dagesh concept originate from Hurrian? In Hurrian, Hebrew and Aramaic, and perhaps in no other languages, B and P soften when between vowels, except when doubled. Did the Hebrew dagesh, which prevents such softening by doubling B or P, come from Hurrian, which has the same written phenomenon as to P? That is the tentative suggestion at pp. 56-57 of Frederic William Bush, “A Grammar of the Hurrian Language” (1964) [where I will use <<…>> for the two footnotes, and anything in brackets represents my own comments]: “Hurrian did not tolerate doubled voiced stops [e.g., B] but only doubled voiceless stops [e.g., P]…. Now, the fact that the three fricatives of Hurrian (the labial [B and P], the dental and the velar) exhibit this exact same pattern is suggestive. …This pattern of non-phonemic, inter-vocalic [between vowels] spirantization [softening, where B is pronounced V in Hebrew, and P is pronounced PH in Hurrian and Hebrew] which is lost when the consonants are doubled immediately brings to mind the very similar pattern of the Hebrew stops. <<FN 59 The so-called begadkephat letters. This is a feature of Aramaic as well. Here [in Hurrian] it occurs in post-vocalic position also.>> This is a pattern that is unique among the Semitic languages, and hence it seems likely that it is due to some exterior influence. Perhaps this development is due to the influence of Hurrian during the formative period of the Aramaic and Canaanite dialects during the latter half of the second millennium. <<FN 60: It must be noted that the Hebrews [but Jim says: No way! The Hebrews’ experience with the Hurrians was in Canaan in the 14th century BCE] and the Arameans originated in just those areas of North Syrian and North-west Mesopotamia where Hurrian penetration was particularly strong. Although direct evidence is lacking, the close association of the Hurrians with other Semitic groups as at Nuzi and Alalah renders a similar relationship between the Hurrians and the ancestors of the Arameans and Canaanites entirely within the realm of possibility.>> …This remains, however, the most tentative of suggestions.” Is this fundamental Hebrew grammar feature of doubling a P [i.e., using a dagesh] in writing to indicate the rare situation where P, even though surrounded by vowels, does not soften to PH, coming from Hurrian? Apparently Hebrew and Aramaic are the only Semitic languages that have this Hurrian-type feature. Jim Stinehart Evanston, Illinois _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
