It is very difficult to reconstruct ancient Proto-Afroasiatic (PAA) vocabulary, and still more difficult to reconstruct a common morphosyntax. These are some known features common to more than one branch, though (Hodge 1971; Lecarme, Lowenstamm, and Shlonsky 2000; Frajzyngier and Shay 2012):
· Verb initial (Egyptian, Semitic, some Berber, Central Chadic). Clause-final position (Omotic, Cushitic, Akkadian) considered a product of contact with other languages.
· Case marking (Semitic, Berber, Cushitic, Omotic, maybe also Egyptian): subject and object less overtly marked. Probably similar to Proto-Semitic:
o Nominative in *-u,
o Genitive in *-i,
o Focalised element (object, vocative) in *-a.
o Construct state in *-Ø (in Semitic, Cushitic).
o Plural in ablaut to *-a- (Semitic, Berber, Cushitic, Chadic), suffix *u̯- (Semitic, Berber, Cushitic, Chadic), or ending *-t (the only one in Omotic).
o Feminine in *-(a)t.
· Maybe adverbial (locative?) in *-iš as found in Semitic and Egyptian.
· Adjective forming suffix (from genitive) *-(a/i)i̯-.
· Apparently, verb stems ended in consonant; pronoun and indeclinable stems could end in vowel; and nouns and adjectives were distinguished by the so-called ‘terminal vowel’.
· Verbal system:
o Two tense/aspectual systems (Chadic, Egyptian, Semitic, Cushitic).
o Vowel alternation or Ablaut codes a variety of functions.
o Prefix-conjugation as the most ancient one (Pre-PAA), continued by suffix conjugation and subject agreement.
o Extensions of the verb: causative in *s, inchoative/denominative *i̯ (and *u̯), non-finitive *n, durative *t, stative/intransitive *m, middle voice *dl, amplificative *h, complementive *ɣw, etc.
o No initial vowels or consonant clusters.
o One or more negative markers depending on the position of the verb in the clause.
o Sequential clauses marked by markers, converbs (Cushitic, Omotic, Semitic, Chadic) or by tense forms (Berber, Egyptian).
bagu ʕai̯ru̯-da |
|
bagu ma hai̯i ĉaʕara, |
i̯araˀi̯ ʕai̯ar; |
i̯aḳul tu ĉai̯ˀa ḳ(w)urī, |
i̯aʒub tu ḳama gadī, |
tu nasa pidiš. |
i̯akau̯ˀ bagu ʕai̯ar: |
“i̯adum ani libbu, |
raˀi̯i i̯ahim nasu ʕai̯ar.” |
i̯akau̯ˀu̯ ʕai̯ru̯: “gur baga! |
i̯adum nu̯ libbu raˀi̯i |
i̯apal nasu, ˀadu, kuru̯ |
ĉaʕar-bagi kicu̯a sirfī, |
ma i̯ahai̯ bagu ĉaʕarī.” |
ta kina i̯abuḳ bagu ʔaqa |
Notes:
· For ‘and’, the reconstructed ‘comitative’ case *-dV / *-Vd ‘along with, together with, in addition to’ is used (hypothesised to be an ancient postposition).
· For plural forms, the ending *-u̯ is used for nominative, ablaut in *-a- for the accusative (although this was most likely not the case, and these forms alternated, since cases were probably not marked in the plural).
· There is no reconstructed word for ‘hear, listen’, hence *gur- ‘sound, voice’ is used as a verbal stem for the ‘imperative’, and *kin- ‘know, learn’ for ‘having heard’.
These are some general features reconstructed for Proto-Semitic (Weninger et al. 2011):
· General VSO order.
· Noun:
o PSem. feminine is marked by *-at.
o Singular case paradigm nom. *-u, gen *-i, acc. *-a.
o Plural m. nom. *ū, gen/acc. -ī, pl. fem. nom. -ātu, gen-acc. -āti. Internal plurals (not occurring in Akkadian) are assumed to be a secondary feature spread by areal diffusion, hence not central to a PSem. reconstruction (although potentially quite old).
o Less clearly reconstructible for PSem. (and probably specialised in East Semitic) are a locative *-u (or *-ū), and a terminative *-iš.
· Simple syntax of preposition + genitive. Formation of prepositions from the construct state of the accusative, cf. Classical Arab bai̯na ‘between’ < bai̯nun ‘separation; interval’. Reconstructible PSem. preposition include *ˀad ‘until, to’.
· Common prepositions include *u̯a ‘and’, *au̯ ‘or’, and *šimmā ‘if’.
· Adverbial ending Akk. *-iš, Syr. -(ˀ)īϑ, or (indefinite) accusative in Akkadian (-am), Classical Arab (-an).
· Interrogatives generally in *ˀai̯-, also *man ‘who’, *matī/ai̯ ‘when’; negations in *ˀal/ˀul, *ˀii̯V, *lā.
