Far East Semitic: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 08:14, 11 April 2023

Inspiration: Old Chinese, Heleasic, Akkadian, Amharic

In Irta, Far East Semitic is one of the major branches of Semitic.

Loans from Old Chinese and Sino-IE in addition to the usual SEA families (except Austronesian)

Todo

Verner's law in random words? plax "to open" <- *pdax <- *phthax

lhor "king", mələkh "prince"?

(ğurayb >) qraib "crow, raven"

hlān 'language'

nəphəs "soul"

nəphle "to fall"

bəihl "egg"

qe "egg" in Hmooblang (from a substrate)

Lots of dvandvas

bayth X = expert in X

šmay 2ərətlh: world

Gmad = to resist

Gəmed = to support (same sense as Arabic 3amada)

yiθ = there is, liθ = there is not (yiθ becomes 'have' in later languages: *nā yiθ phkar 'I have cows')

Gabəd 'slave'

laqhəm 'fish' (< 'food')

t=ār 'bird'

ts⁼pʰur 'bird'

Family tree

Proto-Far East Semitic (~ 500 AD)
- Far East Semitic/Tonal Semitic: A language with two tones from the register split and lots of preinitials. Irta's only tonal Semlang.
- hyperconservative Far East Semitic

Far East Semitic is phonologically one of the more conservative branches of Semitic, with different reflexes for almost all the consonants of Proto-Semitic. Morphologically, though, it is the exact opposite -- it is a rather typical Southeast Asian sprachbund language even in the proto-stage.

Phonology

Consonants:

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

Vowels: i ɨ u e ə o a ā

p and ŋ show up by assimilation or in loanwords from Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan languages.

ɣašt, θian, l̥āθ, ɚbaɣ, qhamš, šɨš, šbaɣ, šmān, dɨšq, l̥ər

11: l̥ər had, 12: l̥ər θian, etc.

θina, l̥əθa, ɚbɣa, qhəmša, šɨša, šbəɣa, šməna, dɨšqa, mə'a ələp 100,000: ləkəš 100,00,000: kot

Orthography

Most Far East Semitic languages are written with an abugida inspired aesthetically by Ahom. The consonant letters are based on the Proto-Sinaitic abjad.

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 though ðə is also commonly used, especially in the literary language.

ah - classifier for people, from the feminine form of numbers in PSem

mušab - classifier for places

Animate plurals are marked with postposed wɨl (which is more of an associative marker).

Derivation

Singulatives are formed with bɨn-.

kʰətʰāb: agentive

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. It's relatively unpredictable which Semitic verb root was assigned to which pattern (but it should correlate with the semantics of the noun patterns before they turned into verbs, e.g. agency)

Derivation

Morphology that corresponds to binyanim in other Semitic languages are more concatenative and are used as triggers:

G-stem: xtab, xtob, xtib (agent trigger)
- D-stem: kʰətʰVb as opposed to xtVb should become an iterative?
N-stem: nə·xtVb (patient trigger stem)
S-stem: šə·xtVb (instrument/cause trigger)
t-stems: tə·xtVb (reciprocal)
locative trigger: θə(m)-xtVb (from *þamma 'there', cf. Gàidhlig ann when fronting an adjunct)

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

mə- prefix for derived nouns

Some former VN patterns (also noun patterns)

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

Inflection

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

bə xtib nākʰ = I write

min xtib nākʰ = I wrote

l̥aʔ xtib nākʰ = I will write

Pronouns

1sg nā~nākʰ~ni
2sg əntu~kʰmu

Plural pronouns were formed with the associative marker wɨl (< *wa-illu 'and these') or kʰol (from *kullu 'all'):

1pl: nākʰ wɨl~nākʰol
2pl kʰmu wɨl~kʰmu kʰol~kʰmɨl

Largely replaced with kinship terms and rank pronouns in descendants in non-intimate speech except in the hyperconservative FES language, where directional adverbs are sometimes used instead of pronouns

