Semitic root


The roots of verbs and most nouns in the Semitic languages are characterized as a sequence of consonants or "". Such abstract consonantal roots are used in the formation of actual words by adding the vowels and non-root consonants which go with a particular morphological category around the root consonants, in an appropriate way, generally following specific patterns. It is a peculiarity of Semitic linguistics that a large majority of these consonantal roots are triliterals.

Triconsonantal roots

A triliteral or triconsonantal root is a root containing a sequence of [|three consonants].
The following are some of the forms which can be derived from the triconsonantal root k-t-b in Hebrew and Arabic:
Note: The Hebrew fricatives transcribed as "ḵ" and "ḇ" can also be transcribed in a number of other ways, such as "ch" and "v", which are pronounced and, respectively. They are transliterated "ḵ" and "ḇ" on this page to retain the connection with the pure consonantal root k-t-b. Also notice that in Modern Hebrew, there is no gemination.
Semitological abbreviationHebrew nameArabic nameMorphological categoryHebrew FormArabic formApproximate translation
G verb stem

pa‘al
fa‘ala
فَعَلَ
3rd. masc. sing perfectkataḇ kataba كتب"he wrote"
G verb stem

pa‘al
fa‘ala
فَعَلَ
1st. plur. perfectkataḇnu katabnā كتبنا"we wrote"
G verb stem

pa‘al
fa‘ala
فَعَلَ
3rd. masc. sing. imperfectyiḵtoḇ yaktubu يكتب"he writes, will write"
G verb stem

pa‘al
fa‘ala
فَعَلَ
1st. plur. imperfectniḵtoḇ naktubu نكتب"we write, will write"
G verb stem

pa‘al
fa‘ala
فَعَلَ
masc. sing. active participlekoteḇ kātib كاتب"writer"
Š verb stem
hip̄‘il
af‘ala
أَفْعَلَ
3rd. masc. sing perfecthiḵtiḇ aktaba أكتب"he dictated"
Š verb stem
hip̄‘il
af‘ala
أَفْعَلَ
3rd. masc. sing. imperfectyaḵtiḇ yuktibu يكتب"he dictates, will dictate"
Št verb stem
hitpa‘el
istaf‘ala
استَفْعَلَ
3rd. masc. sing perfecthitkatteḇ istaktaba استكتب"he corresponded", "he asked to write, had a copy made"
Št verb stem
hitpa‘el
istaf‘ala
استَفْعَلَ
3rd. masc. sing. imperfectyitkatteḇ yastaktibu يستكتب
Noun with m- prefix and original short vowelsmip̄‘al
maf‘al
مَفْعَل
singularmiḵtaḇ maktab مكتب"letter", "office"

In Hebrew grammatical terminology, the word binyan is used to refer to a verb derived stem or overall verb derivation pattern, while the word mishqal is used to refer to a noun derivation pattern, and these words have gained some use in English-language linguistic terminology. The Arabic terms, called وزن wazn for the pattern and جذر jaḏr for the root have not gained the same currency in cross-linguistic Semitic scholarship as the Hebrew equivalents, and Western grammarians continue to use "stem"/"form"/"pattern" for the former and "root" for the latter—though "form" and "pattern" are accurate translations of the Arabic grammatical term wazn, and "root" is a literal translation of jaḏr.

Biliteral origin of some triliteral roots

Although most roots in Hebrew seem to be triliteral, many of them were originally biliteral, cf. the relation between:
as well as between:

The Hebrew root - √sh-q-p "look out/through" deriving from - √q-p "bend, arch, lean towards" and similar verbs fit into the shaCCéC verb-pattern.

This verb-pattern sh-C-C is usually causative, cf.

History

According to a study of the Proto-Semitic lexicon, biconsonantal roots are more abundant for words denoting Stone Age materials, whereas materials discovered during the Neolithic are uniquely triconsonantal. This implies a change in Proto-Semitic language structure concomitant with the transition to agriculture. In particular monosyllabic biconsonantal names are associated with a pre-Natufian cultural background, more than 16,500 years ago. As we have no texts from any Semitic language older than 5,500 years ago, reconstructions of Proto-Semitic are inferred from these more recent Semitic texts.

Quadriliteral roots

A quadriliteral is a consonantal root containing a sequence of four consonants. A quadriliteral form is a word derived from such a four-consonant root. For example, the abstract quadriliteral root t-r-g-m / t-r-j-m gives rise to the verb forms tirgem in Hebrew, ترجم tarjama in Arabic, ተረጐመ "täräggwämä" in Amharic, all meaning "he translated". In some cases, a quadriliteral root is actually a reduplication of a two-consonant sequence. So in Hebrew digdeg means "he tickled", and in Arabic زلزال zilzāl means "earthquake".
Generally, only a subset of the verb derivations formed from triliteral roots are allowed with quadriliteral roots. For example, in Hebrew, the Piʿel, Puʿal, and Hiṯpaʿel, and in Arabic, forms similar to the stem II and stem V forms of triliteral roots.
Another set of quadriliteral roots in modern Hebrew is the set of secondary roots. A secondary root is a root derived from word that was derived from another root. For example, the root m-s-p-r is secondary to the root s-p-r. saphar, from the root s-p-r, means "counted"; mispar, from the same root, means "number"; and misper, from the secondary root, means "numbered".
An irregular quadriliteral verb made from a loanword is:
Traditionally, in the Semitic languages, forms with more than four basic consonants were occasionally found in nouns, mainly in loanwords from other languages, but never in verbs. However, in modern Israeli Hebrew, syllables are allowed to begin with a sequence of two consonants, which has opened the door for a very small set of loan words to manifest apparent five root-consonant forms, such as tilgref "he telegraphed". However, -lgr- always appears as an indivisible cluster in the derivation of this verb and so the five root-consonant forms do not display any fundamentally different morphological patterns from four root-consonant forms.
Other examples are:
In Amharic, there is a very small set of verbs which are conjugated as quinquiliteral roots. One example is wäšänäffärä 'rain fell with a strong wind' The conjugation of this small class of verb roots is explained by Wolf Leslau. Unlike the Hebrew examples, these roots conjugate in a manner more like regular verbs, producing no indivisible clusters.