Far East Semitic

Inspiration: Old Chinese, Heleasic, Akkadian, Amharic

Far East Semitic is one of the major branches of Semitic and literary languages of Lõis's Southeast Asia.

Family tree

• Proto-Far East Semitic (~ 500 AD)
  • literally read Hmoob gib, possibly with tones? (greeting: Schlaub lag!)
  • hyperconservative Far East Semitic

Far East Semitic is phonologically one of the more conservative branches of Semitic in Lõis, with different reflexes for almost all the consonants of Proto-Semitic.

Phonology

Consonants:

• p b t ṭ d k q g ħ ʕ -> p b t tʰ d k kʰ g x ɣ~ɢ
• m n l r w y -> m n l r w j
• θ θ̣ ð s ṣ z ś ṣ́ š x ɣ h -> θ θ ð s ts z~dz l̥ l̥~ts (from koineization) š qʰ q h

Vowels: i ɨ u e ə o a (a vs ā as in Proto-Tai?)

ɣašt, θian, l̥āθ, ərbaɣ, qhamš, šɨš, šbaɣ, šmān, dɨšq, l̥əl

11: l̥əl had, 12: l̥əl θian, etc.

θina, l̥əθa, ərbɣa, qhəmša, šɨša, šbəɣa, šməna, dɨšqa, mə'a əlp 100,000: ləkš 100,00,000: kot

-> aws, xiam, hlaus, plaub, qhaab, sws, pha, hmam, dwg, hloj

Orthography

Far East Semitic is written with an abugida inspired aesthetically by Tai Lue.

Grammar

Far East Semitic is only vestigially triconsonantal.

Nouns

Far East Semitic has noun classifiers but no grammatical gender. Noun classifiers are also used as definite articles.

Verbs

As in English, Far East Semitic verbs are analytic with some vestigial ablaut; participial (with m-) and verbnoun (with t- and other grammaticalized noun derivations) forms are common, as in modern Aramaic dialects.

Derivation

Derivations that correspond to binyanim in other Semitic languages are more concatenative:

• G-stem: xtab, xtob, xtib
• D-stem: kʰətʰab
• N-stem: nə·xtab
• S-stem: šə·xtab
• t-stems: tə·xtab

the pa'al / pi'el distinction surfaces as initial clusters vs minor syllables

mə- prefix for derived nouns -> prenasalization in the quasi-Hmoob language

Some derivational VN patterns

• xteb, xtib
• xtub for adjectives
• tə·xtVb
• kʰətʰib, kʰətʰub, kʰətʰāb

Inflection

particles for aspects like Wdm (mɨn for perfect tense etc)

bə xtib an = I write

min xtib an = I wrote

l̥aʔ xtib an = I will write

Pronouns

• 1sg an / nākʰ / ni (obj/poss)
• 2sg ant / kʰā (m, obj/poss) / khe (f, obj/poss)
• 1pl xnu / nu
• 2sg əntom / kʰom

Largely replaced with rank pronouns in descendants in non-intimate speech