Re: 'Arabiiya

In a message dated 9/24/01 11:00:01 PM, draqonfayir@JUNO.COM writes:

<< I dunno... the Semitic system seems perfectly logical to me... >>

    I never said it wasn't logical--in fact, I find it to be the most logical
ever, which is why I found it so easy to learn, despite the fact that it's so
vastly different from any other language I'd studied up to that point.
However, "logical" isn't something that can often be attributed to many of
the world's languages, especially in such a large way; that's why I was
suggesting that it was unnatural.

<<I seem to remember learning recently in Arabic class that like Hebrew,
the word for "father" is _ab_.  I assume that _waalid(a)_ are some kind
of 'technical' term.>>

    Not so.  "Ab" is the word for "dad"--specifically, what you'd use with
your own dad.  If you were talking about your dad to someone else you'd use
"waalid".  At least, this is the pattern that popped up with the tapes of
native speakers that were played for us.

<<I read once somewhere the theory that originally, Afro-Asiatic had
*bi*consonantal roots - and that plus vowel and affix patterns makes it
not much more 'strange' than Indo-European.  Only afterwards, due to
compounding and addition of third radicals did the Semitic triconsonantal
pattern emerge.>>

    Wow!  That would make it make more sense...  Is there anywhere I can
hear/read more about this?

-David