hidden pixel

Proto-semitic Information

Proto-Semitic is the hypothetical proto-language of the Semitic languages.

Contents

Dating

The earliest attestations of a Semitic language are in Akkadian, dating to ca. the 23rd century BC (see Sargon of Akkad) and Eblaite, but earlier evidence of Akkadian comes from personal names in Sumerian texts. Researchers in Egypt also claim to have discovered Canaanite snake spells that "date from between 3000 and 2400 B.C.".[1]

Homeland

Migration from Arabia into the fertile crescent has been a constant pattern of human movement in the Middle East since antiquity. As such, the Arabian peninsula has long been accepted as the original Semitic Urheimat by a majority of scholars.[2][3][4][5] Older theories positing Mesopotamia as the Semitic homeland were severely undermined by the identification of the non-Semitic Sumerian culture in Mesopotamia in the late 19th century, which is now generally believed to have predated the Semitic culture in Mesopotamia by many centuries. A mainstream view nowadays maintains that the first wave of Semitic-speakers infiltrated Mesopotamia in the first half of the third millennium BC. A second Amorite wave is generally believed to have followed around 2000 BC. This Amorite wave was responsible for emergence of the Old Babylonian Empire and of such urban centers in the west as Ugarit. An Aramean wave of migration towards the fertile crescent followed in the second half of the second millennium BC. The emergence of the Israelite nation in Canaan should have occurred around this time, although the origin of the Israelites remains a matter of debate. The Arab waves of migration toward the fertile crescent started in the last millennium BC and culminated in the 7th century CE with the great Islamic expansion, which by far surpassed all previous expansions, reaching a maximum extent from southern France to the borders of China.

The presence of a non-Semitic culture predating the Canaanites in Canaan has not been proven by archeology. However, a traditional account transmitted by many Greek historians and accepted unanimously in pre-modern times points to a Phoenician (Canaanite) origin in Mesopotamia, to which the Phoenicians had reportedly arrived from the Arabian shores of the Persian Gulf. Although many attempts have been made to discredit this entire story, it remains accepted.[6]

Given that Proto-Semitic would have been an Afroasiatic language, some believe that the first prehistoric speakers of the ancestral Proto-Semitic language came from Ethiopia, which would have been the Proto-Semitic homeland.[7] New research, however, suggests that South Semitic may have been introduced to Ethiopia sometime before the 8th century BC. This is also supported by the presence of nouns in proto Semitic that seemingly make an African origin for the language impossible - ice, oak, horse and camel.[citation needed] The camel[8] and horse[9] did not arrive in Africa until nearly two thousand years after Semitic languages were being written in the Mesopotamia area.

Other more recent work suggests Syria/Mesopotamia as the homeland for proto Semitic, due to the flora and fauna described by it, which include oak, pistachio and almond trees and the horse.[citation needed] The presence of ice and four different words for hill also suggest a colder, more mountainous area than Arabia.[citation needed] Eblaite, one of the oldest Semitic languages, when deciphered turned out to have almost no non-Afroasiatic nouns in its lexicon, suggesting a very long presence in the Syria area.[citation needed] Bitumen and naphtha were also well known and have root words, and these are resources not found in Africa or Arabia, but commonly in the northern parts of the Levant. Christopher Ehret argues on this basis that there are two possible homelands for Semitic, Northern Mesopotamia where Western Semitic broke away from Eastern Semitic; or the Levant. Ehret states "Because of the many indications that non-Semitic languages predominated in Mesopotamia and all around its northern and eastern flanks in the pre-state eras—and that Akkadian therefore was likely intrusive to that region—the second solution seems by far the more probable of the two. The Levant regions, as the part of Asia nearest and more directly connected to Africa, also make much better sense as the proto-Semitic territory, considering the solely African locations of all the rest of the Afrasan family."[10] A more recent study by Andrew Kitchen and others using Bayesian techniques in phylogenetic analysis identifies a place of origin for Semitic in the Levant, giving rise to the most basal of Semitic languages in Akkadian.[11]

Recently, Juris Zarins has suggested the development of a Circum-Arabian Nomadic Pastoral Complex of cultures in the period of the 6,200 BCE climatic crisis, stretching from the Red Sea shoreline and northeastward into modern day Syria and Iraq, which spread Proto-Semitic languages through the region.[12] This complex may have developed from the fusion of Harifian and Pre-Pottery Neolithic B cultures in the Southern Levant, first evidenced in the Munhata culture and later Yarmukian culture of the region.

