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Triliteral



 
 
The roots
Root (linguistics)

The root is the primary lexicology unit of a word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantics content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents....
 of verbs and most nouns in the Semitic languages
Semitic languages

File:Amarna Akkadian letter.pngThe Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa....
 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 "transfix
Transfix

In linguistics morphology , a transfix is a discontinuous affix, which occurs at more than one position in a word. The prototypical example comes from the Semitic languages, where nearly all word derivation and inflection involves the interdigitation of a Nonconcatenative morphology with a discontinuous affix....
es") which go with a particular morphological category around the root consonants, in an appropriate way, generally following specific patterns.






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The roots
Root (linguistics)

The root is the primary lexicology unit of a word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantics content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents....
 of verbs and most nouns in the Semitic languages
Semitic languages

File:Amarna Akkadian letter.pngThe Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa....
 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 "transfix
Transfix

In linguistics morphology , a transfix is a discontinuous affix, which occurs at more than one position in a word. The prototypical example comes from the Semitic languages, where nearly all word derivation and inflection involves the interdigitation of a Nonconcatenative morphology with a discontinuous affix....
es") 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
Arabic language

Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages languages such as Hebrew language and Aramaic language....
: ??? ?????, ) 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
K-T-B

Sorry, no overview for this topic
 (general overall meaning "to write") in Hebrew and Arabic:

Semitological abbreviation Hebrew name
Hebrew grammar

Hebrew language grammar is partly analytic language, expressing such forms as dative case, ablative case, and accusative case using prepositional particles rather than declension....
 
Arabic name
Arabic grammar

Arabic is a Semitic languages language. See Arabic language for more information on the language in general. This article describes the grammar of Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic - the Arabic grammar ....
 
Morphological categoryHebrew FormArabic formApproximate translation
G verb stemQalfa‘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 stemHiph‘ilaf‘ala
????????
(Stem IV)
3rd. masc. sing perfect hikhtibh ????? ’aktaba ???? "he dictated"
3rd. masc. sing. imperfect yakhtibh ????? yuktibu ???? "he dictates, will dictate"
Št(D) verb stemHitpa‘‘elistaf‘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
???????
singularmikhtabh ????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
International Phonetic Alphabet

The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic....
). 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
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
 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
Triliteral

The root of verbs and most nouns in the Semitic languages are characterized as a sequence of consonants or "radicals" . Such abstract consonantal roots are used in the derivation of actual words by adding the vowels and non-root consonants which go with a particular morphological category around the root consonants, in an appropriate...
, 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
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
 and ???? tarjama in Arabic
Arabic language

Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages languages such as Hebrew language and Aramaic language....
, 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
Triliteral

The root of verbs and most nouns in the Semitic languages are characterized as a sequence of consonants or "radicals" . Such abstract consonantal roots are used in the derivation of actual words by adding the vowels and non-root consonants which go with a particular morphological category around the root consonants, in an appropriate...
 roots are allowed with quadriliteral roots. For example, in Hebrew the Pi``el, Pu``al, and Hitpa``el
Hebrew grammar

Hebrew language grammar is partly analytic language, expressing such forms as dative case, ablative case, and accusative case using prepositional particles rather than declension....
, and in Arabic forms similar to the stem II and stem V forms of triliteral roots
Arabic grammar

Arabic is a Semitic languages language. See Arabic language for more information on the language in general. This article describes the grammar of Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic - the Arabic grammar ....
.

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, syllable
Syllable

A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of Speech communication sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter....
s 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


  • apophony vs. transfixation (root-and-pattern)
    Apophony

    In linguistics, apophony is the alternation of sounds within a word that indicates grammar ....
  • Arabic grammar
    Arabic grammar

    Arabic is a Semitic languages language. See Arabic language for more information on the language in general. This article describes the grammar of Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic - the Arabic grammar ....
  • broken plural
    Broken plural

    In linguistics, broken plurals are a grammatical phenomenon typical in many Semitic languages of the Middle East and East Africa in which a singular noun is "broken" to form a plural by having its root consonants embedded in a different "frame", rather than by merely adding a Prefix or Affix to the original singular noun....
  • nonconcatenative morphology
    Nonconcatenative morphology

    Nonconcatenative morphology is a form of word-formation in which the root is modified in a way other than by stringing morphemes together. In English language, for example, plurals are usually formed by adding the suffix /z/:...
  • Phono-semantic matching
    Phono-semantic matching

    Phono-semantic matching is a term in linguistics that refers to camouflaged borrowing in which a foreign word is matched with a Phonetics and semantically similar pre-existent wiktionary:native word/root....
  • Proto-Indo-European root
    Proto-Indo-European root

    The root of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language are basic morphemes carrying a lexical meaning. By addition of suffixes, they form Stem , and by addition of Ending , these form grammatically inflected words ....
  • list of Proto-Semitic stems
  • transfix
    Transfix

    In linguistics morphology , a transfix is a discontinuous affix, which occurs at more than one position in a word. The prototypical example comes from the Semitic languages, where nearly all word derivation and inflection involves the interdigitation of a Nonconcatenative morphology with a discontinuous affix....


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