Uri is indeed correct. The letter peh (פ) was not drawn as a circle. That was the letter ayin (ע). The original grapheme was a depiction of an eye (Heb: עין), and the circularity was preserved when the Greek adopted the alphabet and the letter became omicron. The letter peh was originally drawn as a loop opened at the bottom, with the right side extending down. See the following link for a good depiction.
http://biblescripture.net/Alphabet.jpeg Accordingly, the letter peh has nothing to do with the concept of openness. GEORGE ATHAS Dean of Research, Moore Theological College (moore.edu.au) Sydney, Australia From: Uri Hurwitz <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Date: Tuesday, 17 April 2012 2:32 AM To: B-Hebrew <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Subject: [b-hebrew] PQH vs PTCh Wasn't the circle a mark of the '(' 'Ayin' in all early samples of the Alphabet? Uri Hurwitz Great Neck, NY hebrew] PQH vs PTCh Bill wrschmidt wrote: ......... In fact, in retrospect I don't think one can summarily dismiss the possibility that the concept of opening in these verbs was originally inchoate in the scribal practice of using a circle as a logogram to represent the opening that Hebrew wordsmiths called peh, considering that 1) the letter peh was by all accounts originally nothing but a circle, and 2) words for mouths, per se, were derived from words that referred more broadly to opening. ................ Bill _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
