s b ʾ
10 lemmas · 8 languages
hamzatedContains ʾ (glottal stop) in position 1 or 3. Glottal stops assimilate or elide in many inflections, producing irregular surface forms.T Gen.10.7
Themes:grandfather·3man· رَجُل · אִישׁ·2
POS shape:noun·6proper noun·2adj·1num·1
This root is attested across 8 Semitic languages in our index. Each section below shows representative lemmas; attested means a Wiktionary editor explicitly tagged the root, inferredmeans we derived it mechanically from the word's consonantal skeleton.
Etymology treehow this root diverged from Proto-Semitic through the family
*s-b-ʾProto-Semitic
West Semitic
Central Semitic
Northwest Semitic
Canaanite
Hebrewסַבָּאס ב א— grandfather
Aramaic
Imperial Aramaicסָבָאס ב א— old man, grandfather
Syriacܣܒܐܣ ܒ ܐ— pudendum
Assyrian NAܣܸܒܵܐܣ ܒ ܐ— pubic hair
Arabic
Arabicسَابِيَائِيّس ب ء— amniotic, related to the fetal membrane
South Semitic
Old South Arabian
OSA𐩪𐩨𐩱𐩪 𐩨 𐩱— Saba
Ethio-Semitic
Ge'ezሰብእሰ በ አ— man, human, mankind
Tigrinyaሰብኣሰ በ አ— seventy
Branch structure: Huehnergard (2005), Rubin (2010). The reconstructed Proto-Semitic form is computed on the fly from the cognate set's majority reflex pattern.
Old South Arabian
irregular reflexosa · 2 lemmas- Saba
- Sabaean
Imperial Aramaic
arc · 1 lemma- old man, grandfather
Classical Syriac
syc · 1 lemma- pudendum
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic
aii · 2 lemmas- pubic hairFrom the older form ܙܸܒܵܐ (zibbā); compare Classical Syriac ܐܸܙܒܵܐ, and possibly related to Classical Syriac ܥܸܣܒܵܐ (“grass”).
- grandfather (the father of one's grandparent)Partial calque of French grand-père; similar in Hebrew סַבָּא רַבָּא (sába rába) itself borrowed from Aramaic.
Hebrew
he · 1 lemma- grandfather
Arabic
ar · 1 lemma- amniotic, related to the fetal membraneسَابِيَاء (sābiyāʔ, “amnion”) + ـِيّ (-iyy).
Ge'ez
gez · 1 lemma- man, human, mankindCognate with Aramaic שְׁבָא, Aramaic סְבָא.
Tigrinya
ti · 1 lemma- seventy