Re: A Self-segregating morphology (was: Guinea pigs invited)

On Mon, 19 Dec 2005 17:30, Gary Shannon wrote:
> --- Patrick Littell <puchitao@...> wrote:
> > On 12/18/05, Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...> wrote:
> > > --- Larry Sulky <larrysulky@...> wrote:
> > > > Y'all are inventing Arabic, right?  :-)
<snip>
>
> But it was my understanding that the Arabic alphabet
> didn't include vowels. Ot maybe it was that Arabic
> words were spelled without vowels. Anyway, I didn't
> think Arabic used vowels to alter the meaning of
> roots. I'm probably wrong on all three of those
> counts.
All the Semitic languages apart from Akkadian and its descendants Assyrian and
Babylonian, used a vowelless writing system.  Arabic uses a development of
the Aramaic script via Syriac.

All Semitic languages to the best of my knowledge, use a triconsonantal with
two vowels to express basic verbal ideas, adding complexity and additional
consonants and vowels to express more complex ideas.

My knowledge of Semitic doesn't extend much beyond a bit of Hebrew and a bit
of Arabic, but that's the way it goes.

Wesley Parish
>
> --gary
--
Clinersterton beademung, with all of love - RIP James Blish
-----
Mau e ki, he aha te mea nui?
You ask, what is the most important thing?
Maku e ki, he tangata, he tangata, he tangata.
I reply, it is people, it is people, it is people.

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