As Harifian used the Outacha retouch point technique found earlier in the Fayyum, it has been suggested that Proto-Semitic may have come from Egypt across the Sinai.[13] The climatic recovery during the Chalcolithic, led to the development of the secondary products revolution and the Ghassulian culture, pioneering the Mediterranean mixed economy with subsistence horticulture, extensive grain farming, commercial production of olives and wine, and nomadic transhumance pastoralism. The mix has varied historically with climate change. The Ghassulians are usually accepted as being early Semitic speakers.

Sound system

The reconstruction of Proto-Semitic was originally based primarily on the Arabic language, which preserves 28 out of the evident 29 consonantal phonemes.[14] Thus, the phonemic inventory of reconstructed Proto-Semitic is very similar to that of Arabic, with only one phoneme less in Arabic than in reconstructed Proto-Semitic. As such, Proto-Semitic is generally reconstructed as having the following phonemes (as usually transcribed in Semitology)[15]:

Inventory

Consonant phonemes
Labial Inter- dental Dental/ Alveolar Palatal Velar Pharyn- geal Glottal
Central Lateral
Nasal *m [m] *n [n]
Stop voiceless *p [p] *t [t] *k [k] *’ [ʔ]
voiced *b [b] *d [d] *g [ɡ]
emphatic *ṭ [tʼ] *q [kʼ]
Fricative or affricate voiceless *θ [θ] *š [s] *s [ts] *ś [ɬ] *ḫ [x] *ḥ [ħ] *h [h]
voiced *ð [ð] *z *ġ [ɣ] *ʻ [ʕ]
emphatic *θ̣ [θʼ] *ṣ [tsʼ] *ṣ́ [ɬʼ]
Trill *r [r]
Approximant *l [l] *y [j] *w [w]

The probable phonetic realization of most consonants is straightforward, and is indicated in the table with the IPA. Two subsets of consonants however call for further comment:

Emphatics

The sounds notated here as "emphatic" sounds occur in nearly all Semitic languages, as well as in most other Afroasiatic languages, and are generally reconstructed as glottalized in Proto-Semitic. [nb 1] Thus, *ṭ for example represents [tʼ]. (See below for the fricatives/affricates).

In modern Semitic languages, emphatics are variously realized as pharyngealized (Arabic, Aramaic: e.g. [tˤ]), glottalized (Ethiopian Semitic languages, Modern South Arabian languages: e.g. [tʼ]), or as unaspirated (Turoyo of Tur-Abdin: e.g. [t˭]);[16] Modern Hebrew and Maltese are exceptions to this general retention, with all emphatics merging into plain consonants under the influence of Indo-European languages (Italian/Sicilian in Maltese, German/Yiddish in Hebrew).

An emphatic labial occurs in some Semitic languages but it is unclear whether it was a phoneme in Proto-Semitic.

Fricatives

The reconstruction of PS has nine fricative sounds that develop into sibilants at various points in later languages, although it is a matter of dispute whether all started as sibilants already in PS:

The precise sound of the PS fricatives, notably of š, ś, s, and ṣ, remains a perplexing problem, and there are various systems of notation to describe them. Many authors now posit values that differ significantly from what these symbols would normally suggest (hence, it may be more appropriate to designate them with *s₁, *s₂ and *s₃), but the older transcription remains predominant in most literature, often even among scholars positing the new pronunciation.[19]

The traditional view as expressed in the conventional transcription and still maintained by one part of the authors in the field[20][21] is that *š was a Voiceless postalveolar fricative ([ʃ]), *s was a voiceless alveolar sibilant ([s]) and ś was a voiceless alveolar lateral fricative. Accordingly, *ṣ is seen as an emphatic version of s ([sʼ]), and *z as a voiced version of it ([z]).