Derivation

Syntax

Proto-Far East Semitic syntax is close to Tagalog. It's a VSO language. Modern Far East Semitic languages have a much more similar syntax to Thai, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew or Arabic.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 Inspiration: Old Chinese, [[Heleasic]], Akkadian, Amharic
-Far East Semitic is one of the major branches of Semitic. Proto-Far East Semitic was a prestige language of [[Verse:Irta]]'s Southeast Asia. It's in a clade with Akkadian. It was first observed to be related to other Semitic languages by the linguist Tean<sup>F</sup>-Ga<sup>L</sup> Fén<sup>H</sup>, himself a native speaker of both [[Cuam]] and Far East Semitic.
+In [[Verse:Irta|Irta]], Far East Semitic is one of the major branches of Semitic.
 Loans from Old Chinese and Sino-IE in addition to the usual SEA families (except Austronesian)
@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 Verner's law in random words? plax "to open" <- *pdax <- *phthax
-lhor "king", mëlkh "prince"?
+lhor "king", mələkh "prince"?
-(ğurayb >) ''qraib'' "crow, raven" > ''qhaiv'' in Hmooblang
+(ğurayb >) ''qraib'' "crow, raven"
 hlān 'language'
-nəps "soul" -> npos in Hmooblang
+nəphəs "soul"
-nəphle "to fall" -> nplhe in Hmooblang?
+nəphle "to fall"
 bəihl "egg"
@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
 qe "egg" in Hmooblang (from a substrate)
-Hmooblang should have two "fangyans", one tonal with Hmong tone values and another "literally read" (inspiration: Lhasa vs Amdo Tibetan)
+Lots of dvandvas
-Lots of dvandvas
+bayth X = expert in X
+šmay 2ərətlh: world
+Gmad = to resist
+Gəmed = to support (same sense as Arabic 3amada)
+yiθ = there is, liθ = there is not (yiθ becomes 'have' in later languages: *nā yiθ phkar 'I have cows')
+Gabəd 'slave'
+laqhəm 'fish' (< 'food')
-Final tav likes to become -h/breathy voice
+t=ār 'bird'
-bayh: world/homeland (for a coincidence with bith)
+ts⁼pʰur 'bird'
 ==Family tree==
 *Proto-Far East Semitic (~ 500 AD)
-**literally read Hmoob gib, possibly with tones? (greeting: ''Schlaub lag!'')
+** [[Far East Semitic/Tonal Semitic]]: A language with two tones from the register split and lots of preinitials. Irta's only tonal Semlang.
 **hyperconservative Far East Semitic
 Far East Semitic is phonologically one of the more conservative branches of Semitic, with different reflexes for almost all the consonants of Proto-Semitic. Morphologically, though, it is the exact opposite -- it is a rather typical Southeast Asian sprachbund language even in the proto-stage.
@@ Line 40: / Line 52: @@
 *p b t ṭ d k q g ħ ʕ -> ph b th t d kh k g x ɣ~ɢ
 *m n l r w y -> m n l ɹ 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
+*θ θ̣ ð s ṣ z ś ṣ́ š x ɣ h -> θ θ ð s ts z~dz l̥ tl̥~ts (from koineization) š qʰ q h
 Vowels: i ɨ u e ə o a ā
-''p'' shows up in loanwords from Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan languages.
+''p'' and ''ŋ'' show up by assimilation or in loanwords from Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan languages.
-ɣašt, θian, l̥āθ, ɚbaɣ, qhamš, šɨš, šbaɣ, šmān, dɨšq, l̥əl
+ɣašt, θian, l̥āθ, ɚbaɣ, qhamš, šɨš, šbaɣ, šmān, dɨšq, l̥ər
-: l̥əl had, 12: l̥əl θian, etc.
+: l̥ər had, 12: l̥ər θian, etc.
 θina, l̥əθa, ɚbɣa, qhəmša, šɨša, šbəɣa, šməna, dɨšqa, mə'a
-əlp
+ələp
-,000: ləkš
+,000: ləkəš
 ,00,000: kot
--> aws, xiam, hlaus, plaub, qhaab, sws, pha, hmaum, dwg, hloj
