Pre-Semitic language

Levant

The ancestral home of the speakers of the Semitic language was placed in Syria , Arabia and Africa . In Syria, however, non-Semitic peoples lived in antiquity (which follows from the geographical names in the ancient Syrian and Old Akkadian texts). Arabia could hardly provide the conditions for increasing the population to the extent necessary for the mass migrations of the Semitic peoples that took place before the camel was domesticated. As for Africa, the appearance of the Semitic peoples on the territory of the Horn of Africa is more likely connected with the conquest and resettlement than with the fact that the Semitic peoples lived there initially ^[2] . I. M. Dyakonov placed the ancestral home of the Semites between Palestine and the Nile Delta ^[3] . According to phylogenetic studies, she was in the Levant ^[4] .

An important role in the search for the ancestral home is played by animals reconstructed for the Prasemitic name. So, the words * dubb- " bear ", * ri'm- " tour " and * pVl- " elephant " are restored , but there are no designations for the camel , ostrich and cheetah , which is an argument against the placement of the ancestral home in Arabia ^[5] .

The prasemites apparently got into their Asian ancestral homeland from northern Africa, the ancestral home of the Afrasian peoples. Their migration is associated with worsening climatic conditions in northern Africa in the middle of the fourth millennium BC. e. It is possible that the disappearance of the Gasul culture was associated with the arrival of prasemites ^[6] .

The disintegration of the Pre-Semitic (separation of the Proto-Semitic from the rest of the massif), according to one hypothesis, dates from approximately the beginning of the V millennium BC. e. ^[7] According to another hypothesis, the decay occurred around 3000 BC. e. and it is associated with the separation of the East Semitic group ( Akkadian and Eblaite languages ) ^[8] .

Phonetics and Phonology

Vowels

Traditionally for Prasemite, three short, three long vowels and two diphthongs are reconstructed ^{[9] [10] [11] [12]} :

The long * ū and * ī were quite rare, mainly in affixes ^[13] .

From the phonological point of view, diphthongs were combinations of a vowel with a consonant ^{[14] [15]} .

Consonants

Consonants of the Pre-Semitic language ^[16] (the parentheses indicate pronunciation in IPA ^[17] ):

• In modern Semitic languages, emphatic consonants are realized as glottalized , pharyngalized, or velarized. Most likely, in Pre-Semitic they sounded like glottalized ^{[18] [12]} .
• Although affricates are not traditionally reconstructed for the Pre-Semitic, some scholars postulate their existence: for example, according to one hypothesis, * ṣ sounded like * c̣ , according to the other, the affricates were also * s and * z, according to the third, * ṯ , * ḏ and * ṱ are interpreted as * č , * ǯ , * c̣ˇ ^[19] .
• A. Faber ( Eng. Alice Faber ) reconstructs the Pre-Semitic * l as a voiced velarized alveolar lateral approximant ^[20] .
• Some scholars are also reconstructing an emphatic fricative bilingual * x̣ ^[12] .

Phonetic correspondence between Semitic languages ^{[21] [22]} :

Prosodion

For the Pre-Semitic language, non-phonemic stress is reconstructed, falling to the third pestilence from the end of the word ^[23] , that is, to the second from the end syllable, if it is a syllable of the structure CVC or CVː (where C is any consonant and V is any vowel), or the third from the end of the syllable, if the second was a CV structure ^[24] .

Morphology

In the Pre-Semitic language, only syllables of the structure CVC , CVː or CV were permissible. The combination of two or more consonants at the beginning and the end of the word, the combination of three or more consonants, the combination of two or more vowels, the presence of long vowels in closed syllables were forbidden ^[25] .

The predominant roots consisted of three consonants. However, apparently, in a historical perspective, the three-consonants evolved from the two-consonants (this is evidenced by the data of both internal reconstruction and external). To obtain a specific grammatical form between the consonants of the root, certain vowels were inserted ^{[26] [27]} . Moreover, certain restrictions were imposed on the root structure: roots with the same first and second consonants were impossible and roots with the same first and third consonants were extremely rare ^[28] .

