Re: Proto-Semitic (was Re: markjjones@HOTMAIL.COM)
| From: | Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@...> |
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| Date: | Friday, March 11, 2005, 15:05 |
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On Mar 11, 2005, at 2:55 AM, Rob Haden wrote:
> I have a couple more speculations on Proto-Semitic.
> First off, I wonder if the Arabic indefinite ending -n and the Akkadian
> singular ending -m are related. Perhaps also the Hebrew plural in
> -im, but
> that is problematic, as the other two languages have it for singular.
> So
> my theory is that word-final -m in Arabic became -n, hardly a rare
> sound
> change. Presumably, in Proto-Semitic, it was a 'singulative' marker or
> somesuch.
According to the theory i learned, |-m| and |-n| were both definiteness
markers, which in some languages lost their definite strength and
became indefinite markers. This is also supposed to be the origin of
the few Hebrew adverbs in |-am|, like _hhinam_ "for free", _reiqam_
"empty". The original plural marker they say was just the long vowel,
so Hebrew |-im| developed from |-i-m|.
-Stephen (Steg)