Re: language origin, language evolution, evolutionary mutation

From: Yair Shimron (ronish20_at_bezeqint.net)
Date: 09/15/04 

Date: 15 Sep 2004 07:14:28 -0700

Yusuf B Gursey <ybg@TheWorld.com> wrote in message news:<ci8886$mnf$1@pcls4.std.com>...
> 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.

Yusuf,your remarks are true also according to Hebrew. and you confirm
my assumption that new words are always based on old words. my point
is that the consonants that serve as complementary elements to the old
roots in new derivations are mostly of the front part of the mouth,
like: m, b, f, w, d, t, s, sh, ch, n, l, z. also, Most connective
words are articulated in the front parts of mouth There may be some
exceptions, like the 'alef' that make many plurals in Arabic. but this
doesn't change nor contradict the point, which is factual, not
speculative. regards, Yair

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