Rough breathings in compound words
Randall Buth
ButhFam at compuserve.com
Wed Sep 4 02:09:58 EDT 2002
shalom Eric and Carl,
Carl responded to your question with the note:
>(2) in theory the Theta was an
>aspirated Tau, so; that when the rough breathing preceding omicron in
hORAW
>compounded with the elided KAT, the SOUND "T-h" was SPELLED with a Theta
>(Q). In theory (at least) the Theta did not originally have the fricative
>sound of "th" in either "the" or "thin"
That is correct.
It appears that the hard pronunciation of
Teta (Q), Kii (C)and Pii (F)
continued into the late Roman period of Koine.
For example, in a Dead Sea Document from 132 CE we find the
spelling
BenKosiba 1.8 ANASQHSETAI
instead of ANASTHSETAI 'he will stand up'
For Theta to substitute for Tau it would appear to have still been hard.
More widespread evidence points to the voiced stops as having become
fricatives first. Thus, Beta, Gamma, and Delta (partially) had become
veta, ghamma and dhelta in the first century.
See www.biblicalulpan.org
under "Greek materials"
blessings
Randall Buth
Jerusalem
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