Semitic Noun Patterns

by Joshua Fox

This is the first complete study of Semitic internal noun patterns since that of Jacob Barth, over a century ago. Drawing on the earlier work of Semitists and linguists, this work presents a comprehensive new synthesis. This diachronic-comparative study presents the internal patterns individually and organizes them systematically. This study investigates the special role of noun patterns in isolated nouns and gives a complete list of reconstructible isolated nouns.
This diachronic-comparative study presents the internal patterns individually and organizes them systematically. The roles of the patterns in the derivation of nouns from roots, and in nominal inflection, are shown as part of a reconstructed system. This study investigates the special role of noun patterns in isolated nouns, and gives a complete list of reconstructible isolated nouns.
The heart of the book is devoted to studies of all individual reconstructible internal patterns with their Semitic reflexes, including mono- and bisyllabics and patterns with ungeminated or geminated second or third consonants.
The book reaches conclusions on the structure of the Proto-Semitic pattern system, including categories of reconstructible and non-reconstructible patterns, semantic groups of patterns, and relationships between different patterns. Further, patterns merge and split diachronically, appearing in different roles in the attested languages, where new pattern systems are formed.

382 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2003

About the author

Joshua Fox is best known for trying to be funny on social media, oversharing on Australian radio and being unashamedly open about his sex life, sexuality and the struggles of being a gay man in the age of Grindr and endless hook-up apps. Born in Manchester, he started his career as Britain’s youngest paparazzo photographer at the age of 16 before becoming a tabloid journalist at Now magazine, The Sun and Daily Mail Australia. During this time, he was frequently conflicted about crossing the very fine line between entertainment and exploitation, and would often question his moral compass while mingling with the likes of Taylor Swift and Paris Hilton. After relocating to Sydney in 2017, he built a following by sharing his videos of crashing Married at First Sight weddings, joining The Kyle & Jackie O Show as producer Yeah But No But Josh, and becoming an unlikely mental health advocate. Joshua also finds it quite cringe writing about himself in the third person, as he is doing right now on this page, so apologises for this intro, but his publisher said he had to do one