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
ɣašt, 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
-> aws, 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