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Proto-Semitic is the hypothetical proto-language of the Semitic languages.
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Dating
The earliest attestations of a Semitic language are in Akkadian, dating to ca. the 23rd century BC (see Sargon of Akkad) and Eblaite. Early inscriptions in the (pre-)Proto-Canaanite alphabet, presumably by speakers of a Semitic language, date to ca. 1800 BC. The specific appearance of the donkey (an African animal) in proto-Semitic but total absence of any reference to wheeled vehicles rather narrowly dates proto-Semitic to between 4,800 BP and 4,500 BP.[citation needed]
Homeland
The Semitic Urheimat is suggested by some to be in the Middle East; more specifically, Kienast (2001) advocates the Arabian peninsula. The East and West Semitic branches spread to Mesopotamia and the Levant during the Bronze Age, while South Semitic speakers migrated to Africa before the 8th century BC (see Dʿmt) via the Yemen gap. This is also supported by the presence of nouns in proto Semitic that seemingly make an African orign for the language impossible - ice, oak, horse and camel.The camel and horse did not arrive in Africa until nearly two thousand years after Semitic languages were being written in the Mesopotamia area.
Other people suggest 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. The presence of ice and four different words for hill also suggest a colder more mountainous area than Arabia. Eblaite, one of the oldest Semitic languages, when deciphered had almost no non Afro Asiatic nouns in its lexicon, suggesting a very long presence in the Syria area. Bitumen and Naptha 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.
Yet others believe that the first prehistoric speakers of the ancestral Proto-Semitic language came from Africa. In historic times, the Semitic languages spread throughout the region via migrations from Arabia that displaced and subjugated the local populations. This alternative scenario makes Ethiopia the Proto-Semitic homeland[1].
Since Semitic is a branch of Afro-Asiatic, the question of the Proto-Afro-Asiatic homeland is a related debate.
More recently, Juris Zarins has suggested that the development of a Circum-Arabian Nomadic Pastoral Complex of cultures developed in the period of the 6,200 BCE climatic crisis, stretching from Southern Palestine down the Red Sea shoreline, and northeastward into Syria and Iraq, spread Proto-Semitic languages through the region[2]. This complex may have developed from the fusion of Harifian and Pre-Pottery Neolithic B cultures in Southern Palestine. 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. Given the fact that Semitic is most closely related to the Ancient Egyptian language of all the Afro-Asiatic languages, this origin is also distinctly possible. However, regarding resemblances among language subgroups, recent "research into the lexicon would seem to suggest a closer relationship between Chadic and ancient Egyptian".[3] More recent study using techniques in bayesian phylogenetic analysis, identifies a place of origin in the Levant, giving rise to the most basal of Semitic languages in Akkadian.[4]
Sound system
Proto-Semitic is generally reconstructed as having the following phonemes (as usually transcribed in Semitology; tentative IPA values are given in square brackets)[5]:
| Labial | Inter- dental |
Dental/ Alveolar |
Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Pharyn- geal |
Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central | Lateral | |||||||||
| Nasal | *m [m] | *n [n] | ||||||||
| Plosive | voiceless | *p [p] | *t [t] | *k [k] | *’ [ʔ] | |||||
| voiced | *b [b] | *d [d] | *g [g] | |||||||
| emphatic | *ṭ [tʼ] | *q [kʼ] | ||||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | *ṯ [θ] | *s [s] | *ś [ɬ] | *š [ʃ] | *ḫ [x] | *ḥ [ħ] | *h [h] | ||
| voiced | *ḏ [ð] | *z [z] | *ġ [ɣ] | *ʻ [ʕ] | ||||||
| emphatic | *ṱ [θʼ] | *ṣ [sʼ] | *ṣ́ [ɬʼ] | |||||||
| Trill | *r [r] | |||||||||
| Approximant | *l [l] | *y [j] | *w [w] | |||||||
Notes:
- Nowadays it has become more fashionable to reconstruct *z, *s, *ṣ, and sometimes *ṣ́ as affricates, i.e. [dz], [ts], [tsʼ], and [tɬʼ]. If these sounds were affricates, many scholars are inclined to think that š was really a simple [s].
