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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