Semitic root

The roots of verbs and most nouns in the Semitic languages are characterized as a sequence of consonants or "radicals" (hence also the term consonantal root). Such abstract consonantal roots are used in the derivation of actual words by adding the vowels and non-root consonants (or "transfixes") 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 (although there are number of quadriliterals, and in some languages also biliterals).
==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 (general overall meaning "to write") in Hebrew and Arabic:
Semitological abbreviation 	Hebrew name 	Arabic name 	Morphological category 	Hebrew Form	Arabic form	Approximate translation
G verb stem 	Qal 	fa‘ala (Stem I) 	3rd. masc. sing perfect 	katabh 	kataba 	"he wrote"
G verb stem 	Qal 	fa‘ala (Stem I) 	1st. plur. perfect 	katabhnu 	katabnā 	"we wrote"
G verb stem 	Qal 	fa‘ala (Stem I) 	3rd. masc. sing. imperfect 	yikhtobh 	yaktubu 	"he writes, will write"
G verb stem 	Qal 	fa‘ala (Stem I) 	1st. plur. imperfect 	nikhtobh 	naktubu 	"we write, will write"
G verb stem 	Qal 	fa‘ala (Stem I) 	masc. sing. active participle	kotebh 	kātib 	"writer"
Š verb stem 	Hiph‘il 	af‘ala (Stem IV)	3rd. masc. sing perfect 	hikhtibh 	’aktaba 	"he dictated"
Š verb stem 	Hiph‘il 	af‘ala (Stem IV)	3rd. masc. sing. imperfect 	yakhtibh 	yuktibu 	"he dictates, will dictate"
Št(D) verb stem 	Hitpa‘‘el 	istaf‘ala (Stem X)	3rd. masc. sing perfect 	hitkattebh 	istaktaba 	"he corresponded" (Hebrew), "he asked (someone) to write (something), had a copy made" (Arabic)
Št(D) verb stem 	Hitpa‘‘el 	istaf‘ala (Stem X)	3rd. masc. sing. imperfect 	yitkattebh 	yastaktibu 	(imperfect of above)
Noun with m- prefix and original short vowels:	Noun with m- prefix and original short vowels:	maf‘al 	singular 	mikhtabh 	maktab 	"letter" (Hebrew), "office" (Arabic)
:Note: The Hebrew fricatives transcribed as "kh" and "bh" above are single phonetic sounds, which can also be transcribed in a number of other ways, such as "ch" and "v" (Eastern-European influenced) or [x] and [v] (IPA). They are transcribed "kh" and "bh" on this page to retain the connection with the pure consonantal root k-t-b.
In Hebrew grammatical terminology, the word binyan (Hebrew , plural binyanim) is used to refer to a verb stem or overall verb derivation pattern, while the word Mishqal (or Mishkal) 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 wazn, (plural , ’awzān) for the pattern and (plural , ) for the root have not gained the same currency 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 literal translations of wazn, and "root" is a literal translation of ǧaḏr).
===Biliteral origin of (some) triliteral roots===
Ghil'ad Zuckermann says, "Note that although most roots in Hebrew seem to be tri-radical, many of them were originally bi-radical, cf. the relation between √ g-z-z ‘shear’, √ g-z-m ‘prune’ and √ g-z-r ‘cut’, as well as between √ p-r-z ‘divide a city’, √ p-r-ţ ‘give change’ and √ p-r-‘ ‘pay a debt’."See p. 1 of Zuckermann, Ghil'ad 2003, ‘‘Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew’’, Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, (Palgrave Studies in Language History and Language Change, Series editor: Charles Jones). ISBN 1-4039-1723-X. Zuckermann analyses the Hebrew root √ sh-q-p "look out/through" as deriving from √ q-p "bend, arch, lean towards" (cf. √ q-p-ħ, √ q-p-h, √ q-p-' and √ q-p-y "arch, bend"), fitted into the shaé verb-pattern. "This verb-pattern is usually causative, cf. √ sh-ţ-p ‘wash, rinse, make wet’, from √ ţ-p ‘wet’, as well as √ sh-l-k ‘cast off, throw down, cause to go’, from √ l-k ‘go’".
==Quadriliteral roots==
A quadriliteral is a consonantal root containing a sequence of four consonants (instead of three consonants, as is more often the case). 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 and tarjama in Arabic, 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 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 Pi``el, Pu``al, and Hitpa``el, and in Arabic forms similar to the stem II and stem V forms of triliteral roots.
Traditionally in the Semitic languages, forms with more than four basic consonants (i.e. consonants not introduced by morphological inflection or derivation) were occasionally found in nouns — mainly loanwords from other languages — but never in verbs. However, in modern Israeli Hebrew, syllables are allowed to begin with a sequence of two consonants (a relaxation of the situation in early Semitic, where only one consonant was allowed), and this has opened the door to apparent five root-consonant forms, such as tilgref "he telegraphed". But, -lgr- always appears as an indivisible cluster in the derivation of this verb, so that these five root-consonant forms do not display any fundamentally different morphological patterns from four root-consonant forms (and the hypothetical term "quinqueliteral" would be misleading if it implied otherwise).
* apophony vs. transfixation (root-and-pattern)
* Arabic grammar
* broken plural
* nonconcatenative morphology
* Phono-semantic matching
* Proto-Indo-European root
* transfix
== References ==
==External links==
*Project Root List
Category:terms