It does. Some examples: k-t-b 'write' kiteb 'he wrote' jikteb 'he writes' jiktbu 'they write' miktub 'written' kittieb 'writer' ktieb 'book' kotba 'books' ktejjeb 'booklet' x-r-j 'buy' xtara 'he bought' jixtri 'he buys' mixtri 'bought' xerrej 'b... read more
As a Semitic language very close to Arabic, Maltese uses triliteral roots. This is not so obvious at first sight due to its use of the Latin alphabet which writes both consonants and vowels and its numerous borrowings from Italian which of course belongs to a different language family and follows a different logic. read more
Ethiopic-derived languages use different roots for things that have to do with writing (and in some cases counting) primitive root: ṣ-f and trilateral root stems: m-ṣ-f, ṣ-h-f, and ṣ-f-r are used. This roots also exists in other Semitic languages like (Hebrew: sep̄er"book", sōp̄er"scribe", mispār"number" and sippūr"story"). read more