There is a compelling “lexical similarity” between Semitic and Indo-European languages. These two families, share many cognate words. Some of these words underwent phonetic changes, and became: “camouflaged cognates”, while others are still “explicit cognates”.
Cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Cognates are distinguished from loanwords, where a word has been borrowed from another language.
Because language change can have radical effects on both the sound and the meaning of a word, cognates may not be obvious, and it often takes rigorous study of historical sources and the application of the comparative method to establish whether lexemes are cognate.
Semitic languages: Akkadian, Amharic, Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew, Ge’ez, Mandaic, Old-South-Arabian, Phoenician, Syriac, Tigre, Tigrinya, Ugaritic, among others.
Indo-European: Greek, Latin, Romance languages, Germanic, Celtic, Balto-Slavic, Indo-Iranian, among others.
Indo-Semitic hypothesis:
The Indo-Semitic hypothesis maintains that a genetic relationship exists between Indo-European and Semitic languages, and that the Indo-European and the Semitic language families both descend from a common root ancestral language.
Lexical similarity
“Lexical similarity” is a measure of the degree to which the ‘word sets’ of two given languages are similar. A lexical similarity of 1 (or 100%) would mean a total overlap between vocabularies, whereas 0 means there are no common words.
There are different ways to define the lexical similarity and the results vary accordingly. (Wikipedia)
One of these “ways” is identifying cognates through the use of Swadesh list.
“Swadesh list” is a compilation of basic vocabulary items used in historical linguistics to compare languages and their relatedness. Swadesh collection of words was also intended to avoid borrowing, based on the idea that ‘cultural’ vocabulary is more prone to borrowing than ‘intimate’ vocabulary. By limiting the list of words to intimate vocabulary, the words should be resistant to borrowing. (Swadesh, 1952)
The task of defining (and counting the number) of cognate words in the list is far from trivial, and often is subject to dispute, because cognates do not necessarily look similar, and recognition of cognates presupposes knowledge of the sound laws of the respective languages.
Cognates may undergo phonological/morphological changes or semantic shift and became: “camouflaged cognates”.
Phonetic notes:
1- Semitic vowels:
ă = “u” as in “but”
ā = “a” as in “far”
ŭ = “u” as in “put”
ū = “oo” as in “stool”
ĭ = “i” as in “bit”
ī = “ee” as in “steel”.
2- Glottal/pharyngeal: /ẖ/, /h/, /ḥ/ and /ḣ/.
/ẖ/ represents: “glottal stop”. ( ⟨ʔ⟩ in IPA )
Produced by obstructing airflow in the glottis.
for example, between the vowel sounds in: “uh-oh!”
Graphemes: Aramaic/Hebrew “א”, Syriac “ܐ” and Arabic “ء”.
/h/ represents: “voiceless glottal fricative”. ( ⟨h⟩ in IPA )
It is English “h” in: “hear” and “have”.
In Spanish, /h/ is silent: /∅/
Graphemes: Aramaic/Hebrew “ה”, Syriac “ܗ” and Arabic “هـ”.
/ḥ/ represents: “voiceless pharyngeal fricative”. ( ⟨ħ ⟩ in IPA )
Often characterized as a “whispered /h/”, or a “breathy” variant of /h/.
Graphemes: Aramaic/Hebrew “ח”, Syriac “ܚ” and Arabic “حـ”.
/ḣ/ represents: “voiced pharyngeal fricative” (Ayin). ( ⟨ʕ⟩ in IPA )
It is the voiced variant of: /ḥ/.
Sometimes referred to as: “voiced glottal stop”.
Graphemes: Aramaic/Hebrew “ע”, Syriac “ܥ” and Arabic “عـ”.
Etymologically, these phones are considered to be: “epenthetic”.
Epenthesis: is the addition or the insertion of an extra sound into a word, without changing the word’s meaning. Their phonemic value is nil.
/ẖ/ → /∅/
/h/ → /∅/
/ḥ/ → /∅/
/ḣ/ → /∅/
Example_01
Arabic: “Lăḣăq /لعق ” = to lick something with the tongue.
Lăḣăq (root) = [l-ḣ-q]
(“ḣ” deletion, ḣ becomes zero): /ḣ/→/∅/
[l-ḣ-q] → [l-∅-q] →[l-q]
∵ (/q/ is the emphatic variant of /k/)
∴ [l-q] → [l-k]
English: “lick” = to pass the tongue over (something).
Lick (root) = [l-k]
Arabic: “Lăḣăq” & English: “lick” seam to be: “related”.
3- Velar & uvular consonants: [k], [ḵ], [ɡ], [q] and [ġ]
[k] represents: “voiceless velar plosive”. ( ⟨k⟩ in IPA )
[ḵ] or “kh” represents: “voiceless velar fricative”. ( ⟨x⟩ in IPA ) [ḵ] is the fricative variant of /k/. Sometimes referred to as: “fricative K”.
[q] represents: “voiceless uvular plosive”. ( ⟨q⟩ in IPA )
[q] is the uvular variant of [k]. Sometimes referred to as: “emphatic k” or “uvular k”.
[ɡ] represents: “voiced velar plosive”. ( ⟨ɡ⟩ in IPA )
[ɡ] is the voiced variant of [k]. Sometimes referred to as: “voiced k”.
[ġ] or “gh” represents: “voiced velar fricative”. ( ⟨ɣ⟩ in IPA )
[ġ] is the fricative variant of [ɡ]. Sometimes referred to as: “fricative ɡ”.
