Re: 'Arabiiya

On Mon, 24 Sep 2001 20:55:57 EDT David Peterson <DigitalScream@...>
writes:
>     But, now I have a question which really has been teasing me for
> awhile
> but which I never voiced.  What's the deal with Arabic and Hebrew
> and all
> Semitic languages?  If we are to assume that Arabic did NOT descend
> into
> humanity via Allah talking to Muhammad (and that, consequently,
> Hebrew and
> Aramaic and all somehow arose from this), then how did the
> triconsonantal
> system come about?  It seems so artificial and unnatural to me that
> people
> naturally speaking language would sort of naturally decide that (a)
> it was
> the consonants that were important as to specific semantic
> categories, and
> (b) vowels moved in and around them in ways that unite semantic
> specifications with syntactic and schematic/thematic patterns.  It
> seems like
> it's a constructed language.  I mean, let's take w-l-d, for example.
> walad=child
> waalid=father
> waalida=mother
> awlaad=children
> walada=to give birth (I believe.  The verb is correct, but the form
> may be
> something else...)
>     Now, anyone can see how these semantic ideas are interrelated.
> But in
> any natural language are any of these all derived from the same
> word?  For
> myself, I'm going to list some examples I know (you can ignore):
>     So, my big question is: What's the deal?  Has anyone done a lot
> study on
> Semitic languages?  How did ordinary human beings naturally develop
> this
> system and, what's more, preserve it?  It absolutely mystifies me.
> -Dawuud
-

I dunno... the Semitic system seems perfectly logical to me...  it's very
'unique', but i'm sure that all the languages that *don't* work by
triconsonantal patterning seem strange to native Semitic speakers.
Btw, your examples above in Hebrew:
yeled = boy
yalda = girl
av = father
eim = mother
laledet = to give birth (leholid = to beget)

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.

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.


-Stephen (Steg)
 "your revolution isn't worth my life"