Middle Markers: Neo-Aramaic and Italian verbal forms with a 3rd singular feminine pronominal object

Semitic languages constitute a promising field of research for the study of the middle voice. Aramaic is particularly intriguing in that its modern varieties – more precisely, a number of North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic dialects – illustrate the consequences of the loss of the stems with prefix et- attested in earlier stages of Aramaic, which convey a reflexive-middle voice meaning. In this paper a comparison is proposed between the verbal constructions with 3rd feminine pronominal object traced in the Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialect of Koy Sanjaq and a special class of Italian verbs, whose transitivity is neutralized by a 3rd feminine pronominal object. In both languages – which are neither genetically nor geographically related – the semantics of middle voice and its close connection with intransitivity are crucial in trying to understand the function of these verbal constructions.