tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30508311.post4993101779926224591..comments2024-01-26T15:11:43.032-08:00Comments on CRYPTCRACKER: TIMNA INSCRIPTIONSBrian Edric Collesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02829433847798847433noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30508311.post-35909189710307861362021-11-05T00:34:13.384-07:002021-11-05T00:34:13.384-07:00Another comment I have sent to Wimmer:
"Anot...Another comment I have sent to Wimmer:<br /><br />"Another thought on the root `-dh-r, difficulty in understanding it is that although there was a distinction between z and dh these seem to have originated via inter-dialect and inter-lingual borrowing so the meaning of plea is ultimately related to meaning of `-z-r of help. But one particular usage of the root is for a word meaning a container, so it is possible that the word here is meant to be paired with s-l with the expression s-l `-dh-r denoting a type of container, corresponding to ḫa-zu-ra in Akkadian, with the final word mm further denoting that it is for water. The whole inscription might then mean something like "tip water carry container"."Z4chst3rhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03159130625819079809noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30508311.post-60019355072167910552021-08-07T11:06:20.779-07:002021-08-07T11:06:20.779-07:00I sent the following comments to Wimmer on Academi...I sent the following comments to Wimmer on Academia.edu regarding a very different reading to what he gave in his paper:<br /><br />Some thoughts on "A Proto-Sinaitic Inscription in Timna/Israel" and a suggestion of a very different reading:<br /><br />For the right inscription: There was a distinction in the early alphabet between z and dh. The two horizontal lines is dh not z so it is the wrong consonant for either `-z (strong) or `-z-r (help). Unless of course we are dealing with a case where in the dialect of the writer the two sounds had merged and he on used the dh sign. But going with the usual understanding as dh we see the root `-dh-r meaning plea. The double m is understandable as water = maim. The seated figure looks most like Egyptian determinative A7 denoting resting not a personal name - this would indicate that the inscription relates to resting.<br /><br />For the left inscription: There were several different non-emphatic sibilants in central Semitic. The recurve bow T9A (others say its breasts) corresponds to the sibilant that became th in Arabic but sh in Hebrew and t in Aramaic. Then there was one that became sh in Hebrew but s in Arabic, this appears in Sinaitic as M44 the thorn which appears to be the forerunner of the Ethiopic letter "sat". Then there is the sibilant that became s' (sin) in Hebrew but sh in Arabic. At Wadi El-Hol I see this represented as the sign that appears to be a pair of lips (vertically oriented so perhaps labia rather than a mouth) - Wilson-Wright also identifies it as s' but attempts to explain it as a hieratic sun rather than lips but that would be the wrong sibilant (sephataim - lips makes more sense). There is also the sibilant (probably affricate originally) that became s (samekh) in Hebrew and also s in Arabic - that appears at Sinai as the fish but other early West Semitic inscriptions have the djed pillar for this. But there is also the sibilant that became/remained sh in both Hebrew and Arabic, the initial sibilant of shemesh/shams = sun. This is what the uraeus sun sign that starts the left inscription represents sh not s'. (It is not the same sign found at Wadi El-Hol with two loops - that as per Vanderhooft is instead the yoke / tether V13 ghol/ghullu for the gh sound, the South Arabian gh is clearly based on the hieratic form of V13). Also although the bottom right sign resembles somewhat the hieratic form of the the hank/wick V28 that is the wrong guttural for luach meaning tablet - luach would have the mansion 06 for the pharyngeal H while the wick is velar kh. Also here the orientation of the coil / coiled crook suggests it is to be read last if we compare other West Semitic inscriptions. It is more likely that rather an hieratic wick we simply have the djed pillar samekh for s. I thus read the left inscription as sh-k-s-l. How should this be parsed? The only sensible split is as two words sh-k followed by s-l. S-l has an immediately recognizable meaning as a basket or pannier - the term surviving into modern times. For sh-k here we need a root where the sibilant is the same as the initial sound of shemesh/shams - it should appears as sh in both Hebrew and Arabic, not as th or s in Arabic and only sh in Hebrew. We do have a such a root sh-k(-k) which in Hebrew meant to stoop or to incline a container - in Arabic the root survived with only an idiomatic meaning of to wait hesitantly whence it has acquired the meaning of to being doubtful of something.<br /><br /><br />The full inscription would then read "incline (or wait with) a pannier, make a plea for water" a sign post indicating an oasis where water would be offered to those who asked.Z4chst3rhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03159130625819079809noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30508311.post-42623766764891586292010-08-13T13:55:08.412-07:002010-08-13T13:55:08.412-07:00Great comments so far. As far as I can tell, the ...Great comments so far. As far as I can tell, the first character on the left is the only paleographic analogy both to the character at Wadi el-Hol and in the Arabian corpuses; obviously in the former I read this as T_ and you as S^. However, I believe it is unmistakably S^ here. Additionally, the final character on the right of the left-most tablet may be paleographically identical to the Ugaritic "'i."<br /><br />If these features are correct, then the D_ would have already been dropped both from script and language most likely, and the double-lines that are D_ in Proto-Sinaitic would thus be an archaic form of the Punic Z. It doesn't really matter, you could read the same thing with Z=D_ 3D_R is help in Ugaritic, and though the enclitic demonstrative is usually rendered D in Ugaritic, D_ is still possible.<br /><br />///Left<br /><br />S^ This year<br />N<br />+<br />Z<br /><br />L<-I Il<br /><br />///Right<br /><br />CZR Aid<br /><br />MMY Memmy<br /><br />May Il aid Memmy this year.Michael Sheflinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09591277507186542186noreply@blogger.com