Thread by @bnuyaminim

Short? thread on III-y verbs in #Aramaic:

Based on #Hebrew and #Arabic, we reconstruct a slightly irregular paradigm for the prefix conjugation for Pr-Cntrl-#Semitic, where the 3rd radical is lost word-finally:

imperfect *ta-bniy-u 'you build'; but
imperative *bni 'build!' 1/7

In Arabic, the *-iyu of the imperfect contracts to -ī, while the imperative adds i- before the cluster:

imperfect *ta-bniy-u > tabnī
imperative *bni > ibni

Cf. @PhDniX's article on triphthong contraction in Arabic: 2/7 academia.edu/32715681/The_d…

In Hebrew, *-iyu contracts to -ɛ̄, while the short *-i is lowered to *-e and then lengthened:

imperfect *ta-bniy-u > tiḇnɛ̄
imperative *bni > bnē

Cf. my article on these verbs here: 3/7 academia.edu/37673891/A_tri…

In derived stems, where the final vowel of the imperative was unstressed, it was regularly lost, as in (D-stem) *ṣáwwi > ṣaw 'command'. But we also get analogical forms that reintroduce the final vowel from the basic stem, like ṣawwē. 4/7

In Biblical Aramaic, we also find different vowels (not attested for one & the same verb AFAIK):

imperfect tɛhɛ̆wē 'it will be'
imperative ḥĕyī 'live!'; D-stem mɛ́nnī 'command!'

The imperfect looks like another contraction, with *-iyu > -ē. What about the imperative? 5/7

ḥĕyī could come from *ḥyi, the expected form, kind of like in Hebrew. But in the D-stem, *manni should yield **man. Copying the ending from the basic stem, as also happened in Hebrew, should keep the stress on the final vowel: **mɛnnī or **mannī, not mɛ́nnī. 6/7

Instead, it looks like Proto-Aramaic regularized this paradigm and reintroduced the third radical *-y by analogy with the strong verb:

imperfect *ta-hwiy-u > tɛhɛ̆wē
imperative (G-stem) *hyi >> *ḥyiy > ḥĕyī
imperative (D-stem) *manni >> *manniy > mɛ́nnī.

Thx for reading! 7/7