Doesn’t clear up much.
31.12.2025 02:14 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0@tonogenesis.bsky.social
egyptian-coptic and semitic linguistics
Doesn’t clear up much.
31.12.2025 02:14 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0 /a/ in Τάαυτος, grecized form of the Phoenician name for Thoth (presumably *ṭḥwt).
/i/ in ᵐti-ḫu-ut-ar-ṭe-e-si, an Achaemenid-era cuneiform representation of the name Θοτορταῖος/ḏḥw.tj-j.jr-di̯⸗s.
/u/ in Hebrew טֻחוֹת (ṭuḥōṯ), if this word does indeed refer to the ibis in Job 38:36.
Afaik there are 3 surviving testimonies regarding the first vowel in the name of the god Thoth (ḏḥw.tj).
31.12.2025 02:14 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0ⲡⲓⲭⲣⲓⲥⲧⲟⲥ ⲁⲩⲙⲁⲥϥ!
26.12.2025 02:28 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0a neat pun we found in Coptic reading group:
ⲡⲁⲓ ϩⲱⲱϥ ⲟⲛ ϥⲛⲁⲁⲁⲩ ⲁⲩⲱ ϥⲛⲁⲣⲛⲉⲧⲛⲁⲁⲁⲩ ⲉⲣⲟⲟⲩ.
"he himself will do them too"
(ⲛⲁ-ⲁⲁ-ⲩ "will do them" [great works])
".. and he will do [things] which are greater than they"
(ⲛⲁⲁⲁ-ⲩ "they are great")
>open up pre-Columbian codex
>first page is a giant Cross pattée with a Cross of Burgundy inside
came across this gem in Coptic reading group today:
ⲟⲩⲗⲁⲥ ⲛⲥⲁⲣⲝⲡⲉ ⲡⲁⲗⲁⲥ ⲁⲩⲱ ⲟⲩϩⲏⲧ ⲛⲣⲱⲙⲉ ⲡⲉⲧⲙⲙⲟⲓ
"my tongue is a tongue of flesh, and mine is a human heart"
(referring to the author's own human limitations in writing adequate praises of a saint)
Late Latin drictus 🤝 Middle Chinese 直 drik
06.11.2025 05:03 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0when i was growing up in socal the standard pronunciation of j in foreign words was [h], as in spanish, so we’d be saying stuff like falluhah and rohava
06.11.2025 04:56 — 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0old japanese be like “woman”
10.10.2025 01:02 — 👍 44 🔁 14 💬 3 📌 1correct!
06.10.2025 11:00 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Certain epichoric Greek alphabets wrote ξ (x) as 𐌇𐌔 (hs). Pinyin vs. Wades-Giles has been going on far longer than anyone could’ve imagined.
06.10.2025 08:15 — 👍 10 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0proposal in question: brill.com/view/journal...
16.04.2025 12:38 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0What we really need is a good Indological transcription system for Middle Chinese. Hill’s proposal is a step in the right direction, but still not quite right. Every government in the world should have agencies working round the clock on this.
16.04.2025 12:38 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0New video series by yours truly on Biblical and Semiticist stuff – "banal [within the field], yet awesome" facts and opinions. First episode out now, on whether Greek or Hebrew is harder for beginners:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4726...
love this script
15.04.2025 12:24 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0ⲧϩⲟⲧⲉ ⲇⲉ ⲡⲣⲉϥⲙⲟⲩⲟⲩⲧ ⲙⲡⲙⲉⲉⲩⲉ ⲧⲉ
11.04.2025 12:55 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0ooh, will definitely be doing this
09.04.2025 11:17 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0just got nasal ʿayin jumpscared by a 17th century dictionary of Vietnamese
01.04.2025 21:28 — 👍 17 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 1anyone ever point out that Αἰθίοπες appears to be a translation of 𒊕𒈪𒂵/ṣalmāt-qaqqadim (Sumerian autonym)?
13.12.2024 08:14 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0an Egyptian source makes about zero sense here, idk what in the world Erman, Albright, and Lambdin were cooking with that 🤦
27.02.2024 12:52 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0I know Phoenician isn’t one for matres lectionis, so I’d imagine this has to be read as a consonantal /ʔ/?
Also interesting to note that Pûlu (Babylonian name of Tiglath-Pileser III) is likewise spelled pʾl in the Phoenician section of the İncirli Stele (against Biblical פּוּל). Hmm...
Anyone know what’s up with with the aleph in Phoenician pʾl ‘(Egyptian) beans’ in KAI 51 Vs. 4? No parallel in the Semitic cognates (Heb. פּוֹל, Aram. פּוֹלָא, Ar. فُول, Ge. ፉል, etc.), but it does look suspiciously like Bohairic ⲫⲉⲗ ‘bean’, which would go back to Proto-Coptic *pʰɛʔl.
27.02.2024 00:41 — 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0I was having trouble reconciling the Tiberian form with Ugaritic a͗byn, but apparently *a > ɛ is regular in this position. Thanks Garr! (from “The Seghol and Segholation in Hebrew”)
26.02.2024 22:07 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 1was finally able to complete this etymology tree
26.02.2024 22:06 — 👍 9 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0