semitic languages outline of a comparative grammar

SEMITIC LANGUAGES
OUTLINE OF A COMPARATIVE GRAMMAR
ORIENTALIA LOVANIENSIA
ANALECTA
• 80
SEMITIC LANGUAGES
OUTLINE OF A COMPARATIVE
GRAMMAR
BY
EDWARD LIPINSKI
UITGEVERIJ
PEETERS
en
DEPARTEMENT
OOSTERSE
STUDIES
LEUVEN
1997
CIP
Koninklijke Bibliotheek Albert I, Brussel
LIPINSKI
Edward
Semitic Languages: Outline of a Comparative
Grammar.
— Leuven: Peeters, 1997. —
756 p.: ill., 24 cm. — (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta: 80).
©
1997, Peeters Publishers & Department of Oriental Studies
Bondgenotenlaan 153, B-3000 Leuven/Louvain (Belgium)

All
rights reserved, including the rights to translate or to
reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form.
D.
1997/0602/48
ISBN
90-6831-939-6
(Peeters, Leuven)
To
MALGORZATA
CONTENTS
PREFACE 17
ABBREVIATIONS
AND SYMBOLS 21
I.
SEMITIC
LANGUAGES
23
1.
Definition
23
2.
Afro-Asiatic 24
A.
Egyptian 25
a) Old Egyptian 25
b)
Middle Egyptian 26
c)

Late Egyptian 27
d)
Demotic 27
e) Coptic 29
B.
Cushitic 29
a) Bedja 31
b)
Agaw 32
c)
East
Cushitic 32
d)
West and South Cushitic 33
C. Libyco-Berber 34
D.
Chadic
39
3. Proto-Semitic . . 41
4.
Classification of Semitic
Languages
47
5. North Semitic 50
A.
Palaeosyrian
50
B.
Amorite 52
C. Ugaritic 53

6.
East
Semitic 53
A.
Old Akkadian 53
B.
Assyro-Babylonian 54
C. Late Babylonian 55
8
CONTENTS
7. West Semitic 56 ,
A.
Canaanite
56
a) Old
Canaanite
57
b)
Hebrew 57
c)
Phoenician 58 j
d)
Ammonite 60
e) Moabite 60
f)
Edomite 61
B.
Aramaic 61 i
a) Early Aramaic 61
b) Official

or Imperial Aramaic 63
c)
Standard Literary Aramaic 63
d)
Middle Aramaic 63
e) Western Late Aramaic 65
e)
Eastern
Late Aramaic 66
f)
Neo-Aramaic 69
C. Arabic 70
a) Pre-Islamic North and
East
Arabian 71
b)
Pre-Classical Arabic 72
c)
Classical Arabic 75
d)
Neo-Arabic or Middle Arabic 75
e) Modern Arabic 77
8. South Semitic 78
A.
South Arabian 78
a)
Sabaic
79
b)
Minaic 80

c)
Qatabanic
80
d)
Hadramitic 80
e) Modern South Arabian 80
B.
Ethiopic 81
a) North Ethiopic 83
Ge'ez
83
Tigre
83
Tigrinya
84
b)
South Ethiopic 84
Amharic
84
Argobba 84
Harari
84
CONTENTS
9
Gurage 85
Gafat 85
9. Language and Script 86
A.
Cuneiform Script 86
B.

Alphabetic Script 87
C. Transcription and Transliteration 93
II.
PHONOLOGY 95
1.
Basic Assumptions 96
A.
Linguistic Analysis 96
B.
Consonantal
Sounds
99
C. Vowels 100
D.
Intonation 102
E.
Phonemes
103
F.
Voiced and Unvoiced
Sounds
104
G.
Emphatic
Sounds
105
H.
Proto-Semitic
Phonemes
106

2.
Labials 109
3. Dental Plosives 116
4.
Interdentals 117
5. Dental Fricatives 122
6. Prepalatal and Palatal 126
7. Laterals 129
8. Liquids and Nasal 132
9. Velar Plosives 137
10.
Laryngals, Pharyngal and Velar Fricatives 141
11.
Synopsis of the Consonantal System 150
12.
Vowels 152
13.
Diphthongs 166
10
CONTENTS
14. Geminated or Long
Consonants
173
15. Syllable 178
16. Word Accent 181
17.
Sentence
Stress
or Pitch 184
18. Conditioned Sound

Changes
186
A.
Assimilation 186
a) Assimilation between
Consonants
187
b)
Assimilation between Vowels 190
c)
Assimilation between a
Consonant
and a
Vowel
. 190
B.
Dissimilation 191
C. Metathesis 192
D.
Haplology 193
E.
Prosthesis
. - 194
F.
Anaptyxis 195
G.
Sandhi 196
H.
Elision 196
I.

