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Jacob jazdy: > Just a note on the syllable initial /o/ in the Hebrew word "kohen." A > look at the ancient Hebrew texts reveals that the Hebrew /o/ is merely > dialectal and arose later on in history. The ancients, i.e., Moses, > David, etc., would most likely have said an /a/ vowel rather than > an /o/ since no "waw" is present in the root "khn." Masoretes were > careful not to meddle with the original roots of words, and thus had > to come up with a way to mark the vowels /o,u,i/ where the original > roots did not provide them. The same inclination for the vowel /o/ is > seen in Turoyo/Suroyo Syriac (Western Aramaic). I strongly doubt it was so. Transition from Semitic /a:/ to Canaanite /o:/ is well established by comparative studies and dated by appr. 14-12 cc. BCD - that can be seen from glosses in old docs in other langs. If you look at Hebrew's nearest cousin, Phoenician, it has it even one step further, /a:/ > /u:/ (as in Yiddish ;)). Absence of waw proves nothing. In words like |hho:q| 'statute' we see normal shortening to |hhuqqi:m| in pl, regularly correspondent to its analogy among front vowels |hhe:s.| 'arrow' > |hhis.s.i:m|, and there is no waw in the former (as well as no yod in the latter). > Also, the verb "kahen" in Aramaic is denominative from the > noun "kahna" (priest). Here the word "kahna" was obviously borrowed > from Hebrew being that the ancient Aramaic word for priest > is "qashisha." Why not? I'd like just to note, that |ka:hna:| is an "emphatic" form of the noun, while its absolute/dictionary form is |ka:he:n|. > Shelam l'khon, > Jacob Shalom l'kha! Salaam 3alayki! And welcome to the group! Do you study Aramaic (judging by the sig above)? -- Yitzik PS: This thread and translating lectures about Islam at the moment make me wanting more and more to resurrect the "Ajami" project...