Linguistics
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Abstract
3006. Kaye, A. S. SOME REMARKS ON PROTO-SEMITIC PHONOLOGY. Language Sciences. 1986, 8(1):37-48. Research carried out over the past century has revealed that Proto-Semitic (=*S) phonology has changed very little during this period. The aim of this paper is to present a history of some of the important work in this area as well as to discuss, perhaps, the four most intriguing problems in the entire field: (1) Were the *S emphatics pharyngealized-velarized or glottalized? (2) How many *S sibilants can be reconstructed with certainty? (3) Can one reconstruct *S vowels other than a, i, and u, both long and short, i.e., 0 and e? (4) Have newly-discovered languages, such as Ugaritic, changed the picture concerning *S segments? The state of the art of this area is assessed and conclusions are offered for future research endeavors, such as internal reconstruction of the individual languages, further graphemic studies of languages like Akkadian, and new information from investigation of unknown Arabic dialects and of Ethiopic languages and dialects.