Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T08:20:43.908Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Father, brother, and father-in-law as III-w nouns in Semitic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2016

Aren Wilson-Wright
Aren Wilson-Wright*
Affiliation:
University of Texas
*
wilsonwright@utexas.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this paper, I argue that the Semitic kinship terms *ʔab-‘father’, *ʔaḫ- ‘brother’, and *ḥam- ‘father-in-law’ originally ended in a w, which left traces in several of their forms. In the singular, the w contracted with the case vowels leaving a distinctive pattern of short and long vowels in the unbound, bound, and suffixal forms. In the plural, the w was retained in several languages due to the insertion of an a-vowel between the final two root consonants, a common Afro-Asiatic pluralization strategy: *ʔabw- > *ʔabaw. I further suggest that the West Semitic plural morpheme -aw was derived by analogy with the plurals *ʔabaw and *ʔaḫaw, and is not, as commonly suggested, an inherited Semitic or Afro-Asiatic plural marker.

Keywords

Proto-SemiticKinship termsIII-w nounsBi-consonantal rootsBroken plurals
Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 79 , Issue 1 , February 2016 , pp. 23 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS, University of London 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, James P. 2013. The Ancient Egyptian Language: An Historical Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barth, Jacob. 1887. “Vergleichende Studien: I. Über biliterale Nomina”, ZDMG, 41, 603–41.Google Scholar
Bauer, Hans. 1915. “Semitische Sprachprobleme: 5. Die Verwandtschaftsnamen und ilāh ‘Gott’ im Semitischen”, ZDMG 69, 561.Google Scholar
Bauer, Hans and Leander, Pontus. 1962. Historische Grammatik der hebräischen Sprache des Alten Testaments. Halle: Max Niemeyer. Reprint from 1922 original.Google Scholar
Beeston, A.F.L. 1962. A Descriptive Grammar of Epigraphic South Arabian. London: Luzac & Company.Google Scholar
Beeston, A.F.L. 1984. Sabaic Grammar. Manchester: University of Manchester.Google Scholar
Brockelmann, Carl. 1908. Grundriβ der vergleichenden Grammatik der semitischen Sprachen. 2 vols. Berlin: von Reuther und Reichard.Google Scholar
Cross, Frank Moore. 2003. “Some problems of Old Hebrew orthography with special attention to the third masculine singular suffix on plural nouns [-âw]”, Eretz Israel 27, 18–24.Google Scholar
del Olmo Lete, Gregorio (trans. Watson, Wilfred G.E.). 2008. Questions of Semitic Linguistics: Root and Lexeme. The History of Research. Bethesda, MD: CDL Press.Google Scholar
Dillmann, A., Bezold, Carl, and Crichton, James A.. 2003. Ethiopic Grammar. 2nd ed.Eugene: Wipf & Stock.Google Scholar
Dolgopolsky, Aharon B. 1978. “On phonemic stress in Proto-Semitic”, Israel Oriental Studies 8, 1–12.Google Scholar
Fassberg, Stephen. 1990. A Grammar of the Palestinian Targum Fragments from the Cairo Genizah. (Harvard Semitic Studies 38.) Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.Google Scholar
Fischer, W. 1987. Grammatik des klassichen Arabisch. (Porta Linguarum Orientalium, neu Serie, 11.) Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Fox, Joshua. 2003. Semitic Noun Patterns. (Harvard Semitic Studies 52.) Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.Google Scholar
Gelb, Ignace J. et al. (eds). 1956–2011. Assyrian Dictionary. Chicago: University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Gesenius, W. et al. 1987. Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Greenberg, Joseph H. 1955. “Internal a-plurals in Afroasiatic (Hamito-Semitic)”, in Lukas, Johannes (ed.), Afrikanistische Studien Diedrich Westermann zum 80. Geburtstag gewidmet. Berlin: Akademie Verlag.Google Scholar
