Reconstruction:Proto-Semitic/ṣ́arrat-
Proto-Semitic
[edit]Etymology
[edit]The term is not to be separated from the root’s ض ر ر (ḍ-r-r) meaning of “necessity”, the thought being that it was obligatory to take a woman as a wife under particular circumstances, namely when a married brother died without leaving issue, soon also after the root that the family suffered “damage”, which predicament of ill fate is the actual reason why the term bears a faint negative connotation to this day in Arabic, senses of “hostility” or “enmity” leading to the idea of a rival wife not having developed unlike in Ethiopian Semitic and Old South Arabian where they prevail.
Noun
[edit]*ṣ́arrat- f
Inflection
[edit]Case | Singular | Dual | Plural | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nominative | *ṣ́arratum | *ṣ́arratāna | *ṣ́arrātum | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Genitive | *ṣ́arratim | *ṣ́arratayna | *ṣ́arrātim | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Accusative | *ṣ́arratam | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
possessive forms | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1st person | *ṣ́arratī / *ṣ́arratVya | — | *ṣ́arratVni | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2nd person m | *ṣ́arratVka | *ṣ́arratVkumā / *ṣ́arratVkumay | *ṣ́arratVkum(ū) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2nd person f | *ṣ́arratVki | *ṣ́arratVkin(ā) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
3rd person m | *ṣ́arratVšu | *ṣ́arratVšumā / *ṣ́arratVšumay | *ṣ́arratVšum(ū) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
3rd person f | *ṣ́arratVša | *ṣ́arratVšin(ā) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Note: the endings -m and -na are dropped in the bound form, which may also undergo syncopation of an unstressed final vowel where possible.
Note: the ending -V before the possessive endings responds to case: *ṣ́arratuya for nom. case, *ṣ́arratiya for gen. case, *ṣ́arrataya for acc. case, etc. Declension of 2sg m. possessive form (your/thy m.) *ṣ́arrat-
Declension of 2sg f. possessive form (your/thy f.) *ṣ́arrat-
|
Descendants
[edit]- East Semitic:
- Akkadian: 𒁮𒋰𒁀 (ṣerretum)
- West Semitic:
References
[edit]- Lagarde, Paul de (1882) “צרה”, in Nachrichten von der Königlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen[1], number 13, pages 393–408
- Leslau, Wolf (1991) Comparative Dictionary of Geʿez (Classical Ethiopic), 2nd edition, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, →ISBN, page 152b, groups the terms under the misleading gloss “rival wife”, seeing the Geʿez root exclusively bearing senses of foeship.