Semitic Languages Research Articles

Emerging Roots: Investigating Early Access to Meaning in Maltese Auditory Word Recognition.

In Semitic languages, the consonantal root is central to morphology, linking form and meaning. While psycholinguistic studies highlight its importance in language processing, the role of meaning in early lexical access and its representation remain unclear. This study investigates when meaning becomes accessible during the processing of Maltese verb forms, using a computational model based on the Discriminative Lexicon framework. Our model effectively comprehends and produces Maltese verbs, while also predicting response times in a masked auditory priming experiment. Results show that meaning is accessible early in lexical access and becomes more prominent after the target word is fully processed. This suggests that semantic information plays a critical role from the initial stages of lexical access, refining our understanding of real-time language comprehension. Our findings contribute to theories of lexical access and offer valuable insights for designing priming studies in psycholinguistics. Additionally, this study demonstrates the potential of computational models in investigating the relationship between form and meaning in languageprocessing.

“Initial-a-final”, Luwian low vowels, and language contact in the Syro-Anatolian world

Abstract The Anatolian hieroglyphic inventory features two phonetic signs conventionally translated as “a”: 〈a〉 = L. 450 and 〈a〉 = L. 19. Their distribution has eluded explanation due to the complicated conventions governing the use of the 〈a〉 sign, which can be placed at the end of a word (“initial-a-final”), replaced with 〈a〉 (“a-substitution”), or deleted (“a-deletion”). Some words also regularly change between 〈a〉 and 〈a〉 within their paradigm. Based on a more refined understanding of these conventions, which vary by period and location, and comparison with data from the closely related Lycian language and Luwian names in Greek transmission, it will be suggested that 〈a〉 and 〈a〉 corresponded to the low vowels /a/ and /ɑ/ respectively. It will be argued that distinction between the two vowels in Luwian ultimately arose from the Proto-Anatolian contrast between the short and long non-high vowels, but also in some instances from the Luwic umlaut (mostly anticipatory backing of /a/ to /ɑ/). New evidence is also put forth that the vowel system of some dialects of Late Luwian underwent a change due to contact with Semitic languages. This resulted in an orthographic reform beginning in the late 9th century BC, which has practical implications for the dating of certain inscriptions.

The Pedagogical Tipiṭaka: OER & the Three Baskets of Ancient Language Instruction

Ancient languages present a unique teaching challenge: for spoken languages, common pedagogy recommends engaging students via dialogue; for ancient languages, no speakers survive with whom to practise. This paper highlights how the Linguistics Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin has approached this challenge by creating the Early Indo-European OnLine (EIEOL) collection, an online educational resource whose lesson series present early languages directly through original, unsimplified ancient texts. Currently accessed by over 20,000 users per month, EIEOL spans 18 languages, from Greek and Latin to Old Church Slavonic, Sanskrit, and other important languages of ancient Asia such as Hittite, Classical Armenian, Avestan, and Tocharian. Each series presents extensively annotated excerpts of original texts in the target language, with accompanying modules explaining grammar and context. The text-centred approach affords learners a direct path to understanding that suits a variety of experience levels and minimises the conceptual grammatical apparatus necessary to begin interpreting original texts. This format fosters theoretical flexibility, adaptable to different approaches and grammatical descriptions of ancient languages. It is also useful for languages whose grammatical structures have shifted dramatically over their history, like Tocharian, or remain hotly debated or under-described by experts. Finally, it facilitates applications to typologically diverse languages and language families, with early Mesoamerican, Semitic, and Sino-Tibetan language series already under development. The EIEOL infrastructure therefore provides a robust platform for free, text-centred, self-paced introductions to ancient languages from a variety of language families.

Aplikasi Edukasi Pengenalan Bahasa Arab Berbasis Augmented Reality Studi Kasus : Madrasah Ardhal-Haq

The field of education is witnessing rapid developments in information technology, with aug-mented reality (AR) emerging as a promising tool for multi-media learning, including Arabic language recognition. Among the Semitic language families, Arabic has the largest number of speakers. Arabic is the sentence that Arabs use to express their intentions and purposes. The form is in the form of hijaiyah letters that are used by Arabs for oral and written social interaction and communication. Madrasah diniyah takmiliyah ardal-haq is located on the main road of pematang moss, betara sub-district, West Tan-jung Jabung district, Jambi Province as one of the elementary schools, at the Ardhal-haq Madrasah, the way of delivering learning is still using simple methods, using books that do not have pictures. it is known that in general students and female students feel bored with Arabic language teaching offered by educational institutions, because students face challenges in understanding written language, including phonetics and syntax. The author chooses to use the MDLC (Multimedia Development Life Cycle) method to conduct research by creating Augmented Reality-based educational applications for Arabic language teaching. This method can be applied to system development in multimedia applications and its stages can be changed based on the research needs, which is why the author used it for system development. The purpose of this research is to facilitate the mastery of Arabic language by students and support instructors of Ardhal-Haq Madrasah in their classroom teaching. With this research produces an Augmented Reality-based Arabic language introduction educational application.

