R littera

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R littera est eadem apud arabes et apud grecos ut apud nos: nisi quod apud grecos est aspiratum a principio dictionis, unde semper in grecis dictionibus rite cum aspiratione scriberetur, ut rhoda rhetorica et similia.

The letter “R” has the same {phonetic} value with the Arabs, the Greeks and with us. Only with the Greeks the sound is aspirated at the beginning of the word, which is why in Greek words it is always commonly written with aspiration, like rhoda, rhetorica, and like cases.


Commentary:

The Arabic alphabet has ﺭ,ﺭﺍﺀ “rāʔ”, Greek has Ρ,ρ “ῥῶ /rhô/” and Latin has P,p. All of these are most likely ultimately derived from the same source, a Sinaitic Semitic proto-alphabet that developed around the first half of the second millennium BC.

Greek word-initial aspiration of “r”, phonetically a devoicing of the sound, was already lost in the Koine period of Greek, i.e. 300 BC – 300 AD, so it had long ceased to be pronounced in Simon’s time, but was kept on as a purely conservative spelling habit. Thus Simon did never hear an aspirated “r”, but his pronouncement must be judged as a purely orthographic statement. Aspiration of “r” also occurred in pre-Koine Greek in gemination as in μύῤῥα /mýrrha/ “myrrh”, but was lost in spoken language too.