A Conditioned Sound Change in Ras Shamra

THE ALPHABET of Ras Shamra included three signs for ', one of which was used when an a-vowel followed, i. e. for 'a, 'a, the other for 'i, '1, 'A, and the third for 'u, 'i2, 0.2 But v without following vowel also occurs in the language, and there has been considerable question as to how such ' was represented. Bauer's suggestion3 that any one of the three signs could be used indiscriminately for vowelless 3 is inadmissible, for a definite relation usually exists between the '-sign used and the morphological vowel of the syllable in which it occurs: iqra for 'iqra', sa for sa'; bir for bPru (T5 2. 2), mit for mi'tU (T 23. 9), yitsp for yi'tasipu (H 17); rum for ru'mu.4 Ginsberg,5 on the other hand, maintains that all vowelless ' were represented by the '-sign i. Against this interpretation are arrayed many vowelless alephs written with u, a

Acoustics · Linguistics · Physics · Sound (geography) · Sound change · African history and culture analysis · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Language, Linguistics, Cultural Analysis · Philosophy

• Zellig Sabbettai Harris

  E F Konrad Koerner•Historiographia Linguistica•1993

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