The Comparative Method as Applied to the Semitic Cognate Sets with Phonological Correspondences

The present article deals with the comparative method as applied to the Semitic cognate sets with phonological correspondences. It demonstrates how one with help of comparative Semitic approach and certain principles of analysis can establish a Proto-phoneme, how to reconstruct it and how to distinguish between true cognates and borrowed ones, illustrated through a set of case studies within the framework of phonological correspondences. For this task, historical linguistics prefer cognates from basic vocabulary (body parts, close kinship terms, and the like), since such terms are considered to resist borrowing more than other sorts of vocabulary. Applying this to the Semitic languages and looking for potential Semitic true cognates I have chosen cognate sets denoting body parts as the basic illustrative examples for my investigation, which in the course of discussion is widened to include other illustrative examples.