A Phonology and Morphology Sketch of the Šiħħi Arabic Dialect of əlǦēdih, Musandam (Oman)

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A Phonology and Morphology Sketch of the Šiħħi Arabic Dialect of əlǦēdih, Musandam (Oman)

by Roy S. Bernabela | August 2011 Master Arabic, Persian and Turkish Languages and Cultures Track: Arabic Studies

Master’s thesis Supervisors: Dr. Rudolf E. de Jong & Prof. dr. Harry J. Stroomer

Leiden University | Faculty of Humanities | Leiden Institute for Area Studies | School of Middle Eastern Studies

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CONTENTS

Abbreviations and symbols ................................................................................................................. 8 Preface.................................................................................................................................................. 12

Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 14 a. General ............................................................................................................................................. 14 b. Aim of this study ............................................................................................................................ 16 c. əlǦēdih ............................................................................................................................................. 16 d. Collecting linguistic material ....................................................................................................... 17 e. Processing the material ................................................................................................................. 19 f. Transcription .................................................................................................................................. 20 1.0 Phonology .................................................................................................................................... 22 1.1 Consonants .................................................................................................................................. 22 1.1.1 Consonant inventory ............................................................................................................. 22 1.1.2 Postalveolar affricate ǧ.......................................................................................................... 22 1.1.3 Glottal stop ʔ ........................................................................................................................... 23 1.1.4 Pharyngeal fricative ħ ........................................................................................................... 23 1.1.5 Velar stop k and uvular stop q .............................................................................................. 23 1.1.6 Approximant r ........................................................................................................................ 24 1.1.6.1

Reflexes of historical *r ..................................................................................................... 24

1.1.6.2

r realised as [l] .................................................................................................................... 25

1.1.6.3

r realised as [n] ................................................................................................................... 25

1.1.7 Instability of the lateral approximant l .............................................................................. 25 1.1.8 Phonemic overlap between n and l...................................................................................... 25 1.1.9 Secondary velarisation .......................................................................................................... 26 1.1.10 Reflexes of the Old Arabic interdental fricatives *ṯ, *ḏ and *ḏ ....................................... 26 1.1.11 OA *ʕ and its reflexes ............................................................................................................. 26 1.1.12 Voiced palatal stop g.............................................................................................................. 27 1.1.13 Pausal devoicing of stops and the affricate ǧ ..................................................................... 27 1.1.14 Voicing of consonants in intervocalic position ................................................................. 27 2

CONTENTS

Tekst 1.1.15 Elision of final consonants .................................................................................................... 28 Tekst 1.1.16 Metathesis ............................................................................................................................... 28 Tekst 1.2 Vowels .......................................................................................................................................... 28 Tekst 1.2.1 Short vowels ........................................................................................................................... 28 1.2.1.1

Minimal pairs isolating i, u and a as phonemes............................................................. 29

1.2.1.2

Short vowel o ...................................................................................................................... 29

1.2.1.3

Allophones of the short vowels ....................................................................................... 29

1.2.1.3.1

Allophones of i ................................................................................................................ 29

1.2.1.3.2

Allophones of u ............................................................................................................... 30

1.2.1.3.3

Allophones of a ............................................................................................................... 30

1.2.1.4

Raising of final *–a ............................................................................................................. 30

1.2.1.5

Pausal diphthongisation of final –i.................................................................................. 30

1.2.1.6

Diphthongisation of the 3msg pronominal suffix –u ................................................... 31

1.2.2 Long vowels............................................................................................................................. 32 1.2.2.1

Minimal pairs isolating ī, ē, ā, ū and ō as phonemes ..................................................... 32

1.2.2.2

Disappearance of historical *ā ......................................................................................... 32

1.2.2.2.1

ō and ē as primary reflexes of historical *ā ................................................................ 32

1.2.2.2.2

‘Reappearance’ of *ā as a .............................................................................................. 33

1.2.2.2.3

The feminine plural ending *-āt and the active participle *CāCiC ......................... 34

1.2.2.2.4

Retention of historical *ā ............................................................................................. 34

1.2.2.3

Reflexes of final *–ā(ʔ) ....................................................................................................... 35

1.2.2.4

Allophones of the long vowels ......................................................................................... 35

1.2.2.4.1

Allophones of ē ............................................................................................................... 35

1.2.2.4.2

Allophones of ī ................................................................................................................ 36

1.2.2.4.3

Allophones of ū............................................................................................................... 36

1.2.2.4.4

Allophones of ō ............................................................................................................... 36

1.2.2.4.5

Allophones of ā ............................................................................................................... 36

1.2.2.5

Phonetic overlap between ī and ē and between ū and ō .............................................. 37

1.2.2.6

Shortening of long vowels ................................................................................................ 37

1.2.2.7

Reflexes of OA diphthongs *ay and *aw.......................................................................... 38

2.0 Phonotactics and stress ........................................................................................................... 39 2.1 Elision ........................................................................................................................................... 39 2.1.2 Elision of short vowels i and a in verbs............................................................................... 39 3

CONTENTS

2.1.3 Elision of short vowel a in active participles ..................................................................... 40 2.1.4 Elision in other positions ...................................................................................................... 40 2.2 Anaptyctics.................................................................................................................................. 40 2.2.1 General ..................................................................................................................................... 40 2.2.2 Anaptyctics in sandhi ............................................................................................................ 41 2.2.3 The phonetic quality of the anaptyctic vowel ................................................................... 41 2.2.4 Anaptyctics after resyllabification ...................................................................................... 42 2.2.5 Exceptions ............................................................................................................................... 42 2.3 Assimilation ................................................................................................................................ 43 2.3.1 Complete progressive assimilation ..................................................................................... 43 2.3.2 Complete regressive assimilation ........................................................................................ 44 2.3.4 Partial regressive assimilation ............................................................................................. 44 2.3.5 Assimilation of l in the definite article əl- ~ il-................................................................... 44 2.4 Stress ............................................................................................................................................ 44 2.4.1 Stress in words with heavy sequences................................................................................ 44 2.4.2 Stress in words without heavy sequences.......................................................................... 45 2.4.3 The phonetic qualities of stress ........................................................................................... 46 3.0 Morphology ................................................................................................................................. 47 3.1 Nominal morphology................................................................................................................. 47 3.1.1 Personal pronominals ........................................................................................................... 47 3.1.1.1

