[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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