On July 22-24, 2010, the international conference "5000 Years of Semitic-Hamitic Languages of Asia and Africa"*was held in Berlin. The special name of the scientific forum and the status of "conference" formally deduce it from a series of consecutive scientific congresses devoted to Semitic-Hamitic, otherwise - Afrasian languages1. At the same time, in terms of its subject matter and composition of participants, this conference fully fits into a consistent series of Afro-Asian meetings.

The conference was organized at the Department of Semitology and Arabic Studies of the Free University of Berlin in Dahlem (Seminar für Semititik und Arabistik, Freie Universität Berlin). The conference was sponsored by the German Scientific Society (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) and the Free University of Berlin. The organizer and head of the conference was a well - known German semitologist, Professor of the Free University R. Vogt, Head of the Department of Semitology and Arabic Studies at the Faculty of History and Cultural Studies.

R. Vogt is known for his research in the field of phonology and grammar of the Ephiosemitic languages, as well as in the field of comparative historical studies of the verb system of Semitic languages and reconstructions of the proto-Semitic system of verb conjugation. Knowing the Russian language, R. Vogt over the past decades got acquainted with the works of Russian Arabists, Semitologists and Africanists, repeatedly invited them to give lectures at his seminars and make reports at international meetings.

The theme of the conference "5000 years of the Semitic-Hamitic languages of Asia and Africa" conventionally marks the period from the beginning of the appearance of the first historical data on the oldest languages included in the Semitic-Hamitic / Afrasian macrofamily: the first written monuments of ancient Egyptian-

* Internationale Konferenz "5000 Jahre semitchamitische Sprachen in Asien und Africa". В., 22 - 24. Juli 2010.

1 For the history and tradition of the Afrasian Congresses, the last of which (VIII) was held in Naples in 2008, see [Belova, 2009, N 1, p. 154]. It should also be noted that the VII Semitic-Hamitic Congress (as a Congress) was also held in Berlin in September 2004 and was organized by the Free University of Berlin under the motto "From Beyond the Mediterranean".

As has been noted many times, the terms "Semitic-Hamitic" and "Afrasian" languages are equivalent. Their use is determined only by various scientific traditions. In the course of the article, one or another term will be used depending on its use by each of the speakers. The author of the article uses the term "Afrasian" languages.

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The Akkadian language is attributed to the end of the 4th - beginning of the 3rd millennium BC [LES, p. 140; EALL, v. I, p. 35]; the Akkadian language-to the middle of the 3rd millennium BC [Kogan, 2009, p.17-18].

30 presentations were made at the conference. The forum was attended by scientists from Germany, Israel, Russia, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, as well as scientists from Ethiopia, Morocco, Abu Dhabi, Jordan, Eritrea, who received training in European research centers. The conference was organized as a sequential session of sections based on the materials of individual language branches of the Afrasian (Semitic-Hamitic) macrofamily.

The first session was devoted to general problems and problems of Afrasian comparative studies and comparative typology.

R. Vogt analyzed the results of studying the Semitic-Hamitic macrofamily of languages that have been actively developing over the past century. The research of the Egyptologist and semitologist O. Ressler (1907 - 1991), his peculiar hypothesis about proto-Semitic-Egyptian kinship, and the system of Semitic-Egyptian sound correspondences proposed by him were particularly noted. Further, the speaker emphasized the importance of those studies that involve little-known and poorly studied non-written languages of the African continent in the scientific use of comparative studies.

Despite the variety of issues covered in the reports and the variety of language materials, we can identify the main problems that attract the attention of researchers. These include, first of all, the problems of syntactic typology discussed in a number of reports.

The report of G. Goldenberg (Hebrew University, Jerusalem) on the function of personal pronouns in syntactic constructions was large and programmatic in this area. Using extensive illustrative material, the speaker showed the evolution of possessive noun constructions formed by possessive and personal pronouns: from more connected, synthetic, to more free, formed using a new system of possessive indicators of the analytical type. The evolution is traced on the comparative material of Semitic languages. At the same time, the function of the pronoun as an indicator of the person in the verb forms of Semitic languages turns each personal verb form into a predicative unit, in fact, into a binomial predicative construction, which can act as the simplest basic unit equal to a complete sentence. It is proposed to trace possible directions of asymmetric diachronic changes in syntactic structures on a broader language material.

E. Cohen (Hebrew University) examined conditional syntactic constructions in the Akkadian (Old Babylonian) language on a large text material, showing the interdependence of the semantics of conditional constructions, vide-tense forms of verbal predicates, and cases of nominal non-verbal constructions.

