Reconstruction:Proto-Semitic/lV-

This Proto-Semitic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Semitic

Etymology

From Proto-Afroasiatic. Compare Egyptian n, Proto-Berber *n (whence Central Atlas Tamazight ⵏ (n) and Kabyle n), Somali -lá (“with, in company with”) and -leh (“with, owning”).

Preposition

*lV-

for, to

Reconstruction notes

Though this entry is notated with the symbol for an unspecified vowel, ⟨V⟩, in this case it does not mean the vowel is indeterminate. Rather, both *li- and *la- existed in opposition and became conflated to various degrees in the descendants, such that it is most parsimonious to unify them under one headword. The same is the case for *bV-.

Descendants

East Semitic:
- (fossiziled) ⇒ Akkadian: lapān (“before”)
West Semitic:
- Central Semitic:
  - Arabic: لِـ (li-), before pronominal suffixes لَـ (la-), with other distributions in dialects
  - Northwest Semitic:
    - Aramaic:
      Old Aramaic: 𐤋
      
      Imperial Aramaic: 𐡋 (l)
      
      Biblical Aramaic: ל־
      
      Jewish Palestinian Aramaic: ל־
      
      Christian Palestinian Aramaic: ܠ
      
      Jewish Literary Aramaic: ל־
      
      Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: ל־
      - Classical Syriac: ܠ-
    - Canaanite:
      - Hebrew: לְ־, ל־, לִ־, לַ־, לֶ־, לָ־ (lə-, l-, li-, la-, le-, lā-), אֶל (ʾel) (wholly or only its second half)
      - Phoenician: 𐤀𐤋 (ʾl) (wholly or only its second half)
    - Ugaritic: 𐎍 (l /⁠le⁠/)
    - → Akkadian: la
  - Old South Arabian:
    - Hadrami: -𐩡 (-l)
    - Minaean: -𐩡 (-l)
    - Qatabanian: -𐩡 (-l)
    - Sabaean: -𐩡 (-l)
- Modern South Arabian:
  - Mehri: l-
  - Shehri: l-
  - Soqotri: le (“distributive”)
- Ethiopian Semitic:
  - North Ethiopian Semitic:
    - Ge'ez: ለ- (lä-)
    - Tigre: እል (ʾəl) and fused in ለዐል (läʿäl, “above”)
    - Tigrinya: ል- (lə-) (dialectal), -ል (-l), fused in ላዕሊ (laʿli, “above”)
  - South Ethiopian Semitic:
    - Amharic: ለ- (lä-)
    - Harari: -ሌ (-le, postposition)

References

Bravmann, Meïr Max (1977) “Expressions based on the noun yawm- ‘day’”, in Studies in Semitic Philology (Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics; 6), Leiden: E. J. Brill, →ISBN, page 390

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