É. Apor , I. Ormos (ed.): Goldziher Memorial Conference, June 21–22, 2000, Budapest.

JUNGRAITHMAYR, Hermann: Hamitosemitic Features of Chadic

HAMITOSEMITIC FEATURES OF CHADIC Herrmann Jungraithmayr Frankfurt am Main Introduction In 1967, i.e. 33 years ago, at the 27th International Congress of Orientalists, held at Ann Arbor, Michigan, I presented a paper on Chadic-Semitic relationships entitled "Ancient Hamito-Semitic Remnants in the Central Sudan" (Jungraithmayr 1968). Among the examples and arguments which I considered to be significant for such a genetic relationship, especially between Chadic and Akkadian, were the following: 1. The verbal aspectual system of the Northern Nigerian Ron languages can be paralleled in its basic structure with the corresponding system in Akkadian. It consists of a contrastive pair of verbal stem forms, a basic or short one and an extended or long one, e.g. In Bokkos: cu 'eat, ate' : cwááy '(usually) eat' (...) léf 'cut' : lyááf '(usually) cut' (...) (...) In Daffo-Butura: lift 'stand up' : lifyaát '(usually) stand up' mot 'die, died' mwaát '(usually) die, faint' (...) This finding is to be compared with Erica Reiner's definition (1966: 77fr

) of the Akkadian Imperfective or 'present tense' according to which the morpheme underlying the Akkadian extended form is composed of a morph [length] plus a morph [vocalic replacement], the vowel of the Imperfective in the case of replacement being always /a/. 143