Tisdagen den 11 november gästas vi av Eleanor Coghill, professor i semitiska språk vid Uppsala universitet, som håller en gästföreläsning med titeln: Developments in the root and pattern system in Semitic. Varmt välkomna!

Developments in the root and pattern system in Semitic
The Semitic language family is famous for its highly unusual root-and-pattern morphology, whereby word forms are composed via the interdigitization of (typically triconsonantal) radicals with fixed prosodic templates. How exactly it emerged cannot be reconstructed, but cross-linguistic examples of the formation of non-linear morphology give us a plausible scenario involving vowel assimilation, resyllabification due to stress changes, and analogical extension. Semitic languages show great pertinacity in preserving the essential characteristics of the system over millennia, even though the details have changed. New templates arise from time to time and they can also be borrowed between Semitic (or other Afroasiatic) languages. Where there is intense contact with languages lacking such a system, however, the system has in some cases undergone changes in how both radicals and patterns are defined.

 

Eleanor Coghill - Uppsala University presenterar sig så här:

I have been Professor of Semitic Languages at Uppsala since 2016. My research and teaching interests extend across Semitic Languages and Linguistics. My work has focused on Aramaic, especially the North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic languages. Given these are highly endangered, documentation has been a priority. My research also has a diachronic focus, looking at the development of Aramaic, in particular the effects of language contact. I am also interested in the Arabic dialects of the same region.