Hypercorrection 199
IĪL
MORPHOLOGY 201
1.
The Root Morpheme 201
2.
The Noun 209
A.
Noun
Stems
or
Patterns
209
a) Simple
Patterns
210
b)
Patterns
with
Diphthongs 212
c)
Patterns
Extended by Gemination 213
d)
Patterns
Extended by Reduplication 214
e)
Patterns
with
Preformatives and Infixes . . . . 215

Preformatives '-/'- 215
Preformative ya- 216
Preformatives
w-lm-ln-
216
Preformative t- 219
Infix
-t- 220
Preformative š- 221
f)
Patterns
with
Afformatives 221
Afformative
-ān 221
CONTENTS
11
Afformatives
-iy/-ay/-āwī/-yal-iyya
223
Afformatives
in -t 225
Other Afformatives 226
Afformative
-ayim/n of
Place
Names 228
g)
Nominal
Compounds 228

B.
Gender 229
C.
Number 235
a)
Dual
236
b)
Plural 238
External
Plural 238
Plural
by Reduplication 244
Internal
Plural 245
c)
Paucative 251
d)
Collective Nouns 251
e) Singulative 252
D.
Case
Inflection
253
a)
Diptotic
"Ergative" Declension 254
b)
Use in Proper Names 258
c)

"Classical"
Triptotic
Declension 259
d)
"Adverbial"
Cases
260
e)
Historical
Survey of
Case
Inflection
262
E.
The
"States"
of the Noun 265
a) Construct
State
265
b)
Predicate
State
266
c)
Determinate
State
267
d)
Indeterminate

State
272
e) Paradigms 274
F.
Adjectives 278
G.
Numerals 280
a) Cardinals 280
b)
Ordinals 292
c)
Fractionals 294
d)
Multiplicatives
295
e) Distributives 296
f)
Verbal Derivatives 296
3. Pronouns 297
A.
Independent Personal Pronouns 298
B.
Suffixed
Personal Pronouns . . 306
I
!
12
CONTENTS
C. Reflexive Pronoun 311
D.

Independent
Possessive
Pronouns 312
E.
Demonstrative Pronouns 315
F.
Determinative-Relative Pronouns 324
G.
Interrogative and Indefinite Pronouns 328
4.
Verbs 331
A.
Preliminaries 331
B.
Tenses
and Aspects 335
a)
Fully
Developed System 335
b)
Simplified
Systems
340
c)
Transitivity
—
Intransitivity
343
d)
Modern

Languages
346
C. Moods 351
D.
Actor
Affixes
359
a) Suffix-Conjugation 359
b)
Imperative 366
c)
Prefix-Conjugation 368
Set I 369
Set
II
376
E.
Stems
and Voices 378
a) Basic Stem 378
b)
Stem
with
Geminated Second Radical Consonant. 382
c)
Stem
with
Lengthened First
Vowel
385

d)
"Causative" Stem 387
e) Stem
with
rc-Prefix 393
f)
Stems
with
i-Affix
395
g)
Frequentative
Stems
402
h)
Reduplicated Biconsonantal
Stems
405
i)
Stems
with
Geminated or Reduplicated Last Radical. 406
j)
Other
Stems
407
k)
Verbs
with
Four Radical

Consonants
407
1)
Passive
Voice 408
m)
Recapitulation of
Stems
409
F.
Infinitive
and Participle 415
a)
Infinitive
415
b)
Participle 419
c)
Neo-Aramaic Verbal System 421
d)
Participial
Tense
Forms in Other
Languages
. . 424
CONTENTS
13
G.
Particular Types of Verbs 425
a) "Weak" Verbs 425

b)
Biconsonantal Verbs 436
c)
Verbs
with
Pharyngals, Laryngals, Velar Fricatives . 445
H.
Verbs
with
Pronominal Suffixes 450
5. Adverbs 453
A.
Adverbs of
Nominal
Origin
453
B.
Adverbs of
Place
and Negatives 454
C. Adverbs of Time 458
6. Prepositions 459
A.
Primary Prepositions 460
B.
Prepositions of
Nominal
Origin
465
C. Compound Prepositions 469

