Reconstruction:Proto-Semitic/lV-

This Proto-Semitic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Semitic

Etymology

From Proto-Afroasiatic. Compare Egyptian n, Proto-Berber *n (whence Central Atlas Tamazight ⵏ (n) and Kabyle n), Somali -lá (“with, in company with”) and -leh (“with, owning”).

Preposition

*lV-

1. for, to

Reconstruction notes

Though this entry is notated with the symbol for an unspecified vowel, ⟨V⟩, in this case it does not mean the vowel is indeterminate. Rather, both *li- and *la- existed in opposition and became conflated to various degrees in the descendants, such that it is most parsimonious to unify them under one headword. The same is the case for *bV-.

Descendants

• East Semitic:
  • (fossiziled) ⇒ Akkadian: lapān (“before”)
• West Semitic:
  • Central Semitic:
    • Arabic: لِـ (li-), before pronominal suffixes لَـ (la-), with other distributions in dialects
    • Northwest Semitic:
      • Aramaic:

        Old Aramaic: 𐤋

        Imperial Aramaic: 𐡋 (l)

        Biblical Aramaic: ל־

        Jewish Palestinian Aramaic: ל־

        Christian Palestinian Aramaic: ܠ

        Jewish Literary Aramaic: ל־

        Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: ל־

        • Classical Syriac: ܠ-
      • Canaanite:
        • Hebrew: לְ־, ל־, לִ־, לַ־, לֶ־, לָ־ (lə-, l-, li-, la-, le-, lā-), אֶל (ʾel) (wholly or only its second half)
        • Phoenician: 𐤀𐤋 (ʾl) (wholly or only its second half)
      • Ugaritic: 𐎍 (l /⁠le⁠/)
      • → Akkadian: la
    • Old South Arabian:
      • Hadrami: -𐩡 (-l)
      • Minaean: -𐩡 (-l)
      • Qatabanian: -𐩡 (-l)
      • Sabaean: -𐩡 (-l)
  • Modern South Arabian:
    • Mehri: l-
    • Shehri: l-
    • Soqotri: le (“distributive”)
  • Ethiopian Semitic:
    • North Ethiopian Semitic:
      • Ge'ez: ለ- (lä-)
      • Tigre: እል (ʾəl) and fused in ለዐል (läʿäl, “above”)
      • Tigrinya: ል- (lə-) (dialectal), -ል (-l), fused in ላዕሊ (laʿli, “above”)
    • South Ethiopian Semitic:
      • Amharic: ለ- (lä-)
      • Harari: -ሌ (-le, postposition)

References

• Bravmann, Meïr Max (1977) “Expressions based on the noun yawm- ‘day’”, in Studies in Semitic Philology (Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics; 6), Leiden: E. J. Brill, →ISBN, page 390