Independent personal pronominals ............................................................................... 47

3.1.1.2

Suffixed personal pronominals........................................................................................ 48

3.1.2 Demonstrative pronouns ...................................................................................................... 49 3.1.3 Intensive pronoun ................................................................................................................. 50 3.1.4 Relative pronoun .................................................................................................................... 50 3.1.5 The definite article ................................................................................................................ 50 3.1.6 Interrogatives ......................................................................................................................... 51 3.1.7 Negational particle mā and enclitic –lu .............................................................................. 53 3.1.8 Some prepositions ................................................................................................................. 53 3.1.8 Some prepositions with pronominal suffixes .................................................................... 55 3.1.10 ‘Yes’ and ‘no’ ........................................................................................................................... 56 3.1.11 Genitive marker...................................................................................................................... 56 3.1.12 Some conjunctions ................................................................................................................. 56 4

CONTENTS

3.1.13 Conditional conjunctions...................................................................................................... 58 3.1.14 Adverbs .................................................................................................................................... 58 3.1.14.1 Local adverbs ...................................................................................................................... 58 3.1.14.2 Some temporal adverbs .................................................................................................... 58 3.1.14.3 Some manner adverbs ....................................................................................................... 60 3.1.15 Existential prepositions ........................................................................................................ 61 3.1.16 Particles ................................................................................................................................... 61 3.2 Verbal morphology .................................................................................................................... 62 3.2.1 General: ē –insertion between C3 and consonant-initial suffixes in perfect verbs ...... 62 3.2.2 Measure I: strong verbs ......................................................................................................... 63 3.2.2.1

Perfect .................................................................................................................................. 63

3.2.2.2

Imperfect ............................................................................................................................. 66

3.2.2.3

Imperative ........................................................................................................................... 67

3.2.2.4

Participles............................................................................................................................ 68

3.2.2.4.1

Insertion of –in(n)- between active participle and suffixed pronoun ................... 68

3.2.3 Measure I: mediae geminatae verbs .................................................................................... 69 3.2.3.1

Perfect .................................................................................................................................. 69

3.2.3.2

Imperfect ............................................................................................................................. 69

3.2.3.3

Imperative ........................................................................................................................... 70

3.2.3.4

Participles............................................................................................................................ 70

3.2.4 Measure I: mediae infirmae verbs ....................................................................................... 71 3.2.4.1

Perfect .................................................................................................................................. 71

3.2.4.2

Imperfect ............................................................................................................................. 71

3.2.4.3

Imperative ........................................................................................................................... 72

3.2.4.4

Participles............................................................................................................................ 72

3.2.5 Measure I: tertiae infirmae verbs ........................................................................................ 73 3.2.5.1

Perfect .................................................................................................................................. 73

3.2.5.2

Imperfect ............................................................................................................................. 74

3.2.5.3

Imperative ........................................................................................................................... 74

3.2.5.4

Participles............................................................................................................................ 74

3.2.5.5

ǧaru, yiǧru ‘to run’ and qaru, yiqru ‘to read’ .................................................................... 75

3.2.5.6

Reduced variant of yibġi ‘he wants’ ................................................................................. 75

3.2.6 Measure I: primae wāw verbs ............................................................................................... 75 3.2.6.1

Perfect .................................................................................................................................. 75 5

CONTENTS

Tekst 3.2.6.2 3.2.6.3

Imperfect ............................................................................................................................. 75 Tekst Imperative ........................................................................................................................... 76

3.2.6.4

Tekst Participles............................................................................................................................ 76

3.2.7 Measure I: primae hamza verbs ............................................................................................ 77 Tekst 3.2.7.1 Perfect .................................................................................................................................. 77 3.2.7.2

Imperfect ............................................................................................................................. 77

3.2.7.3

Imperative ........................................................................................................................... 78

3.2.7.4

Participles............................................................................................................................ 78

3.2.8 šall, yšill ‘to carry’ and qōl, yqūl / qall, yqall ‘to say’ ............................................................ 78 3.2.9 The derived stems .................................................................................................................. 80 3.2.9.1

Measure II............................................................................................................................ 80

3.2.9.2

Measure III .......................................................................................................................... 82

3.2.9.3

Measure IV .......................................................................................................................... 82

3.2.9.4

Measure t-II ......................................................................................................................... 82

3.2.9.5

Measure t-III........................................................................................................................ 83

3.2.9.6

Measure n-I ......................................................................................................................... 83

3.2.9.7

Measure I-t .......................................................................................................................... 84

3.2.9.8

Measure X............................................................................................................................ 85

3.2.10 Internal passive ...................................................................................................................... 85 3.2.11 Verbal negation and the prohibitive .................................................................................. 86 3.2.12 Future marker......................................................................................................................... 87 4.0 Sample texts ................................................................................................................................ 88 4.1 Text 1 – On traditional wedding customs ............................................................................... 88 4.2 Text 2 – A joke ............................................................................................................................. 93 4.3 Text 3 – On date palms .............................................................................................................. 95 4.4 Glossary with the texts .............................................................................................................. 98 5.0 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................. 100

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ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS

acc.

accusative

appr. approximately coll.

collective noun

e.g.

exempli gratia

EAD

Eastern Arabian dialects*1)

EGA

Educated Gulf Arabic*1)

f

feminine

fpl

feminine plural

fsg

feminine singular

gem. geminatae GA

Gulf Arabic

ibid.

ibidem

i.e.

id est

inf.

infirmae

intr.

intransitive

lit.

literally

m

masculine

med. mediae mpl

masculine plural

MSA Modern Standard Arabic msg

masculine singular

nom. nominative OA

Old Arabic (putative ancestor of modern dialects)

OmA Omani Arabic p.

person

pass. passive prim. primae ŠA

Šiħħi Arabic

sg

singular

s.o.

someone

s.t.

something 8

ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS

tert.

tertiae

trans. transitive C

any consonant; different consonants that belong to the same root are distinguished with subscript numbers: C1, C2, etc.

v

any short vowel any long vowel

V

any short or long vowel

[]

phonetic transcription between square brackets

//

phonemic transcription between slashes

*

precedes historical forms or phonemes, or follows a form on which a remark or an explanation is given below

^

precedes an ungrammatical form

#

speech pause

+

followed by ...

