[B-Greek] /sh/ sound?

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Sun Jan 4 22:27:11 EST 2004


At 10:37 PM -0400 1/4/04, Brent Hudson wrote:
>On 1/4/2004 at 5:20 PM Ted Shoemaker wrote:
>>How best would you express the English /sh/ sound
>>in ancient Greek?
>
>
>The Hebrew Shin in proper names is often changed to a double sigma in
>Greek translation (e.g., "Nashon" = NASSWN; Yashay = IASSAI; Menashsheh =
>MANASSHS, & Mashiach = MESSIAS, to name a few).  I don't know how
>consistantly this was done throughout the LXX.

Interesting! I've hypothesized (knowing that I cannot demonstrate it's
true) that Attic intervocalic -TT- represented the sound of English -tch-
or -ch-, while analogous Ionic intervocalic -SS- represented the same sound
as English -tsh- or -sh-. These double-consonants normally derive from a
guttural followed by an iota consonant, sometimes from a dental followed by
an iota consonant: e.g. KHRUTTW/KHRUSSW (proclaim) from KHRUK-YW (sounding
like American English KAY-ROOTCHO or KAY-ROOSHO) or PRATTW/PRASSW (enact)
from PRAG-YW (sounding like American English PRATCHO OR PRASHO) or
MELITTA/MELISSA (honey-bee) from MELIT-YA (sounding like American English
MELITCHA OR MELISHA). While phonetic processes don't necessarily work out
the same way in all related languages, I've noted the way that Latin
NUNTIUS becomes Italian Nuncio (pronounced NOON-CHEE-O.
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



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