The Phonology of Pharyngeals and Pharyngealization in Pre-Modern Aramaic

Abstract

When the method of comparative reconstruction is applied to modern Aramaic dialects, it affords a glimpse at a variety of Aramaic which existed between the latest classical Aramaic and the appearance of the modern dialects. In that variety of pre-modern Aramaic, the pharyngeal consonants (h and r) interacted with the pharyngealized consonants (the emphatics) according to regular, conditioned sound changes. Such a regular interaction of pharyngeals with pharyngealized sounds is unknown in other languages, although a similar interaction occurs in the same geographical region in Kurdish.