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The Semitic Languages of Ethiopia and their Contribution to General Semitic Studies1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 August 2012
Extract
I Propose to examine in this short paper, in the very limited time at my disposal, some of the ways in which a study of the Semitic languages of Ethiopia, ancient as well as modern, can and should be of use to our understanding of general Semitic linguistic phenomena and to a clearer appreciation of inter-Semitic relationships. At present we shall be concerned with the aid extended by Ethiopics to other languages rather than with the Ethiopian tongues at the receiving end, so to speak; with their active rather than their passive capacity, though I should not wish to pretend that it is always possible, or even desirable, to disentangle the two. In a minority of cases only can we detect a direct ‘influence’ of Ethiopic on other Semitic languages, i.e. impact at a time when these tongues were already fully differentiated from each other. Generally, the value of Ethiopian languages lies in their having preserved a feature lost elsewhere, or a root that has otherwise disappeared, or in revealing a parallel that may be significant to an assessment of general Semitic affinities.
Résumé
LES LANGUES SÉMITIQUES DE L'ÉTHIOPIE ET LEUR CONTRIBUTION AUX ÉTUDES SÉMITIQUES EN GÉNÉRAL
Les langues éthiopiennes constituent un maillon indispensable dans la chaîne des langues sémitiques, et souvent elles fournissent des indications et des preuves qui font défaut dans les autres langues. L'importance linguistique des langues éthiopiennes réside non seulement dans le fait de leur position géographique, formant un pont entre l'Asie et l'Afrique, et de leur voisinage de la région qui est reconnu généralement comme l'habitat primitif des Sémites, mais aussi dans leur rapport étroit avec les langues chamitiques. L'étude des langues éthiopiennes fait la lumière sur la structure et la morphologie des langues sémitiques existantes, ainsi que sur l'ancienne langue de l'Arabie du Sud (qui ne se trouve maintenant que dans des inscriptions) et sur l'hébreu classique. Oette étude est plus particulièrement susceptible d'élucider plusieurs problèmes linguistiques et autres du texte hébraïque de l'Ancien Testament. En Éthiopie, l'action réciproque des langues sémitiques et coushitiques est facilement constatée et l'unité primitive des langues chamito-sémitiques est ainsi révélée. Cependant, il se peut que les résultats d'une etude plus approfondie et systématique des langues éthiopiennes présentent un intérêt plus étendu et qu'ils soient capables de contribuer à l'élucidation des rapports linguistiques en général et de la nature de l'influence exercée par une langue sur une autre.
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- Copyright © International African Institute 1955
Footnotes
page 154 note 1
Text of a paper read to the 23rd International Congress of Orientalists, Cambridge, August 1954.
References
page 154 note 2 Cf. my forthcoming article on Hebraic elements in Abyssinian Christianity.
page 155 note 1 The historical details of that migration are discussed in the introduction to my Comparative Phonology of the Semitic Languages of Ethiopia, London, 1955.
page 155 note 2 ESA = Epigraphic South-Arabian.
page 155 note 3 See the review article in Orientalia, 1954, pp. 324–5. As to the vocalization of the ESA impf., M. Hoefner (ASA Gramm., p. 69) remarks: ‘Im übrigen können wir auch bier hinsichtlich der Aussprache dem Beispiel des Nordarabischen folgen und yaqtulu usw. vokalisieren.’ I am aware of no evidence to support this statement.
page 155 note 4 Jahn, , Mehri Sprache, Vienna, 1902.Google Scholar
page 155 note 5 Leslau, , Lexigm Soqotri, Paris, 1938.Google Scholar
page 155 note 6 Bittner, , Studien zur Šhauri Sprache, Vienna, 1916.Google Scholar
page 155 note 7 See Beeston, A. F. L., Le Muséon, 1953, p. 178Google Scholar; Ryckmans, G., Le Muséon, 1953, p. 302Google Scholar; Ullendorff, , Orientalia, 1954, p. 328.Google Scholar
page 156 note 1 In the 2nd f. sing, palatalization to -Š has taken place, as is the case in Amharic; see below for further details.
page 156 note 2 See also the pertinent remarks in Rabin, , West-Arabian, p. 51.Google Scholar
page 156 note 3 The special ESA—Gə'əz affinity in this word can scarcely be doubted despite Arabic ö 
.
page 156 note 4 This root (as well as some of the others) exists, of course, also elsewhere, notably in Arabic, but I am concerned here with the special semantic development which is common to ESA and Ethiopic only.
page 156 note 5 Cf. BSOAS, 1953, 1, pp. 158–9.
page 156 note 6 From which ‘Mecca’ is allegedly derived; cf. Hitti, , History of the Arabs4, p. 103Google Scholar; Wissmann-Hoefner, , Hist. Geoff: d. vorislam. Südarabien, p. 12Google Scholar; Ullendorff, E., Orientalia, 1954, p. 320.Google Scholar
page 156 note 7 Spoken in the area largely identical with the old Aksumite Empire and thus—at least geographically—the direct successor of Gə'əz. Official language of Eritrea; regular newspapers since 1942, but otherwise Tňa literature is still in its infancy. Tňa is spoken by the monophysite Christian population of die northern Abyssinian plateau. Cf. for further details the introductory chapters to the present writer's Comp. Phonology.—Tňa = Tigriňa = təgrəňňa.
page 156 note 8 The official language of the Ethiopian Empire. Spoken over large areas of central Ethiopia, pre-dominantly by Christians. The most widely used of the Semitic languages of Ethiopia, with an incipient literature. Further details in op. cit.—Abbreviated Amh.
page 156 note 9 See BSOAS, 1953, 1, pp. 157/8.
page 156 note 10 Tigre is spoken by some 200,000 people in the eastern, northern, and western lowlands of Eritrea as well as in some parts of the Kassala province of the Sudan. Pastoral and nomadic elements, mostly Muslim, predominate. See also op. cit., introduction.
page 157 note 1 Cf. Bittner, , Šhauri Sprache, p. 20.Google Scholar
page 157 note 2 Ullendorff, op. cit., chapter on palatalization of velars.
page 157 note 3 See, for instance, Dillmann in his grammar and dictionary.
page 157 note 4 By Thomas, D. Winton, Tht Recovery of the Ancient Hebrew Language, C.U.P. 1939, p. 19.Google Scholar
page 158 note 1 Koehler, , Lexicon, p. 510Google Scholar, is wrong in supposing that this root is ‘wanting in Ethiopic’. This is, unhappily, one of many instances of the weakness of this new dictionary in the South Semitic field.
page 158 note 2 Cf. Scottish Historical Review, Oct. 1953, p. 136, note 9.
page 158 note 3 Cf. Comp. Phonology under 6th order.
page 158 note 4 JRAS, 1878.
page 158 note 5 Anthropos, 1919–20.
page 158 note 6 Ethnologie und Geographie, &c, p. 153.
page 158 note 7 BSL, 1932.
page 158 note 8 JAOS, 1944.