Root (linguistics) - Secondary Roots

Secondary Roots

Consider the Arabic language:

• مركز or meaning ‘centralized (masculine, singular)’, from ‘centre’, from ‘plant into the earth, stick up (a lance)’ ( ركز | rkz).
• أرجح or meaning ‘oscillated (masculine, singular)’, from ‘swing (n)’, from ‘weighed down, preponderated (masculine, singular)’ ( رجح | rjħ).
• محور or meaning ‘centred, focused (masculine, singular)’, from meaning ‘axis’, from ‘turned (masculine, singular)’ (حور | hwr).
• مسخر, تمسخر meaning ‘mocked, made fun (masculine, singular)', from مسخرة meaning ‘mockery’, from سخر ‘mocked (masculine, singular)’ (derived from سخر)." Similar cases may be found in other Semitic languages such as Hebrew, Syriac, Aramaic, Maltese language and to a lesser extent Amharic.

Similar cases occur in Hebrew, e.om Israeli Hebrew מקמ √mqm ‘locate’, which derives from Biblical Hebrew מקום måqom ‘place’, whose root is קומ √qwm ‘stand’. A recent example introduced by the Academy of the Hebrew Language is מדרוג midrúg ‘rating’, from מדרג midrág, whose root is דרג √drg ‘grade’."

According to Ghil'ad Zuckermann, "this process is morphologically similar to the production of frequentative (iterative) verbs in Latin, for example:

• iactito ‘to toss about’ derives from iacto ‘to boast of, keep bringing up, harass, disturb, throw, cast, fling away’, which in turn derives from iacio ‘to throw, cast’ (whose past participle is iactus).
• scriptito ‘to write often, compose’ is based on scribo ‘to write’ (<‘to draw lines, engrave with a sharp-pointed instrument’).
• dicto ‘to say often, repeat’ is from dico ‘to indicate, say, speak, tell’.
• clamito ‘to cry loudly/often, shout violently’ derives from clamo ‘call, shout’."

"Consider also Rabbinic Hebrew תרמ √trm ‘donate, contribute’ (Mishnah: T’rumoth 1:2: ‘separate priestly dues’), which derives from Biblical Hebrew תרומה t'rūmå ‘contribution’, whose root is רומ √rwm ‘raise’; cf. Rabbinic Hebrew תרע √tr` ‘sound the trumpet, blow the horn’, from Biblical Hebrew תרועה t'rū`å ‘shout, cry, loud sound, trumpet-call’, in turn from רוע √rw`." and it describes the suffix.