Guttural Consonants: Pre-Masoretic

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Abstract

The guttural consonants in the Semitic languages are the two laryngeals /ʾ/ (plosive; glottal stop) and /h/ (fricative), and the two pharyngeals /ḥ/ (voiceless fricative) and /ʿ/ (voiced fricative). Hebrew inherited all four of them, as א ʾ, ה h, ח ḥ, and ע ʿ, respectively. A common feature of the gutturals is their tendency to weaken and lose their consonantal sound. The existence of laryngeals in Hittite and their absence from other Indo-European languages indicate that this tendency is not peculiar to Semitic languages, but is rather a natural phonetic feature (Lipínski 1997:141). The Hebrew guttural consonants, being generally weak, are associated with several phonological characteristics (e.g., their inability to be geminated; see below) and are unevenly realized in the different phases and dialects of the language. In this respect, a distinction should be made between the laryngeal group and the pharyngeal group—the weakening of the former in Hebrew occurred earlier than that of the latter and was more profound (see below). A few of the characteristics typical of the guttural consonants are shared by the Hebrew consonant which is represented by the letter ר resh, and it is therefore reasonable to assume that it was originally uvular, rather than alveolar (Gomperz 1953:111–113; for a different opinion see Joüon and Muraoka 2008:§§5n, 23).
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationEncyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics Online
EditorsGeoffrey Khan
PublisherBrill
Pages161-165
Number of pages5
Volume2
ISBN (Electronic)900417642X, 9789004176423
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2013

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