Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2016 December 6

= December 6 =

In the past was there a phenomenon of replacement of the consonants sh/l in Hebrew and Accadian?
Klein (p.369) have written that the Hebrew word "Meltah'a" (מלתחה) from the bible "it is perhaps a loan word from Akka: mashtaku / mashtaktu (=chamber)". My question is how could it be unless we say that there was a replacement of the consonant "sh" with "L". Do you know about such replacement between Hebrew and Accadian? 93.126.88.30 (talk) 14:42, 6 December 2016 (UTC)
 * I found a book titled Akkadian Loanwords in Biblical Hebrew by someone named P. V. Mankowski. It would seem to be a good resource for answering your question; if you can find a digital copy or one in your local library, it would likely help you along in your research.  -- Jayron 32 18:27, 6 December 2016 (UTC)


 * 93.126.88.30 -- There was no such change between Akkadian and Hebrew, but there was definitely such a change within Akkadian when the "sh" sound was preceded by a vowel and followed by a dental stop. Thus išdu "foundation" becomes ildu etc.  The change had its beginnings in Old Babylonian, and is fairly consistently carried through by the Middle Babylonian/Assyrian stage... AnonMoos (talk) 19:52, 6 December 2016 (UTC)
 * By the way, the warning sign in מלתחה / mashtaku is probably the alleged ח -k correspondence, not really št/lt... AnonMoos (talk) 20:04, 6 December 2016 (UTC)

AnonMoos, I would be very thankful to you if you'll give me a reference which proofs your things regarding to the changing between sh and L within the Akkadian. Regarding to the change between ח and k is very common between these two languages since the consonant ח wasn't in akkadian, as you can see for example here. 93.126.88.30 (talk) 20:36, 6 December 2016 (UTC)


 * The source I used above is one I happened to have at hand, but which is actually not too commonly accessible (and not mainly about Akkadian), so I doubt whether it would be helpful to you. But I'm pretty sure that the phenomenon would be mentioned in all the larger and more comprehensive "handbooks" and grammars.  And [ħ] is a pharyngeal fricative, while [k] is a velar stop, so they really don't have very much in common except lacking voicing and being made somewhere in the back half of the mouth... AnonMoos (talk) 04:02, 11 December 2016 (UTC)
 * P.S. There's a brief discussion in section 3.8.1.4 ("Assimilation") of the article Akkadian and Eblaite by John Huehnergard and Christopher Woods in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages  edited by Roger D. Woodard (ISBN 0-521-56256-2)... AnonMoos (talk) 04:09, 11 December 2016 (UTC)

Which school system is better: the Dutch, American or British one?


Please do not solicit from this desk. It is inappropriate. Seek other means to get your surveys completed. -- Jayron 32 17:06, 6 December 2016 (UTC)