Morphology

Noun

Three cases are reconstructed: nominative (indicator * -u ), genitive (indicator * -i ), accusative (indicator * -a ) ^{[29] [30]} .

There were two kinds: male (zero indicator) and female (indicators * -at / * -t and * -ah / -ā ) ^{[31] [32]} . The feminine indicator was set after the root, but before the end, for example: * ba'l- “master, lord”> * ba'lat- “mistress, mistress”, * bin- “son”> * bint- “daughter” ^{[12 ]} . In addition, there was a small group of feminine nouns that did not have formal indicators: * 'imm- “mother”, * laxir- “sheep”, *' atān- “donkey”, * 'ayn- “eye”, * birk- “ the knee ” ^[33] .

There were three numbers: singular, plural and dual (only for nouns) ^[32] .

There were two ways to form the plural ^[34] :

• external education
  • in masculine nouns, the nominative case was formed using the * -ū indicator, in the genitive and accusative * -ī , that is, by lengthening the singular indicator;
  • in feminine nouns, the plural is also formed by lengthening the vowel - using the * -āt indicator;
• internal education (by changing the model of vocalization of a word, as, for example, in Arabic: kātib “scribe” - kuttāb “scribe”) - only for the masculine.

The dual number was formed using the * -ā indicators in the nominative and * -āy genitive and accusative cases ^[35] .

Noun endings ^[36] :

Numeral

Reconstruction of quantitative numerals of the first ten (masculine) ^{[37] [38] [39]} :

All the numerals of the first ten were inclined according to the single number of nouns, except for the numeral "two", which changed according to the dual number . From all the numerals of the first ten, female forms were formed using the suffix * -at . Moreover, if the countable object was feminine, then the numerals from 3 to 10 with it stood in the masculine gender and vice versa ^[40] .

The names of the numerals from 11 to 19 were formed by adding the names of the units with the word "ten." “Twenty” was the dual of “ten,” and the names of tens from 30 to 90 were plural forms of the corresponding unit names. In addition, the prasemitic origin and the Semitic names are one hundred ( * mi't- ), thousands ( * li'm- ) and ten thousand ( * ribb- ) ^{[41] [38]} .

Ordinary numerals for parent languages ​​are not reconstructed due to the great diversity in the languages ​​of the descendants ^[39] .

Pronoun

Personal pronouns ^{[42] [43]} :

In Semitic languages, there are also suffixal forms of personal pronouns, joining nouns, verbs and prepositions ^{[44] [45]} :

In Semitic languages, demonstrative pronouns are usually divided into two series: indicating a closer subject and a more distant one ^[46] . Nevertheless, it is extremely difficult to derive Prasemitic forms from the forms of demonstrative pronouns of individual Semitic languages ^[47] .

For the Pre-Semitic, a number of interrogative pronouns are reconstructed: * man “who”, * mā “what” and * 'ayyu “what” (formed from *' ay “where”) ^{[48] [49] [50]} .

Verb

Traditionally, two conjugations are reconstructed for the Pre-Semitic language - prefixal and suffixal ^[51] . According to the hypothesis, which was widely supported, according to prefixal conjugation, the verbs expressing the action changed, and according to the suffixal conjugation, the state changed ^[52] .

Prefix conjugation ^{[53] [54]} :

Suffix conjugation ^[55] :

Verbal stems are divided into basic ( German: Grundstamm ) and derivatives. The basic ones consist of a three-consonant root with thematic vowels. Among the derivatives there are foundations with a double middle consonant ( German: Doppelungsstamm ), foundations with an elongated first vowel, causative foundations (formed by the prefix * ša- ), foundations with the prefix * na- / * ni- , foundations with the suffix * -tV- , stems consisting of doubled biconsonant root, stems with doubled last consonant ^{[56] [57] [58]} .