7. Connective and Deictic Particles 470
A.
Conjunctions 470
B.
Presentatives
472
C. Subordinate Conjunctions 474
D.
Copulae 475
E.
Expression of
Possession
480
IV.
SYNTAX
481
1.
Classes
of
Sentences
483
A.
Minor
Clauses
483
B.
Major
Clauses
484
C. Nominal

Clauses
484
D.
Verbal
Clauses
487
E.
Concord of Subject and Predicate 491
2.
Nominal
Phrases
494
A.
Attribute 494
B.
Apposition 496
C. Genitival or Subjoining Relation 497
14
CONTENTS
3. Verbal
Phrases
504
A.
Accusative 504
B.
Infinitive
508
4.
Clauses
511

A.
Particular Types of
Main
Clauses
511
B.
Parallel
Clauses
515
C. Subordinate
Clauses
519
a) Relative
Clauses
521
b)
Temporal/Causal
Clauses
527
c)
Final/Consecutive
Clauses
533
d)
Substantival
Clauses
535
e) Conditional
Clauses
536

V.
LEXICON
543
1.
Etymology 545
2.
Derivatives 554
3.
Languages
in Contact 557
4.
Internal
Change
564
5. Proper
Names
567
A.
Anthroponomy 568
B.
Toponymy 570
GLOSSARY
OF SELECTED
LINGUISTIC
TERMS 575
BIBLIOGRAPHY
593
1.
Semitic
Languages

in General 593
2.
North
Semitic 597
3.
East
Semitic 598
4.
West Semitic 600
A.
"Canaanite" 601
B.
Aramaic 605
C. Arabic 610
CONTENTS
15
5. South Semitic 617
A.
South Arabian 617
B.
Ethiopic 619
6. Libyco-Berber 622
7. Cushitic 624
8.
Chadic
627
9.
Languages
in Contact 629
10. Anthroponomy and Toponymy 633

GENERAL
INDEX
639
INDEX
OF WORDS AND FORMS 681
Agaw
681
Amharic 681
Ammonite
684
Amorite
684
Arabic
685
Aramaic, Mandaic, Neo-Aramaic, Syriac 696
Argobba 702
Assyro-Babylonian, Late Babyloninan, Old Akkadian . . . 702
Bantu 713
Bedja 713
Chadic
714
Coptic 714
East
and West Cushitic 714
Egyptian 715
Gafat 716
Ge'ez
717
Greek
720

Gurage
721
Harari
724
Hausa
725
Hebrew 725
Hittite
731
Latin
731
Libyco-Berber, Numidic, Tuareg 731
16
CONTENTS
Moabite 734
North
Arabian 735
Oromo 735
Palaeosyrian
736
Persian
738
Phoenician and
Punic
738
Rendille 740
Semitic, Common 740
Somali 742
South Arabian, Epigraphic 742
South Arabian, Modern 744

Sumerian 745
Tigre 746
Tigrinya
748
Ugaritic
749
TABLES,
MAPS, AND
TEXT
FIGURES
753
PREFACE
Having
taught the
introduction
to the Semitic languages and their
comparative grammar for more than a quarter of a century, year by year,
I
decided
finally
to
acquiesce
to a long-standing suggestion and to
undertake the task of
publishing
the results of my research and teaching
in
the
form
of a textbook. In fact, the usefulness of an outline of a com-

parative grammar of the Semitic languages is self-evident since the last
original
work
of this
kind
was published
twenty-five
years
ago by
B.M.
Grande, BBeAeirae B
cpaBHHTejiLHoe
royneHHe
CCMHTCKHX
JOHKOB,
(Moscow
1972). This
work
was
based
mainly
on the so-called classical
Semitic
languages, viz.
Akkadian,
Biblical
Hebrew, Syriac, Classical
Arabic,
and Ge'ez, but paid
little