HeLP: The Hebrew Lexicon project

Lexicon projects (LPs) are large-scale data resources in different languages that present behavioral results from visual word recognition tasks. Analyses using LP data in multiple languages provide evidence regarding cross-linguistic differences as well as similarities in visual word recognition. Here we present the first LP in a Semitic language—the Hebrew Lexicon Project (HeLP). HeLP assembled lexical decision (LD) responses to 10,000 Hebrew words and nonwords, and naming responses to a subset of 5000 Hebrew words. We used the large-scale HeLP data to estimate the impact of general predictors (lexicality, frequency, word length, orthographic neighborhood density), and Hebrew-specific predictors (Semitic structure, presence of clitics, phonological entropy) of visual word recognition performance. Our results revealed the typical effects of lexicality and frequency obtained in many languages, but more complex impact of word length and neighborhood density. Considering Hebrew-specific characteristics, HeLP data revealed better recognition of words with a Semitic structure than words that do not conform to it, and a drop in performance for words comprising clitics. These effects varied, however, across LD and naming tasks. Lastly, a significant inhibitory effect of phonological ambiguity was found in both naming and LD. The implications of these findings for understanding reading in a Semitic language are discussed.

The Origin of North Mesopotamian Arabic

This research paper explores the origin and distinct characteristics of the Noarth Mesopotamian Arabic dialect, specifically the Moslawi dialect spoken in Mosul, northern Iraq. The study begins with tracing the roots of the Arabic language within the Semitic language family tree and examines the emergence of Modern Arabic Dialects. It highlights Ferguson's theory that these dialects originated from a asimplified Koine as the most plausible explanation. The paper then delves into the Mesopotamian dialect group, detailing the division into qeltu and gelet varieties through bedouinization. The phonological and lexical uniqueness of Moslawi is analyzed, emphasizing the persistent use of the phoneme /q/ by Moslawi speakers and the systematic vowel-raising rule that differentiates it from other dialects. Extensive language contact, with Persian, Turkish, Hindi, Kurdish, and English, is also discussed, which explains the numerous borrowed words in Moslawi. This research underscores the complex historical and sociolinguistic factors contributing to the distinctiveness of the Moslawi dialect within the broader context of Arabic dialects.

A Note on the Translation of Ezra 4:12

Abstract This article provides a philological assessment of the statement in Ezra 4:12b and offers a new translation. We focus on the word יַחִיטוּ. We propose to construe the form as originally *יְחִיטוּ, G-stem prefixing conjugation of חיט, »to inspect«. In order to substantiate our proposal we refer to a series of cognates in Aramaic and other Semitic languages. Two newly edited Aramaic documents from Elephantine are mentioned, as well as texts from Bactria, passages from the Gilgamesh Epic, and the story on the Tower of Babylon.

Learning to Read in Hebrew and Arabic: Challenges and Pedagogical Approaches

Hebrew and Arabic are Semitic languages that use abjad alphabets, a consonant-primary writing system in which vowels are featured as optional diacritics. The relatively predictable morphology of Semitic language renders abjad writing feasible, with literate native speakers relying on grammatical and lexical familiarity to infer vowel sounds from consonantal texts. However, in the context of foreign language acquisition, abjads present unique difficulties in the attainment of literacy. Due to the absence of written vowels, learners of Hebrew and Arabic face manifold challenges, such as phonetic ambiguity, extensive homography, and morphological unpredictability. Therefore, the inherent complexities of abjad alphabets necessitate targeted pedagogical intervention to increase metalinguistic awareness to strengthen learners’ reading skills—specifically, by recreating elements of literacy education for native speakers in the second language context. This article explores the linguistic challenges of abjads for foreign language students and how pedagogical methodologies can be optimized to ameliorate long-term learning outcomes.

