The student of the Ethiopic languages, 2 even though he knows that these languages belong to the Semitic group, cannot help being struck by their non-Semitic character. Even Antoine d' Abbadie, author of the Dictionnaire de la langue amarifiiia (Paris, 1881), stated in the introduction of his work (p. XXVII) that Amharic and Gurague belong to "sous-semitique", and elswhere 1 he classes in "sous-semitique" the Semitic languages of Ethiopia: Amharic, Gurague, Gafat, Harari, and the Cushitic languages: Galla, Somali, Saho-Afar. The reason which accounts for the non-Semitic character of the Ethiopic languages is the result of the influence of the neighboring languages. The Semites of South Arabia who conquered Ethiopia 4 imposed their Semitic languag<"s on a country in which Cushitic languages were and still are spoken.C 1 It is not surprising, therefore, that the Cushitic substratum has very strongly influenced the Ethiopic languages in phonology, morphology, syntax, and vocabulary.' This fact has long been recognized by students of the linguistic problems of Ethiopic. 7 There has been, however, no general inl For the abbreviations, see at the end.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Linguistic Society of America is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Language. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Thu, 4 Dec 2014 05:15:52 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 312 REVIEWS Essai comparatif sur le vocabulaire et la phon6tique du chamito-s6mitique. By MARCEL COHEN. (Bibliothbque de I'Ecole des Hautes Etudes, publi6e sous les auspices du Ministbre de l'Education Nationale: Sciences Historiques et Philologiques, Vol. 291.) Pp. xi + 248. Paris: Librairie Ancienne Honor6 Champion, 1947.On the question whether Semitic, Egyptian, Berber, and Cushitic are genetically related, Marcel Cohen takes a positive stand. He has expressed it in his numerous articles on the subject and in his stimulating teaching at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes of Paris. The question is not a new one. Starting as early as the end of the 18th century, it was the preoccupation of specialists in the different language families constituting the Hamito-Semitic group. The most important study in the initial stage of Hamito-Semitic, or more exactly of Semito-Egyptian comparisons, is the work by the Indo-Europeanist Theodor Benfey, tber das Verhailtniss der Agyptischen Sprache zum semitischen Sprachstamm, Professional Semitists and Egyptologists, including Erman, Sethe, Ember, and Albright, made important contributions to the subject, partly in the domain of the morphology but mainly in that of the vocabulary. Through the contributions of the Egyptologist and Cushitist Reinisch, the Cushitic languages were introduced into the field of Hamito-Semitic comparisons; others, among them Zyhlarz, worked mainly in the domain of Berber and Egyptian. Thus, thanks to the studies both of Hamito-Semitists and of specialists in each particular language family, the genetic relation between Semitic, Egyptian, Berber, and Cushitic is well established; it is this group of languages that is now called Hamito-Semitic. There is complete agreement concerning the term 'Semitic', but this is not the case for the term 'Hamitic'. The question arises whether Hamitic is a single entity with definite characteristics as opposed to Semitic, or is a conventional term given to all the non-Semitic languages of the Hamito-Semitic group.If so, Hamito-Semitic would consist of four independent groups: (1) Semitic, (2) Egyptian, (3) Berber, (4) Cushitic. The answers to this question differ, as might be expected. Thus, Brockelmann, Gibt es einen hamitischen Sprachstamm?, Anthropos 27.797-818 (1932), answers in the negative, whereas Zyhlarz thinks that there is a Hamitic group. In the present state of our knowledge it is safer to assume, with Marcel Cohen, that Hamito-Semi...
In preparing a bibliography of the modern South Arabic languages I came across the only document of the dialect of Curia Muria. It is J. G. Hulton's article, “ Notice on the Curia Muria Island,” in the Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, 3 (1840), 183–197.2 This article, in which the author gives a detailed description of the island and its inhabitants, contains a list of 103 words in English, Arabic, and in the dialect of Curia Muria.3
Frequency as Determinant of Linguistic Changes in the Ethiopian LanguagesThe principle 1 of relative frequency as a determinant of linguistic changes in phonology and morphology was already recognized by Arab grammarians of the Middle Ages. Some grammarians call it tabfif likatrati 1-isticmiili 'weakening on account of frequent usage' while others simply speak about tabfif 'weakening.' The Persian-born Arabic grammarian Zamakhshari, in his Kitiib al-Mufa~~a/2 explains through tabfif occurrences such as layta-ni ganiyyun 'may I be wealthy' becoming layt-i ganiyyun3; allat;]i, with long i, becoming 'allat;]i, with short i 4 ; or hiikii 'here it is for you' becoming hii'a or hii'in.s Al-'Asmuniyy6 in his commentary on Alfiyyatu lbn-Malik explains through 'weakening on account of usage' examples such as muntj 'since,
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