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September 07, 2006
A Not So Simple Quiz
What language once used these words? And for all the jokers out there, I mean the words to the left. The English translations in parentheses are there just to be helpful. I've never heard of a language that didn't have a word for "water" and I wouldn't want to study a language that didn't have a word for "wine."
ta-ár-gi-gu (evil doer)
al-pu (ox)
----------------------------
mu-mi (water)
ye-nu (wine)
ša-am-nu (oil)
du-uš-bu (honey)
----------------------------
ia-ar-hu (moon/month)
ma-al-sà-mu-ti (courier?)
ša-nu-ti (year)
Hints:
- The first two words are West Semitic glosses from a bilingual lexical text from Aphek (Aphek 5837/1). The next four are West Semitic glosses from a different lexical text from Aphek (Aphek 8151/1), this time a trilingual text. The last three are from a trilingual lexical text from Ashqelon (Ash 97-50,49.L485).
- They cannot be in any Akkadian dialect. After all, Akkadian is East Semitic and two of these texts have or had Akkadian columns.
- The two texts from Aphek and the one from Ashqelon are from the Late Bronze Age. In fact, the two from Aphek were likely written around 1230 BCE.
- The two texts from Aphek were part of some "non-canonical" lexical tradition(s) while the text from Ashqelon is from the canonical Harra=hubullu tradition.
- One can reasonably assume that these words are in the same language(s) as the West Semitic glosses in the Amarna letters but no fair peeking. There is a growing literature on the West Semitic glosses in the Amarna letters but no fair peeking at that either.
- If you answer Hebrew or Aramaic, you have a lot more explaining to do then if you say Phoenician or Canaanite. Putting "Proto" before Hebrew or Aramaic will not get you out of trouble. Please don't say Ugaritic unless you really want a fight. If you say Canaanite, please try to be more specific. But whatever you say some explaining is in order.
- The best way to proceed may be to rule out candidate languages.
I'll be offering my answer in an upcoming post. But I did cheat and looked at the Amarna material and some of the literature.
Posted by DuaneSmith at September 7, 2006 04:00 PM | Read more on Scribal Schools |
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Comments
i am from nepal My son he is also abnormal i need help because in nepal no good school for him i am wory about him please gove me suggestion
thank you
Posted by: Giriraj Shah at September 9, 2006 11:19 PM
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