Sh. Jezreel (Tel Aviv University) in his report "The basic unit of language: based on the material of the spoken Hebrew language of Israel" on the example of texts of oral monologue speech and texts of dialogues, came to the conclusion that the basic unit of oral speech (and, accordingly, the language in its communicative function) is a complete utterance that can be expressed in the following words: a binomial syntactic structure of the predicative type and a monomial unit represented by both verb and nominal forms.

The report "Verbal predication in the Amharic and Tigraic languages" by O. Kapelyuk (Hebrew University) presented the results of a comparative structural and typological analysis of analytical verb forms in two modern languages of the Ephiosemitic group, of which Amharic belongs to the southern subgroup, and Tigraic (Tigrinya) - to the northern one. The speaker showed the difference between these forms when expressing syntactic tense in modern literary texts.

R. Barbara (Beni Mellal) presented a paper on the syntactic problem of the correlation of verb forms in conditional-consequential constructions that occur in proverbs written in the Moroccan dialect of Arabic. Also based on the material of the Moroccan dialect, a report was made by Nadia Kauas (Un-t Sultan Moulay Slimane, Beni Mellal) "On secondary predication". In simple and complex sentences, the speaker identified noun and verb forms that convey additional predicative relations along with the main predication of utterance 2.

2 It should be noted that the question of polypredicative constructions has been actively developed in Russian linguistics over the past decades based on the material of languages of various systems, in particular, within the framework of a special seminar of the Department of Languages of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

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In the report of K. Ten-Sheikh (Paris) "Are the negative forms of the Berber verb expressive?" methods of expressing negation in verbs, their connection with the vide-temporal bases of verbs, and the question of the origin of various methods were considered. Using extensive visual material, the speaker showed that the difference in the ways of negation associated with different bases is due to the opposition "virtual":" real " action; negative constructions with interrupted (encircling) indicators (in pre - and postposition to the verb form) represent an innovation in the verbal syntax of Berber languages; in addition, the comparison of verbal bases negative forms in a number of Berber languages indicate traces of apophony of the vowel base as an indicator that distinguishes between positive and negative forms.

Much attention of the conference participants was paid to the comparative and historical coverage of the verb system, verb morphology and grammatical categories of the verb in Afrasian languages in general and in individual language families.

R. Vogt's report "Prefixal and suffixal forms of verb conjugation in Semitic-Hamitic languages" raised fundamental questions about the possibility of establishing not only regular phonetic correspondences between branches and individual languages of the macrofamily, but also a number of correspondences in the field of morphological system. The scientist noted a certain asymmetry in the area of established regular correspondences between Semitic and Ancient Egyptian (O. Ressler has already established regular sound correspondences, while between Semitic, on the one hand, and Berber and Cushitic, on the other, such correspondences have not yet been established). On the contrary, in the field of verbal morphology, there are no correspondences between Semitic and ancient Egyptian due to the lack of prefixed forms of verb conjugation in Egyptian. At the same time, in Berber and Kushite, forms of prefix conjugation are established that are comparable to Semitic. Further, the speaker drew attention not only to the similarity of consonant verb bases of prefixed forms, but also to the similarity of ablaut alternations of vowel bases in the forms of Akkadian, Kushite and Berber languages. You should take into account the categorical meanings of verbs: the opposition of static / inactive verbs and transitive/active verbs. In the field of suffix conjugation, R. Vogt showed a similar system of vocal structure of the verb base in Akkadian and ancient Egyptian, which reflects the difference between stative and transitive verbs in the ancient conjugation system.

The report of G. Jungreitmeier (Frankfurt am Main) "The binary system of the form in Chadian languages" was also related to the main provisions and views of Fr. Ressler's work in the field of comparative historical studies of the verbal morphology of Semitic-Hamitic languages. While the specific verb system in the Semitic, Berber, and Cushitic languages was already a fairly well-established fact, this topic has not yet been systematically addressed in the Chadian languages, although the results of its disclosure could contribute to the general problem of verb categories and forms in Hamitic languages. The speaker has spent 45 years studying the category of species in Chadian languages. As a result, he presented in the report the main conclusions of his research: in Chadian languages, a binary specific verb system is established, representing the opposition of the perfect form (perfective) to the imperfect form (imperfective). This opposition is represented by two corresponding verbal bases. However, the two main ways in which these foundations are formed have different origins: 1) the opposition based on apophony (ablauta) goes back to the common Proto-Semitic-Hamitic heritage; 2) the opposition based on the juxtaposition of tones (suprasegmental method) develops as a result of long-term linguistic contacts with African-Sudanese tone languages.
A joint report by R. Leger (Frankfurt am Main) and V. Ya. Porkhomovsky (Moscow) on "Subjunctives in Chadian languages" was also devoted to the historical reconstruction of this verb category and ways of expressing it. The emergence of this category causes a realignment in the ancient binary opposition "imperfective - perfective". On the basis of new forms, privative opposition develops into equipolent opposition. At the same time, the question is raised about more ancient ways of shaping: is apophony (ablaut) an ancient method common to the proto-Afrasian state, or is it an innovation? It is suggested to take into account the effect of the rules of prosodic structure of the syllable and base.