→

develops synchronically into

←

develops synchronically from

>

developed historically into; or follows the equivalent form in MSA


Persian aġt > vaxt (after devoicing before voiceless consonant).20 Since Musandam is relatively close to Iran,21 it is not unlikely that the result of this sound change in Persian is making its way back into ŠA. 1.1.6 Approximant r 1.1.6.1 Reflexes of historical r Another feature that sets ŠA apart from neighbouring dialects 22 is represented by the reflexes of historical *r. For most speakers, the standard realisation of r is a retroflex approximant [ɻ], which has already been noted by Jayakar.23 Some examples are: rōs [ɻo:s] ‘head’; raqabih [ɻɑˈqaːbiʰ] ‘neck’; bōkar [ˈbɔ:kəɻ] ‘tomorrow’. In the vicinity of front vowels, it may be fronted to an alveolar approximant [ɹ]: ħrīmih [ʔəħˈɹi:miʰ] ‘woman’; riħlih [ˈɹɪħliʰ] ‘trip’. In intervocalic position, it is usually pronounced as a retroflex flap [ɽ]: baqarih [bɑˈqaːɽiʰ] ‘cow’. In sandhi, retroflex r usually stays retroflex when in intervocalic position: bʔōxar əlqēḍ [ʔəbˈʔoːxəɻ əlˈqɘːd] ‘at the end of summer’; ʔašar u nuṣṣ [ˈʔaʃəɻ ʊ ˈnʊsː] ‘ten and a For an explanation of the long [aː], see §2.4.3. See ‘Persian’ (John R. Perry) in EALL, vol. III, p. 574. 21 It is approximately 55 km across the Strait of Hormuz to Iran, a distance that can easily be bridged by small boats. Regular contact between the two communities on either side of the Strait through trade does not seem unlikely. 22 Holes (1990:263) reports a voiced apico-alveolar trill for EGA; Johnstone (1967:22) notes a trill [r] for EAD; and Reinhardt (1894:5) also mentions a trill, produced in the front of the mouth, for OmA. 23 See Jayakar (1902:249-50). 19 20

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half’. Word-medially following a consonant, however, one usually hears an alveolar trill [r] or an alveolar flap [ɾ], as in the following examples: kabrat [ˈk br t] ‘she grew’; ʔišrīn [ʔɪʃˈɾi:n] ‘twenty’. Some speakers, though, articulate an alveolar trill or flap in all positions, as is common for most other dialects. 1.1.6.2 r realised as [l] Sometimes r is realised as a lateral approximant [l], as in the following examples: [qɔ:sɑl] (← qōṣar) ‘need’; [kɪblaʊ #] (← kibru #) ‘his size’; [xəlqiʰ] (← xərqih) ‘piece of cloth’. The same process but in reverse, i.e. l being realized as [r], happens as well (see below under § 1.1.7). 1.1.6.3 r realised as [n] In the following example, which has also been mentioned by Jayakar,24 r is realised as a velar nasal [n]: [ˈmɑnǧɑl] (< OA *mirǧal) ‘cooking pan’. 1.1.7 Instability of the lateral approximant l Historical *l has several unexpected realisations. In raqqaṭ (< OA *laqqaṭ) ‘he picked’, historical *l consistently has r as its reflex. In other places, it has [l] and [r] as allophones in free variation, as in the following examples: niflaqu ~ nifraqu ‘we split it (msg)’; tiqlaʔ ~ tiqraʔ ‘you (msg) pull out’. 1.1.8 Phonemic overlap between n and l There is phonemic overlap between l and n in for instance the following items that historically have *l: mōl ~ mōn genitive marker; maqli ~ maqni ‘fried (msg)’; əlxēl ~ əlxēn ‘the horse’. Some examples with historical *n include: ġanam ~ ġalam ‘cattle’: manōmih ~ malōmih ‘place to sleep’; ʔumōn ~ ʔumōl ‘Oman’.25

See Jayakar (1902:250). *l > n and *n > l occur in several Moroccan dialects as well. See Heath (2002:148-9). Behnstedt (Von n-Aṣər (Al-Qaṣr) nach Īgni (Īgli), pp. 49-52, in Approaches to Arabic Dialects: a collection of articles presented to Manfred Woidich on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday, ed. Haak M., a.o.) reports *l > n for the dialects of Zrīgāt and Īgli in Morocco. 24 25

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1.1.9 Secondary velarisation In ŠA, secondary velarisation only plays a minor role with regard to l and r. The only recorded occurrence of velarised l is in wa ah ‘by God’, as opposed to walla ‘or’. r may be velarised if it is doubled and preceded or followed by a velarised consonant, as in the following examples: ṭarrōd ‘boat’; tḍarraṭ ‘he became proud’. Since no minimal pairs could be established to isolate it as phoneme, and because it has an infrequent predictable occurrence, velarised r is not reflected in the transcription. 1.1.10 Reflexes of the OA interdental fricatives *ṯ, *ḏ and *ḏ The OA interdental fricatives *ṯ, *ḏ and *ḏ have disappeared in ŠA and have as their reflexes their plosive counterparts t, d and ḍ, respectively.26 Some examples are: baħt (< *baħṯ) ‘research’; danab (< *ḏanab) ‘tail’; ḍahr (< *ḏahr) ‘back’. However, one may occasionally hear an interdental fricative being articulated, but this is probably due to the influence of MSA through the media and the mosque. They can typically be heard in lexical items that are very common in MSA, and to a lesser extent in ŠA as well, as in the following examples: kaṯīr ‘much’; maṯalan ‘for example’; ʔiḏa ‘if’; ḏall ‘he stayed’. But note that all of these items are more often produced with stops than with interdentals. 1.1.11 OA *ʕ and its reflexes OA *ʕ has largely been lost, leaving the glottal stop ʔ as its primary reflex, although its phonetic realisation varies in different positions. Word-initially it is always [ʔ]: ʔēraf [ˈʔeːɽ f]] ‘knowing’; ʔēyšīn [ʔeˑɪˈʃiːn] ‘living (cpl)’. Word-medially in onset position, it is also quite stable and usually realised as [ʔ]: bi lʔaṣr [b ɪlˈʔaːsəɻ] ‘in the afternoon’; yirʔaf [ˈjɪɻʔaf] ‘he knows’. Word-medially in intervocalic position, it is also usually realised as [ʔ]: maʔīših [məˈʔiːʃiʰ] ‘way of life’; twaqqaʔu [ʔətˈwɑqqaʔʊ] ‘expect! (cpl)’; yirǧ ʔun [jɪɻˈʤɪʔʊn] ‘they return’, although it is sometimes elided, as in maʔak [m ːk] ‘with you (msg)’. Word-medially in coda position, however, there is often an off-glide instead of a glottal stop, as in the following examples: baʔd [bæəd] ‘after’; maʔnu [ˈm ənu] ‘with us’. Or there is a glottal stop, but then it is often followed by a short ə, as in ħdaʔšar [əħˈdaʔəʃæɻ] ‘twelve’ and maʔham [ˈm ʔəh m] ‘with them’. In this position, it may also be completely elided, which causes the neighbouring vowel to be lengthened: tnaʔšar [ʔətˈnaːʃəɻ] ‘eleven’. The only counterexamples in the date are summa (< *ṯumma) ‘then’ and ħafīz (< *ħafīḏ) ‘(shop)keeper’, that have sibilants rather than stops as reflexes of *ṯ and *ḏ respectively. 26

