comparison.AFRASIAN.3_phonology.htm

SUMMARY OF PHONOLOGICAL CHANGES

FROM PL TO AFRASIAN

Assumptions

1. Nostratic, from which IE and Afrasian developed, had gone through a Pontic stage, during which the earlier contrasts of CE, CA, and CO, were supplemened by glides: C^yE, CA, and C^wO.

a. E, A, and O were leveled to A, yielding: C^yA, CA, and C^wA.

1). A(open central vowel) may have had a stress-accented allophone of 6 (schwa = close central vowel).

b. This vocalic development enabled Ablaut gradations to take place in IE, and vowel patterning in Semitic (but not Egyptian).

2. A Middle Eastern and Southwestern Asian areal phenomenon is the development of "emphatic" consonants from consonants followed by the ^w-glide.

3. In all Nostratic branches, PL F/FH was voiced to /w/w^h/.

4. In all Nostratic branches, PL $^(y)E became /j/.

5. Afrasian

a. Egyptian

1). The pharyngal voiced spirant, $^y/w, merged into the laryngal voiceless stop, ?.

a). The laryngal voiceless stop, ?, became /ø/, written [j] (in lieu of a proper sign [note: the reed-leaf is the proper sign for /?/; the sitting man is the proper sign for /¿/]);


?^y became /ø^y/, i.e. /j/, merging with /j/ from PL $^(y)E, written [j];


?^w became /ø^w/, then /ø^h/, i.e. /h/, written [h];


2). The pharyngal voiceless spirant, hh, merged into the laryngal voiceless spirant, h.

a)). The laryngal voiceless spirant, h, became /ø/, written [j] (in lieu of a proper sign);


h^y became /ø^y/, i.e. /j/, merging with /j/ from PL $^(y)E and /j/ from ?^y, written [j];


h^w became /ø^w/, then /ø^h/, i.e. /h/, merging with /h/ from Nostratic ?^w, written [h]; ===

3). Aspiration and glottalization were lost.

4). ^w-glides were lost after aspiration of the consonant.

4). The palatal glide was lost after changing NE and N[H]E to l.



5). Every Egyptian consonant developed two different articulations distinguished by those that were followed by the ^w-glide and those that were not followed by the ^w-glide; these became phonemic.



6). The phonemes followed by the ^w-glide substituted aspiration (^h) for the ^w-glide except in the dorsal series:

K[?], K[H], K[?]X, and KX[H],

Q, Q[H], X, and X[H];

which retained the ^w-glide.

7). These developments resulted in the following consonantal inventory for Egyptian:

P[?] and P[H] remain /p/ and /p^h/;

P[?]F and PF[H] become /p^w/ and /p^wh;

em>F and F[H] become /w/ and /w^h;

T[?] and T[H] remain /t/ and /t^h/;

T[?]S and TS[H] remain /ts/ and /ts^h/;

S and S[H] remain /s/ and /s^h/;

K[?] and K[H] remain /k/ and / k^w * K[?]X and KX[H] becomes kx and kx^w * X and X[H] becomes x and x^w * M and M[H] becomes m and m^h * N and N[H] becomes n and n^h * Q and Q[H] becomes ng and ngw *

R and R[H] become /r/ and /r^h/

/j/ remains j and /hh/ remains /hh/.

8). p and p^h remained /p/, written p; and became /f/, written f; pw andpw^h(5) were simplified to /v/, written b; w andw^h(6) were simplified to /w/, written w; t and t^h remained /t/, written d, and became /th/, written t; ts and ts^h remained /ts/, written D (bar-d); and became /tsh/, written ' (eventually, it became /?/); s and s^h remained /s/, written z; and became /sh/, written s; k and k^w remained /k/, writtenk; and became kw, written T (eventually, it became /tsh/ after ' had become /?/); kx andkx^w became /h/, written H (dot-h); and became /hw/, written x (hook-h); x andx^w became /ç/, written S (check-s); and became çw, written X (bar-h) (eventually, it became /x/); m and m^h remained /m/, written m; and became /hwⁿ/ then /w/, written w (no distinction was made between w from w/w^h and w from m^h); n and n^h were simplified to/n/, written n; ng and ng^w became /G/ (velar g), written q; and became /gw/, written g; r and r^h became /R/ (trill-r), written 3; and /r/ (flap-r), written r; j andhh remained: /j/, written i; and /hh/ (pharyngal voiceless spirant), written h.





b. Arabic



1). Aspirated stops became spirants: P[H] becomes f; T[H] becomes /th/, written th; K[H]

becomes /x/, written kh;



a). only the velarized aspirated apical stop became phonemic in Arabic: /th^w/ becomes /s^w/ then retroflex (emphatic) /S/, written S (dot-s).




2). Glottalized stops were de-glottalized: P[?] -> p; T[?] -> t; K[?] -> k;

a). only the velarized de-glottalized apical stop became phonemic in Arabic: /t^w/ then retroflex (emphatic) /T/, written T (dot-t).



b). but glottalized affricates were de-glottalized and voiced: p^?w becomes b^w becomes b; t^?s becomes ds becomes dz becomes d; k^?x becomes gç becomes gy becomes /dzh/, written j.



1)). only the velarized de-glottalized apical affricate became phonemic in Arabic:/d^w/ then retroflex (emphatic) /D/, written D (dot-d).







c). Aspiration was eliminated from from aspirated spirants and nasals: w and w^h became w; S[H] became s but S became z ; X and X[H] became /ç/, written sh (X possibly goes through /zh/); M and M[H] became m; Q and Q[H] became /G/ (velar g) and /q/ (velar k), but were merged as /q/, written q (dot-k);



d). non-"emphatic" R and R[H] became r.

1)). "emphatic" R and R[H] (/r^w/ and /r^hw/) became L (velar /l/).





e). N became n but n from NE and N[H]E (Nostratic nya) had already become l/l^h (palatal /l[h]/);



f). non-"emphatic" and "emphatic" N[H] became aspirated l^h and L^h (velar /l^h/), which was later de-aspirated to /l/ or /L/.



g). y, ?, H, $, and HH remained as y, ?, h, $, and hh.



h). The Arabic reflexes of the aspirated affricates ts^h and kç^h, indicate they were derived from their velarized phonemes, a phenomenon perhaps related in some way to the Egyptian transformation of velarization into aspiration:

1)). ts^h -> ts^w becomes dz^w becomes /dh/, written dh; kç^h becomes kç^w becomes gy^w becomes g^w becomes /gh/, written gh.



a). only the velarized de-glottalized apical affricate became phonemic in Arabic:/dh^w/ becomes /dz^w/ becomes /z^w/ then retroflex (emphatic) /Z/, written Z (dot-z).

2). the development of pw^h is expected: /pw^h/ becomes h^w becomes f.













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