Abstract
This paper investigates the Arabic origins of Basque and Finnish pronouns mainly and Basque verbs to be/have secondarily from a Radical Linguistic Theory perspective, a slightly revised version of Lexical Root Theory. The data consists of personal and demonstrative pronouns in Finnish and Basque in the main and verbs to be/have in the latter. The results show that Finnish and Basque pronouns have true Arabic cognates, with the same or similar forms and meanings. Their formal differences, however, result from natural and plausible causes and different courses of linguistic change. For example, Basque ni 'I', Finnish mina/mä ‘I', and Arabic ana (ani, inni) 'I' are identical cognates, in the second of which /m/ split from /n/; Finnish sina/Te'you' come from Arabic anta/-ta 'you' via reversal and turning /t/ into /s/; similarly, Basque zu 'you' is derived from Arabic -ta/-ka (iaka) 'you (nom./acc.) where /k/ became /z/, which compares very easily with Old English ge 'you' and German Sie 'you'; Finnish reflexive itse 'self' is from Arabic dhaat(i) 'myself' via reordering and replacing /dh/ by /s/. Third person pronouns in both languages are originally demonstrative pronouns, which is similar to what happens in English and Indo-European languages and Chinese as well, all of which come from Arabic dha/ti 'this'. Similarly, all Basque verbs to be/havehave true and identical Arabic (and English, German, Latin) cognates. As a consequence, the results indicate, contrary to Comparative Method claims, that Arabic, Basque and Finnish are genetically related, leading to the postulation of a single, perfect, sudden world language, which may be called Radical or Root Language, from which all human languages descended. The Radical Language could not have died out at all but has instead survived into modern languages, having been preserved almost intact in Arabic. They, therefore, prove the adequacy of the radical linguistic or lexical root theory according to which Arabic, Basque, and Finnish are genetically related besides English, German, French, Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, and Mandarin Chinese which have already been found to be dialects of the same language with Arabic being their origin all because of its phonetic capacity or complexity, huge lexical variety and multiplicity, and linguistic permanence or sustainability.
Highlights
The radical linguistic theory is a revised and extended version of the lexical root theory (Jassem 2012a-f, 2013aq, 2014a-h) which originally derives its name from the use of lexical roots or radicals in retracing genetic relationships between words in world languages
The main focus of the results will be on the Arabic lexical radicals or roots of Basque and Finnish pronouns in both the standard and the dialects
It is cognate to English mine and most of the socalled Indo-European languages like German mein/mich, Latin me, and French mein/moi (Jassem 2013d, 2013l, 2014h)
Summary
The radical linguistic theory is a revised and extended version of the lexical root theory (Jassem 2012a-f, 2013aq, 2014a-h) which originally derives its name from the use of lexical (consonantal) roots or radicals in retracing genetic relationships between words in world languages It first emerged as a rejection of the Comparative (Historical Linguistics) Method or Family Tree Model for classifying Arabic as a member of a different language family from English, German, French, and all (Indo-)European languages in general (Bergs and Brinton 2012; Algeo 2010; Crystal 2010: 302; Campbell 2004: 190-191; Yule 2006; Crowley 1997: 22-25, 110-111; Pyles and Algeo 1993: 61-94). In all such studies, Arabic, English, German, and French words, for example, were true cognates with similar or identical forms and meanings, whose differences are due to natural and plausible causes and diverse courses of linguistic change
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have