Some remarks on the "south-Semitic" k-suffix conjugation

The first singular and the second personal endings of the suffix conjugation in -k are said to be a distinctive feature of South Semitic (cf. Geez -ku, -ka, -ki, - kəmmu, -kən), as in Modern South Arabian, ancient and modern languages of Ethiopia, Ancient South Arabian, and some Yemeni Arabic dialects. In a comparable fashion, Neo-Assyrian also behaves similarly, but neither genealogical nor areal approaches are traditionally used to explain this parallel. It differs from West Semitic, which exhibits -t in the same persons. Besides, Akkadian shows the velar ending in the first person singular only. Starting from this descriptive frame, I will provide some comments concerning the k-suffix distribution across Semitic and the analogies from the possessive suffixes (-ka/-ki for 2nd sg. Pers.) underlying the emergence of the velar ending.