attention to other Semitic languages,
both
ancient and modern, and it abstained
from
a systematic treatment of
the syntax and of semantic problems. However, it was
felt
in different
quarters that it is important to draw the attention of the students to cer-
tain
tendencies discernible in modern dialects and to clearly
bring
out
the main common features of Semitic syntax. In addition, the material
has increased considerably during the last
decades
and the need for a
synthesis taking the new
information into
account was
growing
steadily.
Finally,
comparative Semitics
without
a broader
Afro-Asiatic
or
Hamito-
Semitic

background is — in
some
areas
at least — methodologically
questionable, although C. Brockelmann's famous
Grundriss
and its
epigones
seem
to neglect this type of comparisons. Yet, the
right
approach was already outlined in 1898 when H.
Zimmern
published his
Vergleichende
Grammatik der semitischen
Sprachen,
where he gives
some
paradigms showing the connections between Semitic and other
Hamito-Semitic
languages.
Designed to come out in the centenary of the completion of
Zim-
mern's
work,
which
resulted in the
first
comparative grammar of the

Semitic
languages ever published, the present book owes a
similar
approach to
itself.
Besides, as
I.M.
Diakonoff
rightly
stressed
in 1988,
the
Afro-Asiatic
language families "cannot be studied,
from
the point of
view
of comparative
linguistics,
in isolation
from
each other". The
scope
of the present Outline is thus larger, in a certain
sense,
that the one
of
earlier comparative grammars of the Semitic languages, but it is nev-
ertheless
intended

primarily
as an introductory
work,
directed towards
18
PREFACE
an audience consisting, on the one hand, of students of one or several
Semitic
languages, and, on the other, of students of
linguistics.
Its aim is
to
underline the common characteristics and trends of the languages and
dialects that compose the Semitic language
"family"
by applying the
comparative method of
historical
linguistics.
The object it has in
view
is
not
a mere
juxtaposition
of forms belonging to various languages, but a
comparison
and an explanation of the
changes
they incurred,

seen
in
both
a diachronic and a synchronic perspectives
which
must be used
together, if
some
part of the evidence is not to be
veiled.
To
avoid
an
excessive overloading of the text, references are given, as a rule,
only
when
they cannot be
found
easily in current grammars of the particular
languages.
No
Semitist can be
assumed
today to be at home in all the Semitic
idioms,
and the present
work
relies to a great extent on publications of
other scholars, especially of
A.F.L.

Beeston, J. Cantineau, I.M.
Diakonoff,
W. Fischer, I.J. Gelb, Z.S. Harris, T.M. Johnstone, E.Y.
Kutscher, W. Leslau, E.
Littmann,
R. Macuch, S. Segert, W. von Soden.
It
is clear, of course, that the views exposed in this book
differ
some-
times
from
the opinions expressed by the above-mentioned Semitists
and by other scholars. Nevertheless, we deemed it unwise to explain
here
at
full
length why the preference was given to certain theories to the
exclusion
of others, and thus to corroborate our views by quoting
litera-
ture in extensive notes. The selection of
linguistic
facts and the
degree
of
their
condensation may also be subject to discussion and to
criticism.
For

a more detailed presentation and analysis of
linguistic
data, how-
ever, the advanced students should rather refer to specific grammars, a
selective
list
of
which
is given in the
bibliography,
at the end of the
vol-
ume. In
view
of the great variety and intricacy of the material presented,
especially
from
spoken languages and dialects, it is inevitable that incon-
sistencies
will
appear
in the transliteration and the spelling of
Afro-Asi-
atic words and
phrases.
For such occasional lack of
uniformity
and for
certain
redundancies, aimed at lessening the

possibility
of misinterpreta-
tion,
we must ask the
user's
indulgence.
It
might
also be useful to
stress
at the outset that the present
work
is
intended
as a compendious and up-to-date analysis of the nature and
structure of the Semitic languages. It is a comparative analysis of a
lan-
guage
family,
not a comparative study of the views expressed by com-
peting
linguistic
schools: Semitics is more
wonderful
than
linguistics!
Consequently, we do not attempt to apply the latter's
arsenals
of techni-
cal

vocabulary to the Semitic languages, but rather to present as clearly
PREFACE
19
as possible the fundamental insights about the wide
world
represented
by
the history and the
present
reality of the concerned
language
family.
Part One is introductory. It
situates
the Semitic
languages
in the wider
context of
Afro-Asiatic
or Hamito-Semitic
language
family,
the
five
main
branches
of
which
are Semitic, Egyptian, Cushitic, Libyco-Berber,
and Chadic. The Semitic group, the single

