Thread by @PhDniX

One of the frustrating things about Afro-Asiatic is that, despite all the great morpheme comparisons, it is really hard to reconstruct vocabulary, at all.
I keep a list of cognates that I myself find compelling, between the two families I know best, Berber & Semitic.

Here it is:

Proto-Berber *(a-)isəm 'name'
Proto-Semitic *sm- 'name'

Within the Islamic context, where adopting Islamic names is common, it is not unthinkable isəm is actually an early loan from Arabic. But indistinguishable from a cognate.

Proto-Berber *ămmət pf. *ămmut impf. *əmăttăt 'to die'
Proto-Semitic *m-w-t 'to die'

This root is of course one of the few really well-attested cognates in Afro-Asiatic. The Berber conjugation is highly irregular, no other verb behaves like it.

Proto-Berber *aman 'water' < *amay-ăn
Proto-Semitic *māy, *may 'water'

There is no internal evidence for *ay-ăn > -an, but *-ăn is a Proto-Berber plural sufix and *aman is a plural in all berber varieties, so seems sensible.

Proto-Berber *ăsin 'two'
Proto-Semitic *ṯn-āni 'two'

A bunch of other numerals look conspicuously Semitic too, but so conspicuously that they might be early loans from an unknown Semitic donor.
(sămmus '5', sădis '6', sa(h) '7', tam '8', tẓa '9')

Proto-Berber *i-dămm-ăn or *i-damm-ăn 'blood'
Proto-Semitic *dam- 'blood'

Continuing the tradition of making liquids plural, blood has plural morphology in Berber.

Proto-Berber *iləs 'tongue'
Proto-Semitic *lis-ān 'tongue'

Another well-known cognate.

Proto-Berber *uləβ 'heart'
Proto-Semitic *lubb- 'heart'

By now you might notice a pattern that Berber likes to put long vowels before biradical nouns that mirror what was likely the stem-internal short vowel.
(*uləβ < PAA *lub, *isəm < PAA *sim, *iləs < *lis?)

Proto-Berber *ta-ɣruṭṭ pl. *ti-ɣərd-en 'shoulder'
Arabic has qurdūdah "highest part of the back", Jibali has ḳɛrd 'neck'. Not very broadly attested, but still tempting to see a connection here.

Proto-Berber *azzəl, pf. *uzzắl, impf. əttazzăl 'to run'
Aramaic has ʔ-z-l 'to go/walk'

Attractive, but I believe the Aramaic word is not broadly attested in the rest of Semitic. We probably should not be using isolated words in isolated language with deep comparison like this.

Proto-Berber *əqqăymăʔ pf. *ăqqəymăʔ impf. *əttăɣăymay 'to sit, stand up'
Proto-Semitic ḳ-w-m 'to stand up'

This cognate is tempting, but the Proto-Berber verb formation is quite a bit more complex, so did PSem drop a root consonant to triradicalize it?

Proto-Berber *ătyəʔ pf. *ətyắʔ impf. *əttắttăʔ 'to eat'
Proto-Semitic *t-ʔ-y 'to eat/graze' (cf. MSALs t-w/y-w/y and Akkadian taʔū 'to grave'

(This is a connection first pointed out to me by @lameensouag, I find it compelling).

Proto-Berber *e-sen 'tooth' (< Pre-PB *a-sen, perhaps *a-săyn)
Proto-Semitic *sinn-

This comparison doesn't follow the "copy the vowel and put it at the front of the stem" pattern as *uləβ, *isəm and *iləs.

Proto-Berber *a-ɣris 'cold, ice'
Proto-Semitic *ḳ-r-s 'to freeze, be cold'

I find this one quite cool, and I don't think it gets pointed out very often.

Proto-Berber *ăqqəd (< Pre-PB *ăwqəd), pf. əqqắd impf. *əttăqqăd 'to burn'. Caus. *əssuɣəd; *eɣəd 'ashes' (< Pre-PB *a-wĭɣĭd)
Proto-Semitic *w-q-d 'to burn'

A cognate which shows itself after we undo a wC> C: assimilation, which we already assume on Berber-internal grounds.

