Re: Arabic and Hebrew

From: "Trebor Jung"

> What are some changes from Arabic to Hebrew? I read somewhere Arabic is
the
> most conservative Semitic language, so I'd like to see how it changed.
I can point you to something better: a comparison of Akkadian, Hebrew,
Aramaic, Arabic and Ethiopic (Ge'ez) consonants and how they derived from
Proto-Semitic:

http://www.bartleby.com/61/JPG/proto.jpg

I must warn you, the letters are hard to read, and they're not in IPA or
SAMPA. I could "convert" that graphic to X-SAMPA text if you need me to.

Arabic and Hebrew are both offshoots of Proto-Central Semitic; Hebrew isn't
a descendant of Arabic, though Standard Arabic is indeed the most
conservative Semitic language extant today. Arabic is actually considered by
some to be South Semitic, but the consensus seems to indicate a Central
Semitic classification with South Semitic features, such as the *p > f shift
also found in Ethiopic.

Now how did Hebrew get all its vowels, it's complicated... I know a couple
of list members that could explain that better.