· Verbal system:
o Finite forms show a great stability over millennia, with the usual paradigm being:
§ Singular: 3m. *i̯i-_-Ø, 3f. *ta-_-Ø; 2m. *ta-_-Ø, 2f. *ta_-ī; 1c. *ˀa-_-Ø;
§ Plural: 3m. *i̯i_ ū, 3f. *i̯i_-ā, 2m. *ta-_-ū, 2f. *ta_-ā, 1c. *ni-_-Ø.
o The ‘perfect’ is an innovation of West Semitic (WS), and seems to have evolved from the Akkadian stative, which did not have an ending for the 3sg.m. (although cf. *-a in WS, considered as from the absolutive). In this fable, the 3sg. form is left without ending.
o Many afformatives in nominal derivation can be reconstructed for PSem. The most relevant ones are *ma-, *mi-, *mu-, *ta-, *ti-, *ˀa-, *ˀi-, *ˀu-, *-ān.
raḫilu u̯a muhrū |
|
raḫilu lā i̯ihu̯ui̯ šipāti, |
i̯iˀumr muhrī; |
i̯iṣau̯ar ða arkaba kabita, |
i̯iϑ̣akam ða aϑ̣kama rabb, |
ða ˀinša nidiš. |
i̯iḳuu̯l raḫilu muhrī: |
“i̯ii̯agaʕ-nī libbu, |
ḥizai̯i i̯irkaba ˀinšu parašī.” |
i̯iḳu̯lū muhrū: “šmuʕ raḫilu! |
i̯ii̯agaʕ-nā libbu ḥizai̯ī |
i̯iʕabad ˀinšu, baʕlu, tāṉ |
šipātu-ṣ̌aˀni kisu̯ta šaḫn, |
u̯a lā i̯ihau̯ai̯ ṣ̌aˀnu šipāti.” |
hā šimaʕ i̯ibluṭ raḫilu ˀad šadau̯i. |
Notes:
· For individual ‘sheep’ *raḫil is selected. For the plural (collective) forms, *ṣ̌a’n seems more appropriate.
· PSem. *muhr, ‘foal’, has been selected as the oldest reconstructible stem for ‘horse’. The other widespread ancestral root is *su̯su̯-, which seems a borrowing from an Indo-European source, akin to Luw azzuwa, or PIAr. *áśvās (via Mitanni). Maybe the term for ‘foal’ was the original, although it is more likely that the donkey was the usual Middle Eastern/African animal before the introduction of the horse.
· For ‘having’, a head noun ‘wool’ in construct is used.
· For ‘chariot’, a form of the root *rkb ‘ride, drive, mount’ is used, as in Akkadian narkabtum ‘carriage’.
· PSem. *ṣu̯r ‘carry (on shoulders)’, and *ṯ̣km ‘carry on shoulders/back’.
Features of WS, some of them innovations of a previous Central Semitic (CS) stage include (Weninger et al. 2011):
· General VSO, possessor possessed, and noun-adjective order, as in PSem.
· PSem. initial *u̯- became *i̯- (except for conjunction *u̯a- where *-u̯- was probably interpreted as word-medial).
· PSem. *n- became assimialted to an immediately following consonant except for *h in several cases.
· NWS determinative-relative pronoun *ðū inflected in case, number, gender.
· Deixis in *h-, *n-, *ð-, *l-, *k-.
· ‘Triptotic’ declension in the singular, ‘diptotic’ in the dual and plural.
· Adjectives regularly agree with nouns, inflect in masc. /fem. gender and number.
· Prepositions can be reconstructed for WS: *bi- ‘in’, *la- ‘to’, *ʕalai̯ ‘on’, *min ‘from’, etc.
· Conjunction *pa- ‘and, then’ as Central Semitic innovation.
· Verbal system:
o Imperfect or ‘prefix conjugation’ with an older and a younger type:
§ The “short imperfect” or “jussive”, (cf. 3.m.sg. *i̯aktub-Ø), akin to Akkadian preterite, expresses deontic modality and punctual past.
§ The “long imperfect” (cf. 3.m.sg. *i̯aktub-u, with long vowels of the 2f.sg. and 3/2pl. expanded by *nV), is used in CS for present-future tense, durative or iterative past, circumstancial events etc.
o “Perfect” or “suffix conjugation” (cf. 3m.sg. *kataba for active verbs) expresses different types of past tense or completed action, from a previous stage denoting timeless qualities or mental stages (cf. *kabida ‘he is heavy’)
o Subjunctive (CS) acts as volitive, and maybe indicates subordination, cf. 3m.sg. *i̯aktub-a.
o “Energetic” mood forms in *-(a)nna (also *-(u)nna?), an innovation of Central Semitic.
o Imperative formed on the base of the ‘short imperfect’.
o Active participle *kātib- (for sound fientic roots) inflects initially like a noun.
o Passive participle forms *katīb and *katūb.
o Different levellings of the verbal system, e.g. drop of initial *i̯ in verbs Ii̯ (originally Iu̯); assmilation of *n or *l in “imperfect”; etc.
o Internal passives introduced before NWS (cf. *kutiba vs. *kataba)
o Levelling of vowels in verb prefixes: Proto-Semitic, informed by Akkadian, showed *ˀa-, *ta-, *ni-, *i̯i-.
raḫilu u̯a parašū |
|
raḫilu lā i̯ahu̯ui̯a šapāti, |
ˀamara parašī; |
ṣāu̯iru ðū markabta kabita, |
ϑ̣ākimu ðū ϑ̣aʕina rabba, |
ðū ˀanāša nāi̯ida. |
qau̯ul raḫilu parašī: |
“i̯ai̯guʕu libbu-nī, |
ḥāzii̯i rākiba ˀanāšu parašī.” |
qau̯ulū parašū: “ušmuʕ raḫilu! |
i̯ai̯guʕu libbu-nā ḥāzii̯ī |
i̯apʕulu ˀanāšu, baʕlu, tāṉ |
šapātu-raḫili kisu̯ta šaḫana, |
u̯a lā i̯ahu̯ui̯u raḫilu šapāti.” |
hā šamīʕ i̯abruḥ raḫilu la-dabri. |
Notes:
· For ‘horse’, the West Semitic *paraš has been used.
· Active participle *ϑ̣aʿīn ‘loaded with’ = carrying as in Syriac.