- The sounds notated here as "emphatic" sounds occur in nearly all Semitic languages, as well as in most other Afroasiatic languages, are generally reconstructed as glottalized in Proto-Semitic. [nb 1] In modern Semitic languages, they are variously realized as pharyngealized (Arabic, Aramaic), glottalized (Ethiopian Semitic languages, Modern South Arabian languages), or as unaspirated (Turoyo of Tur-Abdin)[6]; Modern Hebrew and Maltese are exceptions to this general retention, with all emphatics merging into plain consonants.
- 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.
Labial plosive series
An emphatic labial occurs in some Semitic languages but it is unclear whether it was a phoneme in Proto-Semitic.
Hebrew developed an emphatic /ṗ/ phoneme to represent unaspirated /p/ in Iranian and Greek.[7]
Ge'ez is unique among Semitic languages for contrasting all three of /p/, /f/, and /pʼ/. While /p/ and /pʼ/ mostly occur in loanwords (especially Greek), there are many other occurrences where the origin is less clear (e.g. hepʼä 'strike', häppälä 'wash clothes').[8]
Sibilants
As stated above, some reconstruct the sibilants *z, *s, *ṣ, *š with the sound values [dz, ts, tsʼ, s]. There are many sources of evidence which lend this theory plausibility:
- The sign from the Old Akkadian script representing s, z, ṣ was borrowed by other languages (e.g. Hittite) to represent affricates [9]
- In Akkadian underlying ||t, d, ṭ + š|| was realized as ss. This is much more natural if the law was phonetically ||t, d, ṭ + [s]|| → [tts]. [9]
- The Canaanite sound change of *ṯ → *š is also much more natural if *š was [s].[citation needed]
- Egyptian transcriptions of Semitic names and loanwords render *z, *s, *ṣ as dz and ts.
- Aramaic and Syriac had an affricated realization of *ṣ up to some point, as seen in Old Armenian loanwords (e.g. Aram. צרר 'bundle, bunch' → OArm. 'crar' /tsɹaɹ/)). [9]
- Ethiopic languages and Hebrew (in many reading traditions) still have an affricate for *ṣ. [10]
- Older Semitic borrowings in Armenian have also /tsʰ/ and /dz/ for *s and *z. [10]
- Other branches of Afro-Asiatic also have affricates corresponding to these consonants, and /*s/ for PS /*š/.[citation needed]
In addition to this, the non-sibilant *ṣ́ (but not its non-emphatic counterpart *ś) can also be reconstructed as an affricate, [tɬʼ].
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.[11]
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.
| 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]→[ʤ]1 | g |  |
g | ג | ḡ/g | /ɡ/ | ג | ḡ/g | ገ | /g/ | /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 [tˁ] | ṭ |  |
ṭ | ט | ṭ | /t/ | ט | ṭ | ጠ | /tʼ/ | /tˁ/ |
| *ḳ | q | ق | q | ḳ |  |
q | ק | q | /k/ | ק | q | ቀ | /kʼ/ | /q/ |
| *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 [ðˁ] | ṱ→ġ |  |
ṣ | צ | ṣ | /ts/ | צ4/ט | ṱ4/ṭ | ጸ | /tsʼ/ | /θˁ/ |
| *ṣ | ص | ṣ [sˁ] | ṣ | צ | ṣ | /sˁ/ | ||||||||
| *ṣ́ | ض | ḍ [ɮˁ]→[dˁ]1 | ע | ʻ | ፀ | /ɬʼ/ | /ɬˁ/ | |||||||
| *ġ | - | غ | ġ | 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:
- 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]→[ʤ]).
- Proto-Semitic *ś appears to have merged with *s in Tiberian Hebrew, but is still distinguished graphically.
- Biblical Hebrew as of the 3rd century BCE apparently still distinguished ġ and ḫ (based on transcriptions in the Septuagint).
- 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.[12] (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.)
- 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)[13].