Another common opinion[22] is that the difference between *s and *š is that between an affricate [ts] and a fricative [s]. Likewise the consonants *z, *ṣ are taken as the voiced [dz] and emphatic [tsʼ] counterparts of *s. Affricates in PS were proposed long since, but the idea only seems to have met wider acceptance since the work of Alice Faber (1981)[citation needed] challenging the older approach. A different opinion is maintained for example by Joshua Blau (2010), who maintains that *š was indeed originally [ʃ], while also acknowledging that an affricate [tʃ] is possible.[23]

The Semitic languages that have survived to the modern day often have fricatives for these consonants. Ethiopic languages and Modern Hebrew (in many reading traditions) have an affricate for *ṣ.[24] Many sources of evidence have been cited[by whom?] to support further affricates in not only Proto-Semitic, but also ancient Semitic languages:

Judging by evidence from South Arabian[citation needed], it was determined that *ś, *ṣ́ were likely not sibilants, but lateral obstruents: [ɬ, (t)ɬʼ] (where the emphatic can also be reconstructed as an affricate).

The shift *š→h occurred in most Semitic languages (besides Akkadian, Minaian, Qatabanian) in grammatical and pronominal morphemes, and it is unclear whether reduction of *š began in a daughter proto-language or in PS itself. Given this, some suggest that weakened *š may have been a separate phoneme in PS.[26]

Reflexes of Proto-Semitic sounds in daughter languages

Consonants

Each Proto-Semitic phoneme was reconstructed to explain a certain regular sound correspondence between various Semitic languages. Note that Latin letter values (italicized) for extinct languages are a question of transcription; the exact pronunciation is not recorded.

Most of the attested languages have merged a number of the reconstructed original fricatives, though South Arabic retains all fourteen (and has added a fifteenth from *p → f).

In Aramaic and Hebrew, all non-emphatic stops were softened to fricatives when occurring singly after a vowel, leading to an alternation that was often later phonemicized as a result of the loss of gemination.

In languages exhibiting pharyngealization of emphatics, the original velar emphatic has rather developed to an uvular stop [q].

Proto-Semitic Akkadian Arabic1 Ugaritic Phoenician Hebrew Modern Hebrew Aramaic Ge'ez Modern South Arabian
*b b ب b b b ב ḇ/b /v/, /b/ ב ḇ/b በ /b/ /b/
*d d د d d d ד ḏ/d /d/ ד ḏ/d ደ /d/ /d/
*g g ج ǧ *[ɡʲ]→[d͡ʒ]1 g g ג ḡ/g /ɡ/ ג ḡ/g ገ /ɡ/ /ɡ/
*p p ف f p p פ p̄/p /f/, /p/ פ p̄/p ፈ /f/ /f/
*t t ت t t t ת ṯ/t /t/ ת ṯ/t ተ /t/ /t/
*k k ك k k k כ ḵ/k /χ/, /k/ כ ḵ/k ከ /k/ /k/
*ʼ - ء ʼ [ʔ] ʼ ʼ א ʼ /ʔ/, - א ʼ አ /ʔ/ /ʔ/
*ṭ ṭ ط ṭ [tˤ] ṭ ṭ ט ṭ /t/ ט ṭ ጠ /tʼ/ /tʼ/
*ḳ q ق q ḳ q ק q /k/ ק q ቀ /kʼ/ /kʼ/
*ḏ z ذ ḏ [ð] ḏ→d z ז z /z/ ז4/ד ḏ4/d ዘ /z/ /ð/
*z ز z z ז z /z/
*ṯ š ث ṯ [θ] ṯ š שׁ š /ʃ/ ש4/ת ṯ4/t ሰ /s/ /θ/
*š س s š שׁ š /ʃ/, /h/
*ś ش š [ʃ] שׂ2 ś2 /s/ שׂ4/ס ś4/s ሠ /ɬ/ /ɬ/
*s s س s s s ס s ס s ሰ /s/ /s/
*ṱ ṣ ظ ẓ [ðˤ] ṱ→ġ ṣ צ ṣ /ts/ צ4/ט ṱ4/ṭ ጸ /tsʼ/ /θʼ/
*ṣ ص ṣ [sˤ] ṣ צ ṣ /sʼ/
*ṣ́ ض ḍ *[ɮˤ]→[dˤ]1 ע ʻ ፀ /ɬʼ/ /ɬʼ/
*ġ - غ ġ [ɣ~ʁ] ġ,ʻ ʻ ע3 ʻ3 /ʔ/, - ק4/ע ġ4/ʻ ዐ /ʕ/ /ɣ/
*ʻ -5 ع ʻ [ʕ] ʻ ע ʻ /ʕ/
*ḫ ḫ خ ḫ [x] ḫ ḥ ח ḥ /χ/ ח ḥ ኀ /χ/ /x/
*ḥ -5 ح ḥ [ħ] ḥ ሐ /ħ/ /ħ/
*h - ه h h h ה h /h/, - ה h ሀ /h/ /h/
*m m م m m m מ m /m/ מ m መ /m/ /m/
*n n ن n n n נ n /n/ נ ר n r ነ /n/ /n/
*r r ر r r r ר r /ʁ/ ר r ረ /r/ /r/
*l l ل l l l ל l /l/ ל l ለ /l/ /l/
*w w و w w y w y ו י w y /v/ /j/ ו י w y ወ /w/ /w/
*y y ي y [j] y y י y /j/ י y የ /j/ /j/
Proto-Semitic Akkadian Arabic Ugaritic Phoenician Hebrew Modern Hebrew Aramaic Ge'ez Modern South Arabian

