Letters
The Proto-Semitic language was originally written with pictographs (picture writings) such as the letter/pictograph "
", a picture of the hand. The Semitic word for "hand" is "yad" and is the name of this letter. This letter represents the phonetic sound "Y", the sound of the first letter in the name. Each letter also represented an idea such as, work in the case of the letter "" as the hand is used to perform work.
Parent Roots
When two letters/pictographs are put together, a Parent Root word is formed. When the "
" (B - beyt, a house) is combined with the "
" (N - nun, a seed which continues the next generation) the Parent Root "" (BeN) is formed. The two letters of this root have the combined meaning of the "house continues" and is usually translated as a "son", the one who continues the house to the next generation.
Another example is the Parent Root "
" (shaph). The "" is a picture of the two front teeth meaning "sharp". The "" is a mouth. This Parent Root means "a sharp mouth" or simply "a serpent" whose sharp fangs are in the mouth.
Child Roots
Of the twenty-two letters of the Semitic alphabet, four originally doubled as a consonant and a vowel and are called "weak" consonants. These four are the "
" (A), "
" (H, E), "
" (W, O, and U) and "" (Y, I). The remaining eighteen consonants are called "strong consonants".
A Child Root is formed by adding one of the consonant/vowels to the front, middle or end of the Parent Root. All the Child Roots formed from one Parent Root are directly related in meaning to the Parent Root. Below are the Child Roots formed from the Parent Root "BaL" meaning, "flow";
| ABaL | | wilt: a flowing away of life |
| HaBaL | | empty: flowing out of contents |
| BaHaL | | panic: a flowing of the insides |
| BaLaH | | aged: a flowing away of youth |
| BUL | | flood: a heavy flowing of water |
| YaBaL | | stream: a flowing of water |
Adopted Roots
An adopted root is a three consonant root consisting of three strong consonants. These roots are not part of the original parent/child root system of the Semitic language but were evolved out of it over time or were introduced from a non-Semitic language.
The following adopted roots were formed by adding another strong consonant to the parent root "PaR" meaning, break.
| PaRaCh | | break forth |
| PaRaK | | break apart |
| PaRaS | | break in pieces |
| PaRaQ | | break off |
| PaRaTs | | break open |
