Harald Hammarström <
haha2581@...> wrote:
> How do you treat the middle vowel of the perfect/imperfect of
> class I?
> kataba ~ yaktubu
> fatah.a ~ yaftah.u
> d.araba ~ yad.ribu
>
> And the verbs differ as to the middle vowel of the perfect. How is
> that not a lexical property (in Classical Arabic - not some earlier
> stage)?
You're right, I misremembered.
I don't have my books here with me. Can anything be said about the relative frequency of the vowels a/i/u in the perfect and in the imperfect?
How do you intepret Diakonoff's assertion, quoted by Jens:
"I.M.Diakonoff, Afrasian Languages (Moscow 1988) writes: "2.3.1. One
characteristic feature of Semitic languages is usually pointed out in
works on Semitic linguistics, viz., that the root in these languages
comprises only consonants." And later: "2.3.2. The general formula given
under 2.3.1. and characterizing the Semitic root is actually completely
valid only for Arabic and the Southern Peripheral Semitic languages. It is
valid there for all verbal as well as for all nominal roots, ..." (64).