Talk:Central Semitic languages

Glottochronology.
Do reliable glottochronology works exist on the time of divergence of Central Semitic languages? СЛУЖБА (talk) 23:15, 28 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Some would say that the words "reliable" and "glottochronology" don't go well together... AnonMoos (talk) 15:30, 4 July 2015 (UTC)

Emphatic consonants as pharyngealized, not ejective
The evidence for this in the Canaanite languages is pretty weak, and I doubt whether there's a scholarly consensus for it there. AnonMoos (talk) 15:30, 4 July 2015 (UTC)
 * It does not seem 100% watertight, no. If you can find refs arguing otherwise, go ahead and add 'em in. -- Trɔpʏliʊm • blah 18:28, 22 August 2015 (UTC)

Modern Arabic is not in the same family as Old Arabic?
"The Central Semitic languages are a proposed intermediate group of Semitic languages, comprising the Late Iron Age, modern dialect of Arabic (prior to which Arabic was a Southern Semitic language[clarification needed]), and older Bronze Age Northwest Semitic languages (which include Aramaic, Ugaritic, and the Canaanite languages of Hebrew and Phoenician)."

I don't get this. Does it mean that Arabic changed at one point in history from being southern Semitic to central Semitic? That doesn't make any sense. If a language is recognised as belonging to a language family, then all of its descendents should be in the same family.

I'm probably reading this wrong as the only explanation that I can find is that the article is trying to say that linguists used to classify Arabic as a southern Semitic language but now they classify it as a central one.

In any case, the wording of this paragraph is confusing and I think someone should rewrite it to make it less so, or if it was truly a case of a language changing family, then I think a citation is needed.ICanHelpYou (talk) 06:51, 1 July 2018 (UTC)


 * Maybe it's referring to the epigraphic "Old South Arabian" languages, which were very different from Classical Arabic of Muhammad... AnonMoos (talk) 22:30, 4 July 2018 (UTC)