Which ‘That’ Was Amharic Yä‐? An Alternative Origin for the Amharic Relative‐Genitive Marker
This article re‐evaluates arguments regarding the previously proposed origin of the Amharic relative‐genitive marker yä‐. The traditional proposal relies on the attestation of a ž‐ form in Tigrinya (Praetorius 1874) and reconstructs a form *zä‐ (the same as the Ge′ez relative) for yä‐. However, no s...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Published: |
Oxford University Press
2021
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| In: |
Journal of Semitic studies
Year: 2021, Volume: 66, Issue: 2, Pages: 619-642 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This article re‐evaluates arguments regarding the previously proposed origin of the Amharic relative‐genitive marker yä‐. The traditional proposal relies on the attestation of a ž‐ form in Tigrinya (Praetorius 1874) and reconstructs a form *zä‐ (the same as the Ge′ez relative) for yä‐. However, no such form is attested in Old Amharic writing (Girma Awgichew 2014), even though it has convenient orthographic conventions for recording palatalized consonants. Based on the attested levelling of l‐ forms of the relative marker in Ethiopian Semitic and Modern Arabic, I propose deriving the Amharic relative‐ genitive marker yä‐ from a levelled plural relative marker containing l, an element visible in the demonstrative paradigms of Ethiopian Semitic. This alternative derivation fits the synchronic Amharic phonology in which the lateral liquid l becomes the palatal glide y. In addition, it follows the cross‐linguistically common palatalization process similarly attested for l in the historical phonology of other languages, e.g. Berber, Romance and Chinese. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-8556 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of Semitic studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jss/fgab001 |