TY - JOUR
T1 - Materials and Language
T2 - Pre-Semitic Root Structure Change Concomitant with Transition to Agriculture
AU - Agmon, Noam
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2010 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden.
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - Materials and language have evolved together. Thus the archaeological dating of materials possibly also dates the words which name them. Analysis of Proto-Semitic (PS) material terms reveals that materials discovered during the Neolithic are uniquely triconsonantal (3c) whereas biconsonantal (2c) names were utilized for materials of the Old Stone-Age. This establishes a major transition in pre-Semitic language structure, concomitant with the transition to agriculture. Associations of material names with other words in the PS lexicon reveal the original context of material utilization. In particular, monosyllabic 2c names are associated with a pre-Natufian cultural background, more than 16,500 years ago. Various augments introduced during the Natufian, and perhaps even more intensively during the Early Neolithic, were absorbed into the roots, tilting the equilibrium from 2c toward 3c roots, and culminating in an agricultural society with strictly triconsonantal language morphology.
AB - Materials and language have evolved together. Thus the archaeological dating of materials possibly also dates the words which name them. Analysis of Proto-Semitic (PS) material terms reveals that materials discovered during the Neolithic are uniquely triconsonantal (3c) whereas biconsonantal (2c) names were utilized for materials of the Old Stone-Age. This establishes a major transition in pre-Semitic language structure, concomitant with the transition to agriculture. Associations of material names with other words in the PS lexicon reveal the original context of material utilization. In particular, monosyllabic 2c names are associated with a pre-Natufian cultural background, more than 16,500 years ago. Various augments introduced during the Natufian, and perhaps even more intensively during the Early Neolithic, were absorbed into the roots, tilting the equilibrium from 2c toward 3c roots, and culminating in an agricultural society with strictly triconsonantal language morphology.
KW - biconsonantalism
KW - Levant
KW - semitic languages
KW - transition to agriculture
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84893206199&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1163/187666310X12688137960669
DO - 10.1163/187666310X12688137960669
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AN - SCOPUS:84893206199
SN - 1876-6633
VL - 2
SP - 23
EP - 79
JO - Brill's Journal of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics
JF - Brill's Journal of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics
IS - 1
ER -