Redundant in Arabic: A Comparative Study with Other Semitic Languages

Abstract

This study attempts to investigate the linguistic thought in Semitic languages about the redundant letters; in terms of their concept and quantum. The redundant in the language set by Arab linguists are two types: the first one have to repeat a radical in the verb; in the second, which this study intends to investigate, the redundant must be among added letters or extra letters collected by ’alJawma tansAhu, or sa’altumUnIhA. In this research, several methodological questions about the concept of redundant in Semitic languages and its quantum were raised. Major findings are as follows: Subject of the study is still in need of reconsideration of the methodology in Semitic languages, particularly Arabic, in need to put one approach and clear, which absorbs all the studied patterns underneath it, and excludes all we could enter into another level of linguistic analysis. This research has classified the views of linguists on the subject of study in Semitic languages.
The concept of the redundant by the linguists of Akkadian, Ugaritic, Mandaic, Hebrew (except Ibn Ganah), Ge'ez and Amharic (specially Leslau) is mostly closest to the Arabic non-absolute concept of the redundant, with their two types, on the morphological level. The Amharic has what is different from most of the Semitic languages.
This study determined the redundant letters and their quantum in the Semitic languages; it put the letters in exchange for Arabic word " sa’altumUnIhA "; and specified what redundant or decreased of them in Semitic languages; and selected the short or long vowels of redundant - at the end of words - which was characterized by Ge'ez language, which does not represent a sign of declination in them.