Middle Semitic/Anthropology
We shall refer to Arabics in the plural for the modern languages, which are (not actually) unified under Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). The singular 'Arabic' refers to Classical Arabic, in this document. 'Hebrew' is the ancient form of that language, while 'Israeli' is what is spoken today.’'
The various Arabics and the Israeli language could hardly be more similar, and yet no cultures are more at war with each other. Both languages feature a diglossia, where there is a prestige-form of the language preserved in the ancient religious text, and a common-form which is used every day. Both languages feature an array of contemporary dialects, which are sometimes mutually unintelligible -- a fact both language groups deny! Both languages are Central Semitic languages. Both languages have been around the world and back again. Both languages have adult-learners coming in from virtually every language family and background. Most contentiously, both are official languages in Israel!
Languages
The Arabic languages of today are groups into several, broad categories:
- North African Arabic, also called Maghrebi (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya),
- Hassaniya Arabic (Mauritania, Morocco),
- Egyptian Arabic,
- Levantine Arabic (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Palestine),
- Iraqi Arabic, also called Mesopotamian,
- Gulf Arabic (Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the U.A.E. and Oman).
- Hejazi Arabic (Western Saudi Arabia)
- Najdi Arabic (Central Saudi Arabia).
- Yemeni Arabic (Yemen & southwestern Saudi Arabia).
There are many other ways to group the Arabics, including: Maghrebi, Sudanese, Egyptian, Arabian Peninsula, Mesopotamian, and Levantine. These groups may be mutually unintelligible (or even asymmetrically unintelligible!), but, depending upon education, they can often switch to Classical (Quranic) Arabic to communicate.
Iraeli Hebrew is a synthetic blend of Ashkenzai consonants and Sephardic vowels. Mizrahi and Yemenite Jews may find it a bit of a learning curve. Unlike Arabic speakers, there is not a spoken heritage of Classical Hebrew to fall back on. On in the synagogue, when reading from the Torah scroll, is such language called upon.
The Modern, Neo-Aramaic languages also have a classical form, namely Classical Syriac. Today, their numbers are very small, but are quite divided into Western, Northern, and Eastern varieties, some of which have sub-dialects that lack mutual intelligibility.
Proto-Language
Whenever possible, words are re-derived from Proto-Semitic (PS), through Proto-Central-Semitic (PCS), to a form we can use. However, there are a great many roots which have diverged in meaning wildly over the last 3,000 years. Modern words – even if borrowed from English or some other language – are to be preferred over picking sides in a divergent bit of vocabulary. This can extend even to the Maltese level, of appropriating outside vocabulary as if it were a triliteral root.
Countries
Almost all of North Africa, and the entire Arabian peninsula and Middle East.
Phonology
Word-formation relies heavily on knowledge of the triconsonantal root of a word in Proto-Semitic.
| Proto-Semitic | Hebrew | Israeli | Aramaic | MSA | Middle Semitic | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *b | b | ב | v/b | v, b | ב | v/b | ب | b | b/v | ܒ |
| *p | p | פ | f/p | f, p | פ | f/p | ف | f | f/p | ܦ |
| *g | ɡ | ג | ɣ/g | ɡ | ג | g/g | ج | ǧ /d͡ʒ | ɣ/g | ܓ |
| *k | k | כ | x/k | χ, k | כ | ḵ/k | ك | k | x/k | ܟ |
| *ḳ | kʼ | ק | q | k | ק | q | ق | q | q | ܩ |
| *d | d | ד | ð/d | d | ד | d/d | د | d | ð/d | ܕ |
| *t | t | ת | θ/t | t | ת | θ/t | ت | t | θ/t | ܬ |
| *ṭ | tʼ | ט | ṭ | t | ט | ṭ | ط | ṭ/tˤ | ṭ | ܛ |
| *ṱ | θʼ/tθʼ | צ | ṣ | ts | צ/ט | ṯʼ/ṭ | ظ | ẓ/ðˤ~zˤ | ||
| *ṣ | sʼ/tsʼ | צ | ṣ | ص | ṣ/sˤ | ṣ | ܨ | |||
| *ṣ́ | ɬʼ/tɬʼ | ק/ע | *ġʼʻ | ض | ḍ*/ɮˤ > /dˤ | |||||
| *ḏ | ð | ז | z | z | ז/ד | ḏ/d | ذ | ḏ/ð | z | ܙ |
| *z | z/dz | ז | z | ز | z | |||||
| *ś | ɬ/tɬ | שׂ | ś | s | שס | ś/s | ش | š/ʃ | ʃ | ܫ |
| *ṯ | θ | שׁ | š | ʃ | ש/ת | ṯ/t | ث | ṯ/θ | ||
| *š | ʃ | שׁ | š | س | s | s | ܣ | |||
| *s | s/ts | ס | s | s | ס | s | ||||
| *ġ | ʁ | ע | ʻ | ʔ, - | ע | ġʻ | غ | ġ/ɣ~ʁ | ʕ | ܥ |
| *ʻ | ʕ | ʻ | ع | ʻ/ʕ | ||||||
| *ʼ | ʔ | א | ʼ | ʔ, - | א | ʼ | ء | ʼ/ʔ | ʔ | ܐ |
| *ḫ | χ | ח | ḥ | χ | ח | ḫ/ḥ | خ | ḫ/x~χ | ħ | ܚ |
| *ḥ | ħ | ḥ | ح | ḥ/ħ | ||||||
| *h | h | ה | h | h, - | ה | h | ه | h | h | ܗ |
| *m | m | מ | m | m | מ | m | م | m | m | ܡ |
| *n | n | נ | n | n | נ/ר | n/r | ن | n | n | ܢ |
| *r | ɾ | ר | r | ʁ | ר | r | ر | r | r | ܪ |
| *l | l | ל | l | l | ל | l | ل | l | l | ܠ |
| *w | w | ו/י | w/y | v, w/j | ו/י | w/y | و | w | w | ܘ |
| *y | j | י | y | j | י | y | ي | y/j | y | ܝ |
| Proto-Semitic | Hebrew | Israeli | Aramaic | MSA | Middle Semitic | |||||
Some observations:
- The Neo-Aramaic (NA) alphabet fits nicely.
