Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T13:33:55.598Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The feminine endings *-ay and *-āy in Semitic and Berber

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2018

Marijn van Putten
Marijn van Putten*
Affiliation:
Leiden University
*
[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper examines the evidence for the marginal feminine endings *-ay- and *-āy- in Proto-Semitic, and the feminine endings *-e and *-a in Proto-Berber. Their similar formation (*CV̆CC-ay/āy), semantics (verbal abstracts, underived concrete feminine nouns) and plural morphology (replacement of the feminine suffix by a plural suffix with -w-) suggest that this feminine formation should be reconstructed to a shared ancestor which may be called Proto-Berbero-Semitic.

Keywords

Berbero-SemiticAfro-AsiaticHistorical linguisticsFeminine suffixSemiticBerber
Type
Article
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 81 , Issue 2 , June 2018 , pp. 205 - 225
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS, University of London 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I would like to thank Maarten Kossmann, Benjamin Suchard, Fokelien Kootstra, Ahmad Al-Jallad, Stanly Oomen and Lameen Souag for commenting on an early draft of this paper.

References

Al-Jallad, A. 2014a. “On the genetic background of the Rbbl bn Hfʿm grave inscription at Qaryat al-Fāw”, BSOAS 77/3, 1–21.Google Scholar
Al-Jallad, A. 2014b. “Final short vowels in Gəʿəz, Hebrew ʾattâ and the anceps paradox”, Journal of Semitic Studies 59/1, 315–27.Google Scholar
Al-Jallad, A. 2015. An Outline of the Grammar of the Safaitic Inscriptions. Leiden and Boston: Brill.Google Scholar
Al-Jallad, A. 2018. “The earliest stages of Arabic and its linguistic classification”, in Benmamoun, E. and Bassiouney, R. (eds), Routledge Handbook of Arabic Linguistics. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Behnstedt, P. 1987. Die Dialekte der Gegend von Ṣaʿdah (Nord-Jemen). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Benamara, H. 2013. Dictionnaire Amazighe–Français. Parler de Figuig et ses regions. Rabat: IRCAM.Google Scholar
Brockelmann, C. 1908. Grundriss der vergleichenden Grammatik der semitischen Sprachen. I. Band: Laut- und Formenlehre. Berlin: Von Reuther & Reichard.Google Scholar
Delheure, J. 1984. Aǧraw n yiwalen tumẓabt t-tfransist – Dictionnaire Mozabite–Français. Paris: SELAF.Google Scholar
Delheure, J. 1987. Agerraw n iwalen teggargrent-taṛumit – Dictionnaire Ouargli–Français. Paris: SELAF.Google Scholar
Dillmann, A. 2005. Ethiopic Grammar, 2nd edition enlarged and improved (1899) by Carl Bezold. Translated by James A. Crichton. London: Williams & Norgate.Google Scholar
Fischer, W. 2002. A Grammar of Classical Arabic. Third revised edition, translated from the German by Jonathan Rodgers. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Graf, D.F. and Zwettler, M.J.. 2004. “The North Arabian ‘Thamudic E’ inscription from Uraynibah West”, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 335, 53–89.Google Scholar
HALOT=Koehler, L. and Baumgartner, W. (eds). 1994–2002. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Hasselbach, Rebecca. 2014. “Agreement and the development of gender in Semitic (Part II)”, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 164/1, 319–44.Google Scholar
Heath, J. 2005. A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Heath, J. 2006. Dictionnaire Touareg du Mali: Tamachek–Anglais–Français. Paris: Karthala.Google Scholar
Huehnergard, J. 2004. “Chapter 6: Afro-Asiatic and Semitic languages”, in Woodard, R.D. (ed.), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 138–59.Google Scholar
Huehnergard, J. 1997. A Grammar of Akkadian. Atlanta: Scholars Press.Google Scholar
Huehnergard, J. 2012. An Introduction to Ugaritic. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers.Google Scholar
Huehnergard, J. 2017. “Arabic in its Semitic context”, in Al-Jallad, A. (ed.), Arabic in Context, Celebrating 400 Years of Arabic at Leiden. Leiden: Brill, 3–34.Google Scholar
Kossmann, M. 1999. Essai sur la phonologie du proto-berbère. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar
Kossmann, M. 2012. “Chapter 2: Berber”, in Frajzyngier, Z. and Shay, E. (eds), The Afroasiatic Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 18–101.Google Scholar
Kossmann, M. 2013a. The Arabic Influence on Northern Berber. Leiden and Boston: Brill.Google Scholar
Kossmann, M. 2013b. A Grammatical Sketch of Ghadames Berber (Libya). Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar
Kossmann, M. Forthcoming. “Berber subclassification”, in Vossen, R. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of African Languages.Google Scholar
Lane, E.W. 1863–1893. An Arabic–English Lexicon. London: Williams & Norgate.Google Scholar
Lanfry, J. 1973. Ghadamès II: Glossaire (Parler des Ayt Waziten). s.l.: Le Fichier Périodique.Google Scholar
Leslau, W. 1987. Comparative Dictionary of Geʿez (Classical Ethiopic). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Naumann, C. Unpublished. Siwi–English–Arabic Dictionary.Google Scholar
Nöldeke, T. 1904. Compendious Syriac Grammar. Translated from the second and improved German edition by Crichton, James A.. London: Williams & Norgate.Google Scholar
Olmo Lete, G. del and Sanmartín, J.. 2003. A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition. Translated by Watson, W.G.E.. Leiden and Boston: Brill.Google Scholar
Oussikoum, B. 2013. Dictionnaire Amazighe–Français. Le parler des Ayt Wirra, Moyen Atlas – Maroc. Rabat: IRCAM.Google Scholar
Prasse, K.-G. 1972. Manuel de grammaire touaregue (tăhăggart). I–III: Phonétique – Ecriture – Pronom. Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag.Google Scholar
Prasse, K.-G. 1973. Manuel de grammaire touaregue (tăhăggart). VI–VII: Verbe. Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag.Google Scholar
Prasse, K.-G. 1974. Manuel de grammaire touaregue (tăhăggart). IV–V: Nom. Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag.Google Scholar
Prasse, K.-G., Alojaly, G. and Mohamed, G.. 1998. Lexique Touareg–Français. Deuxième édition revue et augmentée. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.Google Scholar
Putten, M. van. 2014. A Grammar of Awjila Berber (Libya). Based on Umberto Paradisi's Work. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar
Putten, M. van. 2015. “Some notes on the historical consonantism of Awjila”, Folia Orientalia 51, 257–74.Google Scholar
Putten, M. van. 2016a [2015]. “Noun prefixes in eastern Berber”, Rivista degli Studi Orientali 88/1–4, 11–37.Google Scholar
Putten, M. van. 2016b. “The origin of front vowel nominal prefixes in Berber”, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 116/1, 11–39.Google Scholar
Putten, M. van. Forthcoming. “The secondary origin of the Berber e vowel”.Google Scholar
Putten, M. van. 2017. “The development of the triphthongs in Quranic and Classical Arabic”, Arabian Epigraphic Notes 3, 47–74.Google Scholar
Soldt, W. van 2005. The Topography of the City-State of Ugarit. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.Google Scholar
Soldt, W. van. 2010. “The Ugaritic suffixes -āyu and -ānu”, in Shehata, D., Weierhäuser, F. and Zand, K.V. (eds), Von Göttern und Menschen. Beiträge zu Literatur und Geschichte des Alten Orients. Festschrift für Brigitte Groneberg. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 307–27.Google Scholar
Soldt, W. van. 2012. “On personal names ending in -āyu in the Amarna letters and in texts from Canaan”, in Hasselbach, R. and Pat-El, N. (eds), Language and Nature. Papers Presented to John Huehnergard on the Occasion of His 60th Birthday. Chicaco, IL: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 443–50.Google Scholar
Tropper, J. 2000. Ugaritische Grammatik. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.Google Scholar
Tropper, J. 2002. Altäthiopisch. Grammatik des Geʿez mit Übungstexten und Glossar. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.Google Scholar
Vycichl, W. 1989. “Études de phonétique et d’étymologie berbères”, Journée d’Études de Linguistique Berbère. Samedi 11 Mars 1989 à la Sorbonne. Paris: Publications Langues'O, 1–18.Google Scholar
Wilson-Wright, A. 2014. “The word for ‘one’ in Proto-Semitic”, Journal of Semitic Studies 59/1, 1–13.Google Scholar