Semitic root

Therootsof verbs and most nouns in theSemitic languagesare characterized as a sequence ofconsonantsor "radicals"(hence the termconsonantal root). Such abstract consonantal roots are used in the formation of actual words by adding the vowels and non-root consonants (or "transfixes") which go with a particularmorphologicalcategory 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 a number of quadriliterals, and in some languages also biliterals).

Such roots are also common in otherAfroasiaticlanguages. WhileBerbermostly has triconsonantal roots,Chadic,Omotic,andCushitichave mostly biconsonantal roots,and Egyptian shows a mix of biconsonantal and triconsonantal roots.

Triconsonantal roots

Atriliteralor triconsonantal root (Hebrew:שורש תלת־עיצורי,šoreš təlat-ʻiṣuri;Arabic:جذر ثلاثي,jiḏr ṯulāṯī;Syriac:ܫܪܫܐ,šeršā) is a root containing a sequence of three consonants.

The following are some of the forms which can be derived from the triconsonantal rootk-t-bכ־ת־בك-ت-ب(general overall meaning "to write" ) in Hebrew and Arabic:

Note: The Hebrewfricativesstemming frombegadkefatlenition are transcribed as "ḵ", "ṯ" and "ḇ", to retain their connection with the consonantal rootכ־ת־בk-t-b. They are pronounced[x],[θ],[β]in Biblical Hebrew and[χ],[t],[v]in Modern Hebrew respectively.Modern Hebrewhas nogemination;where there was historically gemination, they are reduced to single consonants, with consonants in the begadkefat remaining the same.

Semitological Abbreviation	Hebrew Name		Arabic Name		Morphological Category	Hebrew Form		Arabic Form		Approximate Translation
G verbstem	פָּעַל‎ קָל‎	pā‘al orqāl	فَعَلَ	fa‘ala (Stem I)	3rd Sg. M. Perfect	כתב‎	kāṯaḇ	كتب	kataba	He wrote
					1st Pl. Perfect	כתבנו‎	kāṯaḇnū	كتبنا	katabnā	We wrote
					3rd Sg. M. Imperfect	יכתוב‎	yiḵtoḇ	يكتب	yaktubu	He writes, will write
					1st Pl. Imperfect	נכתוב‎	niḵtoḇ	نكتب	naktubu	We write, will write
					Sg. M. Active Participle	כותב‎	kōṯēḇ	كاتب	kātib	Writing
Š verb stem	הִפְעִיל‎	hip̄‘īl	أَفْعَلَ	af‘ala (Stem IV)	3rd Sg. M. Perfect	הכתיב‎	hiḵtīḇ	أكتب	aktaba	He dictated
					3rd Sg. M. Imperfect	יכתיב‎	yaḵtīḇ	يكتب	yuktibu	He dictates, will dictate
Št(D) verb stem	הִתְפָּעֵל‎	hiṯpā‘ēl	استَفْعَلَ	istaf‘ala (Stem X)	3rd Sg. M. Perfect	התכתב‎	hiṯkattēḇ	استكتب	istaktaba	He corresponded (Hebrew), had a copy made (Arabic)
					3rd Sg. M. Imperfect	יתכתב‎	yiṯkattēḇ	يستكتب	yastaktibu	(imperfect of above)
Noun withm-prefix & original short vowels	מִפְעָל‎	mip̄‘āl	مَفْعَل	maf‘āl	Singular	מכתב‎	miḵtāḇ	مكتب	maktab	Letter (Hebrew), Office (Arabic)

InHebrew grammaticalterminology, the wordbinyan(Hebrew:בניין,pluralבנייניםbinyanim) is used to refer to a verbderived stemor overall verb derivation pattern, while the wordmishqal(ormishkal) is used to refer to anoun derivation pattern,and these words have gained some use in English-language linguistic terminology. The Arabic terms, calledوزنwazan(pluralأوزان,awzān) for the pattern andجذرjiḏr(pluralجذور,juḏūr) for the root have not gained the same currency in cross-linguistic Semitic scholarship 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 accurate translations of theArabic grammaticaltermwazan(originally meaning 'weight, measure'), and "root" is a literal translation ofjiḏr.

See also:Category:Triconsonantal roots

Biliteral origin of some triliteral roots

Although most roots in Hebrew seem to be triliteral, many of them were originally biliteral, cf. the relation between:

ג־ז‎ √g-z
ג־ז־ז‎	√g-z-z	shear
ג־ז־ם‎	√g-z-m	prune, cut down
ג־ז־ר‎	√g-z-r	cut

פ־ר‎ √p-r
פ־ר־ז‎	√p-r-z	divide a city
פ־ר־ט‎	√p-r-ṭ	give change
פ־ר־ר‎	√p-r-r	crumble into pieces
פ־ר־ע‎	√p-r-‘	pay a debt

TheHebrewrootש־ק־ף‎ – √sh-q-p "look out/through" or "reflect" deriving fromק־ף‎ – √q-p "bend, arch, lean towards" and similar verbs fit into the shaCCéC verb-pattern.