Notes:

  1. Arabic pronunciation is that of reconstructed Qur'anic Arabic of the 7th and 8th centuries CE. If the pronunciation of Modern Standard Arabic differs, this is indicated (for example, [ɡʲ]→[d͡ʒ]).
  2. Proto-Semitic *ś appears to have merged with *s in Tiberian Hebrew, but is still distinguished graphically.
  3. Biblical Hebrew as of the 3rd century BCE apparently still distinguished ġ and ḫ (based on transcriptions in the Septuagint).
  4. Although early Aramaic (pre-7th century BCE) had only 22 consonants in its alphabet, it apparently distinguished at least 27 of the original 29 Proto-Semitic phonemes, including *ḏ, *ṯ, *ṱ, *ś, *ṣ́, *ġ. This conclusion is based on the shifting representation of words etymologically containing these sounds; in early Aramaic writing, they are merged with z, š, ṣ, š, q, respectively, but later with d, t, ṭ, s, ʻ.[27] (Also note that due to begadkefat spirantization, which occurred after this merger, OAm. t→ṯ and d→ḏ in some positions, so that PS *t,ṯ and *d,ḏ may be realized as either of t,ṯ and d,ḏ respectively.)
  5. These are only distinguished from the zero reflexes of *h, *ʔ by e-coloring adjacent *a, e.g. pS *ˈbaʕal-um 'owner, lord' → Akk. bēlu(m).[28]

Vowels

Proto-Semitic vowels are in general harder to deduce due to the templatic nature of Semitic languages. The history of vowel changes in the languages makes drawing up a complete table of correspondences impossible, so only the most common reflexes can be given:

Vowel correspondences in Semitic languages (in proto-Semitic stressed syllables)[29]
pS Hebrew Aramaic Arabic Ge'ez Akkadian
/ˈ_|1 /ˈ_Cː2 /ˈ_C|C3 usually4 /_C|ˈV
*a ā a ɛ a ə a a a,e,ē5
*i ē e ɛ. e e, i, WSyr. ɛ ə i ə i
*u ō o o u,o ə u ə, ʷə6 u
*ā ō[nb 2] ā ā ā ā,ē
*ī ī ī ī ī ī
*ū ū ū ū ū ū
*ay| ayi,ay BA, JA ay(i), ē, WSyr. ay/ī & ay/ē ay ay, ē ī
*aw| ō, pausal ˈāwɛ ō, WSyr. aw/ū aw ō ū
  1. in a stressed open syllable
  2. in a stressed closed syllable before a geminate
  3. in a stressed closed syllable before a consonant cluster
  4. when the proto-Semitic stressed vowel remained stressed
  5. pS *a,*ā → Akk. e,ē in the neighborhood of pS *ʕ,*ħ and before r.
  6. I.e. pS *g,*k,*ḳ,*χ → Ge'ez gʷ,kʷ,ḳʷ,χʷ / _u

Correspondence of Sounds with other Afroasiatic languages

See table at Proto-Afroasiatic language#Consonant correspondences.