In many languages, these phones may replace each other.
In Semitic languages they were, originally, allophones of the same phoneme.
Etymologically, “[ḵ], [ɡ], [q] and [ġ]” can be treated as variants of /k/.
They also can be prothetic: “k-prothesis”, “ḵ-prothesis”, “q-prothesis” or “ġ-prothesis”.
Prothesis is: “the addition of a sound at the beginning of a word without changing the word’s meaning”.
Examples:
Latin: “amicus” (amikus) → Spanish: “amigo”. ‘friend’
Greek: “Xριστός” (khristos) → Latin: “Christus” (Kreestus). ‘Christ’
Akkadian “ḫallu” (khăllŭ) → Arabic: “قلة” (qŭllăh). ‘clay vessel’
ġ-prothesis:
Akkadian “rabû” (to set ‘the Sun’) → Arabic: “ġarabu/غرب”
Aramaic “עורבא/ʿurba” (crow) → Arabic: “ġurabu/غراب”
4- Affricates: [ dʒ ] and [ tʃ ]
These complex sounds may replace velar & uvular consonants.
[dʒ]: “voiced palato-alveolar affricate”.
It is English “j” in: “ jump” and “jeans”.
[ tʃ]: “voiceless palato-alveolar affricate”.
The voiceless counterpart of: [dʒ].
It is English “ch” in: “chair” and “beach”.
Examples:
Hebrew “גּדה/ɡădāh” (shore/bank) > Arabic “جدة/jŭddăh”.
Akkadian “kuppu” (accumulation of water, well, spring) > Arabic “جب/jŭbb” and “جبا/jaba”
English “beach”, doublet of German: “bach”, (pronounced: bakh), from Proto-West Germanic *baki. (stream).
5- [b], [p], [f], [v] and [w].
Historically, these phones replace each other.
[b]: “voiced bilabial plosive”.
[p]: The voiceless counterpart of: [b].
[f] : “voiceless labiodental fricative”
[v] : The voiced counterpart of: [f].
[w]: “voiced labial-velar approximant”.
As English “w” in: “Weep”.
Examples:
Proto-Indo-European: *p → Proto-Germanic: *f
Proto-Semitic: *p → Arabic: *f
6- Nasal: [m], [n] & lateral: [l].
These three phones replace each other.
[m]: “voiced bilabial nasal”.
[n]: “voiced alveolar nasal”.
[l]: “voiced alveolar lateral approximant”
7- Emphatic consonants
Specific to Semitic languages, with a special articulation called: “emphasis”.
[ḍ] is the emphatic variant of [d].
[ṭ] is the emphatic variant of [t].
[ẓ] is the emphatic variant of [ḏ].
[ṣ] is the emphatic variant of [s].
[q] is the emphatic variant of [k].
Related words:
1- German: (ton = clay).
[Proto-Semitic: *ṭīn=clay]
Syriac: (ṭīnā = mud, clay).
2- Proto-Germanic: (auzon = ear).
Hebrew: (auzin אֹזֶן = ear).
3- Latin: (picherius = pot, jar), ch = kh
(picheri+us)
Akkadian: (Paḫāru = pot, potter), ḫ = kh
4- Greek: (khrysós = gold).
Akkadian: (ḫurāṣu = gold), ḫ = kh
5- Latin: (taurus = bull).
Aramaic:(tawrā = bull).
6- Latin: (sura = calf).
Akkadian: (šūru = bull).
7- English: (tear = to shred).
Arabic: (tăr = to shred).
8- English: (tall = being higher).
Arabic: (tūl = height).
9- English: (cup = vessel).
Quranic Arabic: (kăwb = mug).
10- Proto-West Germanic: *dūnā = sand dune.
Arabic: (dăhnă = desert). [infixed glottal-h]
11- Scots: (sairie = sad, sorrowful)
Arabic: (ḥaseer = sad, sorrowful).
12- Proto-West Germanic *sparwō = sparrow
Ugaritic 𐎕𐎔𐎗 (ṣpr) = sparrow
Aramaic צִפְּרָא (ṣippərā) = sparrow
13- English: (mean = denote).
Arabic: (maḣna = meaning).
14- Spanish: (dia = day).
Arabic: (ḍiya = light).
15- Latin: (miro = to look at in wonder).
“ mirare ‘look at’ ”
Akkadian: (amāru = to look at).
16- English: (crime).
Arabic: (jŭrŭm = crime).
17- Latin: (irrigo = to irrigate).
Arabic: (araqa = to pour water).
18- Greek: (ωτιον/otiyon = ear).
Arabic: (udun = ear).
19- English: berry ( = Any small fleshy fruit)
(= any of various kernels or seeds).
Proto-Semitic *piry-.
Hebrew פְּרִי (pərī)
Ugaritic 𐎔𐎗 (pr /pirû/).
Ge’ez: ፍሬ • (fəre)
( = fruit, seed, progeny, offspring)
20- Old English: “sēo” = pupil of the eye).
Derived sense: Old English “sēon” (= see, look, behold)
Akin to Old High German “seha” ( = pupil)
Hebrew: “išon/אִישׁוֹן” ( = pupil of the eye, eyeball), (iš+on), “-on/־וֹן” is a diminutive suffix, derived from: “’iš/איש”.
Levantine Arabic: “šaḥ/شح” = “see, look”.
Classical Arabic: “šayaḥ/شَيَّحَ” = “to look at”.
21- English: (kin = one’s relatives, clan).
Akkadian: (qinnu = family, clan).
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