Proto-Berber *ta-ʔβun-t '(mill)stone'
Proto-Semitic *ʔabn- 'stone'

This cognate is so good, that it somehow feels like it can't be right. Not much other evidence for PSem. *ʔ corresponding to PBerb *ʔ.

Proto-Berber *ănwəʔ pf. *ənwắʔ impf. *ənắnnăʔ 'to be ripe, cooked'
Proto-Semitic *n-y-ʔ 'insuficiently cooked, raw'

These have opposite semantics and I don't quite know how one would get from one to the other, but the sound correspondences are nice...

Proto-Berber *ta-dβən-t 'fat'
Proto-Semitic *duhn- 'fat'

This is a favourite among afro-asiaticists, who reconstruct *ta-dhən-t for Proto-Berber (the *β in Tuareg becomes h), but Berber-Internally there's no basis to reconstruct a *h at all. With *β comparison looks less good.

Proto-Berber *a-m(v̆)ẓar 'rain'
Proto-Semitic *maṭar 'rain'

No other evidence for Berb. *ẓ : Sem. *ṭ, and I believe *maṭar has quite a limited distribution in Semitic. So take this with a grain of salt.

Proto-Berber *ăfrəs pf. *əfrắs impf. *əfắrrăs 'to cut'
Proto-Semitic *p-r-t͡s 'to cut'.

This is a really nice one, and makes comparison of the Proto-Berbero-Semitic verbal system of sound verbs look really compelling.

academia.edu/36081227/A_rec…

Proto-Berber *t-uraʔ 'lungs' (a plural, perhaps from a singular *t-irəʔ-t?)
Proto-Semitic *riʔ-at- 'lung'

A great cognate, feminine gender, has the little prefixation of the internal vowel for a biradical (which is then ablauted due to the plural pattern).

Proto-Berber *iwraɣ 'to be yellow'; *(a-)wăraɣ 'yellow'; *urəɣ 'gold' (< Pre-PB *a-wŭrŭɣ?)
Proto-Semitic *w-r-ḳ 'to be green/yellow'
A nice cognate, and a go-to-cognate if one ever wants to write about Proto-Berbero-Semitic suffix conjguation (wăraɣ takes the suffix conjugation)

Proto-Berber *ăɣrəʔ pf. *əɣrắʔ, impf. *əɣắrrăʔ (or *əqqắrăʔ?) 'to shout, recite, read'
Proto-Semitic *ḳ-r-ʔ 'to declaim, [recite, read]'

Perhaps a Punic loan? Perhaps an AA inheritance, that took on the Semantics of the technology of reading due to contact.

Proto-Berber *ănḍər 'to jump'
Yemeni Arabic & Ethio-Semitic *n-ṭ-r 'to jump'.

Very limited distribution in Semitic, the Yemeni form might be a loan from Ethio-Semitic. We probably should not make too much of this one.

Proto-Berber *aləy 'to go up' (< Pre-PB *ăHləy?) pf. ulắy impf. *əttálăy
Proto-Semitic *ʕ-l-w 'to be high'

Fairly compelling, though there are no other good examples of the Pre-Proto-Berber *H to Proto-Semitic *ʕ

Proto-Berber *əfərurəy 'to drop fruits, or grain (said of trees)'
Proto-Semitic *p-r-y 'to be fruitful'

A very nice one, thanks to @BGaraiko for pointing this one out to me.

That's a list of all the nice compelling Berber-Semitic comparisons I have. As you'll notice, all the sound correspondences are really basic (as with grammatical material), which makes it all the more striking that we can't find more cognates!

Feel free to ask any questions about any of the specific cognates, or add some observations of your own from other Afro-Asiatic families. I know quite a couple have compelling stuff for these as well!

Thread done at the request of @ait_kisou!

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