Talk:List of Proto-Semitic stems

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Dam has cognates in other Afro-Asiatic languages. Shouldn't it therefore be listed as a Semitic root? -phma 02:31, 23 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Good point! - Mustafaa 10:55, 24 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] lubb is not heart

Hi , i am a native speaker of Arabic , there is a wrong thing wrote here , heart is written to mean lubb in Arabic but this is not the case , heart means " kalb " (which is different from " kalb " of the dog ) , but " lubb " means the heart or the center of something , anything and not essentially human heart.

[edit] Page title

Hi, there's been a request to move this article to Proto-Semitic, but I'm a little wary of doing so without consulting with the other editors of the article. It seems to me, looking at the current contents, history etc that i) had you felt that title was more appropriate, you would have done it before yourselves, and ii) this material is all a bit specialized to be part of an article on Proto-Semitic, especially one suitable for general readers (which is what an encyclopaedia is supposed to be), and that perhaps it's best left where it is, and merely referenced from the P-S article. Is that a correct analysis?

If in fact you all would rather have this at P-S, the admins will be happy to make this happen for you - but if so, please do not do it via a "cut-and-paste" move; rather, please post a request at WP:RM and an admin will do it in a way which keeps the history (which we need to keep for Wikipedia:copyright reasons) intact. Noel (talk) 14:57, 30 Jan 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Proto-West-Semitic Roots

Is there something wrong with the 'bee' example?

Arabic also has 'dabbur', but it currently means wasp, while bee in modern usage is 'naḥla'. --Alif 10:25, 19 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Well, the root still exists, even if the modern meaning has changed. That is the point of these comparisions. If you want, you could add that the meaning has changed in paranthesis.

I was wondering why Syriac aʻā 'wood' was left out in the list (sub 'tree'). It's a perfectly regular relative of the other semitic words listed. --Simha 10:28, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Semetic Wine!

Someone added a proposed root for Wine, but it look very suspecious to me, and the Arabic equivelant he lists is unheard of! --Alif 16:34, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Not totally unheard, but extremely rare, and refers to a type of grape:

الوَيْنُ العَيْب؛ عن كراع، وقد حكى ابن الأَعرابي أَنه العنب الأَسود، فهو على قول كراع عرض، وعلى قول ابن الأَعرابي جوهر.

والوانةُ: المرأَة القصيرة، وكذلك الرجل، وأَلفه ياء لوجود الوَيْنِ وعدم الوَوْن. قال ابن بري: الوَيْن العِنب الأَبيض؛ عن ثعلب عن ابن الأَعرابي؛ وأَنشد: كأَنَّه الوَيْنُ إذا يُجْنَى الوَيْن وقال ابن خالويه: الْوَيْنَةُ الزبيب الأَسود، وقال في موضع آخر:الْوَيْنُ العِنب الأَسود، والطاهر والطهار العنَب الرَّازِقِيّ. وهو الأَبيض، وكذلك المُلاَّحِيُّ، والله أَعل

(Lisan al-Arab). - Mustafaa 19:27, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I stand corrected, and astonished! I still have to look it up, though. I looked it up, and here's a proof in English for the sceptic. --Alif 19:18, 7 Jun 2005 (UTC)

The root w-y-n does indeed mean grape. I do not think it means "wine," though. In Ge'ez (and other Ethiosemitic languages) it means grape, and (of the 3 listed) only Hebrew seems to use it for wine, so the PS meaning should be changed to grape (unless some Semitist put that there, but I highly doubt it, as "wine" in Ethiopia is actually mead from bees, not grapes, so the meaning wouldn't make sense).
Yom 06:52, 25 March 2006 (UTC)


Nobody has objected to what I said a month ago, so I will change the root from wine to grape. 2 out of three have the meaning as "grape," so it would make more senes to make the root grape (which I believe is what Semiticists believe the root means) and make the note about wine.
Yom 16:24, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Page title - stems vs. roots

Not to quibble too much, but this is really a list of common Semitic stems, not roots. In discussing Semitic languages, the word "roots" usually means the abstract consonantal frames -- so that k-t-b is the triconsonantal root of verbs meaning "to write", etc.... AnonMoos 08:26, 20 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Niqqud

Under Semitic Sound Correspondences the vowels are written in the Latin alphabet. It would be helpful if niqqud was added (it would be a lot easier to read!) Mo-Al 17:34, 19 November 2006 (UTC)