Reconstruction:Proto-Semitic/wabal-

This Proto-Semitic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

*wabal-

1. to carry, to bear, to support by muscular power
2. (figurative) of plants: to bear a certain produce, so as to later yield
3. (figurative) of bodies of water and similar: to carry, to have flowing, to stream
4. (figurative) of human hardships: to bear, to tolerate, to suffer, to shoulder, to grieve

• *wābil- (“carrier in the literal sense; a rod, a technical support; a stream, drench, channel, wadi”)
• *wabl- (“something carried; a stream”)

• East Semitic:
  • Akkadian: 𒀀𒁀𒈝 (wabālum, “to carry, to transport, to bring”)
  • Eblaite: 𒂍𒁀𒀠 (ʾa₃-ba-al /⁠wabāl/ˀu(m)⁠/)
• West Semitic:
  • Central Semitic:
    • Arabic: وَبَلَ (wabala)
    • Northwest Semitic:
      • Aramaic: (“to bring, to deliver”)

        Old Aramaic: 𐤉𐤁𐤋

        Imperial Aramaic: 𐡉𐡁𐡋 (ybl)

        Jewish Palestinian Aramaic, Jewish Literary Aramaic, Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: יבל

        • Classical Syriac: ܝܒܠ
        • ⇒ Aramaic: א־ב־ל (ʾ-b-l, “related to mourning, grief, etc.”) (see CAL for more)
      • Canaanite:
        • Amorite: 𐎊𐎁𐎍 (ybl, “to carry, to bring”)
        • Hebrew: יָבַל (yāḇal, “to carry, to bring along, to bear; to yield; to flow, to stream”)
      • Ugaritic: 𐎊𐎁𐎍 (ybl /⁠yabala⁠/, “to bring; to yield”)
      • ⇒ Egyptian: ywbꜣjrꜣ (“stream”)
    • Old South Arabian:
      • Minaean: 𐩥𐩨𐩡 (wbl, “to emburden with levies”)
      • Sabaean: 𐩥𐩨𐩡 (wbl, “to emburden with levies”)

• Huehnergard, John (2019) “Proto-Semitic”, in Huehnergard, John and Na'ama Pat-El, editors, The Semitic Languages, 2nd edition, Routledge, →ISBN, page 50, saying “*ja-t-wabal (3-RECP-carry. PCS) > *jawtabal (metathesis) > *jattabal” but this verb can be plausibly conceived for Proto-Semitic due to the frequency of the base
• “ybl”, in The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1986– is linked here for convenience in lack of Aramaic entries
• Hoch, James E. (1994) Semitic Words in Egyptian Texts of the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period, Princeton: Princeton University Press, →ISBN, pages 50–51
• Olmo Lete, Gregorio del with Sanmartín, Joaquín and Watson, Wilfred G. E. (2015) “ybl etc.”, in A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition (Handbook of Oriental Studies; 112), 3rd edition, Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, pages 935–937, calls the etymology of meanings related to streams of water uncertain, but via the idea of water “carrying” the relationship is straightforward.