Central Semitic languages

{{Short description|Proposed group of Semitic languages}} {{Infobox language family | name = Central Semitic | map = Geographic Distribution of some Ancient Semitic Inscriptions and their Languages.svg | region = West Asia | familycolor = Afro-Asiatic | fam2 = Semitic | fam3 = West Semitic | child1 = Northwest Semitic | child2 = Arabic (including Maltese) | child3 = Sayhadic? | child4 = Dadanitic {{Extinct}} | child5 = Thamudic {{Extinct}} | glotto = cent2236 | glottorefname = Central Semitic }}

The '''Central Semitic languages''' comprise one of the two groups of West Semitic languages, the other being the South Semitic languages.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LfruK29pVl8C&q=old+south+arabian+languages+grammar&pg=PA124 | title=Comparative Semitic Linguistics: A Manual| isbn=9781575060217| last1=Bennett| first1=Patrick R.| year=1998}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KQpFAQAAQBAJ&q=old+south+arabian+central+semitic&pg=PA11 | title=The Semitic Languages| isbn=9781136115882| date=2013-10-08|last1=Huehnergard| first1=John| last2=Pat-El| first2=Na'ama}}</ref> They are therefore of the Semitic phylum of the Afroasiatic language family. The group is spoken across much of the Arabian peninsula and north into the Levant region.

Central Semitic can itself be further divided into two groups: Arabic and Northwest Semitic. Northwest Semitic languages largely fall into the Canaanite languages (such as Ammonite, Phoenician and Hebrew) and Aramaic.

==Overview== Distinctive features of Central Semitic languages include the following:<ref name=":0">{{cite book|first=Alice|last=Faber|chapter=Genetic Subgrouping of the Semitic Languages|year=1997|editor-first=Robert|editor-last=Hetzron|editor-link=Robert Hetzron|title=The Semitic Languages|location=London|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0-415-05767-1|pages=3–15}}</ref> * An innovative negation marker *bal, of uncertain origin. * The generalization of ''t'' as the suffix conjugation past tense marker, levelling an earlier alternation between *k in the first person and *t in the second person. * A new prefix conjugation for the non-past tense, of the form ''ya-qtulu'', replacing the inherited ''ya-qattal'' form (they are schematic verbal forms, as if derived from an example triconsonantal root ''q-t-l''). * Pharyngealization of the emphatic consonants, which were previously articulated as ejective.

Different classification systems disagree on the precise structure of the group. The most common approach divides it into Arabic and Northwest Semitic, while SIL Ethnologue has South Central Semitic (including Arabic and Hebrew) vs. Aramaic.<ref name=":0" />

The main distinction between Arabic and the Northwest Semitic languages is the presence of broken plurals in the former. The majority of Arabic nouns (apart from participles) form plurals in this manner, whereas virtually all nouns in the Northwest Semitic languages form their plurals with a suffix. For example, the Arabic بَيْت ''bayt'' ("house") becomes بُيُوت ''buyūt'' ("houses"); the Hebrew בַּיִת ''bayit'' ("house") becomes בָּתִּים ''bāttīm'' ("houses").<ref name=":0" />

== References == {{reflist}} * {{cite book|author=Sabatino Moscati|title=An Introduction to Comparative Grammar of Semitic Languages Phonology and Morphology|publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag|year=1980|isbn=3-447-00689-7|ref=none}}

Category:Central Semitic languages Category:Semitic languages