languages
of
which
are
briefly
described, includes such
languages
of antiquity as Palaeosyrian, Old
Akkadian,
Assyro-BabyIonian, Hebrew, Phoenician, Aramaic, and Epi-
graphic South Arabian, as
well
as Arabic, Neo-Aramaic, and the con-
temporary
languages
of Ethiopia and Eritrea. The last section of Part
One
deals
with
the problems of
language
and script.
Part Two is devoted to phonology. The presentation of the
basic
assumptions
is
followed
by a synchronic and diachronic description of
the
consonants,

vowels, and diphthongs. Questions related to the sylla-
ble,
the
word
accent,
the
sentence
stress,
and the conditioned sound
changes
are examined in this part as
well.
Part Three
concerns
the morphology.
After
a preliminary section deal-
ing
with
the problem of the Semitic root, the nouns, the pronouns, the
verbs, the adverbs, the prepositions, the coordinative and deictic
parti-
cles
are examined
from
a diachronic and synchronic point of view.
Part Four
treats
of the main
features

of Semitic syntax,
with
questions
such as
classes
of
sentences,
nominal and verbal
phrases,
particular
types of main
clauses,
parallel, coordinate, and subordinate
clauses.
Diachronic
factors come
here
distinctly to the fore in relation to
word
order, i.e. to the
sequence
in
which
words are arranged in a
sentence.
In
fact,
both
fixed
and free orders are found mingled in

widely
varying
proportions in a great number of Semitic
languages.
Part Five aims at presenting
some
fundamental insights about lexico-
graphical analysis. Etymology, derivatives,
languages
in contact, inter-
nal
change,
proper
names
—
these
are the main questions examined in
this part. It is
followed
by a glossary of
linguistic
terms
used
in Semit-
ics,
by a selective bibliography, by a general index, and by an index of
words and forms.
It
is a
pleasure

to acknowledge my gratitude to the many
classes
which
have
inspired the
successive
drafts of this grammar. I
have
prof-
ited
in particular
from
a number of questions raised by my Kurdish
students
and
from
the constructive comments of
those
who
have
fol-
lowed
my
seminars
in the Department of Epigraphy at the Yarmouk
University.
20
PREFACE
I
also

wish
to
express
my
sincere
thanks to Mrs F. Malha for the great
care
and professional
skill
which
she exercised in preparing the text for
printing.
Further, I cannot let go
unexpressed
my
deep
appreciation for
the
work
realized by
Peeters
Publishers and the Orientaliste typography,
whose
skilful
care
is
apparent
over again in the way this book is printed
and edited. Last but not
least,

I must thank my
wife
Malgorzata for help-
ing
me to
bring
this
work
to a happy end.
ABBREVIATIONS
AND
SYMBOLS
The
Books of the Bible
Gen., Ex., Lev., Nb., Deut., Jos., Judg., I Sam.,
II
Sam., I Kings,
II
Kings, Is.,
Jer., Ez., Hos., Joel, Am., Ob., Jon.,
Mich.,
Nah., Hab., Soph., Hag., Zech.,
Mai.,
Ps., Prov., Job, Cant., Ruth, Lam., Qoh., Esth., Dan., Esd., Neh., I Chr.,
II
Chr., Sir., I
En.,
Act.
Other
Abbreviations

Ace,
acc.
Amor.
Arab.
Aram.
ARM
Ass Bab.
ca.
C
cf.
Cl.Ar.
Coll.
cor.
DN
E
e.g.
EA
E.S.A.
Fern., fern., f.
Gen., gen. =
Hebr.
KTU
lit.
M.Ar.
Masc,
masc.
M.S.A.
msec.
Ms.,
mss.

