[Avodah] Ancient Ashkenazi Hebrew

[Lisa Liel]

On 9/7/2011 9:40 AM, T613K at aol.com wrote:
> In Avodah Digest, Vol 28, Issue 176 dated 8/26/2011 RMB wrote:
>> Ayin in particular was likely not the Sepharadi sound. The evidence
>> of the nickname Yankl points more to the /ng/ of the Italkim.

> How did Aza and Amorah become Gaza and Gemorrah?  Was there originally 
> some kind of nasal G sound to the ayin that could be pronounced at the 
> beginning of a word?  The "ng" sound is natural in the middle or end 
> of a word but would be hard to pronounce at the beginning of a word.

I don't think it's an either-or situation. It is the pharyngeal sound the
Sephardim make (particularly the Teimanim), which has a nasal component
as well.

On 9/7/2011 10:10 AM, Micha Berger wrote:
> Proto-Canaanite had `en and ga, which evolved into Arabic's `ayn and gayn
> (which looks like an `ayn with a dot above it). Early Aramaic may have
> had both sounds, although using the same ayin for both. Hebrew, Ugaritic and
> Phoenician (which is a later Canaanite) only have one ayin sound.

Can you post a source, please? I know that Ugaritic ga was the equivalent
of gimmel. The Arabic ghayin was represented in ancient Hebrew by a
gimmel without a dagesh.

Lisa