Best wishes for Year 5787 since the breakup of Proto-Semitic to all who celebrate
portuguese friend: what year is it
me: five thousand and something
friend: you don't know?
me: i know the millennium
me: five thousand and something
friend: you don't know?
me: i know the millennium
September 11, 2026 at 2:53 PM
Best wishes for Year 5787 since the breakup of Proto-Semitic to all who celebrate
Whisper voice: we don't hyphenate antisemitism. It's a single word from proto-nazi race scientists. It does not refer to semitic people or semitic languages, and never has.
March 19, 2026 at 11:00 PM
Whisper voice: we don't hyphenate antisemitism. It's a single word from proto-nazi race scientists. It does not refer to semitic people or semitic languages, and never has.
“Palestinians are Semitic!”
Sure, in the way Hawaiians are Proto-Indo-European.
Sure, in the way Hawaiians are Proto-Indo-European.
October 23, 2025 at 1:39 AM
“Palestinians are Semitic!”
Sure, in the way Hawaiians are Proto-Indo-European.
Sure, in the way Hawaiians are Proto-Indo-European.
I've been reading up on ANE archeology and now my headcanon is
Early Bronze: Adam–Noah (Proto-Semitic–Proto-Central-Semitic)
Intermediate Bronze: Shem–Terah (PCS–Proto-Northwest-Semitic)
Middle Bronze: Abraham–Joseph (PNWS–Proto-Arameo-Canaanite)
Late Bronze: Israelites in Egypt (PAC–Hebrew)
Early Bronze: Adam–Noah (Proto-Semitic–Proto-Central-Semitic)
Intermediate Bronze: Shem–Terah (PCS–Proto-Northwest-Semitic)
Middle Bronze: Abraham–Joseph (PNWS–Proto-Arameo-Canaanite)
Late Bronze: Israelites in Egypt (PAC–Hebrew)
August 18, 2025 at 4:13 PM
I've been reading up on ANE archeology and now my headcanon is
Early Bronze: Adam–Noah (Proto-Semitic–Proto-Central-Semitic)
Intermediate Bronze: Shem–Terah (PCS–Proto-Northwest-Semitic)
Middle Bronze: Abraham–Joseph (PNWS–Proto-Arameo-Canaanite)
Late Bronze: Israelites in Egypt (PAC–Hebrew)
Early Bronze: Adam–Noah (Proto-Semitic–Proto-Central-Semitic)
Intermediate Bronze: Shem–Terah (PCS–Proto-Northwest-Semitic)
Middle Bronze: Abraham–Joseph (PNWS–Proto-Arameo-Canaanite)
Late Bronze: Israelites in Egypt (PAC–Hebrew)
Juniper "Ukraine is a proto-Nazi country" Beer re-tweeting an anti-semitic publication is so fucking funny tho
This is like blatantly not real. It's an 11.7m wingspan aircraft, which would put the resolution well below 10cm
March 6, 2026 at 2:29 PM
Juniper "Ukraine is a proto-Nazi country" Beer re-tweeting an anti-semitic publication is so fucking funny tho
Ha. Persian has two words for "and", one inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ew: "again" and pronounced [u~ʊ~o]; and one borrowed from Proto-Semitic *wa through Arabic and pronounced [wa~ʋæ~vä].
Of course in the Persian alphabet, both of those are spelled "و"
Of course in the Persian alphabet, both of those are spelled "و"
August 9, 2026 at 6:22 AM
Ha. Persian has two words for "and", one inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ew: "again" and pronounced [u~ʊ~o]; and one borrowed from Proto-Semitic *wa through Arabic and pronounced [wa~ʋæ~vä].
Of course in the Persian alphabet, both of those are spelled "و"
Of course in the Persian alphabet, both of those are spelled "و"
Linguists: We need more reliable Wörter und Sachen reconstruction for Proto-Semitic.
Gilgit Shina: They’re the same thing.
Gilgit Shina: They’re the same thing.
April 23, 2026 at 5:54 PM
Linguists: We need more reliable Wörter und Sachen reconstruction for Proto-Semitic.
Gilgit Shina: They’re the same thing.
Gilgit Shina: They’re the same thing.
Cain in Proto-East-Semitic: "I just feel like nobody understands me"
February 6, 2025 at 8:22 AM
Cain in Proto-East-Semitic: "I just feel like nobody understands me"
Before I get out of bed, I'm proto-Semitic
January 6, 2026 at 7:03 PM
Before I get out of bed, I'm proto-Semitic
For anyone else who's interested: Bernard (2024) now on Academia. 🐦🐦
April 28, 2025 at 1:12 PM
For anyone else who's interested: Bernard (2024) now on Academia. 🐦🐦
The Klan was (proto)fascist, right-wing, anti-semitic, anti-Catholic and expressly Christian (Protestant). Ffs. Please read everything @kathleenbelew.bsky.social and @kellyjbaker.bsky.social have ever written.
September 22, 2023 at 4:51 PM
The Klan was (proto)fascist, right-wing, anti-semitic, anti-Catholic and expressly Christian (Protestant). Ffs. Please read everything @kathleenbelew.bsky.social and @kellyjbaker.bsky.social have ever written.
My slides from a very exciting workshop on Proto-Semitic going on right now!
Rethinking the Proto-Semitic stative
Recent scholarship on the diachrony of the Semitic suffix conjugations reveals ongoing disagreement about the age of the various formations. What is probably the current communis opinio (e.g. Huehnerg...
www.academia.edu
April 3, 2025 at 6:47 AM
My slides from a very exciting workshop on Proto-Semitic going on right now!