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Word-finally, it is nearly always elided, often with compensatory lengthening of the neighbouring vowel, but without stress shift: ʔarbaʔ [ˈʔɑɻb ː] ‘four’; yismaʔ [ˈjɪsm ː] ‘he hears’. Sporadically, ʕ can still be heard, mainly in loans and formulas taken from MSA, such as in the greeting assalāmu ʕalēkum ‘may peace be upon you’, but also in the filler yaʕni there is often an ʕ audible, which might be because it is pronounced thus all over the Arab world. It could be that the development *ʕ > ʔ is an influence from Persian. In Arabic loanwords incorporated in Persian, the Arabic ʕ is ignored in initial (and, colloquially, final) position; it is realised as a glide or a glottal stop between vowels, and before a consonant as a lengthening of the neighbouring vowel: baːd for baʕd ‘after’.27 As with q → [x] / [ɣ] / [qx], it is possible that the result of the sound change ʕ > ʔ as it happened in Persian made its way back into ŠA. 1.1.12 Voiced palatal stop g The voiced palatal stop g is a marginal phoneme that only occurs in loans from GA where it is reflex a of historical *q, such as in raggih ‘watermellon’; ṭōbūg ‘cement’. Also heard was the following loan from Englsh: gēr [ɡɪːr] ‘gear’. Note the trill [r] instead of the retroflex [ɻ] in the last example. 1.1.13 Pausal devoicing of stops and the affricate ǧ The stops b, d, and ḍ and the affricate ǧ are prone to devoicing before a pause: [xɑˈsɑ:b] (← xaṣāb) ‘Khasab (place name)’; [x d] (← xad) ‘he took’; [beːᵊd] (← bēḍ) ‘eggs’; [jəħˈtɪ:tʃ] (← yiħtēǧ) ‘he needs’.

1.1.14 Voicing of consonants in intervocalic position In intervocalic position, voiceless consonants may become voiced, as in the following examples: ħaṣṣlaw šay [ˈħɑslaʊ aj] ‘they obtained something’; bi lwusṭ # [b ɪlˈwʊzət #] ‘in the middle’. From the last example it becomes clear that anaptyctics precedes voicing, otherwise s would not be intervocalic.

27

See ‘Persian’ (John R. Perry) in EALL, vol. III, p. 574.

27

1.1.15 Elision of final consonants Final consonants are often elided, primarily before a speech pause, but also in context. Some examples include the following: maʔkam ʔintun kā ? (← kām) ‘how many is it with you (cpl)?’; əlʔadwōt … m nqa (← manqar28)’ ‘the tools … chisel (used for removing the palm branch roots)’; əššaʔar kō bih xē (← xēr) mā ṭ la (← ṭalaʔ) ‘the hair, if it would be good, it wouldn’t grow’; ʔaw kō māk bēša (← bēšak29) ʔaw kō māk ǧərs ‘ … or if you (msg) have a bēsak or if you have a dagger’. 1.1.16 Metathesis The imperfect of ʔaraf ‘he knew’ displays metathesis, in that ʔ and r switched positions: yirʔaf ‘he knows’. As the perfect, the active participle does not show metathesis: ʔēraf ‘knowing / having known (msg)’. 1.2 Vowels 1.2.1 Short vowels Front

Mid

Back

High i

u

Mid

(o)

Low

a

As can been seen in the diagram above, ŠA has four short vowels, of which o is only marginal (see below under §1.2.1.2).

manqar is probably a cognate of MSA minqār ‘beak’. Of the same root are manʔa a and munga a, which are used in Egypt in the Delta for ‘pickaxe’. See Behnstedt (1994b:479). 29 bēšak: A knife that was carried for self defense in the past. Today it is used for slaughtering animals, and it is worn by the groom during a traditional wedding ceremony. The word bēšak may be of Turkish origin, since Steingrass (1977:263) considers the Persian word pīxāq ‘knife’ to be derived from that language. 28

28

1.2.1.1 Minimal pairs isolating i, u and a as phonemes Listed below are some minimal pairs to isolate i, u and a as separate phonemes. i

a

u

šill ‘carry!’ (msg)

šall ‘he carried’

ṣubb ‘pour! (msg) ṣabb ‘he poured’

ridd ‘answer! (msg) radd ‘he aswered’

i

u

hōdi ‘this (f)’

hōdu ‘this (m)’

li ‘for, to’

lu ‘right?, isn’t it?’