Hasselbach, Rebecca. 2005. Sargonic Akkadian: A Historical and Comparative Study of the Syllabic Texts. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Hasselbach, Rebecca. 2007. “External plural markers in Semitic: a new assessment”, in Miller, Cynthia L. (ed.), Studies in Semitic and Afroasiatic Linguistics Presented to Gene B. Gragg. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Huehnergard, John. 1991. “Remarks on the classification of the Northwest Semitic languages”, in Hoftijzer, Jacob and Van der Kooij, Gerrit (eds), The Balaam Text from Deir ʿAlla Re-evaluated: Proceedings of the International Symposium Held at Leiden 21–24 August 1989, 282–93. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Huehnergard, John. 2006. “Proto-Semitic and Proto-Akkadian”, in Deutscher, G. and Kouwenberg, N.J.C. (eds), The Akkadian Language in Its Semitic Context: Studies in the Akkadian of the Third and Second Millennium. Leiden: NINO.Google Scholar
Huehnergard, John. 2008a. “Afro-Asiatic”, in Woodard, Roger D. (ed.), The Ancient Languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia, 225–46. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Huehnergard, John. 2008b. Ugaritic Vocabulary in Syllabic Transcription. Rev. ed. (Harvard Semitic Studies 32.) Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.Google Scholar
Huehnergard, John. 2010. Introduction to the Comparative Study of the Semitic Languages. Unpublished Manuscript, Austin.Google Scholar
Kuryɬowicz, Jerzy. 1945–49. “La nature des proces dits ‘analogique’”, Acta Linguistica 5, 15–37.Google Scholar
Layton, Bentley. 2004. A Coptic Grammar with Chrestomathy and Grammar: Sahidic Dialect. 2nd ed. (Porta Linguarum Orientalium 20.) Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Lipiński, Edward. 2001. Semitic Languages: Outline of a Comparative Grammar. Second ed. (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 80.) Leuven: Peeters.Google Scholar
Newman, Paul. 1990. Nominal and Verbal Plurality in Chadic. Dordrecht: Foris Publications.Google Scholar
Nöldeke, Theodor. 1875. Manäische Grammatik. Halle: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses.Google Scholar
Nöldeke, Theodor. 1910. “Zweiradikalige Substantive”, in Nöldeke, Theodor (ed.), Neue Beiträge zur semitischen Sprachwissenschaft, 109–78. Strasbourg: K.J. Trübner.Google Scholar
Orel, Vladimir E. and Stolbova, Olga V.. 1995. Hamito-Semitic Etymological Dictionary: Materials for a Reconstruction. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Palmer, F.R. 1962. The Morphology of the Tigre Noun. (London Oriental Series 13.) London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ratcliffe, Robert R. 1998. “Defining morphological isoglosses: the ‘broken’ plural and Semitic subclassification”, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 57, 81–123.Google Scholar
Raz, Schlomo. 1983. Tigre Grammar and Texts. (Afroasiatic Dialects 4.) Malibu: Undena.Google Scholar
Reiner, Erica. 1966. A Linguistic Analysis of Akkadian. The Hague: Mouton & Co.Google Scholar
Ringe, Donald. 1999. “How hard is it to match CVC-roots?”, Transactions of the Philological Society, 97, 213–44.Google Scholar
Steiner, Richard. 2011. Early Northwest Semitic Serpent Spells in the Pyramid Texts. (Harvard Semitic Studies 61.) Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.Google Scholar
Steiner, Richard. 2012. “Vowel syncope and syllable repair processes in Proto-Semitic construct forms: a new reconstruction based on the law of diminishing conditioning”, in Hasselbach, Rebecca and Pat-El, Na'ama (eds), Language and Nature: Papers Presented to John Huehnergard on the Occasion of his 60th Birthday, 365–90. Chicago: The Oriental Institute.Google Scholar
Soden, W. von. 1995. Grudriss der akkadischen Grammatik. 3rd ed. (Analecta Orientalia 33.) Rome: Pontifico Istituto Biblico.Google Scholar
Voigt, Rainer. 2001. “Semitische Verwandtschaftstermini”, in Zaborski, Andrzej (ed.), New Data and New Methods in Afroasiatic Linguistics: Robert Hetzron in Memoriam, 205–18. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Watson, Janet C.E. 2012. The Structure of Mehri. (Semitica Viva 52.) Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Wilson-Wright, Aren. 2014. “The word for ‘one’ in Proto-Semitic”, Journal of Semitic Studies 59, 1–13.Google Scholar
Zaborski, Andrzej. 1986. The Morphology of Nominal Plural in the Cushitic Languages. (Beiträge zur Afrikanistik 28.) Vienna: Afro-Pub.Google Scholar