- Israeli and NA speakers will recognized the spirantization of non-emphatic stop intervocalically, some from ancient practice and not modern
- All but Mizrahi Israeli speakers will need to learn pharyngeal consonants
- From an Israeli perspective
- All sins become shins
- Some shins become sameks
- Some ṣades become ṭets
- Some yods become /w/s
- From the Arabics' perspectives
- Most glyphs with the same rasm are now united
- thā’ has merged into shīn
- dhāl has merged into zāy
- i'jam on bgdkft produce different sounds
Vowels are among the most difficult areas in this entire endeavor. Israeli acts like many European languages and does not distinguish vowel length apart from stress, though it does have reduced vowels (i.e. ǝ-like sounds). The Arabics are bewilderingly diverse, even though according to MSA there are only three vowels which contrast short and long. The lowest common denominator would be /a u i/. However, an Arabic-speaker is going to have to acquire more vowels in order to communicate with other Arabic speakers!
Our system basically sticks to three vowels, but with some of the globally common five-vowel system. There are no reduced vowels, vowel length is not contrastive, nor are there any diphthongs. Vowel "points" are not written, which is typical to all our languages. However, in each of the sources, the use of an abjad only possible because the native speakers can fill out the picture from their innate knowledge. We must have abnormally rigid rules if such a system is to work for a diverse audience. Vowels should only be needed in dictionaries and introductory/children's texts, but not in normal writing. When needed, they are vertically symmetrical, and can be written above or below, depending on the need to move out of the way for other diacritics.
Some imagined phonological process in Middle Semitics fictionalized past are
- ay --> e, written with i mater
- aw --> o, written with u mater
Long vowels with mater (i.e. iy and uw) are simply pronounced as short vowels, but are romanized in the traditional Semitic way (i.e. î, â and û). Taken all together, the following mater pattern emerges
- y indicates i or e. Since /e/ only every occurs with mater, it is not necessary to ê.
- w indicates u or o. Since /o/ only ever happens with mater, it is not necessary to write ô.
- ' indicates a. /a/ is the assumed vowel in most cases, but if it occurs finally, the alef is always written.
Orthography
We propose to create a language which is equally close to the varieties of Arabic, Israeli, and Neo-Aramaic. Care must be taken at every point to do equal justice to the languages of Jews and Muslims, or else choose a neutral, logical alternative. Hence, it is clear that the writing system would have to be neither of the two. Aramaic is the only logical possibility.
As with all our languages, Middle Semitic is written Right-to-Left (RTL). MS is more consistently RTL than Israeli, but less than the Arabics.
The Begadkefat letters are supposed to soften between vowels. In transcribing foreign words, a dot above forces harding, while a dot below forces softening. Gemination is indicated with the Arabic shadda.
Again in simple text, it may be necessary to distinguish between quiescent and/or mater alifs, and consonantal ones. As in Arabics, there is a sign for glottal stops, but it is taken from Aramaic and is a superscript alif.
Prolegomena
The background work for this project is extensive, but feasible.
- Find all words in common today between Israeli and the Arabics
- Find all words in coomon between MSA and Classical Hebrew
- Synthesize the common grammatical features, especially as the languages are used today
Implementation
This is the impossible part. Even the threat of physical violence would do very little to these embittered peoples. There is no bite to the threat of withholding commerce from much of the region, as it is already practically embargoed. If the major players of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the Persian Gulf nations could be persuaded, perhaps a way could be found.
WALS
| Feature | Ch. | Israeli | Neo-Aramic | Egyptian | Syrian |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Velar Nasal | 9 | No | No | No | No |
| Stress | 14/15/16 | Ultima | Penult | Weight | Weight |
| Pattern | 17 | Trochaic | Trochaic | Trochaic | Trochaic |
| Affixes | 26 | Weakly Suffxing | Strongly Suffixing | Weakly Suffixing | Weakly Suffixing |
| Reduplication | 27 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Indefinite | 38 | Same as 1 | Same as 1 | No | No |
| TAM position | 69 | Mixed | Mixed | Mixed | Mixed |
| Order | 81 | SVO | SOV | SVO | No |
| N-G | 86 | Noun-Genitive | Noun-Genitive | Noun-Genitive | Noun-Genitive |
| N-A | 87 | Noun-Adjective | Noun-Adjective | Noun-Adjective | Noun-Adjective |
| N-D | 88 | Noun-Demon. | Demon.-Noun | Noun-Demon. | Mixed |
| N-N | 89 | Noun-Numer. | Noun-Numer. | Mixed | Mixed |
| Polar | 92 | Initial | No | Initial | Final |
| Interrog. | 93 | Initial | No | No | Initial |
all are noun-relative, question particles are the noun