 ==Orthography==
-Far East Semitic is written with an abugida inspired aesthetically by Tai Lue.
+Most Far East Semitic languages are written with an abugida inspired aesthetically by Ahom. The consonant letters are based on the Proto-Sinaitic abjad.
 ==Grammar==
@@ Line 66: / Line 76: @@
 ===Nouns===
-Far East Semitic has noun classifiers but no grammatical gender. Noun classifiers are also used as definite articles.
+Far East Semitic has noun classifiers but no grammatical gender. Noun classifiers are also used as definite articles though ðə is also commonly used, especially in the literary language.
 ah - classifier for people, from the feminine form of numbers in PSem
@@ Line 79: / Line 89: @@
 ===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. It's relatively unpredictable which Semitic verb root was assigned to which pattern.
+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. It's relatively unpredictable which Semitic verb root was assigned to which pattern (but it should correlate with the semantics of the noun patterns before they turned into verbs, e.g. agency)
 ==== Derivation ====
-Derivations that correspond to binyanim in other Semitic languages are more concatenative:
+Morphology that corresponds to binyanim in other Semitic languages are more concatenative and are used as triggers:
-*G-stem: xtab, xtob, xtib
+*G-stem: xtab, xtob, xtib (agent trigger)
-*D-stem: kʰətʰVb
+** D-stem: kʰətʰVb as opposed to xtVb should become an iterative?
-*N-stem: nə·xtVb
+*N-stem: nə·xtVb (patient trigger stem)
-*S-stem: šə·xtVb
+*S-stem: šə·xtVb (instrument/cause trigger)
-*t-stems: tə·xtVb
+*t-stems: tə·xtVb (reciprocal)
+*locative trigger: θə(m)-xtVb (from *þamma 'there', cf. Gàidhlig ''ann'' when fronting an adjunct)
 the pa'al / pi'el distinction surfaces as initial clusters vs minor syllables
-mə- prefix for derived nouns -> prenasalization in the quasi-Hmoob language
+mə- prefix for derived nouns
 Some former VN patterns (also noun patterns)
 * kʰətʰıb
 * xteb, xtib
-* xtub for adjectives
+* xtub, xtib for adjectives
 * tə·xtVb
 * kʰətʰib, kʰətʰub, kʰətʰāb
@@ Line 109: / Line 120: @@
 ==== Pronouns ====
-* 1sg ''nā''~''nākʰ''~''ni'' (Hmooblang ''nau'')
+* 1sg ''nā''~''nākʰ''~''ni''
-* 2sg ''əntu''~''kʰmu'' (Hmooblang ''hmu'')
+* 2sg ''əntu''~''kʰmu''
 Plural pronouns were formed with the associative marker ''wɨl'' (< *wa-illu 'and these') or ''kʰol'' (from *kullu 'all'):
 * 1pl: ''nākʰ wɨl~nākʰol''
 * 2pl ''kʰmu wɨl~kʰmu kʰol~kʰmɨl''
-Largely replaced with rank pronouns in descendants in non-intimate speech except in the hyperconservative FES language, where directional adverbs are sometimes used instead of pronouns
+Largely replaced with kinship terms and rank pronouns in descendants in non-intimate speech except in the hyperconservative FES language, where directional adverbs are sometimes used instead of pronouns
 ==Derivation==
 ==Syntax==
-Proto-Far East Semitic syntax is close to Tagalog. It's a VSO language. Modern Far East Semitic languages though have a much more similar syntax to Thai, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew or Arabic.
+Proto-Far East Semitic syntax is close to Tagalog. It's a VSO language. Modern Far East Semitic languages have a much more similar syntax to Thai, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew or Arabic.
 [[Category:Semitic languages]]
+[[Category:Stem-Akkadian languages]]