The original Proto-Semitic triphthongs have developed in a variety of ways in the history of Arabic. Employing data from Old Arabic and the Quranic Consonantal Text, this paper examines the... Show moreThe original Proto-Semitic triphthongs have developed in a variety of ways in the history of Arabic. Employing data from Old Arabic and the Quranic Consonantal Text, this paper examines the developments of these triph- thongs in Classical Arabic and the language of the Quran. It describes the development in hollow and defective roots and shows that Quranic Ara- bic developed a new long vowels /ē/ and /ō/ in positions where Classical Arabic merges triphthongs with *ā. Show less