The vocalization of the verb in Maltese

Abstract

The vocalization of verbs as regards the choice of the second vowel in the forms qatal, qatil, qatul is, admittedly, one of the most complicated problems of semitic philology. Until a few years ago, the general view was that the form qatal denotes action, and the forms qatil, qatul denote a condition, transitory and permanent respectively. Later research, however, has shown that there are verbs of action having the form qatil or qatul, and that, on the contrary, there are verbs of the form qatal denoting a state or condition. The choice of the characteristic vowel, therefore, must depend on something else than the meaning. Towards the close of last century M. Lambert tried to establish the principle that the characteristic vowel of the verb in Arabic is determined not so much by the meaning of the verb as by the nature of the consonants composing the root. On the contrary, Père P. Joüon holds that the vocalization depended originally on the meaning, but the prevalence of the vowel a over the vowels i and u, as well as the prevalence of the active verbs over the less numerous stative verbs have assimilated many qatila and qatula forms to the qatala form. The problem was recently resumed by G. R. Driver whose views may be thus summarized : « Two or three influences are at work in the vocalization of the Western perfect tense, namely the meaning which the word has and the nature of the consonants adjoining the significant vowel as well as the analogy of other verbs »