Central Semitic languages

Central Semitic
Geographic distribution	Middle East
Linguistic classification	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic
Subdivisions	Northwest Semitic Arabic (including Maltese) Dadanitic † Thamudic †
Glottolog	cent2236

Central Semitic languages

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Central Semitic can itself be further divided into two groups:

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Overview

Distinctive features of Central Semitic languages include the following:^[3]

• An innovative negation marker *bal, of uncertain origin.
• The generalization of t as the suffix conjugation past tense marker, levelling an earlier alternation between *k in the first person and *t in the second person.
• A new prefix conjugation for the non-past tense, of the form ya-qtulu, replacing the inherited ya-qattal form (they are schematic verbal forms, as if derived from an example
  triconsonantal root
  q-t-l).
• ejective
  .

Different classification systems disagree on the precise structure of the group. The most common approach divides it into Arabic and Northwest Semitic, while

(including Arabic and Hebrew) vs. Aramaic.

The main distinction between Arabic and the Northwest Semitic languages is the presence of broken plurals in the former. The majority of Arabic nouns (apart from participles) form plurals in this manner, whereas virtually all nouns in the Northwest Semitic languages form their plurals with a suffix. For example, the Arabic بَيْت bayt ("house") becomes بُيُوت buyūt ("houses"); the Hebrew בַּיִת bayit ("house") becomes בָּתִּים bāttīm ("houses").

References

• Sabatino Moscati (1980). An Introduction to Comparative Grammar of Semitic Languages Phonology and Morphology. Harrassowitz Verlag.
  ISBN 3-447-00689-7
  .

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