Similarities in Grammar and Syntax
↓ Number | Language → | Arabic | Coptic | Kabyle | Soomaali | Beja | Hausa |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Meaning → | write | die | fly | come | eat | drink | |
singular | 1 | ʼaktubu | timou | ttafgeɣ | imaadaa | tamáni | ina shan |
2f | taktubīna | temou | tettafgeḍ | timaadtaa | tamtínii | kina shan | |
2m | taktubu | kmou | tamtíniya | kana shan | |||
3f | smou | tettafeg | tamtíni | tana shan | |||
3m | yaktubu | fmou | yettafeg | yimaadaa | tamíni | yana shan | |
dual | 2 | taktubāni | |||||
3f | |||||||
3m | yaktubāni | ||||||
plural | 1 | naktubu | tənmou | nettafeg | nimaadnaa | támnay | muna shan |
2m | taktubūna | tetənmou | tettafgem | timaadtaan | támteena | kuna shan | |
2f | taktubna | tettafgemt | |||||
3m | yaktubūna | semou | ttafgen | yimaadaan | támeen | suna shan | |
3f | yaktubna | ttafgent |
Widespread (though not universal) features of the Afroasiatic languages include:
- A set of emphatic consonants, variously realized as glottalized, pharyngealized, or implosive.
- VSO typology with SVO tendencies.
- A two-gender system in the singular, with the feminine marked by the sound /t/.
- All Afroasiatic subfamilies show evidence of a causative affix s.
- Semitic, Berber, Cushitic (including Beja), and Chadic support possessive suffixes.
- Morphology in which words inflect by changes within the root (vowel changes or gemination) as well as with prefixes and suffixes.
One of the most remarkable shared features among the Afroasiatic languages is the prefixing verb conjugation (see table above), with a distinctive pattern of prefixes beginning with /ʔ t n y/, and in particular a pattern whereby third-singular masculine /y-/ is opposed to third-singular feminine and second-singular /t-/.
Tonal languages appear in the Omotic, Chadic, and Cushitic branches of Afroasiatic, according to Ehret (1996). The Semitic, Berber, and Egyptian branches do not use tones phonemically.
Read more about this topic: Afroasiatic Languages
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