III.

Characteristics

In Semitic languages, words are typically based on a series of three consonants; this series, called the root, carries the basic meaning. Superimposed on the root is a pattern of vowels (or vowels and consonants) that signifies variations in the basic meaning or that serves as an inflection (such as for verb tense and number). For example, in Arabic the root ktb refers to writing, and the vowel pattern -ā-i- implies “one who does something”; thus, kātib means “one who writes”. Other derivatives of the same root include kitāb, “book”; maktub, “letter”; and kataba, “he wrote”. The close relationship of the Semitic languages to one another can be seen in the persistence of the same roots from one language to another (slm, for example, means “peace” in Assyro-Babylonian, Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and other languages). In Semitic languages, related consonants typically fall into three subtypes: voiced, unvoiced, and emphatic; an example is the series transliterated g, k, and q from Arabic and Hebrew (the q is pronounced farther back in the throat than k).