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:
| 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 | |||
- in a stressed open syllable
- in a stressed closed syllable before a geminate
- in a stressed closed syllable before a consonant cluster
- when the proto-Semitic stressed vowel remained stressed
- pS *a,*ā → Akk. e,ē in the neighborhood of pS *ʕ,*ħ and before r.
- I.e. pS *g,*k,*ḳ,*χ → Ge'ez gʷ,kʷ,ḳʷ,χʷ / _u
Correspondence of Sounds with other Afro-Asiatic languages
See table at Proto-Afro-Asiatic#Consonant correspondences.
Grammar
Independent Personal Pronouns
| English | PS | Akkadian | Arabic | Ge'ez | Hebrew | Aramaic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | *ʔanāku[nb 3], *ʔaniya | anāku | ʔanā, ʔāniy | ʔana | ʔānoxiy, ʔāniy | ʔanā |
| You (sg., masc.) | *ʔanka → *ʔanta | atta | ʔanta | ʔánta | ʔattāh | ʔantā |
| You (sg., fem.) | *ʔanti | atti | ʔanti | ʔánti | ʔatt | ʔanti |
| He | *suwa | sū | huwa | wəʔətu | huwʔ | huwʔ |
| She | *siya | sī | hiya | yəʔəti | hiyʔ | hiyʔ |
| We | *niyaħnū, *niyaħnā | nīnu | naħnu, niħnā | nəħnā | ʔanaħnuw | náħnā |
| You (dual) | *ʔantunā | ʔantumā | ||||
| They (dual) | *sunā | humā | ||||
| You (pl., masc.) | *ʔantunū | attunu | ʔantumu | ʔantəmu | ʔattem | ʔantun |
| You (pl., fem.) | *ʔantinā | attina | ʔantunna | ʔantən | ʔatten | ʔanten |
| They (masc.) | *sunū | sunu | humu | ʔəmuntu | hēm | hinnun |
| They (fem.) | *sinā | sina | hunna | ʔəmāntu | hēn | hinnin |
Cardinal numerals
| English | Proto-Semitic |
|---|---|
| One | *ħad-, *ʕist- |
| Two | *θn-, *kilʔ- |
| Three | *ɬalāθ-[nb 4] |
| Four | *rabaʕ- |
| Five | *xams- |
| Six | *sidθ- |
| Seven | *sabʕ- |
| Eight | *θamān- |
| Nine | *tisʕ- |
| Ten | *ʕaɬr- |
Notes
- ^ This explains why there is no voicing distinction in the emphatic series (which wouldn't be necessary if the emphatics were pharyngealized).
- ^ see Canaanite shift
- ^ 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.)
- ^ This root underwent long-distance assimilation to *θalāθ- in the Central Semitic languages. This parallels the long-distance assimilation of *ś...š→*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.)
References
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ Appleyard, David L. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 64, No. 1 (2001), pp. 151-152
- ^ Kitchen, Andrew, Christopher Ehret, et al. 2009. "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 no. 1665 (June 22)
- ^ 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.
- ^ Dolgopolsky 1999, p. 29.
- ^ Taylor 1997, p. 147.
- ^ Woodard 2008, p. 219.
- ^ a b c Dolgopolsky 1999, p. 32.
- ^ a b Dolgopolsky 1999, p. 33.
- ^ Dolgopolsky 1999, pp. 19, 69-70
- ^ "LIN325: Introduction to Semitic Languages. Common Consonant Changes". http://www.linguistics.uwa.edu.au/__data/page/71159/Consonants.pdf. Retrieved on 2006-06-25.
- ^ Dolgopolsky 1999, p. 35.
- ^ Dolgopolsky 1999, pp. 85-86.
Bibliography
- Burkhart Kienast, Historische semitische Sprachwissenschaft (2001).
- Dolgopolsky, Aron (1999). From Proto-Semitic to Hebrew. Milan: Centro Studi Camito-Semitici di Milano.
- Taylor; Francis (1997). The Semitic languages. Cambridge University Press. pp. 572. ISBN 0415057671.
- Woodard, Roger (2008). The Ancient Languages of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Aksum. Cambridge University Press. pp. 250. ISBN 0521684978.
See also
External links
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