Re: Hebrew and Semitic questions

On Wed, 12 Feb 2003 17:38:08 -0600 Danny Wier <dawier@...>
writes:
> Not too long ago, I found something I've been searching for years. A
> whole
> wealth of info on general Semitic and specific Hebrew linguistics.
> Most of my questions have already been answered, except one:
-

First of all, is there any extensive info in there about Proto-Semitic?
:-)

> How do pausal forms work in Hebrew? Also, what are construct forms
> and how are
> they expressed in the different Semitic languages (I only know
> Arabic)?
-

Eh.... those are sort of complicated :-P
In short, pausal forms usually involve lengthening of the stressed vowel:
[t.al] 'dew' >> [t.O:l]
However, segolates (CeCeC patterns) change their first vowel from [E] to
[O:]:
[SEBEr] 'break' >> [SO:BEr]
But, beyond that i don't know very much.

Hebrew Construct forms:
masculine singular - no change
masculine plural - change [i:m] ending to [ej]
feminine singular - change [O:] ending to [aT]
feminine plural - no change
*But*, the words are combined into a single phonological unit, so some
rules kick in that change the first vowel of the word to [@] if it's
[O:].

Only the changes of endings in construct forms are still valid in Modern
Israeli Hebrew, where they're realized as [im]>[ej] and [a]>[at].
You should probably find a better source than me, though.  I can't figure
out much more than that.


-Stephen (Steg)
 "The Rat's Ass shall be given unto thee on many occasions -
  but yea, none of them this day."
     ~ matidjahu

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