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Title:
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Asseverative la- in Arabic and Related Semitic Particles
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Author:
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David Testen
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Email:
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click here to access email
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Degree Awarded:
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University of Chicago
, Department of Linguistics
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Degree Date:
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1995
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Linguistic Subfield(s):
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Historical Linguistics
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Subject Language(s):
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Arabic, Standard
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Director(s):
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Gene Gragg
Carolyn Killean
Wadad Kadi
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Abstract:
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The present study deals with the particle la- of early Arabic, and with a set of particles containing l- which are found throughout the Semitic languages (e.g., Akkadian lu and the particle spelled l- in Ugaritic), and which, like the Arabic la-, are said to serve an 'emphasizing' function. These 'emphatic' l-particles have in turn been taken to be akin to the various l-elements found in Semitic wish/command constructions (Arabic li-yaktub, Akkadian l-iprus, Ge'ez la-yekun, etc.).
Although these l-particles have long been felt to be related to one another, the multiplicity of vowels found attested across the various languages has rendered it difficult to define the connections among the particles precisely. This study proposes that, despite the apparent discrepancies seen in the forms of the documented particles, the various manifestations of the l-particles in the attested languages represent in principle a regular (lautgesetzlich) sound correspondence, and that a single invariant particle particle *l-, the ancestor of the l-particles of the historical languages may consequently be reconstructed for the proto-language. It is suggested, moreover, that extrapolating from this correspondence allows us to conjecture that the same Semitic *l-particle has left traces of itself embedded elsewhere in the descendant languages, and may well have played a crucial role in such issues as the development of the definite article in West Semitic and in the rise of the waw-consecutive construction of Biblical Hebrew. The key to the interpretation of the Semitic l-particles lies in revising our understanding of the nature of the Proto-Semitic *l-phoneme, and ultimately of the Semitic sonorants in general.
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