=
accusative
=
Amorite
=
Arabic
=
Aramaic
=
Archives
royales
de
Mari,
Paris
1950 ff.
=
Assyro-Babylonian
=
circa,
about
=
Consonant
=
confer,
compare
=
Classical Arabic
=
Colloquial
=

corrected, corrects in
=
divine
name
=
Egyptian execration texts published
by
G. POSENER,
Princes
et
pays
d'Asie
et
de
Nubie,
Bruxelles 1940.
=
exempli
gratia,
for example
=
The
El-Amarna
tablets numbered according to
J.A.
KNUDTZON,
Die
El-Amarna-Tafeln
(VAB
2),

Leipzig
1915;
A.F.
RAINEY,
El
Amarna
Tablets
359-379
(AOAT
8), 2nd ed., Kevelaer-
Neukirchen-Vluyn
1978.
=
Epigraphic South Arabian
=
feminine
=
genitive
=
Hebrew
=
M.
DIETRICH
- O.
LORETZ
- J.
SANMARTÍN,
The
Cuneiform
Alphabetic

Texts
from
Ugarit,
Ras
Ibn
Hani
and
Other
Places
{KTU:
second,
enlarged
edition),
Miinster 1995.
=
literally,
etymologically
=
Modern Arabic
m.
= masculine
=
Modern South Arabian
=
millisecond(s)
=
manuscript(s)
22
ABBREVIATIONS
AND

SYMBOLS
Norn.,
nom. = nominative
n.s. = new
series
O.Akk.
= Old
Akkadian
O.Bab. = Old Babylonian
Pers.,
pers. = person
Plur.,
plur. =
plural
PN
= personal
name
Pr Sem. = Proto-Semitic
P.Syr. = Palaeosyrian
1Q,
2Q, 3Q, etc. = Texts
from
Qumrān
grot 1, 2, 3, etc.
RES =
Repertoire
d'Épigraphie
Sémitique,
Paris 1905-68.
Sing.,

sing. = singular
TAD
=
B.
PORTEN
-
A.
YARDENI,
Textbook
of
Aramaic
Documents
from
Ancient
Egypt
I.
Letters,
Jerusalem 1986;
II.
Contracts,
Jeru-
salem 1989;
III.
Literature,
Accounts,
Lists,
Jerusalem 1993.
TSSI
=
J.C.L.

GIBSON,
Textbook
of
Syrian
Semitic
Inscriptions
I.
Hebrew
and
Moabite
Inscriptions,
2nd ed.,
Oxford
1973;
II.
Aramaic
Inscriptions,
Oxford
1975; III. Phoenician
Inscriptions,
Oxford
1982.
Ugar. = Ugaritic
v
=
vowel
v
= long
vowel
vs.

= versus, against
Symbols, Determinatives
/
/
enclose
phonemic transcriptions;
t
]
enclose
phonetic approximations or reconstructed parts of a text;
(
)
enclose
words not found in the
original,
but
needed
in the translation;
*
indicates
form
or
vocalization
supposed,
but not attested as such
in
texts;
<
signifies that the preceding
form

has developed
from
the
following
one;
>
signifies that the preceding
form
develops or has developed into the
following
one;
!
to be especially noticed, e.g.
because
of a new reading;
? dubious reading or interpretation;
//
parallel
with;
/
indicates alternative forms, appellations, symbols, when placed
between two letters, syllables, words, etc.;
:
the colon indicates length in
linguistics;
it is generally replaced by the
macron in the
present
Outline',
+

joins lexemes or morphemes
forming
one
word.
hyphen used to connect the elements of certain compound words, as
well
as cuneiform and hieroglyphic "syllabic"
graphemes
pertaining
to
one
word.
d
abbreviation of the determinative
DINGIR,
"god", in cuneiform texts;
ki
postpositional determinative
KT,
"country", in cuneiform texts;
LUGAL
small capital letters indicate logograms, sumerograms;
uru
determinative
URU,
"city'
1
,
in cuneiform texts.
I

SEMITIC
LANGUAGES
1.
DEFINITION
1.1.
The "Semitic" languages were so named in 1781 by
A.L.
Schlcezer
in
J.G. Eichhorn's Repertorium fuer
biblische
und morgenlaendische
Literatur
(vol.
VIII,
p. 161)
because
they were spoken by peoples
included
in Gen. 10,21-31 among the
sons
of Sem. They are spoken
nowadays by more than two hundred
million
people and they constitute
the
only
language
family
the history of

which
can be
followed
for
four
thousand
five
hundred years. However, they do not stand isolated among
the languages of the
world.
They
form
part of a larger language group
often
called Hamito-Semitic, but lately better
known
as
Afro-Asiatic.
The existence of a relationship between Berber in
North
Africa
and
Semitic
was perceived already in the second
half
of the 9th century
A.D.
by
Judah ibn Quraysh,
from

