Reconstruction:Proto-Semitic/warḫ-

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

Compare Egyptian jꜥḥ, Hausa wata and Proto-Berber *a-ʔyur.

Noun

*warḫ- m

1. moon
2. month

Inflection

Declension of *warḫ-

case	singular	dual	plural
nominative	*warḫum	*warḫāna	plural stem + *-ūna
accusative	*warḫam	*warḫayna	plural stem + *-īna
genitive	*warḫim
possessive forms
1st person	*warḫī / *warḫVya	—	*warḫVni
2nd person m	*warḫVka	*warḫVkumā / *warḫVkumay	*warḫVkum(ū)
2nd person f	*warḫVki		*warḫVkin(ā)
3rd person m	*warḫVšu	*warḫVšumā / *warḫVšumay	*warḫVšum(ū)
3rd person f	*warḫVša		*warḫVšin(ā)

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: *warḫuya for nom. case, *warḫiya for gen. case, *warḫaya for acc. case, etc.

Reconstruction notes

Huehnergard reconstructs this item as *wariḫ-, with the unbound form *wariḫum alternating with the bound form *warḫu. The semantic extension from "moon" to "month" is comparable to those of Proto-Indo-European *mḗh₁n̥s, Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s/ɡ-la, Proto-Mongolic *sara, Proto-Turkic *āy, Proto-Japonic *tukuy, Proto-South Dravidian *tinkaḷ, Proto-Austronesian *bulaN, Proto-Tai *ɓlɯənᴬ, Proto-Mon-Khmer *khəjʔ and Sumerian 𒌗 (itu, itud, iti, itid /⁠itud, itid⁠/) since the moon's orbital period was used for defining a month.

Descendants

• East Semitic:
  • Akkadian: 𒌚 (warḫum, “month”)
• West Semitic:
  • Central Semitic:
    • Safaitic: 𐪅𐪇𐪍 (wrẖ, “month”)
    • Northwest Semitic:
      • Aramaic:

        Imperial Aramaic: 𐡉𐡓𐡇𐡀 (yrḥʾ)

        • Western Middle Aramaic:

          Jewish Palestinian Aramaic: יְרַח (yrḥ /⁠yəraḥ⁠/, “moon”); יַרְחָא (yarḥā, “month”)

          Christian Palestinian Aramaic: ܝܪܚܐ (yrḥʾ, “moon; month”)

          Nabataean Aramaic: 𐢍𐢛𐢊 (yrḥ)

        • Eastern Middle Aramaic:

          Hatran Aramaic: 𐣩𐣣𐣧 (yrḥ)

          Palmyrene Aramaic: 𐡩𐡴𐡧 (yrḥ /⁠yraḥ⁠/, “moon”)

          Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: ירח (yrḥ /⁠yəraḥ⁠/, “moon”); ירחא (yarḥā, “month”)

        • Classical Mandaic: [script needed] (iahra, “moon”) (metathesized)
        • Classical Syriac: ܝܰܪܚܳܐ (yarḥāʾ, “month”)
        • Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܝܲܪܚܵܐ (yarḥā)
      • Canaanite:
        • Hebrew: יָרֵחַ (yaréakh, yārḗaḥ)
        • Phoenician: 𐤉𐤓𐤇 (yrḥ, “moon”)
          • Punic: 𐤉𐤓𐤇 (yrḥ)
      • Ugaritic: 𐎊𐎗𐎃 (yrḫ /⁠yarḫu⁠/, “moon, month”)
    • Old South Arabian:
      • Old South Arabian: 𐩥𐩧𐩭 (wrḫ)
        • Arabic:
          • >? Arabic: تَارِيخ (tārīḵ, “date, history”) (see there for further descendants)
  • Ethiopian Semitic:
    • North Ethiopian:
      • Ge'ez: ወርኅ (wärḫ)
      • Tigrinya: ወርሒ (wärḥi, “month”); ዋርሒ (warḥi, “moon”)
      • Tigre: ወርሕ (wärəḥ)
    • South Ethiopian:
      • Amharic–Argobba:
        • Amharic: ወር (wär, “month”)
        • Argobba: ወርሕ (wärəḥ)
      • Gurage: ወር (wär)
      • Harari: ወርሒ (wärḥi), ዋርሒ (warḥi)
  • Modern South Arabian:
    • Mehri: warḫ (“month”)
    • Shehri: ɔ́rx, írəx (“month”)
    • >? Shehri: ʾɛrə́t (“moon”)
    • >? Soqotri: ʾére (“moon”) – if not instead cognate to Hebrew אוֹר (ʾôr, “light”), Akkadian 𒌓𒁕 (urrum, “light; daylight, shining after a period of darkness”), or to Arabic شَهْر (šahr, “month”)

References

• Kogan, Leonid (2015) Genealogical Classification of Semitic. The Lexical Isoglosses, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN
• Huehnergard, John (2019) “Proto-Semitic”, in Huehnergard, John and Na'ama Pat-El, editors, The Semitic Languages, 2nd edition, Routledge, →ISBN