[B-Greek] Phonology: F as bilabial fricative
Randall Buth
ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il
Fri Aug 4 08:32:12 EDT 2006
>> From: Thomas Thackery
>> Date: 08/04/06 06:35:47
>> Was F φ at one time a bilabial voiceless fricative?
Riley EPHRWTHSEN
> Is it not still a voiceless bilabial fricative? It was at one time
> [somewhere from 1500 - 3000 years ago, depending on who you
read :) ], a
> voiceless bilabial aspirate. The assimilation actually happened
during that
> time period and were tradition before the change to a bilabial
fricative.
It appears that Thomas was asking about the difference between a
labiodental (where 'the lower lip lightly touches the upper teeth for
'f') and a bilabial (lips lightly touch, but bottom lip just misses
the teeth).
The bilabial fricative was probably a transitional stage between the
ancient/pre-KOINH aspirated stop ('p + breath') and the modern
labiodental 'f'. I put the transition in the late KOINE period, pre-
Byzantine, probably originating more in the north (Aegean/Asia minor
[it is impossible to know whether Paul of Tarsus and Luke of Antioch
would already have been influenced by such a dialect or would have
been part of the 'aspirated voiceless stop' dialect still in use in
Judea]).
The voiced stops βδγ probably went 'fricative' in the early KOINH
period, becoming soft by the turn of the era 1cBCE/1cCE, both in the
northern Mediterranean lands and the southern.
Thus, the first century was pretty much inside-out, almost exactly
inverted from Erasmian practice. Probably before the time of Efsevius
[Eusebius] the modern consonant system was already being heard. As a
consequence, anyone who uses the soft stops 'fii', 'theta', 'xii'
should at least use veta, dhelta, ghamma, [a] out of consistency to
the dialect of KOINH that they are choosing, and [b] out of
consideration to Greeks.
ERRWSQE
Randall Buth
www.biblicalulpan.org
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