LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 13 : 1 January 2013
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 Derivational Morphemes in English, German, and French:
A Lexical Root Theory Approach

Zaidan Ali Jassem, Ph.D.

Abstract

This paper investigates the genetic relationship between derivational affixes or morphemes like ensure, whiten, opinion, activity in Arabic and English mainly as well as German, French, and Latin. Applying the lexical root theory as a theoretical framework, it shows, unlike traditional claims in comparative historical linguistics that Arabic and English, for example, are members of different language families, how such morphemes are related to and derived from one another, where Arabic may be their end origin. More precisely, a-, e-, n-, m-, t-, be-, and s-based affixes are found in all the above languages to be identical cognates with the same or similar forms and meanings or functions, regardless of minor phonetic and morphological changes.

Keywords:Derivational morphemes, Arabic, English, German, French, Latin, historical linguistics, lexical root theory

1. Introduction

The lexical root theory has been proposed by Jassem (2012a-f) to reject the claims of the Comparative Historical Linguistics Method that Arabic and English, German, French, and so on belong to different language families (Crystal 2010: 302; Campbell 2006: 190-191; Crowley 1997: 22-25, 110-111; Pyles and Algeo 1993: 61-94) and to establish instead the genetic relationship between Arabic and English, in particular, and all other (Indo-)European languages. In his (2012a) investigation, he found that all the numeral words in Arabic, English, German, French, Latin, Greek and Sanskrit have the same or similar forms in general, forming true cognates with Arabic as their end origin. Jassem (2012b) provided further evidence from common contextualized religious terms such as Hallelujah, God, Anno Domini, Christianity, Judaism, ruthful, welcome, worship, solemnity, and so on, which were also found to have true Arabic cognates. For instance, Hallelujah is a reversal and reduction of the Arabic phrase la ilaha illa Allah 'There's no god but Allah (God)' where Halle is Allah in reverse- i.e., Allah ? Halla (Halle 'God'). Jassem (2012c) showed that personal pronouns in Arabic, English, German, French, Latin and related languages are true cognates, which descend from Arabic directly. Jassem (2012d) investigated determiners such as the, this, an, both, a lot, very in English, German, French, and Latin which were all found to have identical Arabic cognates. Jassem (2012e) established the genetic relationship between verb to be forms in those languages and Arabic. Finally, Jassem (2012f) showed that inflectional 'plural and gender' markers formed true cognates in all.

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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