ק־פ‎ √q-p
ק־פ־א‎	√q-p-'
ק־פ־ה‎	√q-p-h
ק־פ־ח‎	√q-p-ḥ
ק־פ־י‎	√q-p-y

This verb-pattern sh-C-C is usuallycausative,cf.

ט־ף‎	√ṭ-p	"wet"	ש־ט־ף‎	√sh-ṭ-p	"wash, rinse, make wet"
ל־ך‎	√l-k	"go".	ש־ל־ך‎	√sh-l-k	"cast off, throw down, cause to go"

History

There is debate about whether both bi- or triconsonantal roots date back toProto-Afroasiaticor whether one or the other of them was the original form of theAfroasiaticverb.According to one study of theProto-Semiticlexicon,biconsonantal roots are more abundant for words denotingStone Agematerials, whereas materials discovered during theNeolithicare uniquely triconsonantal. This implies a change in Proto-Semitic language structure concomitant with the transition toagriculture.In particular monosyllabic biconsonantal names are associated with a pre-Natufiancultural background, more than 16,500 years ago. As we have no texts from any Semitic language older than 5,500 years ago, reconstructions of Proto-Semitic are inferred from these more recent Semitic texts.

Quadriliteral roots

Aquadriliteralis a consonantal root containing a sequence of four consonants (instead ofthree 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 formsתרגם‎tirgemin Hebrew,ترجم‎tarjamain Arabic, ተረጐመtäräggwämäinAmharic,all meaning "he translated". In some cases, a quadriliteral root is actually a reduplication of a two-consonant sequence. So in Hebrewדגדג‎digdeg/ Arabicدغدغ‎daġdaġameans "he tickled", and in Arabicزلزل‎zalzalameans "he shook".

Generally, only a subset of the verb derivations formed fromtriliteralroots are allowed with quadriliteral roots. For example, in Hebrew, thePiʿel, Puʿal, and Hiṯpaʿel,and in Arabic, forms similar tothe stem II and stem V forms of triliteral roots.

Another set of quadriliteral roots in modern Hebrew is the set of secondary roots. A secondary root is a root derived from a word that was derived from another root. For example, the rootמ-ס-פ-ר‎m-s-p-ris secondary to the rootס-פ-ר‎s-p-r.סָפַר‎saphar,from the roots-p-r,means "counted";מִסְפָּר‎mispar,from the same root, means "number"; andמִסְפֶּר‎misper,from the secondary rootמ-ס-פ-ר‎, means "numbered".

An irregular quadriliteral verb made from a loanword is:

• נַשְׁפְּרִיץ‎(/naʃˈprit͡s/) – "we will sprinkle" or "we will splash", fromYiddishspritz(from Germanspritzen)

Quinqueliteral roots

A quinqueliteral is a consonantal root containing a sequence of five consonants. Traditionally, in 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 in loanwords from other languages, but never in verbs.However, in modern Israeli Hebrew,syllablesare allowed to begin with a sequence of two consonants (a relaxation of the situation in early Semitic, where only one consonant was allowed), which has opened the door for a very small set of loan words to manifest apparent five root-consonant forms, such asטלגרף‎tilgref"he telegraphed".However,-lgr-always appears as an indivisible cluster in the derivation of this verb and so the five root-consonant forms do not display any fundamentally different morphological patterns from four root-consonant forms (and the term "quinqueliteral" or "quinquiliteral" would be misleading if it implied otherwise). Only a few Hebrew quinqueliterals are recognized by theAcademy of the Hebrew Languageas proper, or standard; the rest are considered slang.

Other examples are:

• סִנְכְּרֵן‎(/sinˈkren/– "he synchronized" ), via the English word from Greek
• חִנְטְרֵשׁ‎(/χinˈtreʃ/– "he did stupid things" )
• הִתְפְלַרְטֵט‎(/hitflarˈtet/– "he had a flirt" ), from the English or Yiddish past tense of the English word

InAmharic,there is a very small set of verbs which are conjugated as quinqueliteral roots. One example iswäšänäffärä'rain fell with a strong wind'.The conjugation of this small class of verb roots is explained byWolf Leslau.Unlike the Hebrew examples, these roots conjugate in a manner more like regular verbs, producing no indivisible clusters.

See also

• Apophony
• Arabic grammar
• Broken plural
• Indo-European ablaut
• Khuzdul
• K-T-B
• Modern Hebrew grammar
• Nonconcatenative morphology
• Phono-semantic matching
• Proto-Indo-European root
• Š-L-M
• Transfix

References

• Agmon, Noam (2010),"Materials and Language: Pre-Semitic Root Structure Change Concomitant with Transition to Agriculture"(PDF),Brill's Annual of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics,2:23–79,doi:10.1163/187666310X12688137960669,archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2021-11-13,retrieved2019-09-03

External links

• Semitic Roots Repository
• Roots in Quranic Arabic
• Project Root List
• Learn Hebrew Verbs
• Alexis Amid Neme and Eric Laporte (2013), Pattern-and-root inflectional morphology: the Arabic broken plural|year=
• Alexis Amid Neme and Eric Laporte (2015), Do computer scientists deeply understand Arabic morphology? – هل يفهم المهندسون الحاسوبيّون علم الصرف فهماً عميقاً؟,available also in Arabic, Indonesian, French