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Thursday, March 30th, 2006 01:16 pmToday I learned that the name Addis Ababa means new flower, the first element being cognate to Hebrew חדש ḥadaš (and also to the first element of Qart Ḥadašt, mangled in English to "Carthage"), and the second cognate to Hebrew אביב, meaning "spring" (the season) (but originally, I also learned, meaning barley*), as in the name Tel Aviv.
Rummaging around on Wikipedia to follow this up, I finally learned how to pronounce ṣ (the Hebrew letter צ†, and the Arabic ﺹ). A teach yourself Arabic book I once look at on this subject told me the difference between s and ṣ is that between the English words "sam" and "psalm". Eh? The difference lies in the vowels! However, Wikipedia told me ṣ is a emphatic consonant, and (in Hebrew) "was likely pronounced as a pharyngealized /s/", viz., "articulated with the root of the tongue against the pharynx".
Which doesn't actually answer the case for Arabic, but I think the two are the same.
* Which ought to amuse![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
curious_reader.
† In the Ashkenazi pronunciation I grew up with, and the standard Israeli pronunciation (being the Sephardi pronunciation (which renders it properly) watered down to remove the sounds (like this one) Ashkenazim can't manage, צ is pronounced /ts/, not /ṣ/.
Rummaging around on Wikipedia to follow this up, I finally learned how to pronounce ṣ (the Hebrew letter צ†, and the Arabic ﺹ). A teach yourself Arabic book I once look at on this subject told me the difference between s and ṣ is that between the English words "sam" and "psalm". Eh? The difference lies in the vowels! However, Wikipedia told me ṣ is a emphatic consonant, and (in Hebrew) "was likely pronounced as a pharyngealized /s/", viz., "articulated with the root of the tongue against the pharynx".
Which doesn't actually answer the case for Arabic, but I think the two are the same.
* Which ought to amuse
curious_reader.† In the Ashkenazi pronunciation I grew up with, and the standard Israeli pronunciation (being the Sephardi pronunciation (which renders it properly) watered down to remove the sounds (like this one) Ashkenazim can't manage, צ is pronounced /ts/, not /ṣ/.
