1841: Emphatic צ in Ancient Hebrew Dec 30, 2019

As with ט and ת, there are some ways that Hebrew writing has become somewhat obsolete. In another case, though less extreme, the letter צ (pronounced 'ts', like the German 'z') used to be emphatic, such that it was aspirated differently (obstructed) before certain other sounds (more details here), such that it would be pronounced like an S, sort of, namely [s^ʕ]. However, there are already two letters that represent [s] without such obstruance, that is, ס and ש. Unlike with ט and ת for [t] however, this differentiation still exists, just without any pharyngealization (think: vocal fry) found in ancient Hebrew. More on the transformation of Hebrew letters tomorrow.