REVIEW ARTICLE - Hamito-Semitic Etymological Dictionary: Materials for a Reconstruction (see abstract of review)

A review of Vladimir E. Orel & Olga V. Stolbova's Hamito-Semitic Etymological Dictionary: Materials for a Reconstruction (Leiden: Brill, 1995). Comparison of this work to Hamito-Semitic (Afroasiatic) reconstructions by Igor M. Diakonoff et al (1993) shows differing etymologies proposed for...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Anthropological linguistics 1996-10, Vol.38 (3), p.550-556
Main Authors: Greenberg, Joseph H (Review of: Orel, Vladimir E, Stolbova, Olga V)
Format: Article
Language:English
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:A review of Vladimir E. Orel & Olga V. Stolbova's Hamito-Semitic Etymological Dictionary: Materials for a Reconstruction (Leiden: Brill, 1995). Comparison of this work to Hamito-Semitic (Afroasiatic) reconstructions by Igor M. Diakonoff et al (1993) shows differing etymologies proposed for the same linguistic stock due to differing assumptions & methodology, although stock membership & basic divisions are not disputed. Some divergence between the two works involves the posited proto-sound systems. For both the vowel & labial consonant inventories, Orel & Stolbova tend to argue for asymmetrical configurations whereas Diakonoff maintains symmetry by including rare phonemes. Further distinctions arise from assumptions about the nature of the Afroasiatic root. Orel & Stolbova use lexical organization principles, but Diakonoff retains the traditional radical system. Other general sources of difference between etymological dictionaries of a single linguistic stock are noted to include problems of inclusion, subgrouping, & semantic relationships. 9 References. L. Lucht
ISSN:0003-5483