1 SHAMASH.ORG /usr/www/wwwhc/listserv/archives/heblang February 2000
2 59 39_Re: Chance correspondences in languages10_Jerry Blaz19_ffdog@earthlink.net31_Sun, 20 Feb 2000 23:16:12 -0800528_us-ascii I am writing from memory, a memory of something I read long ago, but it has to do with what in Arabic are referred to as moon letters and sun letters appearing as the initial character of the word, which are actually references to the phonetic compatibility of dropping or including the "lam" or "l' sound and the doubling of the initial character. The sun letters, as I imperfectly recall, drop the "lam" in the article when they appear as the initial letters, so you wouldn't say el-sham's (sun ) but eshsham's. [...]