<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">------------------------------------------------------------------------</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Arabic-L: Mon 09 Apr 2008</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <<a href="mailto:dilworth_parkinson@byu.edu">dilworth_parkinson@byu.edu</a>></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">[To post messages to the list, send them to <a href="mailto:arabic-l@byu.edu">arabic-l@byu.edu</a>]</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">[To unsubscribe, send message from same address you subscribed from to</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="mailto:listserv@byu.edu">listserv@byu.edu</a> with first line reading:</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> unsubscribe arabic-l ]</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">-------------------------Directory------------------------------------</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">1) Subject:'hair' etymology</div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">2) Subject:'hair' etymology</div><div><br></div></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">-------------------------Messages-----------------------------------</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">1)</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Date: 09 Apr 2008</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">From:"jmurg" <<a href="mailto:jmurg@cox.net">jmurg@cox.net</a>></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Subject:'hair' etymology</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><div><span class="156054503-09042008">One of my professors used to refer to "non-synonymous, homophonous roots." It will be interesting to see what the Arabic-L verdict is on this!</span></div><div><span class="156054503-09042008">-- Jackie Murgida</span></div><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">--------------------------------------------------------------------------</div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">2)</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Date: 09 Apr 2008</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">From:Uri Horesh <<a href="mailto:urih@mail.utexas.edu">urih@mail.utexas.edu</a>></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Subject:'hair' etymology</div><div><br></div><div>I haven't checked this thoroughly, but here's my two-cents' worth based on a<br>synchronic analysis with Hebrew and my knowledge of comparative Semitic:<br><br>Hebrew has two distinct roots:<br><br>sh-3-r for verbs such as /she:3e:r/ (/shier/ in Modern Hebrew), 'estimate'<br><br>s'-3-r for the noun /s'e:3a:r/ (/sear/ in MH), 'hair'<br><br>I am using /s'/ here to represent the "third sibilant", historically<br>reconstructed as a voiceless lateral fricative. In MH it has merged in<br>pronunciation with /s/, but is still written as a "shin" with a diacritical<br>dot on the left (as opposed to the "regular" shin with a diacritical on the<br>right, pronounced /sh/).<br><br>While Arabic has 28 consonantal phonemes, more than any living Semitic<br>language, it lacks that 29th consonant. Only Epigraphic South Arabian has<br>graphemes for 29 consonants. Tiberian Hebrew has 22 graphemes, but with that<br>diacritic really has 23 consonantal phonemes. That 23rd Hebrew phoneme is<br>associated with the 29th ESA phoneme, the only Proto-Semitic phoneme not<br>attested in Arabic. The Ethiopic script also has three graphemes, though in<br>modern Ethiopian languages (e.g., Amharic), they are all pronounced /s/.<br><br>What happened in Arabic, historically (i.e., prior to the solidification of<br>Arabic orthography as we know it) is that /s'/ and /sh/ have merged as /sh/.<br><br>The real picture is really a bit more complex, because Arabic /sh/ usually<br>corresponds with Hebrew /s/, not Hebrew /sh/, but there are individual<br>exceptions, even within a single word, e.g., Arabic /shams/ and Hebrew<br>/shemesh/.<br><br>It is therefore my conclusion that Arabic /sha3r/ 'hair' should be<br>reconstructed as Proto-Semitic /s'a3r/ (root s'-3-r), whereas Arabic<br>/sha3ara/ 'feel' is cognate with Hebrew /she:3e:r/ 'estimate' and should be<br>reconstructed as having derived from PS root sh-3-r.<br><br>What to do with the Arabic root s-3-r is another question that has to be<br>dealt with in this context, but the solution to that problem, I believe,<br>will be immaterial to the question at hand.<br><br>So I'd cease looking for explanations linking 'hair' with 'sense' or<br>'feeling' and stick to the evidence provided across Semitic languages.<br><br>Comments are welcome.<br><br>Uri Horesh<br><a href="http://www.endhomophobia.org/">http://www.endhomophobia.org</a><br></div><div><br></div></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">--------------------------------------------------------------------------</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">End of Arabic-L: 09 Apr 2008</div></div></div></div></body></html>