The Gezer Inscription ʿṣd pšt ‘Bundling Flax’: Revising the Arabic Cognate Etymology

Abstract This article is dedicated to one of the main lexical cruxes of the Gezer tablet, the expression ʿṣd pšt in the third line of the inscription. I follow the longstanding understanding of the Gezer inscription, according to which pšt refers to flax. The primary innovation of the article lies in the re-evaluation of the cognate Arabic etymology. I argue that the cognate Arabic ʿḍd in both Classical and Modern Arabic does not signify ‘cutting’, as has been suggested in research thus far. Rather, it means ‘upper arm’. I then examine the Mishnaic Hebrew phrase פשתן חוצני ḥoṣne pištan ‘flax bundles’ (m. Pe’ah 6:5) which exhibits a semantic shift: ḥōṣɛn ‘bosom’ > ‘amount carried under bosom’ > ‘bundle’. Based on the revised Arabic ʿḍd ‘upper arm’ meaning, I propose a semantic parallel: the Gezer inscription’s verbal noun ʿṣd (< Proto- Semitic ‘upper arm’) has possibly experienced a semantic shift similar to that of חוצני פשתן ḥoṣne pištan ‘flax bundles’ in m. Pe’ah 6:5: ‘upper arm’ > ‘armful of produce’ > ‘bundle’. Accordingly, I suggest ʿṣd pšt means ‘bundling flax’. This suggestion offers a straightforward solution which clarifies etymological data from various Semitic languages, fits within the context of the Gezer inscription and finally resolves the agricultural ‘cutting’ flax difficulty.

Curious Case of the Vanished Coordinative Conjunction in Neo-Assyrian

While most Akkadian dialects use two coordinators, a phrase and clause level u= and a clause level =ma, in the Neo-Assyrian period both are mostly missing from native Assyrian texts. Not only is lack of overt coordination exceptional among the Semitic languages, cross-linguistically asyndeton is a rare strategy, only attested in languages with no writing tradition. In this paper, we will concentrate on u=. We sketch the various environments where u= is no longer used in Neo-Assyrian and consider what other strategies are used to mark coordination in this dialect. Finally, we propose a diachronic path to explain which processes contributed to the loss of the coordinator u=.

Hegel and the Hatäta Zär'a Ya‛ǝqob: Africa in the Philosophy of History and the History of Philosophy

Abstract This article explores an episode in the reception of Hegel's philosophy of history and historiography of philosophy with reference to the question of the possibility of non-Western philosophy, in particular African philosophy. Section I briefly outlines the contents of the Hatäta Zär'a Ya‛ǝqob and the controversy over its authorship, focusing in particular on the argument of the Ethiopianist and scholar of Semitic languages Carlo Conti Rossini that ‘rationalistic’ philosophy was impossible in Ethiopia. In section II I suggest that a major component of the intellectual background to this notion of the impossibility of philosophy in Africa can be traced to Hegel's philosophy of history. To substantiate this claim I begin by providing an account of the broader historiographical shift between 1780 and 1830, in which Africa and Asia came to be excluded from the history of philosophy, and I suggest that Hegel's philosophy of history was decisive in this process. I examine how Hegel's account of history as the realization and actualization of freedom goes together with the development of cultural production culminating in philosophy, and how both of these processes (if they are really separate processes at all), can be mapped onto particular historical-geographical populations and cultures. I suggest that, even though this was not Hegel's intention, by the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries this served as a cultural justification for political domination: those who are unfree are unfree because they are unthinking (unphilosophical), and those who are unthinking cannot be free. Finally in section III I connect this Hegelian conception to Conti Rossini's work, both his article on the Hatäta and as apologist for Italian imperialism. I conclude by reflecting on what this underexplored connection between Hegel and early twentieth-century theorists of culture might mean for attempts to construct global histories of philosophy.

The Verbal System of Baritle Neo-Aramaic

Abstract This paper presents a comprehensive study of verbal inflection in the Neo-Aramaic dialect of Baritle (northern Iraq). Similar to other Semitic languages, Baritle uses ‘root and pattern’ morphology and verb roots are generally triliteral. Whereas the core structures of the Baritle verb system align with those found in other North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic languages, Baritle exhibits distinctive variations in several noteworthy aspects. This study of the verbal inflection of Baritle identifies the inflections by number and type. It finds that the verb in Baritle has different functional categories indicating tense, aspect, and mood. It also finds that the verb has various bound pronominals representing the grammatical categories of person, number, and gender of its arguments. This paper documents an endangered language and contributes to the typology of the grammar of natural languages.

