Phonological reanalysis in Modern South Arabian

Phonological reanalysis in Modern South Arabian

Benjamin Suchard

Leiden University Centre for Linguistics

31 October 2014

Introduction Problem Solution Conclusion

Modern South Arabian

Semitic

West Semitic

Central Semitic Modern South Arabian (MSA) Ethio-Semitic

East Semitic

Akkadian

Benjamin Suchard LIES 2014

Phonological reanalysis in Modern South Arabian 2 / 30



Semitic

West Semitic

Central Semitic Modern South Arabian (MSA)

Mehri Jibbali Socotri (. . . )

Ethio-Semitic

East Semitic

Akkadian




Hang on, that isn’t Indo-European!




Irregular sound change?

“the expected shift (. . . ) has beenblocked in this form. This seemsto have occurred in order todistinguish the masculine andfeminine pronouns.”

– Rubin (2014)




This isn’t a sound change, but a case of reanalysis




Structure



Third person pronouns

independent suffixedm.sg. *s1u↩a -*s1uf.sg *s1ı↩a -*s1am.pl. *s1umu -*s1umuf.pl. *s1ina -*s1ina



Usage (Biblical Hebrew)

Independent:

↩ah. i hu‘he is my brother’

↩ah. ot¯

i hi‘she is my sister’

hay-yom ha-hu‘that day’

ha- ↩arEs. ha-hi‘that land’

Suffixed:

↩ab¯

i-hu‘his father’

↩ab¯

i-ha‘her father’

yib¯

ne-hu‘he will build it’

way-yaglE-ha‘and he deported her’






Independent:


↩ah. ot¯




Suffixed:

↩ab¯


↩ab¯


yib¯








Independent:


↩ah. ot¯




Suffixed:

↩ab¯


↩ab¯


yib¯








Independent:


↩ah. ot¯




Suffixed:

↩ab¯


↩ab¯


yib¯







Did the pronouns start with *s1 or *h?

m.sg. indep. m.sg. suff. f.sg. indep. f.sg.suff.

Akkadian su -su sı -saQatabanian <s1(w)↩> -<s1> <s1(y)↩> -<s1>

Sabaic <h(w)↩> -<h> <h(y)↩> -<h>Arabic huwa -hu hiya -ha





The pronouns should be reconstructed with *s1

Al-Jallad (forthcoming):Proto-Semitic *s1 > West Semitic *h / # , #

m.sg. indep. m.sg. suff. f.sg. indep. f.sg.suff.Proto-Semitic *s1u↩a -*s1u *s1ı↩a -*s1aEast Semitic “ ”West Semitic *hu↩a -*s1u *hı↩a -*s1a‘s1-languages’ *s1u↩a -*s1u *s1ı↩a -*s1a‘h-languages’ *hu↩a -*hu *hı↩a -*ha



The three ‘sibilants’ (Kogan 2011)


Sibilants

*s1 = [s]

reflexes: [s], [h], [S], [Sw]

only true sibilant in Proto-Semitic

conclusion: voiceless alveolar sibilant [s]




Sibilants

*s2 = [ì]

reflexes: [s], [S], [ì]

incompatible with [l] in Arabic and Hebrew roots

loanwords like b�lsamon ‘balsam’ < Semitic *bas2˘am ‘spice,perfume’

conclusion: voiceless alveolar lateral fricative [ì]




Sibilants

*s3 = [�ts]

reflex in living languages: only [s]

(Old) Akkadian cuneiform: Z-series, used for Hittite andEgyptian [�ts], Old Iranian [�tS], is used for *s3

Canaanite *s3 transcribed by Egyptian [�ts], borrowed asArmenian ch

Greek letter X < ס! = *s3, while S < ש! = *s1

conclusion: voiceless alveolar affricate [�ts]




Sibilants

Overview of the ‘sibilants’

traditional IPA Semiticist transcription*s1 [s] *s*s2 [ì] *s*s3 [�ts] *ts



The feminine forms in MSA seem to be irregular

Mehri: he ‘he’ (regular), but se ‘she’

Jibbali: sE ‘he’ (regular), but sE ‘she’


MSA pronouns

*s1 > Mehri h or s, Jibbali s or s

Mehri Jibbali BH PS meaningh. aym@h h

˘ıs h. ames *h

˘amis1um ‘five’

h. @-roh rEs ros *ra↩s1um ‘head’Ewsen ElsEn lason *lis1anum ‘tongue’

Sometimes s, probably loans from Arabic

Mehri Jibbali Arabic PS meaningdabh dEbs, dEbs dibs *dibs1um ‘honey’sak. f sEk. f, sEk. f saqf *s1aqpum ‘roof’hEk. awt.*, sEk. awt.* sOk. Ot.*, sOk. Ot.* sqt. *s1qt. ‘to fall’

