Re: articles

On Jan 30, 2005, at 5:05 PM, # 1 wrote:
> For the Semitic languages, their proximity of the IE languages allows
> to
> think that could be a borrowing
> Did Hebrew had articles?
Many Semitic languages have had definite articles, including both
Biblical and Modern Hebrew and Aramaic, and Classical and Modern
Arabic.

There were some ancient Semitic languages that seem to have had a
suffixed /m/ or /n/ definite article.

There are some theories about the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic articles.
  Some say that they all descend from one original particle */hal/,
while others explain them differently.  I remember learning one theory
that claims that instead of viewing the Arabic definite article as an
/al/ that sometimes assimilates to dental consonants:
|albayt| "the house"  vs.  |arrajul| "the man"
Instead, the basic function of definiteness is carried by the geminated
consonant! (cf. Hebrew, where the definte article is always
|ha|+gemination, except with gutturals, and never with an extra /l/).

ObConlang:

I decided to use that theory for my Semiticonlang, where definiteness
is marked by gemination (with sometimes an initial epenthetic /@/) and
the remains of case-ending vowel + /n/ at the end:
[p>ujo~] /p>bjo~/  (<*/p>@bjom/) = 'a gazelle'
[m=p>uj7~] /pp>bj7~/ (<*/(@)p>p>@bjon/) = 'the gazelle'
[p>uj7~] /p>bj7~/ (<*/p>@bjon/) = 'Gazelle' as a name

([p>uj...] is cognate to Hebrew /ts)@bi/ |Tzvi| and Arabic /D>abi:/)

I'm still undecided whether those /7/s should be nasalized, though.
Maybe the definite one could be nasalized, and the semidefinite (name)
one could be non-nasalized?  Or the other way around?


-Stephen (Steg)
  "wait for me to come back
   tomorrow i'll be home
   i'm sick of perfecting the world
   in a land of strife
   wait for me to come back
   it's good to be at home
   they were all blood-brothers
   the road back looks pretty nice"
      ~ 'hhaki li she'ehhzor' by etnix and/or eyal golan