Re: language origin, language evolution, evolutionary mutation

From: Yusuf B Gursey (ybg_at_TheWorld.com)
Date: 09/15/04 

Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2004 02:09:10 +0000 (UTC)

In sci.lang Yair Shimron <ronish20@bezeqint.net> wrote in <5a550450.0409141026.5c205b0f@posting.google.com>:

: 7. Laryngeal-pharyngeal sounds in contemporary languages like Khoisan
: languages, Arabic, Even, should be regarded fossilized sounds. They
: serve the language only in old roots, and are not used for new
: innovations, new word forming. For this purpose all languages use the

not neccessarily true for arabic.

there are plenty of coinages (new words) with H or 3 or emphatics.
usually new roots are based on old roots, like Hamdala(t) to say "al-Hamdu
li~lla:h(i)". usually new words are based on old words. iraqi arabic and
some other colloquials even make the sound change ' > 3 in borrowings from
classical arabic. this seems ot have been operative in 3urDi: "army" <
ordu "army" (turkish). Ha- (future particle) is an inovation of
colloquials from ra:H . there are plenty of neologisms based on roots with
H or 3, as well as with emphatics. the relative scarcity of "new" roots
with H and 3 is due to the fact that at present there are no languages
such as french or english that arabic borrows from that use these
consonants. but they are used in rendering Israeli proper names. in the
1st millenium there were plenty of loanwords form Ethiopic and Aramaic
that led to the formation of new "roots" in arabic with H or 3 .

new words with emphatics T , S or D appear in arabic to mimick the vowels
of foreign loanwords, such as mu:Da(t) / mo:Da(t) from italian moda
"fashion" (perhaps via turkish).

: historically newest consonants – consonants of the front part of the
: tongue and lip consonants. The preservation of those sounds in so few
: languages is due to relative isolation, which hindered or rather
: slowed the continual process of transition of speech production from
: the back part of the vocal tract to its front part. Arabic which
: cannot be regarded isolated since the 6th century, was isolated before
: that time, while becoming a ruling and dominant language afterwards.

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