Grammar

Independent Personal Pronouns

English PS Akkadian Arabic Ge'ez Hebrew Aramaic
standard vernacular
I *ʔanāku,[nb 3] *ʔaniya anāku ʔanā ʔanā, ʔāniy ʔana ʔānoxiy, ʔāniy ʔanā
Thou (sg., masc.) *ʔanka → *ʔanta atta ʔanta ʔinta ʔánta ʔattāh ʔantā
Thou (sg., fem.) *ʔanti atti ʔanti ʔinti ʔánti ʔatt ʔanti
He *suʔa sū huwa huwwa wəʔətu huwʔ huwʔ
She *siʔa sī hiya hiyya yəʔəti hiyʔ hiyʔ
We *niyaħnū, *niyaħnā nīnu naħnu niħnā nəħnā ʔanaħnuw náħnā
Ye (dual) *ʔantunā ʔantumā
They (dual) *sunā humā
Ye (pl., masc.) *ʔantunū attunu ʔantum(u) ʔintū, ʔintum ʔantəmu ʔattem ʔantun
Ye (pl., fem.) *ʔantinā attina ʔantunna ʔantən, ∅ ʔantən ʔatten ʔanten
They (masc.) *sunū sunu hum(u) humma ʔəmuntu hēm hinnun
They (fem.) *sinā sina hunna hən, ∅ ʔəmāntu hēn hinnin

Cardinal numerals

English Proto-Semitic
One *ḥad-, *ʻišt-
Two *ṯin-, *kilʼ-
Three *ṯalāṯ-[nb 4]/*śalāṯ-[nb 5]
Four *arbaʻ-
Five *ḫamš-
Six *šidṯ-
Seven *šabʻ-
Eight *ṯamān-
Nine *tišʻ-
Ten *ʻaśr-

These are the basic numeral stems without feminine suffixes. Note that in most older Semitic languages, the forms of the numerals from 3 to 10 exhibit gender polarity (also called "chiastic concord" or reverse agreement), i.e. if the counted noun is masculine, the numeral would be feminine and vice versa.

Comparative vocabulary and reconstructed roots

See appendix in Wiktionary

Notes

  1. ^ This explains why there is no voicing distinction in the emphatic series (which wouldn't be necessary if the emphatics were pharyngealized).
  2. ^ see Canaanite shift
  3. ^ While some believe that *ʔanāku was an innovation in some branches of Semitic utilizing an "intensifying" *-ku, comparison to other Afro-Asiatic 1ps pronouns (e.g. Eg. 3nk, Coptic anak, anok, proto-Berber *ənakkʷ) suggests that this goes back farther. (Dolgopolsky 1999, pp. 10-11.)
  4. ^ Zaborski, Hetzron. New data and new methods in Afroasiatic linguistics: Robert Hetzron in memoriam, 2001. p.19
  5. ^ This root is believed by Dolgopolsky to have undergone non-adjacent assimilation to *ṯalāṯ- in the Central Semitic languages. This parallels the non-adjacent assimilation of *ś...→*š...š in proto-Canaanite or proto-North-West-Semitic in the roots *śam?š→*šamš 'sun' and *śur?š→*šurš 'root'.(Dolgopolsky pp.61-62.) Note that a direct instance of 'three' in a Semitic language without *ṯ/*ś-merger directly attesting **śalāṯ- is unavailable. In cases where the contrast between *ṯ and *ś is preserved, *ṯ- is consistently demonstrated in this numeral such as Ugaritic and Arabic.