ħuff ‘cut! (msg)

a ħaff ‘he cut’

1.2.1.2 Short vowel o The back rounded vowel o is represented between brackets, because it is only a marginal phoneme. One minimal pair could be established to isolate it as a phoneme: ʔōnu ʔābu [ʔa:bʊ] walad ‘I am the father of a son.’ ʔōnu ʔābo [ʔa:bo] walad ‘I want a son.’ In the second sentence, ʔābo is a strongly reduced form of abġi ‘I want’.30 1.2.1.3 Allophones of the short vowels 1.2.1.3.1 Allophones of i Word-finally, i usually has a realisation [i]: ħrīmih [ʔəħˈɽeːmiʰ] ‘woman’. Although [ə] is also very common in this position: hōdi [ˈhɔːdə] ‘this (fsg)’; Word-medially in stressed, closed syllables, i is usually realised as [ɪ]: min [mɪn] ‘from’; yiftaħ [ˈjɪftaħ] ‘he opens’; filqōt [fɪlˈqɔːt] ‘split parts’. In the same position, velarised consonants and ħ may have a centralizing effect on i, towards [ə] : tḍill [ʔəˈdːəlː] ‘she stays’ yiħtēǧ [jəħˈtɪːʤ] ‘he needs’. When i is preceded or followed by the bilabial w, it is always realised as [u]: /yistiwi/ [jɪsˈtuwi] ‘he becomes’; /iywizzūhi/ [ʔi:wʊˈzːʊ:hi] ‘they provoke her’. This consistent realisation of i as [u] in the contiguity of w is reflected in the transcription throughout this study, i.e. yistuwi, ywuzzūhi. In other positions, unstressed i is usually reduced to [ə]: yiqtilūn [jəqtəˈlʊːn] ‘they kill’;

30

For the complete conjugation of this reduced form of yibġi ‘he wants’, see §3.2.5.6.

29

māti [ˈm ːtə] ‘when?’. 1.2.1.3.2 Allophones of u The standard realisation of u is [ʊ]: hōdu [ˈhɔːdʊ] ‘this (m)’; summa [ˈsʊmːa] ‘then’; luġih [ˈlʊɣiʰ] ‘language’. When u is preceded by a velarised consonant or the pharyngeal ħ, it is often lowered towards [ɔ]: nħuff [ʔənˈħɔfː] ‘we shave’; ḍuhr [ˈdɔɦəɻ] ‘afternoon’. Unstressed u is usually reduced to [ə], if it is not elided: dukkōn [dəˈkːɔːn] ‘shop’; dubayy [dəˈbayː] ‘Dubai’. 1.2.1.3.3 Allophones of a In neutral environments, i.e. without any velarised and/or guttural consonants ħ, ʔ or h in the immediate surroundings, and in open syllables, the standard realisation of a is [æ]: nabēt [n ˈbeːt] ‘pollen’; balad [ˈb lɐd] ‘village’; danab [ˈd nɐb] ‘tail’; lakan [l ˈkɐn] ‘but’. In neutral environments and in closed syllables, a is usually realised as [ɐ], as in last three examples mentioned above. If one of the consonants ħ, ʔ or h precedes or follows a, it is usually realised as open [a]: ʔašōn [ˈʔaʃɔ:n] ‘because’; ħasan [ˈħas n] ‘Hasan (proper name)’; ʔahl [ˈʔaɦəl] ‘family’. In the vicinity of one of the velarised consonants ṣ, ṭ or ḍ, a is usually backed [ɑ] and velarised: qōṣar [ˈqɔ:sɑɻ] ‘need’; manṭaqih [ˈmɐntɑqiʰ] ‘area’; manḍarih [ˈmɐndɑɽiʰ] ‘mirror’. The uvulars q and x have the same backing effect: qarnēn [qɑɻˈneːn] ‘two horns’; xallnu [ˈxɑlnʊ] ‘let us’. 1.2.1.4 Raising of final *–a In tertiae infirmae verbs and in the feminine ending *-ah, a is consistently raised to i. Examples of tertiae infirmae verbs: maši [ˈm ʃi] ‘he walked’; baki [ˈb ki] ‘he cried’; laqi [ˈlaqi] ‘he found’. Examples of the feminine ending raised to –ih: šaǧarih ‘tree’ [ʃ ˈʤɑːɽiʰ] ; ħōrih [ˈħɔːɽiʰ] ‘street’; riħlih [ˈɹɪħliʰ] ‘trip’. Preceding velarised or pharyngeal consonants do not prevent raising of a, as the following examples demonstrate: bīṭih [biːᵊtiʰ] ‘rope made of cattle hair’; xūṣih [ˈxʊːsiʰ] ‘palm leave’; tuffōħih [tʊˈfːɔːħiʰ] ‘apple’. When the 3fsg pronominal suffix is raised to –hi, the i usually has the phonetic quality [ɪ]: tǧībhi [ʔəˈʤːiːbhɪ] ‘she brings her’. 1.2.1.5 Pausal diphthongisation of final –i Before a pause, the ending –i in the items mentioned below is often diphthongised to [aɪ], 30

[eɪ] or [iɪ]. In slow careful speech one usually hears [aɪ], whereas in more sloppy or rapid speech it is usually [eɪ] or [iɪ]. Although as a rule this diphthongisation occurs only before a speech pause, it sometimes happens in context as well, but then usually [eɪ] or [iɪ] and rarely [aɪ]. Pausal diphthongisation of -i occurs in the following items: - tertiae infirmae imperfects, e.g. yimši # [ˈjɪmʃaɪ #] ‘he walks’; tibġi # [ˈtɪbɣaɪ #] ‘she wants’ - tertiae infirmae passive participles, e.g. mansi # [ˈm nsaɪ] ‘forgotten’; masqi # [ˈm sqaɪ] irrigated’ - 2fsg imperatives, e.g. ktabi # [ʔəˈktæbaɪ #] ‘write!’; šrabi [ʔəˈʃræbaɪ] ‘drink!’ - tertiae infirmae nouns, e.g. nēdi # [ˈneːdaɪ #] ‘club’; tēni # [ˈteːnaɪ #] ‘second’ - nisba’s, e.g. hūlandi # [hʊːˈlɛndaɪ #] ‘Dutch’; kumzōri # [kʊmˈzoːɽaɪ #] ‘Kumzāri’ - the fsg demonstrative: hōdi # [ˈhɔːdaɪ] ‘this (f)’ - the 1csg pronominal suffixes –i (nom.) and –ni (acc.): bēti # [ˈbeːtaɪ #] ‘my house’; šūfni # [ˈʃʊːfnaɪ #] ‘look (msg) at me!’ The final –i in the 3fsg pronominal suffix –hi and in the 2msg independent pronominal ʔinti is often slightly diphthongised to –iy, but only before a speech pause, e.g. fēsl nhi # [feːsˈlɪnhiɪ] ‘having planted it (f)’; kām maʔak ʔinti ? # [ˈʔɪntiɪ] ‘how many (is it) with you (msg)?’. Note that final –a raised to –i in tertiae infirmae perfect verbal forms and in the feminine morpheme –i(t) is never diphthongised: maši (^mašay) ‘he walked’; qabīlih (^qabīlay) ‘tribe’. 1.2.1.6 Diphthongisation of the 3msg pronominal suffix –u Before a pause, the 3msg pronominal suffix –u is diphthongized to [aʊ] ~ [oʊ]. In slow careful speech one usually hears [aʊ], whereas in more sloppy or rapid speech it is usually [oʊ]. In context, no such diphthongisation occurs. Some examples include: bētu # [ˈbeːtaʊ #] ‘his house’; ʔēdu # [ˈʔeːdoʊ #] ‘his hand’; ydaxxlu # [ʔiːˈdɑxlaʊ #] ‘he lets him enter’; šiftu # [ˈʃɪftaʊ #] ‘I saw him’; qataltu # [qaˈtɐltaʊ #] ‘I killed him’.

