on ‘Canaanite glosses’[1] to Assyrian words in the cuneiform tablets of Tell-el-Amarna [about 1400 B.C.] cf. H. Winckler, ‘Die Thontafeln von Tell-el-Amarna,’ in Keilinschr. Bibliothek, vol. v, Berlin, 1896 f. [transcription and translation]; J. A. Knudtzon, Die El-Amarna-Tafeln, Lpz. 1907 f.; H. Zimmern, ZA. 1891, p. 154 ff. and KAT.3, p. 651 ff.), and partly from the numerous remains of the Phoenician and Punic languages.
The latter we find in their peculiar writing (§ 1 k, l) in a great number of inscriptions and on coins, copies of which have been collected by Gesenius, Judas, Bourgade, Davis, de Vogüé, Levy, P. Schröder, v. Maltzan, Euting, but especially in Part I of the Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum, Paris, 1881 ff. Among the inscriptions but few public documents are found, e.g. two lists of fees for sacrifices; by far the most are epitaphs or votive tablets. Of special importance is the inscription on the sarcophagus of King Ešmûnazar of Sidon, found in 1855, now in the Louvre; see the bibliography in Lidzbarski, Nordsem. Epigr., i. 23 ff.; on the inscription, i. 97 ff., 141 f., 417, ii. plate iv, 2; [Cooke, p. 30 ff.]. To these may be added isolated words in Greek and Latin authors, and the Punic texts in Plautus, Poenulus 5, 1–3 (best treated by Gildemeister in Ritschl’s edition of Plautus, Lips. 1884, tom. ii, fasc. 5). From the monuments we learn the native orthography, from the Greek and Latin transcriptions the pronunciation and vocalization; the two together give a tolerably distinct idea of the language and its relation to Hebrew.
[g] Phoenician (Punic) words occurring in inscriptions are, e.g. אל God, אדם man, בן son, בת daughter, מלך king, עבד servant, בהן priest, זבח sacrifice, בעל lord, שמש sun, ארץ land, ים sea, אבן stone, כסף silver, ברזל iron, שמן oil, עת time, קבר grave, מצבת monument, מקם place, משכב bed, כל all, אחד one, שנים two, שלש three, ארבע four, חמש five, שש six, שבע seven, עשר ten, כן (=Hebr. היה) to be, שמע to hear, פתח to open, נדר to vow, ברך to bless, בקש to seek, &c. Proper names: צדן Sidon, צר Tyre, חנא Hanno, חנבעל Hannibal, &c. See the complete vocabulary in Lidzbarski, Nordsem. Epigr., i. 204 ff.
[h] Variations from Hebrew in Phoenician orthography and inflection are, e.g. the almost invariable omission of the vowel letters (§ 7 b), as בת for בית house, קל for קוֹל voice, צדן for צִידוֹן, כהנם for כֹּֽהֲנִים priests, אלנם (in Plaut. alonim) gods ; the fem., even in the absolute state, ending in ת (ath) (§ 80 b) as well as א (ô), the relative אש (Hebr. אֲשֶׁר), &c. The differences in pronunciation are more remarkable, especially in Punic, where the וֹ was regularly pronounced as û, e.g. שֹׁפֵט sûfēṭ (judge), שָׁלשׁ sālûs (three), רש rûs = רֹאשׁ head; i and e often as the obscure dull sound of y, e.g. הִנֶּנּוּ ynnynnu ('ecce eum'), אֵת (אית) yth; the ע as o, e.g. מעקר Mocar (cf. מַֽעֲכָה LXX, Gn 22 Μωχά). See the collection of the grammatical peculiarities in Gesenius, Monuments Phoenicia, p. 430 ff.; Paul Schröder, Die phöniz. Sprache, Halle, 1869; B. Stade, ‘Erneute Pröfung des zwischen dem Phönic. und Hebr. bestehenden Verwandtschaftsgrades,’ in the Morgenländ. Forschungen, Lpz. 1875, p. 169 ff.
[i] 4. As the Hebrew writing on monuments and coins mentioned in d consists only of consonants, so also the writers of the Old
- ↑ Cf. inter alia: aparu, also ḫaparu (Assyr. epru, ipru) = עָפָר; ḫullu = עֹל (with hard ע; cf. § 6 c, and Assyr. ḫumri = עָמְרִי, ḫazzatu = עֶזָּה); iazkur = יִזְכֹּר, zuruḫu = זרוֹעַ, abadat = אָֽבְדָה, šaḫri = שַעַר, gate; baṭnu = בֶּטֶן, belly; kilūbi = כְּלוּב, net; ṣaduk = צָדֹק (צַדִּיק), &c. [Cf. Böhl, Die Sprache d. Amarnabriefe, Lpz. 1909.]
