Table of Contents
Introduction. Genealogical classification of Semitic and the role of lexical isoglosses 1
1 Genealogical classification of Semitic: state of the art 1
2 Lexical isoglosses and genealogical classification of Semitic 5
3 Lexicostatistics as applied to the Semitic languages 10
4 Diachronic stratification of the basic vocabulary 14
5 Previous research on lexical isoglosses in Semitic 21
Chapter 1 The basic vocabulary of Proto-Semitic: form and meaning 27
1 Proto-Semitic lexical reconstruction: the Swadesh wordlist 27
Chapter 2 Historical unity and internal division of West Semitic as reflected in the basic vocabulary 47
1 East Semitic vs. West Semitic: history of research and some methodological issues 47
2 The key isogloss 50
3 More morphological features? 53
3.1 Features suggested in previous research 53
3.2 Newly suggested features 59
4 In search of Proto-West Semitic lexical features 67
4.1 The Swadesh wordlist 68
4.2 Other lexical strata 71
4.3 Lexical evidence for the ES/WS dichotomy: conclusions 100
5 The internal division of West Semitic 106
5.1 Morphological isoglosses 106
5.2 The internal division of West Semitic: lexical isoglosses 111
5.2.1 The Swadesh wordlist 111
5.2.2 Other lexical strata 115
5.2.2.1 CS + EthS 115
5.2.2.2 EthS + MSA 124
5.2.2.3 CS + MSA 124
6 The internal division of WS in light of the lexical evidence: conclusions 127
Chapter 3 Lexical isoglosses and the Central Semitic hypothesis 129
1 The Central Semitic hypothesis before 2005 129
2 Huehnergard's Features of Central Semitic 130
3 More morphological features? 152
4 Conflicting evidence 158
5 Central Semitic: the lexical features 173
5.1 Basic lexicon in the Swadesh wordlist 173
5.2 Basic lexicon outside the Swadesh wordlist 179
5.3 PCS lexemes including probable Arabisms in MSA and EthS 205
6 Conclusions 220
Chapter 4 North-West Semitic as a genealogical unity: grammar and lexicon 227
1 The North-West Semitic hypothesis: a general overview 227
2 Phonological and morphological features of Proto-NWS 227
3 The lexical evidence 229
3.1 The Swadesh wordlist 229
3.1.1 Trivial retentions from PS, PWS and PCS 230
3.1.1.1 From PS 230
3.1.1.2 From PWS 232
3.1.1.2 From PCS 232
3.1.2 Other types of isoglosses 232
3.1.3 Summary of the evidence 234
3.2 Other lexical fields 236
4 Conclusions 240
Chapter 5 Lexical isoglosses and the genealogical/position of Ugaritic 243
1 Introduction 243
2 Basic vocabulary of Ugaritic: the Swadesh wordlist 245
2.1 The Swadesh wordlist: the evidence 245
2.1.1 Certain 246
2.1.2 Probable 254
2.1.3 Not established 260
2.2 The Swadesh wordlist: analysis 261
2.3 The Swadesh wordlist: comparison 270
2.3.1 Ugaritic-Hebrew 270
2.3.2 Ugaritic-Akkadian 272
2.3.3 Ugaritic-Syriac 273
2.4 The Swadesh wordlist: conclusions 274
3 Basic vocabulary outside the Swadesh list 275
3.1 Exclusive isoglosses between Ugaritic and Canaanite languages 275
3.2 Exclusive isoglosses between Ugaritic and other Semitic languages - 316
3.2.1 Ugaritic-Arabic 316
3.2.1.1 Probable 317
3.2.1.2 Dubious or unreliable 323
3.2.2 Ugaritic-Aramaic 329
3.2.3 Ugaritic-Akkadian 331
4 Conclusions 343
4.1 Ugaritic as a Canaanite language - the lexical evidence 343
4.2 Exclusive lexical isoglosses between Ugaritic and Arabic: an evaluation 350
4.3 Ugaritic and Akkadian: shared lexical archaisms or early loanwords? 350
Excursus: Akkadian loanwords in Ugaritic in Watson 2007 355
Postscript: On J. A. Hackett and N. Pat-El's (2010) criticism of Rainey's (2007) "Transjordanian" hypothesis 369
Chapter 6 From Old to Modern Aramaic: the historical unity of Aramaic as reflected in the basic vocabulary 377
1 Introduction 377
2 Exclusive pan-Aramaic isoglosses in Old Aramaic inscriptions: lexical items 378
3 Exclusive pan-Aramaic isoglosses in Old Aramaic inscriptions: morpholexical features 388
4 Non-exclusive pan-Aramaic isoglosses in Old Aramaic inscriptions: lexical items 391
5 Non-exclusive pan-Aramaic isoglosses in Old Aramaic inscriptions: morpholexical features 398
6 General evaluation of pan-Aramaic lexical isoglosses - 400
7 Proto-Aramaic lexical isoglosses in individual Old Aramaic inscriptions 404
8 Proto-Aramaic lexical features in Samalian and Deir 'Alla 407
8.1 Samalian 407
8.2 Deir 'Alla 417
8.3 Aramaic affiliation of Samalian and Deir 'Alla as reflected in the lexicon 424
9 Lexical discontinuity between Old Aramaic and later Aramaic dialects 424
Chapter 7 Lexical isoglosses and the historical unity of Ethiopian Semitic 433
1 Introduction 433
2 The Swadesh wordlist: the evidence 436
2.2 Trivial retentions 437
2.3 Non-trivial retentions 440
2.4 Semantic innovations 444
2.5 Proto-Ethiopian terms of uncertain origin 446
2.6 Certain or likely Cushitisms 448
3 The Swadesh wordlist: analysis and discussion 449
4 Evidence from other lexical fields 453
5 Conclusions 464
Chapter 8 Modern South Arabian as a genealogical subgroup: the lexical dimension 467
1 Introduction 467
2 MSA as a genealogical subgroup: morphological features 468
3 Lexical evidence for the historical unity of MSA 479
3.1 The Swadesh wordlist: the evidence 479
3.1.1 The sources 479
3.1.1.1 Soqotri 479
3.1.1.2 Mehri 480
3.1.1.3 Jibbali 481
3.1.2 The lexical data 482
3.1.3 Notes to the table 486
Excursus 1 Dialectal variety in the Mehri lexicon as reflected in the Swadesh wordlist 528
3.2 The Swadesh wordlist: analysis 532
3.2.1 Trivial retentions 533
Excursus 2 What is lost in the basic vocabulary of Proto- MSA? 534
3.2.2 Non-trivial retentions 538
3.2.3 Semantic innovations 540
3.2.4 Etymologically uncertain terms 541
3.3 The Swadesh wordlist: conclusions 545
3.4 Lexical evidence for the historical unity of MSA outside the Swadesh wordlist 546
3.4.1 Proto-MSA lexical isoglosses 547
3.4.2 Proto-MSA morpholexical features 576
4 Modern South Arabian as a genealogical subgroup: the evidence of the basic vocabulary 581
5 Lexical evidence and the internal division of MSA 583
5.1 The Swadesh wordlist 585
5.1.1 Mehri-Jibbali 585
5.1.2 Jibbali-Soqotri 588
5.1.3 Mehri-Soqotri 589
5.1.4 The Swadesh wordlist: conclusions 589
5.2 Other lexical strata 591
5.2.1 Jibbali-Soqotri 592
5.2.2 Mehri-Soqotri 596
5.3 Conclusions 597
Conclusions 599
References 603
Abbreviations of lexicographic and grammatical tools 631
Abbreviations of language names 633
Lexical Index 635