*‘to be worthless, get lost’




MSA pronouns

*s1 > Mehri h or s, Jibbali s or s

Mehri Jibbali BH PS meaningh. aym@h h

˘ıs h. ames *h

˘amis1um ‘five’

h. @-roh rEs ros *ra↩s1um ‘head’Ewsen ElsEn lason *lis1anum ‘tongue’

Sometimes s, probably loans from Arabic

Mehri Jibbali Arabic PS meaningdabh dEbs, dEbs dibs *dibs1um ‘honey’sak. f sEk. f, sEk. f saqf *s1aqpum ‘roof’hEk. awt.*, sEk. awt.* sOk. Ot.*, sOk. Ot.* sqt. *s1qt. ‘to fall’

*‘to be worthless, get lost’




MSA pronouns

*s3 > s in both Mehri and Jibbali

MSA BH PSMehri ksu ‘to clothe’ ksy ‘to cover’ *ks3wJibbali ↩EsOr ‘to bind’ ↩sr (idem) *↩s3r




MSA pronouns

The MSA feminine pronoun with s is problematic

Mehri Jibbali PShe sE *s1u↩a regularse sE *s1ı↩a irregular



In MSA feminine pronouns, *s1 was reanalyzed as *s3

*malkat s1ı↩ ‘she’s a queen’ → *malkat s3ı↩



Feminine pronouns were frequently preceded by wordsending in -*t

Feminine suffix *-(a)t:*malk ‘king’ *malk-at ‘queen’*kalb ‘dog’ *kalb-at ‘bitch’

*malkat sı↩ ‘she’s a queen’*kalbat sı↩ ‘it’s a bitch’





Feminine pronouns were frequently preceded by wordsending in -*t

Feminine suffix *-(a)t:*malk ‘king’ *malk-at ‘queen’*kalb ‘dog’ *kalb-at ‘bitch’

*malkat sı↩ ‘she’s a queen’*kalbat sı↩ ‘it’s a bitch’





/-t s-/ was reanalyzed as /-t ts-/

/malkat sı↩/ → [malkatsi:P] → /malkat tsı↩/





The new forms with /ts-/ were then extended

/malkat sı↩/ → /malkat tsı↩//sı↩ malkat/ → /tsı↩ malkat/

Old High German:/gilaubis þu/ → /gilaubist þu//þu gilaubis/ → /þu gilaubist/





The new forms with /ts-/ were then extended

/malkat sı↩/ → /malkat tsı↩//sı↩ malkat/ → /tsı↩ malkat/

Old High German:/gilaubis þu/ → /gilaubist þu//þu gilaubis/ → /þu gilaubist/



Hadramitic: same problem, same solution?

West Semitic

Central Semitic

Northwest Semitic Arabic Ancient South Arabian (ASA)

Minaic Sabaic Qatabanian Hadramitic

Modern South Arabian (MSA)

Mehri Jibbali Socotri (. . . )

Ethio-Semitic


Hadramitic

Hadramitic pronouns

Independent: <s1w> ‘he’, but <s3y> ‘she’

Suffixed: -<s1> ‘his, him’, but -<s3> ‘her’




Hadramitic

Is Hadramitic closer to MSA than to ASA?

MSA ASA Hadramitic3f pronoun has *s3 X × Xpreposition h- ‘to’ X × Xinnovative 1sg, 1pl pronoun X × ?innovative numeral ‘1’ X × ?innovative imperfect × X ?




Hadramitic

Maybe not

Hadramitic seems to preserve mimation: *malkatum sı↩(a)would not be reanalyzed

forms with *s3 could be borrowed

were Proto-MSA speakers already in or near Yemen?



Conclusion

The unusual reflexes of *s3 for expected *s1 in the Modern SouthArabian third person feminine pronouns are the result ofphonological reanalysis: /-t s-/ → /-t ts-/. The origin of theHadramitic situation and its relation to Modern South Arabianremains uncertain.

References

Al-Jallad, A. Forthcoming. ‘Yusap↪il or Yuhap↪il, that is thequestion – Two solutions to the sound change s1 > h in WestSemitic’, Zeitschrift der Deutschen MorgenlandischenGesellschaft.

Kogan, L. 2011. ‘Proto-Semitic Phonology and Phonetics’, in S.Weninger et al. (eds), The Semitic Languages (Berlin). 54–150

Rubin, A.D. 2014. ‘A Brief Comparison of Mehri and Jibbali’,in O. Elmaz and J.C.E. Watson (eds), Languages of SouthernArabia (Supplement to the Proceedings of the Seminar forArabian Studies 44. Oxford). 125–136

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Phonological reanalysis in Modern South Arabian

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