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

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 y
• 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

had/ɣəštey, θian, l̥aθ, ərbaɣ, qhamš, šɨš, šbaɣ, šman, dɨšq, l̥əl θina, l̥əθa, ərbɣa, qhəmša, šɨša, šbəɣa, šməna, dɨšqa, mə'a əlp 100,000: ləkš 100,00,000: kot

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

Grammar

Far East Semitic is only vestigially triconsonantal.

Nouns

definite article a or no definite article

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 and verbnoun forms are common, as in modern Aramaic dialects.

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

• G-stem: xtab, 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

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

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

Inflection

bə xtib an = I write

min xtib an = I wrote

l̥aʔ xtib an = I will write