I wasn't aware that matres lectionis made a script syllabic rather than alphabetic. That wasn't the point of the discussion.
On Sun, Jul 15, 2012 at 8:41 PM, Yigal Levin <[email protected]> wrote: > And your Arabic, which makes liberal use of matres lectionis. > > Yigal Levin > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Uri Hurwitz > Sent: Monday, July 16, 2012 1:41 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [b-hebrew] historical question with linguistic import > > > Check your Ugaritic > > Uri Hurwitz > > > > > ... There are lots of other languages whose written representations > only cover the consonants. Arabic comes to mind, as well as Ugaritic. > .... > > > Dave Washburn < > > > > > > > > > > On Sat, Jul 14, 2012 at 2:30 PM, K Randolph <kwrandolph at gmail.com> wrote: >> Thank you, Dave: > >> I see what you mean. If it were a complete syllabary, it would have a >> different symbol for each of the consonant - vowel pairs. Just like >> Hiragana in Japanese. As it is, it is an incomplete syllabary, listing >> only the initial consonants. > > Exactly. I suspect that ancient Hebrew had more than 22 C-V sounds. > >> Similarly, if it were an alphabet, it would list all the sounds, >> including the vowels. But as the vowels were added as an afterthought, >> a thousand years after Hebrew ceased to be used in daily life, it >> could not be called an alphabet as well. At best maybe an incomplete > alphabet. > > I'm not so sure about this. There are lots of other languages whose written > representations only cover the consonants. Arabic comes to mind, as well as > Ugaritic. > >> Of the two possibilities, an incomplete syllabary appears more and >> more likely to have been the case. And with Thutmosis III identified >> as Shishak, that would include the Hebrew spoken up to the time of the > Babylonian Exile. > > I don't really have an opinion on this. My goal was just to answer the > question about vowels etc. :) > > > -- > Dave Washburn > > Check out my Internet show: http://www.irvingsplace.us > > Now available: a novel about King Josiah! > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > ---- > > > Previous message: [b-hebrew] historical question with linguistic import Next > message: [b-hebrew] Subject in Jer 31,2 ? > Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ] > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > ---- > More information about the b-hebrew mailing list > > _______________________________________________ > 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 -- Dave Washburn Check out my Internet show: http://www.irvingsplace.us Now available: a novel about King Josiah! _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
