Rhotic phonemes in Semitic languages : the case of Classical Arabic and Biblical Hebrew

Abstract

Classical Arabic and Biblical Hebrew represent two opposite directions of the development of Proto-Semitic phonological system. This also refers to the rhotic phonemes /r/ and /ġ/. The comparison of the situation of their respective allophones portrays a different fate of these phonemes in Semitic languages in general. The comparison is based mostly on the description provided by Semitic languages researchers, including the medieval Arabic grammarian Sibawayh. Additionally, it takes into consideration the results of a statistical analysis on the situation of the phoneme /ġ/ in Biblical Hebrew