Editing Proto-Semitic language (section)

====Emphatics====
The sounds notated here as "[[emphatic consonant]]s" occur in nearly all Semitic languages as well as in most other Afroasiatic languages, and they are generally reconstructed as [[glottalization]] in Proto-Semitic.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Cantineau |first=J. |year=1952 |title=Le consonantisme du sémitique |journal=Semitica |pages=79–94 }}</ref>{{sfnp|Kogan|2011|p=61}}<ref group="nb">That explains the lack of voicing distinction in the emphatic series, which would be unnecessary if the emphatics were pharyngealized.</ref> Thus, *ṭ, for example, represents {{IPA|[tʼ]}}. See below for the fricatives/affricates.

In modern Semitic languages, emphatics are variously realized as [[pharyngeal consonant|pharyngealized]] ([[Arabic]], [[Aramaic]], [[Tiberian Hebrew]] (such as {{IPA|[tˤ]}})), glottalized ([[Ethiopian Semitic languages]], [[Modern South Arabian languages]], such as {{IPA|[tʼ]}}), or as [[tenuis consonant]]s ([[Turoyo language]] of [[Tur Abdin]] such as {{IPA|[t˭]}});<ref>Dolgopolsky 1999, p. 29.</ref> [[Ashkenazi Hebrew]] and [[Maltese language|Maltese]] are exceptions and emphatics merge into plain consonants in various ways under the influence of [[Indo-European languages]] ([[Sicilian language|Sicilian]] for Maltese, various languages for Hebrew).

An emphatic labial *ṗ occurs in some Semitic languages, but it is unclear whether it was a phoneme in Proto-Semitic.
* The classical Ethiopian Semitic language [[Geʽez]] is unique among Semitic languages for contrasting all three of {{IPA|/p/}}, {{IPA|/f/}}, and {{IPA|/pʼ/}}. While {{IPA|/p/}} and {{IPA|/pʼ/}} occur mostly in loanwords (especially from [[Greek language|Greek]]), there are many other occurrences whose origin is less clear (such as ''hepʼä'' 'strike', ''häppälä'' 'wash clothes').<ref>Woodard 2008, p. 219.</ref>
* According to Hetzron, Hebrew developed an emphatic labial phoneme ''ṗ'' to represent unaspirated {{IPA|/p/}} in Iranian and Greek.<ref>Hetzron 1997, p. 147.</ref>