See also

References

  1. ^ National Geographic Feb-2007. Ancient Semitic Snake Spells Deciphered in Egyptian Pyramid.
  2. ^ Gray, Louis Herbert (2006) Introduction to Semitic Comparative Linguistics
  3. ^ Courtenay, James John (2009) The Language of Palestine and Adjacent Regions
  4. ^ Kienast, Burkhart. (2001). Historische semitische Sprachwissenschaft.
  5. ^ Bromiley, Geoffrey W. (1995) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
  6. ^ Rawlinson, George (2008) History of Phoenicia p.51
  7. ^ e.g. A. Murtonen; see Fleming, Harold C. (1968), "Ethiopic Language History: Testing Linguistic Hypotheses in an Archaeological and Documentary Context" in Ethnohistory, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Autumn), pp. 353-388
  8. ^ Bulliet, Richard (1990-05-20) [1975]. The Camel and the Wheel. Morningside Book Series. Columbia University Press. p. 183. ISBN 978-0-231-07235-9.
  9. ^ Mills, D.S. & S.M. McDonnell (Editors)(2005), The Domestic Horse: The Origins, Development and Management of its Behaviour (Cambridge University Press)
  10. ^ Ehret, Christopher (2004), "The Afrasan (Afroasiatic) Language Family Originated in Africa, and Other True Tales for Archaeologists and Biological Anthropologists"
  11. ^ Kitchen, Andrew; Christopher Ehret, et al. (2009-06-22). "Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of Semitic languages identifies an Early Bronze Age origin of Semitic in the Near East". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 276 (1665): 2703–10. doi:10.1098/rspb.2009.0408. PMC 2839953. PMID 19403539. http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2009/04/27/rspb.2009.0408.abstract.
  12. ^ Zarins, Juris (1990), "Early Pastoral Nomadism and the Settlement of Lower Mesopotamia" (Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research), No. 280 (Nov., 1990), pp. 31-65
  13. ^ Midant-Reynes, Beatrix (2000), The Prehistory of Egypt: From the First Egyptians to the First Pharaohs (Wiley-Blackwell)
  14. ^ Versteegh, Kees (2001) The Arabic language p.13
  15. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993) [1988]. "Hebrew in the context of the Semitic Languages". A History of the Hebrew Language (Historia de la Lengua Hebrea). trans. John Elwolde. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 18–19. ISBN 0-521-55634-1.
  16. ^ Dolgopolsky 1999, p. 29.
  17. ^ Taylor 1997, p. 147.
  18. ^ Woodard 2008, p. 219.
  19. ^ For an example of an author using the traditional symbols, while subscribing to the new sound values, see Hackett, Joe Ann. 2008. Phoenician and Punic. In: The Ancient Languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia (ed. Roger D. Woodard). Likewise Huehnengard, John and Christopher Woods. 2008. Akkadian and Eblaite. In: The Ancient Languages of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Aksum (ed. Roger D. Woodard). P.96: "Similarly, there was a triad of affricates, voiced /dz/ (< z >) voiceless /ts/ (< s >), and emphatic /tsʼ/ (< ṣ >). These became fricatives in later dialects; the voiceless member of this later, fricative set was pronounced [s] in Babylonian, but [š] in Assyrian, while the reflex of Proto-Semitic *š, which was probably simple [s] originally, continued to be pronounced as such in Assyrian, but as [š] in Babylonian." Similarly, an author remaining undecided regarding the sound values of the sibilants will also use the conventional symbols, e.g. Greenberg, Joseph, The Patterning of Root Morphemes in Semitic. 1990. P.379. In: On language: selected writings of Joseph H. Greenberg. Ed. Keith M. Denning and Suzanne Kemme: "There is great uncertainty regarding the phonetic values of s, ś, and š in Proto-Semitic. I simply use them here as conventional transcriptions of the three sibilants corresponding to the sounds indicated by samekh, śin, and šin respectively in Hebrew orthography."
  20. ^ Lipiński, Edward. 2000. Semitic languages: outline of a comparative grammar. E.g. the tables on p.113, p.131; also p.133: "Common Semitic or Proto-Semitic has a voiceless fricative prepalatal or palato-alevolar š, i.e. [ʃ] ...", p.129 ff.
  21. ^ Macdonald, M.C.A. 2008. Ancient North Arabian. In: The Ancient Languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia (ed. Roger D. Woodard). P.190. Likewise most other authors in that volume, who posit the traditional designations and/or sound values for the daughter languages.
  22. ^ E.g. Huehnengard, John. 2008. Afro-Asiatic. In: The Ancient Languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia (ed. Roger D. Woodard). P.229-231
  23. ^ Blau, Joshua (2010). Phonology and Morphology of Biblical Hebrew. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns. p. 25-40.
  24. ^ a b Dolgopolsky 1999, p. 33.
  25. ^ a b c Dolgopolsky 1999, p. 32.
  26. ^ Dolgopolsky 1999, pp. 19, 69-70
  27. ^ "LIN325: Introduction to Semitic Languages. Common Consonant Changes". Archived from the original on 2006-08-21. http://web.archive.org/web/20060821205928/http://www.linguistics.uwa.edu.au/__data/page/71159/Consonants.pdf. Retrieved 2006-06-25.
  28. ^ Dolgopolsky 1999, p. 35.
  29. ^ Dolgopolsky 1999, pp. 85-86.

Bibliography

External links

Categories: Semitic languages | Semitic linguistics | Proto-languages

 

The above information uses material from Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Some facts may not have been fully verified for accuracy. [Disclaimers]
This page was last archived by our server on Thu Sep 15 00:50:26 2011.
Displaying this page or its contents does not use any Wikimedia Foundation's resources.
The owners of this site proudly support the Wikimedia Foundation.

More Information Results for "Proto-semitic"
[Hide]▼
'Proto-semitic' Images
[Hide]▲