Verbs of movements in Hebrew, Arabic and Aramaic languages, a comparative study in Semitic languages

Verbs of movements in Hebrew, Arabic and Aramaic languages, a comparative study in Semitic languages

Investigating Syntactic and Morphological Differences in the Written Productions of Turkish Learners Based on the Learning Context

Purpose: The aim of this study is to investigate the potential impact of the learning context on learners’ written production. Comparing the syntactic and morphological errors, the study tries to find out whether there are differences between written language productions of learners learning Turkish in Turkey and the ones outside the target community. Design/Methodology/Approach: Following descriptive research method, the study adopted qualitative design through systematic content analysis to analyse the data gathered from 78 learners of Turkish at A2 proficiency level, in Turkey (N=42) and outside of Turkey (N=36). The statistical analyses were then carried out to identify the ratios and the categorical distributions of errors determined through error analysis. Findings: The results reveal that learning a language in the target context impacts writing performances significantly at syntactic and morphological level. Based on the findings, instructional implications are provided to enhance effective language input. Highlights: Writing, an important and functional skill in multiple domains, is one of the most challenging skills to master and requires receive sufficient and meaningful authentic language input. As Turkish possesses distinct characteristics compared to Germanic or Semitic Languages, learners of Turkish have additional challenges at language production level. Learners of Turkish display significant differences in the types of syntactic and morphological errors in their writing depending on their learning contexts. The learning context has impacts on the writing productions of learners. The results suggest that educators and program developers in the field of Turkish Language teaching need to consider the role of the context in learning a foreign language while incorporating the special linguistic characteristics of Turkish in designing their teaching programs, materials and lessons.

AI-Generated Text Detector for Arabic Language Using Encoder-Based Transformer Architecture

The effectiveness of existing AI detectors is notably hampered when processing Arabic texts. This study introduces a novel AI text classifier designed specifically for Arabic, tackling the distinct challenges inherent in processing this language. A particular focus is placed on accurately recognizing human-written texts (HWTs), an area where existing AI detectors have demonstrated significant limitations. To achieve this goal, this paper utilized and fine-tuned two Transformer-based models, AraELECTRA and XLM-R, by training them on two distinct datasets: a large dataset comprising 43,958 examples and a custom dataset with 3078 examples that contain HWT and AI-generated texts (AIGTs) from various sources, including ChatGPT 3.5, ChatGPT-4, and BARD. The proposed architecture is adaptable to any language, but this work evaluates these models’ efficiency in recognizing HWTs versus AIGTs in Arabic as an example of Semitic languages. The performance of the proposed models has been compared against the two prominent existing AI detectors, GPTZero and OpenAI Text Classifier, particularly on the AIRABIC benchmark dataset. The results reveal that the proposed classifiers outperform both GPTZero and OpenAI Text Classifier with 81% accuracy compared to 63% and 50% for GPTZero and OpenAI Text Classifier, respectively. Furthermore, integrating a Dediacritization Layer prior to the classification model demonstrated a significant enhancement in the detection accuracy of both HWTs and AIGTs. This Dediacritization step markedly improved the classification accuracy, elevating it from 81% to as high as 99% and, in some instances, even achieving 100%.

Nouns Denoting Closed and Open Places: An Etymological Study in the Semitic Languages

يهدفُ البحثُ إلى تقصي الأسماءِ الدّالةِ على المكانِ في العربيّةِ وشقيقاتِها السّاميّاتِ، والكشفِ عن أصولِها اللّغويّةِ وتطوّرِها الدّلاليّ عبر العصورِ. وقد حاول أن يسلّطَ الضّوءَ على هذه الألفاظِ، فجاءَ الحديثُ عنها بالتّفصيلِ، وذلك بتأصيلِها في اللّغةِ العربيّةِ، وبيانِ ورودها في المعجمِ والقرآنِ الكريمِ والشّعرِ العربيّ، ثمّ تتبّعتُ ورودَها في شقيقاتِ العربيّةِ بدءًا باللّغةِ الأقدمِ في التّدوينِ، وهي اللّغةُ الأكديّةُ الّتي تعودُ إلى (2500 ق.م) حتى اللّغةِ المندائيّةِ الّتي تعود إلى (400م). اقتضت طبيعةُ البحثِ أن يأتي في مقدّمة، ودراسة للألفاظ، ومن أبرزِ ما توصل إليه البحثُ أنّ كلّ الألفاظِ الّتي تمَّ عرضُها ودراستُها، هي مشتركاتٌ لغويّةٌ بينَ اللّغاتِ الّساميّةِ، وهذا يؤكّدُ على أنّ هذه الألفاظَ من الموروثِ السّاميّ القديمِ في هذه الأرومةِ، كما أكّدت الدّراسةُ على تقاربِ هذه الألفاظِ في الأصولِ والدّلالاتِ.

