|
|
|
|
Triliteral
|
| |
|
| |
The roots of verbs and most nouns in the Semitic languages are characterized as a sequence of consonants or "radicals" (hence also the term consonantal root). Such abstract consonantal roots are used in the derivation of actual words by adding the vowels and non-root consonants (or "transfixes") which go with a particular morphological category around the root consonants, in an appropriate way, generally following specific patterns.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Triliteral' Start a new discussion about 'Triliteral' Answer questions from other users |
Encyclopedia
The roots of verbs and most nouns in the Semitic languages are characterized as a sequence of consonants or "radicals" (hence also the term consonantal root). Such abstract consonantal roots are used in the derivation of actual words by adding the vowels and non-root consonants (or "transfixes") which go with a particular morphological category around the root consonants, in an appropriate way, generally following specific patterns. It is a peculiarity of Semitic linguistics that a large majority of these consonantal roots are triliterals (although there are number of quadriliterals, and in some languages also biliterals).
Triconsonantal roots
A triliteral or triconsonantal root (Arabic: ??? ?????, ) is a root containing a sequence of three consonants
The following are some of the forms which can be derived from the triconsonantal root k-t-b (general overall meaning "to write") in Hebrew and Arabic:
| Semitological abbreviation | Hebrew name | Arabic name | Morphological category | Hebrew Form | Arabic form | Approximate translation |
|---|
| G verb stem | Qal | fa‘ala
??????
(Stem I) | 3rd. masc. sing perfect | katabh ??? | kataba ??? | "he wrote" | | 1st. plur. perfect | katabhnu ????? | katabna ????? | "we wrote" | | 3rd. masc. sing. imperfect | yikhtobh ????? | yaktubu ???? | "he writes, will write" | | 1st. plur. imperfect | nikhtobh ????? | naktubu ???? | "we write, will write" | | masc. sing. active participle | kotebh ???? | katib ???? | "writer" | | Š verb stem | Hiph‘il | af‘ala
????????
(Stem IV) | 3rd. masc. sing perfect | hikhtibh ????? | ’aktaba ???? | "he dictated" | | 3rd. masc. sing. imperfect | yakhtibh ????? | yuktibu ???? | "he dictates, will dictate" | | Št(D) verb stem | Hitpa‘‘el | istaf‘ala
???????????
(Stem X) | 3rd. masc. sing perfect | hitkattebh ????? | istaktaba ?????? | "he corresponded" (Hebrew), "he asked (someone) to write (something), had a copy made" (Arabic) | | 3rd. masc. sing. imperfect | yitkattebh ????? | yastaktibu ?????? | (imperfect of above) | | Noun with m- prefix and original short vowels: | maf‘al
??????? | singular | mikhtabh ???? | maktab ???? | "letter" (Hebrew), "office" (Arabic) |
- Note: The Hebrew fricatives transcribed as "kh" and "bh" above are single phonetic sounds, which can also be transcribed in a number of other ways, such as "ch" and "v" (Eastern-European influenced) or [x] and [v] (IPA). They are transcribed "kh" and "bh" on this page to retain the connection with the pure consonantal root k-t-b.
In Hebrew grammatical terminology, the word binyan (Hebrew ????, plural ??????? binyanim) is used to refer to a verb stem or overall verb derivation pattern, while the word Mishqal (or Mishkal) is used to refer to a noun derivation pattern, and these words have gained some use in English-language linguistic terminology. The Arabic terms, called ??? wazn, (plural ?????, ’awzan) for the pattern and ??? (plural ????, ) for the root have not gained the same currency as the Hebrew equivalents, and Western grammarians continue to use "stem"/"form"/"pattern" for the former and "root" for the latter (though "form" and "pattern" are literal translations of wazn, and "root" is a literal translation of ga?r).
The biliteral origin of (some) triliteral roots
"Note that although most roots in Hebrew seem to be tri-radical, many of them were originally bi-radical, cf. the relation between ??? v g-z-z ‘shear’, ??? v g-z-m ‘prune’ and ??? v g-z-r ‘cut’, as well as between ??? v p-r-z ‘divide a city’, ??? v p-r-t ‘give change’ and ??? v p-r-‘ ‘pay a debt’." Ghil'ad Zuckermann analyses the Hebrew root ??? v sh-q-p "look out/through" as deriving from ?? v q-p "bend, arch, lean towards" (cf. ??? v q-p-h, ??? v q-p-h, ??? v q-p-' and ??? v q-p-y "arch, bend"), fitted into the sha??é? verb-pattern. "This verb-pattern is usually causative, cf. ??? v sh-t-p ‘wash, rinse, make wet’, from ?? v t-p ‘wet’, as well as ??? v sh-l-k ‘cast off, throw down, cause to go’, from ?? v l-k ‘go’".
Quadriliteral roots
A quadriliteral is a consonantal root containing a sequence of four consonants (instead of three consonants, as is more often the case). A quadriliteral form is a word derived from such a four-consonant root. For example, the abstract quadriliteral root t-r-g-m / t-r-j-m gives rise to the verb forms ???? tirgem in Hebrew and ???? tarjama in Arabic, meaning "he translated". In some cases, a quadriliteral root is actually a reduplication of a two-consonant sequence. So in Hebrew ???? digdeg means "he tickled", and in Arabic ????? zilzal means "earthquake".
Generally, only a subset of the verb derivations formed from triliteral roots are allowed with quadriliteral roots. For example, in Hebrew the Pi``el, Pu``al, and Hitpa``el, and in Arabic forms similar to the stem II and stem V forms of triliteral roots.
Traditionally in the Semitic languages, forms with more than four basic consonants (i.e. consonants not introduced by morphological inflection or derivation) were occasionally found in nouns — mainly loanwords from other languages — but never in verbs. However, in modern Israeli Hebrew, syllables are allowed to begin with a sequence of two consonants (a relaxation of the situation in early Semitic, where only one consonant was allowed), and this has opened the door to apparent five root-consonant forms, such as ????? tilgref "he telegraphed". But, -lgr- always appears as an indivisible cluster in the derivation of this verb, so that these five root-consonant forms do not display any fundamentally different morphological patterns from four root-consonant forms (and the hypothetical term "quinqueliteral" would be misleading if it implied otherwise).
See also
External links
|
| |
|
|
