Reconstruction talk:Proto-Semitic/ʔuḏn-

It’s very rare, nearly a hapax, and every one of its suggested attestations has also been interpreted in other ways. The word was originally hypothetical; it was postulated based on the use of the sign  as a phonetic determinative for the sequence of consonants  rather than actual attestations. That said, the reading as a word meaning ‘ear’ does seem preferable to the alternative interpretations in the cases of many of the possible attestations found since then, so it may well have been a real word. A cognate relation with these Semitic comparanda has been suggested since 1892; more detailed discussion by Takács here (ctrl+f jdn to bring it up). As he notes there, »The correspondence of Eg. d vs. Sem. *ḏ is rare«, though he gives some possible explanations as far as this particular word is concerned. I’m pretty agnostic on the connection myself, but given how widespread it is in the literature, it probably merits a mention. — Vorziblix (talk · contribs) 06:02, 8 August 2020 (UTC)