Lexicostatistical evidence for Ethiosemitic, its subgroups, and borrowing
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Grover Hudson
Abstract
Wordlists as short as 100 words fail to provide the fullest lexicostatistical evidence for subclassification of a compact and numerous language group such as Ethiopian-Eritrean Semitic (ES). Analysis of a 250-word comparative wordlist of ES languages (Hudson 2013) provides new evidence on the subclassification of the family and the extent of ES borrowing from Agaw and East Cushitic. Prior studies on the subclassification of ES are only partly supported by the 250-word comparisons, where numbers of lexemes unique to subgroups provide new evidence for ES itself and its generally recognized subgroups but no evidence for traditional South ES, Hetzron’s ‘Outer South’, and ‘Transversal South’ groups. Nor is there evidence for the long-supposed extensive ES borrowing from Agaw.
Abstract
Wordlists as short as 100 words fail to provide the fullest lexicostatistical evidence for subclassification of a compact and numerous language group such as Ethiopian-Eritrean Semitic (ES). Analysis of a 250-word comparative wordlist of ES languages (Hudson 2013) provides new evidence on the subclassification of the family and the extent of ES borrowing from Agaw and East Cushitic. Prior studies on the subclassification of ES are only partly supported by the 250-word comparisons, where numbers of lexemes unique to subgroups provide new evidence for ES itself and its generally recognized subgroups but no evidence for traditional South ES, Hetzron’s ‘Outer South’, and ‘Transversal South’ groups. Nor is there evidence for the long-supposed extensive ES borrowing from Agaw.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
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Introduction
- Afroasiatic 1
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Part I. Afroasiatic
- Did Proto-Afroasiatic have marked nominative or nominative-accusative alignment? 11
- The limits and potentials of cladistics in Semitic 23
- Lexicostatistical evidence for Ethiosemitic, its subgroups, and borrowing 41
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Part II. Forms and functions
- Reconsidering the ‘perfect’–‘imperfect’ opposition in the Classical Arabic verbal system 61
- The imperfective in Berber 85
- Condition, interrogation and exception 105
- The semantics of modals in Kordofanian Baggara Arabic 131
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Part III. Predication and beyond
- Insubordination in Modern South Arabian 153
- Possessive and genitive constructions in Dahālik (Ethiosemitic) 167
- The characterization of conditional patterns in Old Babylonian Akkadian 185
- Locative predication in Chadic 203
- Unipartite clauses 235
- The Interaction of state, prosody and linear order in Kabyle (Berber) 261
- Index 287
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
-
Introduction
- Afroasiatic 1
-
Part I. Afroasiatic
- Did Proto-Afroasiatic have marked nominative or nominative-accusative alignment? 11
- The limits and potentials of cladistics in Semitic 23
- Lexicostatistical evidence for Ethiosemitic, its subgroups, and borrowing 41
-
Part II. Forms and functions
- Reconsidering the ‘perfect’–‘imperfect’ opposition in the Classical Arabic verbal system 61
- The imperfective in Berber 85
- Condition, interrogation and exception 105
- The semantics of modals in Kordofanian Baggara Arabic 131
-
Part III. Predication and beyond
- Insubordination in Modern South Arabian 153
- Possessive and genitive constructions in Dahālik (Ethiosemitic) 167
- The characterization of conditional patterns in Old Babylonian Akkadian 185
- Locative predication in Chadic 203
- Unipartite clauses 235
- The Interaction of state, prosody and linear order in Kabyle (Berber) 261
- Index 287
