Re: New to the List, too

On Fri, 23 Jun 2000 05:52:48 CDT, Danny Wier <dawier@...> wrote:

>>From: Vima Kadphises <vima_kadphises@...>
> I have a question -- I was studying
>Proto-Semitic (and tried to find Proto-Afroasiatic data).  In South
Arabian
>(not Arabic) languages, the 'emphatic d' corresponds to a consonant
>transliterated as z' (z-acute).  Since s-acute, found in Old Hebrew, is
>supposedly a voiceless lateral fricative, the z-acute is probably the
voiced
>lateral fricative.
>
>According to the pro-Nostratic cadre, this consonant was originally a
>lateral affricate, /dl/ (or a laterally-released /d/).  S-acute is linked
to
>a voiceless counterpart: /tL/ or /L/ (where L is IPA l-curl, the voiceless
>lateral fricative).
>
>Is there other evidence of this?
>
I'm not sure what type of correspondence you point to, but Arabic
emphatic /d./ was indeed /d._l/ in some early dialects. E. g.
/alqad.(i)/ becomes _alcalde_ in Spanish (borrowed from Andalusian
dialect). And there was something similar with Arabic borrowings into
Malay.


Basilius
P.S. Funnily, learned owing to conlanging: I was designing an
Arabic-based conlang, and tried to understand something about
early Arabic phonology. Couldn't find any good review, though.
And was too lazy to find and read Sibaweihi/Sibouye in the
original. Don't anticipate his grammar to be webbified soon :(