The Biblical Shibboleth Story in the Light of Late Egyptian Perceptions of Semitic Sibilants

Reconciling Divergent Views

Bibliographic Data

ID3969067
AuthorsRobert Woodhouse (corresponding author)
Year2003
Volume123
Issue2
Pages271
Publication date2003-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the American Oriental Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-0279 • E-ISSN: 2169-2289
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/3217684
OpenAlexW1966406394
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited13

There are currently three treatments of the phonetics of the shibboleth incident of Judges 12:61 deserving of serious consideration. Hendel (1996) and Faber (1992) present attractive arguments that do not depend on problematic assumptions of differences in the number of sibilant phonemes preserved in the two dialects in question,2 as so many other explanations of the story have done,3 including Rendsburg (1988a; 1988b; 1996: 511; 1997: 69f.), whose theory, though ultimately untenable,4 nevertheless poses a question deserving of an answer (2.5 below). Both Hendel and Faber rely on no more than a difference of pronunciation of the same inherited Proto-Semitic (PS) phoneme, namely traditional */s/, sin or S1, both make other substantive contributions connected with the problem, and although they come to diametrically opposed conclusions regarding the phonetic details, a comparison of the two reveals worthwhile possibilities of reconciliation and harmonization of the best each has to offer. We begin with this comparison

Ancient history · Arabic · Art · Epistemology · Linguistics · Literature · Perception · Semitic languages · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · History · Philosophy

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