If yim is a Hebrew innovation, why does Arabic have it too? Or atleast it
has alot of "yim"'s in it. or 'im's. I haven't analysed it to learn if
that is the way to make a plural.
I meant only that the regular -yim suffix on the words for "water" and
"sky" is a Hebrew innovation. These are not of course true plurals. Here
are the forms in some other Semitic languages (taken from Patrick
Bennett "Comparative Semitic Linguistics" with a simplified
transcription), covering every known major branch of the Semitic family:
Akkadian: shamu, mu
Ugaritic: shamuma, my
Phoenician: shmm, mym
Achaemenid Aramaic: shmin, myn
Syriac: shmayya, mayya
Classical Arabic: sama', ma'
Ge`ez (Ethiopic): samay, may
Sabaean: shmy, mw
Jibbali: sieh (with a nasalised e), mih
Aramaic and Phoenician also show the plural suffix, but the other forms
do not. This suggests that the innovation is a bit more widespread than
just Hebrew, but still localised to a small part of NW Semitic.
--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work) http://www.qaya.org/