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1.2.2 Long vowels Front

Mid

High ī Mid

Back ū

ē

Low

ō ā

1.2.2.1 Minimal pairs isolating ī, ē, ā, ū and ō as phonemes Listed below are some (near) minimal pairs isolating ī, ē, ā, ū and ō as separate phonemes. ī

ē

ū

ō

bīʔ ‘sell! (msg)

bēʔ ‘he sold’

qūl ‘say! (msg)

qōl ‘he said’31

šūf ‘see! (msg)

šōf ‘he saw’

ǧīb ‘bring! (msg) ǧēb ‘he brought’ ā

ō

mān ‘who? (interrogative)’

mōn genitive marker

near minimal pair: ā

ē

mā šī ‘there is / are not’

mēši ‘walking / having walked (msg)’

1.2.2.2 Disappearance of historical *ā 1.2.2.2.1 ō and ē as primary reflexes of historical *ā One of the most remarkable features of ŠA is the fact that historical *ā has largely disappeared, leaving two primary reflexes: raised ē and backed and rounded ō. Apart from a small number of items in which *ā has been retained (see below under §1.2.2.2.4), this development is universal. There are no binding rules that always correctly predict the occurrence of ē and ō, although some general tendencies can be identified. If we exclude the reflex of the feminine plural ending *-āt and that of the active participle with the historical pattern *CāCiC, which are morphologically rather than phonologically conditioned and will be dealt with below (§1.2.2.2.3), the following rule can be formulated: if *ā is both preceded

31

In the verbal noun qōwl ‘speech’, the OA diphthong *aw is still slightly diphthongal: [qɔːʊl].

32

and followed by a front consonant32 that is not a nasal (n or m), nor one of the velarised consonants (ṭ, ḍ or ṣ), it has a reflex ē; if it has no or only one front consonant in its immediate surroundings, it usually has a reflex ō. Consider the examples listed below. *ā raised to ē:

*ā backed and rounded to ō:

šēl (< *šāl) ‘shawl’

xōl (< *xāl) ‘maternal uncle’

ǧēb (< *ǧāb) ‘he brought’

qōl (< *qāl) ‘he said’

zēd (< *zād) ‘he increased’

kōn (< *kān) ‘he was’

ǧbēl (< *ǧibāl) ‘mountains’

xyōr (< *xiyār) ‘choice’

dyēy (< *duǧāǧ) ‘chicken’

ṣġōr (< *ṣuġār) ‘small (cpl)’

ħbēl (< *ħibāl) ‘ropes’

ħmōr (< *ħimār) ‘donkey’

qabēyal (< *qabāʔil) ‘tribes’

manōḍar (< *manāḍir) ‘mirrors’

ǧawēnab (< *ǧawānib) ‘sides’

manōṭaq (< *manāṭiq) ‘area’s’

However, the abovementioned ‘rule’ should merely be considered a rule of thumb, since there are quite a few examples in the data that have ē where one would expect ō and the other way around. Some examples with ē in back environments are the following: dēxal (< *dāxil) ‘in’; taqēlīd (< *taqālīd) ‘traditions’; ʔahēli (< *ʔahālin) ‘families’. Examples that have ō in front environments: talōt (< *ṯalāṯ) ‘three’; balōlīṭ (< *balālīṭ) ‘macaroni’; tawōyar (< *tawāyir) ‘tyres’.

1.2.2.2.2 ‘Reappearance’ of *ā as a In certain cases, historical *ā ‘reappears’ as a short a. When one of the plural endings –īn (m) or –ōt (f) is suffixed to a word that contains a reflex of historical *ā, stress shifts to the plural marker and the preceding long vowel (one of the reflexes of *ā, i.e. ē or ō) is shortened,33 not to e or o respectively, but to a: tal t ‘three’ + īn → talatīn ‘thirty’; ry l ‘Riyal’ + ōt → riyal t ‘Riyals’. *ā may also reappear as a short a, when stress is regressed34 from the syllable that

Bilabials, labio-dentals, alveolars and palatals (except the nasals m and n, and the velarised consonants ṭ, ḍ and ṣ) are here considered as front consonants. Next to all the postpalatal consonants, retroflex r counts as a back consonant as well. 33 For shortening of long vowels, see §1.2.2.6. 34 For regression of stress, see §2.4.1. 32

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contains the reflex of *ā to the preceding syllable, as in ʔ ṣħab (← ʔaṣħ b) ‘friends’, although the following example in which ō is shortened to o was also recorded: m kon (← mak n) ‘place’. 1.2.2.2.3 The feminine plural ending *-āt and the active participle *CāCiC There are two morphological categories that are exempted from the phonological conditioning as described above, namely the feminine plural ending *-āt, which has –ōt as its reflex in all surroundings, and the active participle, which is always formed according to the pattern CēCaC (< *CāCiC), irrespective of phonological factors. Examples of the feminine ending –ōt include: hadīyōt ‘gifts’; ħabbōt ‘seeds’; marrōt ‘times, turns’. Some examples of the active participle (msg) are: sēkan ‘living (msg)’; qētal ‘having killed (msg)’; ʔēraf ‘knowing (msg)’. It should be noted here that nouns that are petrified active participles, now carrying their own lexical meaning, do conform to the abovementioned phonological conditioning, whereas the active participle of the same root that still has verbal force must be formed according to the pattern CēCaC, which yields contrasting pairs such as: ṭōlab ‘student’