The Auxiliary Verb in Contemporary Jordanian Arabic: A Historical Descriptive Study

Objectives: The present study proceeds from the idea that many of the contemporary Arabic phenomena that modern linguists experience are linguistic phenomena that existed in classical Arabic or ancient Semitic languages. This study, therefore, has argued that the hypothesis stating Arabic is different from Indo-European languages in not considering the auxiliary verb in its structure is inaccurate. Furthermore, the idea that syntactic structure contains auxiliary verbs as a native construction transmitted to Arabic through translation is hasty. Methods: The study set itself an approach to prove this theory by describing the auxiliary verb in contemporary Arabic, focused on the Jordanian dialect and more specifically on the two auxiliary verbs ﻛﺎﻥ 'was' and ﻗﻌﺪ 'sit.' It also provided evidence from classical Arabic as Quran, poetry, and Semitic languages. Conclusions: The study concluded that the two auxiliary verbs ﻛﺎﻥ 'was' and ﻗﻌﺪ 'sit' have their roots in classical Arabic and Semitic languages.

A Short Aramaic Epigraphic Miscellany from Al-A‘ērḍiyyeh—Northwest Arabia Revisited

This contribution deals with a short Aramaic graffito discovered on a rock facade at al-A‘ērḍiyyeh within the al-Masmā mountain range, which lies between Taymā’ and Ḥa’il in the north of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The text is transcribed, and its words and names are explained linguistically and etymologically within the framework of the Semitic languages. A glimpse on the introduction of Aramaic into the Ancient North Arabia is presented.

MedLingua: A conceptual framework for a multilingual medical conversational agent

This study introduces a hybrid model for an advanced medical chatbot addressing crucial healthcare communication challenges. Leveraging a hybrid ML model, the chatbot aims to provide accurate and prompt responses to users' health-related queries. The proposed model will overcome limitations observed in previous medical chatbots by integrating a dual-stemming approach, P-Stemmer and NLTK-Stemmer, accommodating both semitic and non-semitic languages. The system prioritizes the analysis of cognates, identification of symptoms, doctor recommendations, and prescription generation. It integrates an automatic translation module to facilitate a smooth multilingual diagnostic experience. Following the Scrum methodology for agile development, the framework ensures adaptability to evolving research needs and stays current with recent medical discoveries. This groundbreaking idea aims to improve the effectiveness and availability of healthcare services by introducing an intelligent, multilingual chatbot. This technology enables patients to communicate with doctors from diverse linguistic backgrounds through an automated language translation model, eliminating language barriers and extending healthcare access to rural regions worldwide.•A simple but efficient hybrid conceptual model for advancement in smart medical assistance.•This conceptual model can be applied to implement a medical chatbot that can understand multiple languages.•This method can be utilized to address medical chatbot limitations and enhance accuracy in response generation.

The symptoms of surface dyslexia in Arabic: the impact of orthographic ambiguity on reading abilities of a patient with Alzheimer’s disease

ABSTRACT Like other Semitic languages, Arabic is known for its rich morphology and consonantal writing system. In this article, we report the first case of acquired surface dyslexia in an Arabic-speaking patient (HBS). Surface dyslexia is characterised by difficulty reading irregularly spelled words, while performance is better with regular words and nonwords. The purpose of this study was to describe the symptoms of surface dyslexia in Arabic and to investigate how orthographic depth may affect reading in the context of semantic impairment. In HBS, who had Alzheimer’s disease, reading was impaired for both words and nonwords. Her reading performance was affected by orthographic ambiguity and by the presence of diacritics depicting short vowels. In particular, she produced mainly vowel errors, suggesting an overreliance on the sublexical route of reading. On the other hand, HBS was able to distinguish long vowels from consonants represented by the same letters, provided there was a real root. This finding can be taken as evidence that HBS could access the word’s root to decide whether the vowel letter represents a long vowel or a consonant. The results of this study suggest that the characteristics of surface dyslexia appear to be universal: reading regular words is spared compared to irregular words and non-words. However, the error patterns that HBS showed in reading support a language-specific conceptualisation of the processing components of the lexical and sublexical routes of reading.