1.5yo seems to be realizing /ʋeːˈseː/ as [jeɪɕ], demonstrating a masterful understanding of the Proto-Northwest-Semitic *w- > *y- shift and liturgical Syriac accentuation rules.
August 21, 2025 at 3:45 PM
1.5yo seems to be realizing /ʋeːˈseː/ as [jeɪɕ], demonstrating a masterful understanding of the Proto-Northwest-Semitic *w- > *y- shift and liturgical Syriac accentuation rules.
Shocked to learn that French niquer 'to fuck' was borrowed from (Algerian) #Arabic. The root n-y-k is of a venerable, #Proto-Semitic age, with cognates including #Akkadian niākum.
Huh? Is het oer-Hollandse 'neuken' een Frans leenwoord?! Toch niet: 'neuken' is een erfwoord, dat tot het Protogermaans is te herleiden. 'Niquer' is een Arabisch leenwoord in het Frans. Toevallig is het wel... etymologiebank.nl/trefwoord/ne...
www.cnrtl.fr/etymologie/n... #langsky #linguistics #🐦🐦
www.cnrtl.fr/etymologie/n... #langsky #linguistics #🐦🐦
December 19, 2024 at 9:18 AM
Shocked to learn that French niquer 'to fuck' was borrowed from (Algerian) #Arabic. The root n-y-k is of a venerable, #Proto-Semitic age, with cognates including #Akkadian niākum.
Periodic reminder that *bnu yamīnim is what you get if you reconstruct the name Benjamin back to Proto-Semitic;¹ I'm into Semitic reconstruction and my name is Benjamin. It also has a nice initial consonant cluster that I have Strong Opinions about.
¹ More accurate PS would probably use *yamanim.
¹ More accurate PS would probably use *yamanim.
June 15, 2026 at 11:09 PM
Periodic reminder that *bnu yamīnim is what you get if you reconstruct the name Benjamin back to Proto-Semitic;¹ I'm into Semitic reconstruction and my name is Benjamin. It also has a nice initial consonant cluster that I have Strong Opinions about.
¹ More accurate PS would probably use *yamanim.
¹ More accurate PS would probably use *yamanim.
Was going to write a blog post on what we know about where Proto-Semitic may have been spoken, but here's one from ten years ago that does a great job (details of linguistic classification aside).
Spread of the Semitic languages | Daan Nijssen - Ancient History Blog
The Semitic languages have dominated the Near East since the dawn of recorded history. Where did these Semitic languages originate and how did they spread?
www.daannijssen.com
September 2, 2026 at 9:36 AM
Was going to write a blog post on what we know about where Proto-Semitic may have been spoken, but here's one from ten years ago that does a great job (details of linguistic classification aside).
Today in “Arabic dialects don’t come from classical Arabic”. Several dialects have a pronominal -t ending, e.g., Egyptian an-nās dōlat, “those/these people”. This, afaik, isn’t attested in classical Arabic but is found in several other Semitic languages. This feature thus didn't come from MSA.
December 11, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Today in “Arabic dialects don’t come from classical Arabic”. Several dialects have a pronominal -t ending, e.g., Egyptian an-nās dōlat, “those/these people”. This, afaik, isn’t attested in classical Arabic but is found in several other Semitic languages. This feature thus didn't come from MSA.
Most of you got this: B is #Maltese, C is its direct ancestor Proto-Arabic (mostly unchanged from #Proto-Semitic), and A is Proto-Agaw (= Proto-Central-Cushitic, as reconstructed by David Appleyard), a totally different branch of Afroasiatic.
Two of these pronominal paradigms are from closely related languages, one is only distantly related to the other two. Which is the odd one out?
December 13, 2024 at 3:23 PM
Most of you got this: B is #Maltese, C is its direct ancestor Proto-Arabic (mostly unchanged from #Proto-Semitic), and A is Proto-Agaw (= Proto-Central-Cushitic, as reconstructed by David Appleyard), a totally different branch of Afroasiatic.
Apparently ammonites appeared first in that period. As Ammonite is a Canaanite language, this pushes back the date of Proto-Semitic considerably.
June 5, 2026 at 5:45 PM
Apparently ammonites appeared first in that period. As Ammonite is a Canaanite language, this pushes back the date of Proto-Semitic considerably.
For those further curious, the Arabic Allah and the Hebrew Elohim are cognates derived from the same proto-Semitic root, it's just that the Hebrew adds a plural to what would have been Eloah in the singular form.
April 5, 2026 at 4:27 PM
For those further curious, the Arabic Allah and the Hebrew Elohim are cognates derived from the same proto-Semitic root, it's just that the Hebrew adds a plural to what would have been Eloah in the singular form.
That's an extremely far-fetched theory with impossible semantics. Moreover, Akkadian was a Semitic language unrelated to Proto-Indo-European.
December 26, 2024 at 10:23 PM
That's an extremely far-fetched theory with impossible semantics. Moreover, Akkadian was a Semitic language unrelated to Proto-Indo-European.
This is the first time I've encountered the word 'herem'. I'll bet it comes from the same Proto-Semitic root as Arabic 'haram' and English-via-Arabic 'harem'.
August 6, 2026 at 9:44 PM
This is the first time I've encountered the word 'herem'. I'll bet it comes from the same Proto-Semitic root as Arabic 'haram' and English-via-Arabic 'harem'.