I wonder if the pharyngeal fricatives are not relics, or living "fossils" of
the back clicks from the earliest proto-languages of early humans in Africa
and that survive in the click languages of the !Kung or San and Xhosa and
Hadzabe. These go back at least 40,000 years and perhaps even further. My
opinion is that these click sounds may have had their origins in early
hunting communication by early humans (maybe as far as H. erectus) imitating
animal sounds to communicate. Their use as consonants probably migrated to
the Semitic languages from Africa through Egypt.
Jack Kilmon
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Isaac Fried" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, December 09, 2010 10:28 PM
To: "Uri Hurwitz" <[email protected]>
Cc: <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] one-to-one rendering of olam (was: Song of
Songs1:12)
I am sorry, but in my humble opinion, "proto-Semitic" is a legend. A very
deep Ayin may indeed come close to a G or even an R.
Isaac Fried, Boston University
On Dec 9, 2010, at 10:41 PM, Uri Hurwitz wrote:
Sorry, these are two different roots. The first is
indeed (LM.
The second is derived from the root GHayin LM.
The proto-Semitic Ghayin was written already in the
ancient paleo-Hebrew script with the same letter that
served the letter (YIN.
Compare the name of the city (azah. To this day
the ancient pronounciation is preserved in the English
spelling Ghaza, and, of course, in normal Arabic
spoken and written use where it retains a separate letter.
Uri Hurwitz Greay Neck, NY
As I have already observed the word OLAM ( עולם ) is of the root
(LM ( עלם ), which certainly can not mean 'hidden, secrete,
conceal'. To wit: this is also the root of ELEM and ALMAH ( עלם,
עלמה ), 'young adults', which are not hidden, and have nothing to
hide.
Isaac Fried, Boston University
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