The Unity of Hamito-Semitic and Sumerian Language Families
A comparative study of their sound, lexical and grammatical systems
El Rabih Makki
Lebanese University
The aim of the present research is to conclusively demonstrate a genetic relationship between Sumerian and Hamito-Semitic language families. Sumerian is a language with a relatively few roots but very numerous compound and complex words. Hence, its basic lexical unit is the compound and complex words rather than the individual word. The findings of this research show clearly that both families have in common nearly all indispensible grammatical elements and roots as well as compound and complex words. This is, however, not all. The constituent elements forming Sumerian compound and complex words are also Hamito-Semitic. The research pays attention to Sumerian polysemes to check whether they have the same historical origin and brings out many linguistic phenomena found in Sumerian and explain them. Moreover, it re-examines the typological classification of languages, and the hard evidence presented from world’s language families suggests a drastic revision of it.
The incredible similarities between Sumerian and Hamito-Semitic on all levels of structure can neither be due to chance nor to borrowing. The only plausible explanation is a common source in which such similarities are found.
ISBN 9783862887972 (Hardbound). LINCOM Etymologial Studies 07. 282pp. 2017.
