[tied] Re: Monovocalism: sequel

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "P&G" <petegray@...> wrote:

> >Hypothetical example: what is the "true vowel" of a Semitic root?

The

> >question is meaningless since Semitic ablauts.
>
> But consider the stative verbs in Hebrew. (I assume they are

Semitic-wide).

> They are marked by different vocalism in the second syllable,

having -a- in

> the so-called "imperfect" instead of -o-, and showing -e- or -o- (or
> sometimes -a-) in place of the usual -a- in non-stative verbs.
>
> Therefore we'd have to say that Hebrew (Semitic?) is "ablauting"

mostly, but

> some verbs are marked by their vocalism - rather like PIE.
>

In which respect it behaves like Germanic, strangely. Is anything
known of the provenance of the stative verbs? Are some of them loans?


BTW, I have a general question about loans in Semitic: if the loan is
vowel-initial in the donor language, does the loaning Semitic
language add a suitable (ie. matching the vowel) laryngeal in front
of the vowel?

Torsten