Isn't wāw conversive found in other than North semitic languages?

Authors

  • Jalal Abdullah Mohamed Saif Al Hammadi Taiz University- Republic of Yemen

Keywords:

wāw of conversive, semitic languages, ancestral, comparison

Abstract

     This study deals with one feature of the Semitic language, namely wāw conversive or wāw consecutive, which changes present tense to the past tense and vice versa. The study does not aim to investigate this feature of Semitic languages since it has been extensively investigated in several studies. The main objective of study is to examine the validity of the common point view that limits the existence of ‘waw conversive’  to the Semitic languages of the North (i.e., eastern west) in the context of less common second point of view that opposes the former point of view, claiming the existence of this feature outside of northern Semitic languages and considering waw conversive one of the main feature of the Semitic languages.

     Based on scientific evidence, the study found that the second point of view was the correct one. The study presented systematized point of view of the waw conversive in Semitic languages that states waw conversive exists in the proto- Semitic languages and then becomes a common linguistic feature in the other Semitic languages.

Author Biography

Jalal Abdullah Mohamed Saif Al Hammadi, Taiz University- Republic of Yemen

Associate Professor Linguistics at Taiz University- Republic of Yemen

Published

2022-07-30