Tiaret
(Algeria),
in his
work
known
as
Rìsāla.
Ibn Quraysh is
rightly
regarded as one of the forerunners of
com-
parative Semitic
linguistics,
based
an
Arabic,
Hebrew, and Aramaic, but
his
intuition
connecting the languages of this group
with
another branch
of
Afro-Asiatic,
at least in
some
particular
cases,
did not
yield

fruit
before the 19th century. A broader
interrelationship
was
first
recognized
by
Th. Benfey in his sole
work
on Semitic
linguistics:
Ueber
das Ver-
haeltniss
der aegyptischen
Sprache
zum semitischen Sprachstamm
(Leipzig
1844), where he
expresses
the
opinion
that also Berber and
"Ethiopic",
i.e. Cushitic in his terminology, belong to the
same
large
language
family.
As for Hausa, the

best
known
of the Chadic languages,
it
was related to this group in the very
same
year by
T.N.
Newman who
had appended a note on Hausa in the
third
edition
of J.C. Prichard's
Researches
as to the
Physical
History
of Man (vol. IV, London 1844,
p.
617-626), and was then
followed
by J.F. Schon in the latter's
Gram-
mar of
the
Hausa
Language (London 1862). The designation "Cushitic"
was introduced by 1858, and the entire language
family
was named

"Hamito-Semitic"
in 1876 by Fr.
Miiller
in his
Grundriss
der
Sprach-
wissenschaft
(Wien
1876-88), where
Miiller
describes the concerned
group of languages. J.H. Greenberg, instead, considering that this is
the
only
language
family
represented in both
Africa
and
Asia,
proposed
24
SEMITIC
LANGUAGES
to
call
it
Afro-Asiatic
in his

work
The Languages of
Africa,
issued in
1963.
1.2.
The
languages
in question are spoken nowadays in Western Asia,
in
North
Africa,
and in the
Horn
of northeastern
Africa,
but their oldest
written
attestations, dating back to the
third
millennium
B.C., are
limited
to
Mesopotamia,
North
Syria, and Egypt.
Whereas
the relation between
the various Semitic

languages
can be compared
with
that of, say, the
various Germanic or Romance or Slavic
languages,
Afro-Asiatic
would
more or
less
correspond to the group of Indo-European
languages.
The
latter
have
a few points of contact
with
Afro-Asiatic,
but
these
are
scarcely sufficient to warrant assumption of any genetic connection;
anyhow, this topic is outside the
scope
of the
present
study. On the other
hand,
there
is a structural analogy between

Afro-Asiatic
and the Cau-
casian
languages,
as
first
shown by I.M.
Diakonoff
(Semito-Hamitic
Languages,
Moscow 1965) who
reached
the important conclusion that
Afro-Asiatic
belonged
originally
to an ergative
language
type,
character-
ized
by the opposition of a casus agens (nominative, instrumental, loca-
tive)
to a casus patiens (accusative, predicative). The links of
Afro-Asi-
atic
with
the great Bantu linguistic stock of Central
Africa
seem

to be
more precise, as indicated e.g. by the noun prefix mu- (e.g. Kwena mu-
rút-i,
"teacher",
built
on the stem
-rut-),
the reciprocal verb
suffix
-án-
(e.g. Sotho
ho-op-án-á,
"to be
striking
one
another";
Swahilipatiliz-an-
a,
"to vex one an other"), and the causative
suffix
-is-1 -is- (e.g. Kwena
hu-rút-ís-á,
"to
cause
to teach";
Swahili
fung-is-a, "to
cause
to shut").
A

reference to
these
languages
will
be
made
only occasionally, although
there
are many
features
of
semantics
and
idiom
which
are common to
African
languages
and to Semitic. For example,
parts
of the body are
often
used
as prepositions and the extended metaphoric use of words,
e.g. of the verb
"eat",
can lead to meanings
like
"win, gain, use", etc.
2.

AFRO-ASIATIC
1.3.
The
languages
that belong to the
Afro-Asiatic
group are classified
in
four main families,
besides
the Semitic
family
which
will
be
described below. The pertinent observations are restricted
here
to the
prerequisites
necessary
for an understanding and a reconstruction of
Semitic linguistic history. A more detailed approach is
unnecessary,
since comparative Egypto-Semitic linguistics is
still
in its infancy,
while