Roger Dillard Woodard

Reconstruction indicates that Proto-Semitic nouns occurred in two states, bound and free (adjectives also in a third, predicative) ; two genders, masculine and feminine ; three cases, nominative, genitive, and accusative (and perhaps a fourth, directive) ; and three numbers, singular, dual and plural. Proto-Semitic did not have a definite or indefinite article. A definite article evolved in the Central Semitic branch, while an indefinite article failed to develop in most of the descendant languages (apart from the occasional use of the numeral "one" for "a certain").

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