LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 12 : 12 December 2012
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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The Arabic Origins of Number and Gender Markers in English, German, French, and Latin:
A Lexical Root Theory Approach

Zaidan Ali Jassem

Abstract

This paper examines through the application of the lexical root theory the genetic relationship between number (plurality) and gender (femininity) markers in Arabic and English mainly besides German, French, Latin, and Greek. It shows that, converse to traditional views in comparative historical linguistics in which Arabic and English, for example, are classified as members of different language families, such categories are related to and derived from one another, where Arabic may be their end origin. More precisely, plurality and femininity markers are shown to be identical cognates in all the above languages where they have the same or similar forms and meanings or functions, notwithstanding slight phonetic and morphological changes.

Keywords:Number, Gender, Arabic, English, German, French, Latin, Greek, historical linguistics, lexical root theory

1. Introduction

In comparative historical linguistics, English and Arabic are subsumed as totally different language family members. The former is Germanic, an Indo-European family branch which is divided into five sub-families: namely, the Germanic family (e.g., English, German), the Italic (e.g., French, Italian), the Hellenic (e.g., Greek), the Slavic (e.g., Russian), and the Indic (e.g., Sanskrit, Kurdish, Persian). The latter is a Semitic family member, which is split into several branches which include Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac, Aramaic, etc., with the largest living language in the group being Arabic (for a survey, see Crystal 2010: 308; Campbell 2006: 190-191; Crowley 1997: 22-25, 110-111; Pyles and Algeo 1993: 61-94).

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Zaidan Ali Jassem, Ph.D.
Department of English Language and Translation
Qassim University
P.O.Box 6611, Buraidah
KSA
zajassems@gmail.com
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