Re: New to the List, too

Oskar Gudlaugsson
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wrote:
"I hoped then to exchange more information
with you in order to get some ideas on Semitic elements in the IAL."

I can make a good case for several "Semitic elements" that would be rather
useful to any IAL. As far as I know, Leo Moser has discussed several of them,
but I think that they bear repeating, especially in the context of your World
Pidgin project.

One such element is de, which is found in Aramaic. D (in Old Aramaic, Z) is
derived from Proto-Semitic *ðv-, which appears as the demonstrative pronoun in
several languages (Hebrew zeh, zu; Phoenician Z, etc). In Aramaic and some
other NW Semitic languages, it becomes a relative pronoun, (*) OR it can
indicate a relationship between the two items modified; e.g. Aram. bayta
d'malka, "king's house" or "house of the king," OR malka d'nibhar "the king who
will perish."

(*) Probably (IMO) on analogy with a genitive relationship (which we call the
"construct relationship', aka iDaafa in Arabic): in a hypothetic NW Semitic
sentence, baytu ða pa'ala "this house he built," lit. "this house (of) he
built" becomes reinterpreted as "the house which he built" and the relative
pronoun is born.


The beauty of de is that the concept is rather universal and the element itself
means something similar to many different people. Hence, it will look like
Mandarin pidgin to a speaker of Chinese and Romance pidgin to a European. I
think that this fits well into your idea of a "worldwide slang." Several
Maghrebi Arabic dialects use a word, ta, with a similar meaning (this word
appears in Maltese).

Another great Semitic concept is the nisbe adjective. Scads of nisbe forms have
entered into English (e.g. Israeli); it appears in Arabic and Hebrew (though to
a lesser extent), and similar forms appear in tons of languages, IE and
Afro-Asiatic. Kjell R. was just using forms in Slavic languages, Indo-Iranian
languages, English, and Swedish to justify his including a similar form in
Communicando. In Arabic, the nisbe is used to derive an adjective from a noun.
Hence, an adjective "dog-like, doggy" could be derived from the noun kalb-
"dog" by creating a nisbe form kalbi. I believe that the nisbe transcends
linguistic borders and creates the effect that you are looking for.

There are, of course, lexical borrowings from Arabic in numerous languages, most
significantly into Southern Romance, Eastern European, and anywhere where there
are Islamic cultures to be found.
-Chollie



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