J. Hever (Hebrew un-t) on the material of the Chacha language (the southern subgroup of the Ephiosemitic branch) showed the formation of a complex system of indicators of time, the type of action of the verb and its gerund forms.

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M. Marmorstein (Hebrew University), in her report on "the form of the verb yaf'alu in classical Arabic prose", drew attention to the role of the context and structure of phrases in determining the function and meaning of this form, which itself in an isolated position represents the most "indefinite" grammatical meaning.

A number of conference reports were devoted to historical phonetics, comparative phonology and morphology in various languages of the Afrasian macrofamily.

G. Zatzinger (Vienna) in his report "Emphatic consonants in the ancient Egyptian language", based on some features of the ancient Egyptian graphics, noted the main trends of phonetic changes in the consonant triad system "deaf aspirated-deaf glottalized-voiced explosive". The double spelling of the same lexemes indicates that voiced explosive ones turn into voiced long ones. In the same process, the glottalized deaf have a pharyngeal consonant as a reflex. The results of phonetic changes in the consonant system of ancient Egyptian, occurring during the 2nd millennium BC, can also be found in examples of graphic consonant transmission in borrowings from Semitic languages.

Report of Ts. Wellnhofer University (Svobodny University, Berlin) "Sound changes and sound correspondences in the Libyan-Berber languages" was devoted to the question of positional sound changes in individual languages, the main trend of which is the palatalization of bowed consonants in the synchronous plan, as well as the question of interlanguage correspondences within the languages of the Libyan-Berber family, in which also a noticeable feature of the Latin-Berber is the palatalization of the original consonant. Comparative material from Semitic and Latin languages serves as additional material to confirm the trend.

Some features of the vocal system of the Sidama language (East Kush group of languages) and its syllabic structure were discussed in the report of Anbess Teferra (Hebrew University), which raised a number of theoretical questions that arise in connection with the development of writing and adequate spelling of this language, in particular, the definition of the final vowels of a word - short or long, since a special lexical class of names has endings for long and stressed vowels. The rules of syllabic structure are also considered, according to which a syllable cannot consist of a sequence of two vowels forming a diphthong; on the contrary, such a syllable is a combination of a vowel with a palatal consonant.

The problem of establishing the consonant root and its structure, identifying ancient non-root elements of the root, is still one of the leading problems in Afrasian linguistics. P. Vernu (Paris) in his report "Prefix n -: the situation of ancient Egyptian in the perspective of Semitic-Hamitic languages in general", noting a number of examples of verb roots with the first consonant (C1 = n) in the vocabulary from the earliest period to the Coptic period, suggested several possible functions of this element: structural-syllabic, morphological and word-forming functions. Ultimately, using comparative Semitic material, the scientist proposed a broad interpretation of this element as an indicator of the localization of an action and its participants, and, even more broadly, as an indicator of the intransitivity of the verb form. After examining noun phrases in ancient Egyptian and other Semitic-Hamitic languages, he discovered the element *n as an indicator of genitive and possessive relations, and also suggested its original deictic function.

Considerable attention at the conference was paid to the language situation in the areas of distribution of living languages of the Afrasian macrofamily. For example, in the report of Meaza Revolt-Tissot (Paris) On the current status of the Tigrinya language (the northern subgroup of the Ephi-Semitic languages), an overview of the current status of this language as an official language of Eritrea was presented: in social terms, this language is acquiring the status of "lingua franca" as a means of communication for residents of the country who come from different regions of the region of distribution of other languages of the Ephi-Semitic branch and languages of the Kushite family. The program of development of the Tigrinya language includes issues of systematic study of its history, dialects, the influence of Amharic and some Kushite languages, the formation of its grammar and regular phonetic system.

The distinctive features of the Agave Central Cushitic languages were highlighted in the report of Zemalem Leiev (University of Addis Ababa), which dealt with the classification of Cushitic languages, demography and geography of their distribution, highlighted such features as tones and gemination in the field of phonology and morphology, features of predicative verb forms, consistent categories and the tense category of the verb system.