From the basic foundations, active participle was formed according to the CāCiC model, passive according to the CaCīC and CaCūC models ^[59] .

The participles were derived from the derivatives of the foundations of the participles using the prefix * mu- , vowel active was ai, passive aa ^[60] (according to this model, for example, the Arabic name muḥammad from the root ḥmd “praise, praise” ^{[61] is formed} ).

The imperative was formed only for the second person, and the pure basis served as the form of imperative mood in the singular masculine ^[62] :

Unions

For the Pre-Semitic language, three unions are reconstructed ^[63] :

• * wa "and";
• * 'aw "or";
• * šimmā “if”.

Syntax

Pre-Semitic was the language of the nominative system , which is preserved in most descendant languages ^[64] .

The basic word order for the Pre-Semitic language is VSO ( predicate - subject - direct complement ), the defining word usually follows the definable ^{[65] [39]} .

Vocabulary

The reconstruction of prasemitic vocabulary helps to learn more about the life and life of prasemites, and also helps in the search for their ancestral home .

Thus, religious terms are known ( * 'il “ god ”, * ḏbḥ “perform sacrifice ”, * mšḥ “ anointing ”, * ḳdš “be sacred”, * *rm “prohibit, excommunicate” * ṣalm- “ idol ”), agricultural terms ( * ḥaḳl- “field”, * ḥrṯ “plow”, * ḏrʻ “sow”, * ʻṣṣd “press”, * dyš “hammer”, * ḏrw “blow”, * gurn- “ threshing floor ”, * ḥinṭ- “ wheat ”, * Kunāṯ- “ emmer ”, * duḫn- “ millet ”), livestock terms ( * 'immar- “ ram ”, * raḫil- “ sheep ”, *' inz- “ goat ”, * śaw- “ flock of sheep ” , * ṣ́a'n- “flock of sheep and goats”, * gzz “shear the sheep”, * r'y “shepherd”, * š « y “drive to the watering place”, * 'alp- “bull”, * ṯawr- “buffalo” , * ḫzr- / * ḫnzr- pig », * kalb-« Dog », * ḥimār-« donkey », * 'atān-« donkey », * ḥalab-« milk », * lašad-« cream », * ḫim'at-« Oil "), the terms of everyday life ( * bayt- “house”, * dalt- “ door ”, * kussi'- “ chair ”, * 'arś- “ bed ”, * kry “dig”, * bi'r- “ well ”, * śrp “ kindle ”, * 'iš- “ fire ”, * ḳly “ fry ”, * laḥm- “ food ”), technological terms ( * ṣrp “ melt ”, * paḥḥam- “ coal ”, * kasp- “ silver ”, * kupr - “ bitumen ”, * kuḥl- “ antimony ”, * napṭ- “ oil ”, * ḥabl- “rope”, * ḳašt- “ bow ”, * ḥaṱw- “ arrow ”). Many words are useful for locating the Semitic ancestral homeland ( * ti'n- “ figs ”, * ṯūm- “ garlic ”, * ba лукal- “ onion ”, * tam (a) r- “ palm ”, * dibš- “date honey” , * buṭn- “ pistachio ”, * ṯaḳid- “ almonds ”, * kammūn- “ caraway seeds ”) ^{[66] [67]} .

In the words * ṯawr- “buffalo” and * ḳarn- “horn” borrowings from the pre-Indo-European language are suspected ^[66] or vice versa (for * ṯawr- and some other words) ^[68] . In addition, S. A. Starostin gives dozens of Semitic-Indo-European correspondences, which he considers to be borrowings in Prasemite from the Pra-Anatolian or disappeared branch of the Pra-Indo-European language ^[69] .

Comments

Sources

• Прасемитские корни в Викисловаре
• Этимология некоторых семитских корней

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• Kogan L. Proto-Semitic Phonetics and Phonology // The Semitic languages. — Berlin — Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2011. — ISBN 978-3-11-018613-0
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