-

ṭēlab ‘ordering / having ordered (msg)’

xōdam ‘servant’

-

xēdam ‘serving / having served (msg)’

qōlab ‘mould’

-

qēlab ‘turning / having turned (msg)’

1.2.2.2.4 Retention of historical *ā The limited number of items in which historical *ā has been retained, can roughly be divided into three categories, namely proper names, grammatical items and a small set of various nouns and verbal conjugations. Examples of proper names in which historical *ā has been retained include: xaṣāb ‘Khasab (place name)’; marwān ‘Marwān’; brītāni ‘Britain’. Historical *ā has also been retained in some grammatical items. The most common one is the morpheme mā, which is used to express both verbal and constituent negation, and is suffixed to prepositions in conjunctions, such as baʔədmā ‘after’; qabəlmā ‘before’; wēnmā ‘wherever’, etc. In the OA interrogative *mā ‘what?’, however, *ā has been backed and rounded to ō, yielding the contrastive pair mō ‘what?’ – mā NEG, e.g. mā ʔadri mō ‘I don’t know what’. Other grammatical items with retained *ā are the vocative yā (yā ʔali ‘Oh Ali’); 34

lā ~ ʔəlā ‘no’; and the auxiliary verb lāzim ‘must’ (although the ŠA equivalent lēzam was also heard). Finally, there is a rather heterogeneous set of nouns and verbal conjugations with retained *ā. Some recorded nouns with ā are: fanār ‘lantern’; baṭāṭis ‘potatoes’; ʔašyā ‘things’; ħmār ‘donkey’ (although for the last two the ŠA equivalents ʔašyō and ħmōr were also recorded); suwāsi ‘udders’; ġuwāli ‘snakes’; ġubāri ‘dust (cpl)’; ruwāsi ‘heads’. Note the recurring pattern CuCāCi in the last three examples. Some verbal conjugations with retained *ā that occur in the recorded material are: ysāʔdūn ‘they help’; byittām ‘he will stay’; and the active participle mitwāǧid ‘present (msg)’. 1.2.2.3 Reflexes of final *–ā(ʔ) OA *–ā(ʔ) has two primary reflexes. It has either been raised and shortened to –i, or it has been backed and rounded to –ō, and in some items this –ō then developed into short –o / -u. Examples of –i are: *hawāʔ > hawi ‘wind’; *ġadāʔ > ġadi ‘lunch’; *matā > māti ‘when? (interrogative)’; *šitāʔ > ʔ šti35 ‘winter’; *ʕišāʔ > ləʔši36 ‘evening’. The ending *-ā in tertiae infirmae verbs has also been raised to –i: laqi ‘he found’; ġanni ‘he sang’; tħakki ‘he told’. Likewise, the 3fsg pronominal suffix *-hā has been raised to -hi. Examples of –ō include: *hunā > hinō ‘here’; *ḏirāʔ > drōʔ ‘arm’. In the following items, the reflex –ō developed into –o or -u: *warāʔ > waru ‘behind’; *lā > lu = negational particle; *nā > -nu = 1cpl pronominal suffix; *māʔ > ʔəlmo37. 1.2.2.4 Allophones of the long vowels 1.2.2.4.1 Allophones of ē The standard realisation of ē is [eː]: kēf [keːf] ‘how?’; wēn [weːn] ‘where?’; ʔahēli [ʔaˈheːli] ‘families’. Preceded by b or w, ē is often raised to [ɪː]: bēb [bɪːb] ‘door’; ħbēl [ʔəħˈbɪːl] ‘ropes’; wēħad [ˈwɪːħɑd] ‘one’. A following y may enhance this raising to [iː]: qabēyal [qaˈbiːyəl] ‘tribes’. In the following example, with a following ǧ, ē is also raised to [ɪː]: yiħtēǧ [jəħˈtɪːʤ] ‘he needs’. When ē is preceded by a velarised consonant, there be may be an on-glide [ᵊ] audible; In ʔ šti, the originally anaptyctic vowel i (inserted after a pause or a consonant to resolve the initial consonant cluster in šti) is now stressed and has become part of the morphological base. 36 Here the article lə- has ‘fused’ with the morphological base ʔši. See §3.1.5 for a description and more examples of this phenomena. 37 See note 36 (here: əl + mō > ʔəlmō > ʔəlmo). 35

35

when it is followed by one, there may be an off-glide [ᵊ]: ṭēyfih [ˈtᵊeːɪfiʰ] ‘passing by (fsg)’; bēḍ [beːᵊd] ‘eggs’. When ē is preceded by q, it is centralised to [ɘː]: qēḍ [ˈqɘːd] ‘summer’; qēlʔ nhi [qɘːlˈʔɪnhi] ‘having plucked her out (msg)’. 1.2.2.4.2 Allophones of ī The standard realisation of ī is [iː]: ṭawīl [tɑˈwiːl] ‘long’; qabīlih [qaˈbiːliʰ] ‘tribe’; maʔīših [m ˈʔiːʃiʰ] ‘way of life’. In the following example with a preceding ṭ, there was an on-glide [ᵊ] audible: mitxēlṭīn [mɪt xeˑlˈtᵊiːn] ‘having mingled (cpl)’. An off-glide [ᵊ] was audible in the following example that has a following ṭ: bīṭih [biːᵊtiʰ] ‘rope made of cattle’s hair’. Unfortunately, only examples with ṭ were recorded, but it is possible that ī behaves in the same way next to other velarised consonants, although in the example below (yqīḍ), there was no off-glide. When ī is preceded by q, it may be slightly centralised towards [ɨ]: yqīḍ [ʔiˑˈqɨːd] ‘he stays for the summer’. 1.2.2.4.3 Allophones of ū The standard realisation of ū is [ʊː], as in the following examples: tkūn [ʔətˈkʊːn] ‘you (msg) are’; mawğūd [maʊˈʤʊːd] ‘present (sg)’; ʔarūs [ʔaˈɽʊːs] ‘groom’. Near velarised consonants, it may be slightly lowered towards [oː]: tħaṭṭūhi [ʔətħɑˈtːoːhi] ‘you (cpl) put it (fsg)’. 1.2.2.4.4 Allophones of ō The standard realisation of ō is a low close back rounded [ɔː], as in the following examples: hōdu [ˈhɔːdʊ] ‘this (msg)’; kōn [kɔːn] ‘he was’; ṣġōr [ʔəˈsɣɔːɻ] ‘small (cpl)’. When ō is preceded by a front consonant, it is often realised slightly higher, towards [oː]: kidōlak [kɪˈdoːl k] ‘like this’; sōfar [soːf ɻ] ‘he travelled’; ʔayyōm [ʔ ˈjːoːm] ‘days’. A following r usually keeps ō at [ɔ:] when a front consonant precedes: siyyōrih [sɪˈjːɔːɽiʰ] ‘car’; taǧōrih [t ˈʤɔ:ɽiʰ] ‘trade’. When ō is preceded by r, it is usually raised towards [ʊː]: rōs [ɽʊːs] ‘head’; trōh [ʔəˈtrʊːh] = presentative particle. 1.2.2.4.5 Allophones of ā Where ā occurs as either a reflex of historical *ā, or as a lengthened short *a, and there are no velarised consonants in its surroundings, it is realised as [ ː]: mā [m ː] ‘not’; suwāsi 36