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The report of G. L. Kapchits (Moscow) was devoted to the question of dialect division of the Somali language (the language of the eastern group of Kushite languages). He paid much attention to the sociolinguistic situation in the poorly studied Southern region of Somalia. Along with the geographical feature of the classification of southern and northern dialects, relevant features in the field of phonetics were identified: vocal and consonant systems, in the forms of personal pronouns, basic vocabulary, and in the ways of expressing predicative constructions. The comparative material of Somali dialects makes a significant contribution to the reconstruction of the historical development of East Kush and Kushite languages in general.

Considerable attention of the conference participants was paid to the results of studying ancient written monuments. E. Knauf (University of Bern) in his report "On the "Biblical Hebrew" language" identified the main features of texts compiled in different historical periods. Al Faris Ali (Zayd-un-t, Abu Dhabi) addressed further problems of modern interpretation of the grammatical theory of Sibawayhi (d. 796 AD), one of the fundamental descriptions of the phonetic and grammatical system of the Arabic language of the early classical period. In the report of O. I. Redkin (SPb.Y) " Arabic script before-or-after Islam?" based on the analysis of data from the Arabic historical tradition, as well as on the analysis of ancient written monuments of Arabia from the pre-Islamic period, he suggested the existence of the actual Arabic script even before the emergence of Islam. H. Hayaineh (Yarmuk-un-t, Jordan) devoted his report to a new interpretation of one of the controversial Quranic terms- (Quran, 85: 4-8). Drawing on similar morphological models of South Semitic languages, the speaker raises the question of the correlation between Syriac-Aramaic and South Arabian origins of Quranic plots and Quranic vocabulary.

A related historical and ethnographic topic - the Dinka people, widespread in the Nile Valley outside of Egypt, was described in a report by V. Daum (Berlin). The analysis of religious and mythological representations of this people testifies to the ancient origins of the monotheistic worldview system, which arose independently of other world religions and preceded the formation of the religious worldview of the ancient Egyptian civilization.

Many participants of the conference continued the tradition of finding and establishing lexical correspondences in the languages and families of the Afrasian macrofamily, as well as etymological studies. A. Suzzi Valli (Oriental University, Naples) proposed a number of new etymologies of the lexemes "night" and "water" based on the Berber, Chadian and Ancient Egyptian languages. Developing O. Ressler's ideas about possible transitions of voiced labials, about the vowel in the first position as a reflex of the disappeared consonant, the speaker offers reconstructions of some of the original three-consonant roots of these lexemes.

O. V. Stolbova (Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow) in her report "150 years of comparative historical study of Semitic vocabulary and the vocabulary of Chadian languages", using a large illustrative material, gave convincing examples of how the use of lexical material of Chadian languages, known to us only in the current state, helps to establish the common Afrasian origin of some isolated lexemes of ancient Semitic languages.

In her report on names and designations of color and color shades in modern languages of South Arabia, L. Cerquelini (Pisa, Italy) proposed a comparative and typological approach to the etymology of these designations, similar ways of forming terms from the names of natural objects, signs, substances, and also identified nominal and verbal word-forming models in Semitic languages.

A. G. Belova's report "Etymological studies of pre-Islamic Arabic vocabulary" was devoted to the project of creating an etymological dictionary of the Arabic language. The main principles of etymological analysis were put forward: continuous painting of significant vocabulary from the real text, drawing on comparative material of Semitic languages, modern Arabic dialects, possible correspondences from the vocabulary of other Afrasian languages, as well as using the internal reconstruction method to establish the original root basis, taking into account the root structure and phonetic root variants.

Despite the wide variety of theoretical problems presented and the wide variety of language materials, all reports and messages attracted the general attention of the audience, were accompanied by a discussion of controversial issues. The results of specific studies, proposed hypotheses and new interpretations of controversial or obscure linguistic phenomena made at the conference can largely be indicative of the current state of Afrasian linguistics.

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list of literature

Belova A. G. VIII mezhdunarodnyi afroaziyskiy kongress [The VIII International Afro-Asian Congress]. 2009. N 1.

Kogan L. E. Semitic languages // Languages of the world. Semitic languages. Moscow: Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2009.

The Koran. Damascus, 1963 (Arabic).

Linguistic Encyclopedia, Moscow: Sovetskaya entsiklopediya, 1990.
Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Vol. I / Gen. ed. Kees Versteegh. Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2006.

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