An Unexpected Co-occurrence Restriction on Syriac Root Consonants

Abstract

Abstract The aim of this paper is to highlight an unexpected, and so far, unidentified, root consonants incompatibility in Syriac. It is generally admitted that Semitic radical w and y can combine freely with any other radical consonant. This is indeed mostly the case in Syriac. However, as I shall demonstrate, final radical w is subject to a dissimilatory constraint: it cannot follow a homorganic medial root consonant, viz. labial p, b, m and velar k, g, q. Syriac semi-vowels phonology is blurred by several processes (both synchronic and diachronic) that neutralize the opposition between w and y in favor of y. In order to demonstrate the regularity of the incompatibility of final radical w with preceding homorganic medial radicals, exhaustive examination of the III-w roots is consequently carried out.