Semitic linguistics Semitic linguistics In linguistics, broken plurals is a grammatical phenomenon typical in many Semitic languages of the Middle East and Ethiopia in which a singular noun is "broken" to form a plural by having its root consonant embedded in a different "frame", rather than by merely adding a prefix or suffix to the original singular noun, as in English. (Example: cat → cats) ...more on Wikipedia about "Broken plural"
"Emphatic consonant" is a somewhat imprecise term commonly used in Semitic linguistics to describe pharyngealized or velarized, and ejective consonants, or consonants that historically had one of these properties. It is also used, to a lesser extent, in describing the phonology of other Afro-Asiatic languages, notably Berber. They are commonly transcribed in the Latin alphabet by adding a dot under the consonant. Within Arabic, the emphatic consonants vary in phonetic realization from dialect to dialect, but are typically realized as pharyngealized consonants. Within Ethiopian languages, they are realized as ejective consonants. While these sounds do not necessarily share any particular phonetic properties in common, historically most derive from a common source. ...more on Wikipedia about "Emphatic consonant"
Nonconcatenative morphology is an account of morphology developed in the 1980s by J. J. McCarthy and inspired by Autosegmental phonology. It works well in representing vowel harmony, reduplication and systems such as Semitic consonantal roots. For example, depending on the vowels, the Arabic consonantal root k-t-b can have different but semantically-related meanings. Thus, [katab] 'he wrote' and [kita:b] 'book' both come from the root k-t-b. In the analysis provided by nonconcatenative morphology, the consonantal root is assigned to one tier, and the vowel pattern to another. ...more on Wikipedia about "Nonconcatenative morphology"
A Semitic noun can take one of three states of definiteness: definite, indefinite or construct state. The indefinite state is marked by an ending -n, called nunation. ...more on Wikipedia about "Nunation"
In the terminology used to discuss the grammar of the Semitic languages, a quadriliteral is a consonantal root containing a sequence of four consonants (instead of three 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 forms תרגם tirgem in Hebrew and ترجم tarjama in Arabic, meaning "he translated". In some cases, a quadriliteral root is actually a reduplication of a two-consonant sequence. So in Hebrew דגדג digdeg means "he tickled", and in Arabic زلزال zalzāl means "earthquake. ...more on Wikipedia about "Quadriliteral"
The status constructus or construct state is a remarkable grammatical feature occurring in Semitic languages (such as Arabic and Hebrew) and in the extinct Egyptian language. It occurs when a semantically definite noun (marked by the definite article the in English translation) is succeeded by another noun in the genitive case. In Arabic, for example, words in the status constructus do not occur with the article al, nor do they receive an -n after their case marking vowel ( nunation). ...more on Wikipedia about "Status constructus"
In the terminology used to discuss the grammar of the Semitic languages, a triliteral is a root containing a sequence of three consonants (so also known as a triconsonantal root). The majority of consonantal roots in these languages are generally triliterals (but some may be quadriliterals). 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 way. ...more on Wikipedia about "Triliteral"
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