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

Gary Shannon wrote:

> "Binyamin", and only one short, and rather vague PDF
> article on "binyamin", so I didn't have much to go on.
> But the concept is an interesting one for sure.
Sorry to interfere, the thing you are talking about, is called "binyaNIM",
not "binyamin". This is plural for "binyan", and it is Hebrew for
"building". The same thing in Arabic is called "naw3", usually translated
into English as "stem".

> But it was my understanding that the Arabic alphabet
> didn't include vowels.
It does not. But certain consonants are used to indicate presence of long
vowels. They are called "matres lectionis" (mothers of reading) in this
function.

> Ot maybe it was that Arabic
> words were spelled without vowels.
Short vowels are not indicated in spelling. Long vowel usually are (see
above). Presence of /a:/ is indicated with letter |?| (alif), /i:/ - |y|,
/u:/ - |w|.

> Anyway, I didn't
> think Arabic used vowels to alter the meaning of
> roots.
They do use them extensively! _kataba_ 'he wrote', _yuktubu_ 'he writes',
_ka:tibu_ 'he who writes', _kati:bu_ 'written', _maktabu_ '(place) of
writing' that is 'school' (with prefix m-) etc.

-- Yitzik

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