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The origin of the Semitic relative marker

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 July 2018

John Huehnergard  and
Na‘ama Pat-El
John Huehnergard*
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin
Na‘ama Pat-El*
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin
*
huehnergard@austin.utexas.edu
npatel@austin.utexas.edu
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Abstract

All Semitic languages use a relative marker as at least one strategy of relativization, and all branches show reflexes or relics of reflexes of an interdental relative marker. The wide consensus that the relative pronoun was originally identical to the proximal demonstrative is based on the formal identity between the bases of the two in West Semitic, and on the wide attestation of the process Demonstrative > Relative in world languages. In this paper, we will show that there are a number of significant problems with the reconstruction of the relative pronoun, which, when taken together, make tracing its origin to the demonstrative highly unlikely. Instead we will argue that the opposite is true: the demonstrative in West Semitic is a secondary formation on the basis of the relative marker.

Keywords

Semitic linguisticsHistorical linguisticsRelativeDemonstrativeReconstruction
Type
Article
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 81 , Issue 2 , June 2018 , pp. 191 - 204
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS, University of London 2018 

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