In Iron Age Canaanite Dialects (original) (raw)

This article takes issue with two proposals made in recent scholarship concerning the development of the Proto-Semitic phoneme / †/ in Iron Age Canaanite dialects: 1) retention of this phoneme in the dialects of Transjordan, and 2) its merger with the phoneme /t/ in the Hebrew of northern Cisjordan. The article argues that both proposals are untenable. Proposal (1) is based on a problematic interpretation of Judg. 12:5-6 and of the spellings of an Ammonite royal name in an Ammonite seal impression (b¨lys¨∞ ) and in Jer. 40:14 (Ba¨alis). Moreover, this proposal is contradicted by the evidence of Neo-Assyrian spellings of Transjordanian proper names, which testify to the merger of / †/ with /s/: uru As-tar-tu (the city of Ashtaroth) and likely also m Ba-a'-sa (a royal name which is argued to derive from the original root b¨ †). Proposal (2) is contradicted by the evidence of Hebrew inscriptions from northern Cisjordan, which consistently render the Proto-Semitic / †/ with the letter s. It is possible that the phoneme / †/ was initially retained in the Hebrew of northern Cisjordan, but there is no positive evidence to support such a possibility. Hence, it is more reasonable to uphold the view that the merger of / †/ with /s/ was characteristic of all Iron Age Canaanite dialects.