Proto-Austronesian Hebrew/Grammar

Tri-letter Roots

PAH Grammar is very Semitic, generally deriving all words from bi-, tri-, or quadra-consonantal roots. Inflections occur through ablaut, prefixation, or suffixation, or a combination of such. Traditionally, Arabic studies give derivational patterns from √K-T-B, and in Hebrew studies from √P-'-L or √Q-T-L. Fujisaka-san, unaware of these precedents, used √M-Ŋ-K (PS √M-Š-K) as his paradigmatic root, and we will do the same. The root letters are written in capital letters, while the affixed letters are written in minuscule. For example, MaŊaKti could be applied to √S-T-N as SaTaNti.

What follows are the noun derivational patters without case ending in their traditional Semitic form from √Q-T-L.

Monosyllabic

• q

Disyllabic

• qat, qit, qut
• qāt, qīt, qūt
• qayt, qawt
• qatt, qitt, qutt
• qatqat, qatqūt, qutqut, qatāqit

Trisyllabic

• qatal, qatil, qatul, qital, qutul
• qatl, qitl, qutl
• qatāl, qatīl, qatūl, qitāl, qutāl, qutūl
• qātal, qātil, qawtil
• qattal, qattāl, qattīl, qattūl, quttul
• qatlal, qatlāl, qatlīl, qatlul, qatlūl, qutlal, qatilal
• qataltal, qataltūl, qatiltīl

Prefixing

• 'aqtal, 'iqtal
• yaqtūl, yaqtal
• š/s...?
• maqtal, maqtil, maqtīl, maqtūl, miqtāl
• taqtal, taqtil, taqtūl

Suffixing

• qatlān, qitlān, qutlān, qatalān, maqtalān

Case

In English, roles of nouns are communicated by word order. In other languages (such as Greek or Latin), words have their endings changed to show this function, which is called "case." PAH nouns, adjectives, and verbal nouns inflect for case.

The PAH cases are Direct, Genitive, and Indirect, with Ergative being a quasi-case. Something with all three cases clearly distinguished is said to be triptotic. In many instances, only two cases are visible. Such a paradigm is 'diptotic'. In these instances, the cases are called Direct and Oblique. In a few places, forms are indeclinable or lack distinguishing forms. Those are called monoptotic.

Direct

The Austronesian Direct case corresponded to the Nominative case in the Middle East. This was used for the subject of clause or predicative nominative. If a predicative nominative has ハッ, then it is superlative.

Often, a topic-comment structure can be achieved by 'fronting' a topic in the direct case at the head of a clause, and then proceeding in normal VSO order, only to refer back o the topic with a resumptive pronoun. "Your god, (y'all) do not serve him with war."

Nouns in the direct case with the ヒㇴ- prefix are said to be in an ergative' relationship or case.

Genitive

Prepositions require nouns in the Genitive/Oblique case.

Genitives can be subjective, objective, possessive, material, attributive, appositional, explicative, resultive, purposeful, agentive, means, epexegetical, measure, or number.

Indirect

The old Hebrew Accusative is for the direct object, adverbial, the product, material, positional, separative, durational, or temporal-point. The Semitic accusative case became the PAH indirect, and the PH definite direct object marker אֵת/'eθ became the prefix タ/ta for definite common nouns

State

State only exists in Semitic language, and means "is a word followed by 'of' or not." State may be either construct or absolute. (There is a third - called the pronominal state, but an overwhelming majority of the time it is the same as the construct, and will only be pointed out when different from such.)

Often, series of nouns are found in a "construct chain", e.g. the sons of the men of valor. All the nouns in the chain match the last in case, and only the last is in the absolute state: the rest will all be in the construct. Definiteness markers must go on the last word of the chain. Case is only observable on the absolute state. Plurality can be marked on the head or the dependent.

As in all Semitic language, infinitive forms of verbs are said to be in either absolute or construct states. The infinitive absolute generally functions like an adverb. If it precedes the finite verb, it intensifies it, usually translated "certainly". If it follows the verb, it typically means "continually".

Gender

PAH preserved its two-gender system intact. Tagalog also has two genders. Gender must be mark on nouns and verbs in the third and second person. Human and animal sex generally map onto the grammatical genders. Concrete nouns and occupations are typically masculine, while abstract nouns are often feminine. Body parts are feminine, as are countries and cities (but not their occupants). Participles agree with the noun they modify in gender and case.

Number

PAH inflects for three numbers: Singular, Dual, and Plural. It shows none of the signs of dual fading from use, unlike Palestinian and Tiberian Hebrew. In fact, there are no attested dual uses of the personal pronouns in early Northwest-Semitic languages, but PAH regularly employed them.

Singular

The singular number was used for a single item (マㇿク/malku 'a king') or a collective. Most collectives were feminine. Some nouns are both singular and collective (エス゚/'͏ecu - 'a tree' or 'a group of trees'). A singular collective noun takes a plural verb.

Dual

The dual is used on nouns, adjectives, and verbs for things that come in pairs (hands, ears, shoes, etc.) Such objects stay in the dual even when there are more than two of them, with an adjectival number indicating the total number of items (not the number of pairs). The dual is also used for things that don't automatically come in twos, but there are simply two of them in this instance.

The dual is also used to refer to a single honorable or fearful object or person. This is the honorific dual, the dual of majesty, the dual of excellence, dual of intensity, or the royal dual. Words that modify such uses are typically singular, both adjectives and verbs.

The dual is used to indicate natural composition. 'first dusts of the world' (Pro 8:26) would be rendered in English 'the first dust of the world.' Similarly, objects of complexity (faces, necks, sky, ocean) are always in the dual and take verbs in the dual also.

Plural

The plural is used when there are three or more of something. Many abstract nouns are in the plural (and most are masculine). Unnatural composition is indicated in the plural. 'Blood' refers to that in the body, while 'bloods' means outside the body.

Definiteness

Nouns in the direct case are always definite. Personal nouns need no prefix, but common nouns in the direct case must marked with ハッ, which used to be the definite article in PH. Nouns in the indirect case may be definite or indefinite. Definiteness is marked with the prefix タ.

Words with pronominal suffixes are definite without any external marker. Definite markers may be attached for anaphoric meaning without definiteness.

Tense-Aspect-Mood

PAH verbs inflect for person, number, aspect, and voice/trigger. Persons are First, Second, and Third. Numbers are Singular, Dual, and Plural. Aspects are Completed (Perfective), Progressive (Imperfective), Contemplative (Jussive), and Cohortative/Imperative. Voices/Triggers are Actor, Object, Local, and Benefactive.

Voice

Austronesian morphosyntactic alignment

also called 'trigger'

The voices are used to indicate what the verb "expects" to be in the Direct Case. The Actor Voice means the subject of an intransitive verb or the agent in a transitive verb clause should be in the direct case, while the patient of the transitive verb should be in the accusative case. The Object Voice means the subject of an intransitive verb or object of a transitive verb should be in the direct case, while the agent of a transitive verb should be in the ergative case. The Local Voice cannot be used to express the subject of an intransitive verb, while the location or time of a transitive verb is expressed in the direct case. (The agent and patient may be expressed in the ergative and accusative cases respectively.) The Benefactive case also cannot be used to express the subject of an intransitive verb, while beneficiary or instrument of a transitive verb is expected in the direct case. (Again, the ergative and accusative cases may be added.)

Reduplication

Full reduplications of the nouns indicated distribution (day after day, any man), emphasis (gold gold = pure gold, peace peace = complete peace), or endearment. On verbs it means certainty or continuity.