[sʊˈw ːsi] ‘udders’; ġuwāli [ɣʊˈw ːli] ‘snakes’; māti [ˈm ːti] ‘when?’. After a glottal stop ʔ, ā is open [aː]: ʔābu [ˈʔaːbʊ] ‘father’. Velarised consonants and retroflex r have a backing effect on ā, towards [ɑ]: fanār [fəˈnɑːɻ] ‘lantern’; baṭāṭis [bɑˈṭɑːṭɪs] ‘potatoes’. In hāy ‘yes’, ā is nasalised: [haːj]. 1.2.2.5 Phonetic overlap between ī and ē and between ū and ō There is some phonetic overlap between ī and ē in for instance līham ~ lēham ‘for them’ and ħrīmih ~ ħrēmih ‘woman’, although their phonemic status can be established by minimal pairs such as bīʔ ‘sell!’ (msg) – bēʔ ‘he sold’ and ǧīb ‘bring!’ (msg) – ǧēb ‘he brought’. There is also phonetic overlap between ū and ō: kūrih ~ kōrih ‘ball’; xūṣ ~ xōṣ ‘palm branch’. Their phonemic status can be demonstrated by pairs such as qūl ‘say! (msg) – qōl ‘he said’ and šūf ‘see! (msg)’ – šōf ‘he saw’. 1.2.2.6 Shortening of long vowels Long vowels are shortened when, as a result of a suffixed consonant-initial morpheme, they are followed by two consonants, as in the following examples: rūħ + ham [ˈrʊˑħːɑm] ‘themselves’; šūf + ni [ˈʃʊfni] ‘look at me’; zwēǧ + ham [ʔəˈzweˑʤh m] ‘their husbands’. Where two or more long vowels occur in one word, be it mono- or polymorphemic, the last one is usually stressed and pronounced as long, whereas the preceding one(s) can be reduced to half long or short, especially in rapid speech. Some examples of monomorphemic words with shortened long vowel are: qōnūn [qɔˑˈnʊːn] ‘law’; ħōbūl [ħoˑˈbʊːl] ‘rope wrap used for climbing a palm tree’; hōdīnu [hɔˑˈdiːnʊ] ‘these’. Examples of polymorphemic words with shortened long vowels: ʔēyšīn (ʔēyaš + īn) [ʔeɪˈʃiːn] ‘living (cpl)’; yšūfūn (yšūf + ūn) [ʔiˑʃʊˑˈfʊːn] ‘they see’; sōʔōt (sōʔih + ōt) [sɔˈʔɔːt] ‘hours / sometimes’. However, there is a strong tendency to regress stress, notably in 3cpl, 2cpl and 2fsg imperfects. When stress is regressed in these items, the (ultimate) long vowel is shortened, as in the following examples: yšūfun (← yšūfūn) ‘they see’; yirǧ ʔun (← yirǧiʔūn) ‘they return’.38 For the sake of morphological transparency, all reduced long vowels have been retained in the transcription throughout this study, with the exception of long vowels that are shortened due to regression of stress, i.e. ʔēyšīn [ʔeɪˈʃiːn] ‘living (cpl)’, but yšūfun (← yšūfūn) ‘they see’. For regression of stress in general, see §2.4.1; for regression of stress in 3cpl, 2cpl and 2fsg imperfects, see §3.2.2.2. 38

37

1.2.2.7 Reflexes of OA diphthongs *ay and *aw The monophthongisation of the OA diphthongs *ay and * aw to ē and ō respectively is not complete, especially for the former, as it is still slightly diphthongal, i.e. [eː i]. Although in more rapid speech, it is usually completely monophthongised, e.g.: *bayt [beːit] ~ [beːt] ‘house’; *ġayr [ġeːiɻ] ~ [ġeːɻ] ‘different’; *kayf [keːif] ~ [keːf] ‘how’; *ḍayf [dᵊeːif] ~ [dᵊeːf] ‘guest’; *mašayna [ʔəmˈʃeːinu] ~ [ʔəmˈʃeːnu] ‘we walked’; *layl [leːil] ~ [leːl] ‘nighttime’. Monophthongisation of *aw is much more complete and [oː] (sometimes [ɔː]) seems to be the standard realisation, as in the following examples: *yawm [joːm] ‘day’; *fawq [foːq] ‘above’; *ṣawb [soːb]; *ħawḍ [ħoːd] ‘water basin’; *dawr [dɔːɻ] ‘turn’. In the following examples, however, *aw is still slightly diphthongal: *qawl [qoːʊl] ‘speaking’; *mawt [moːʊt] ‘death’.39 All primae wāw verbs have ō in their prefixes in the imperfect, i.e.: yōṣal ‘he arrives’; yōqaf ‘he stops’; yōḍaʔ ‘he lays’. The development from *aw to ō ~ ōʷ is not universal, as *aw has been retained in several items. In the data, the following examples with retained *aw occur: ʔaw ‘or’; law ‘if’; zawǧih ‘wife’; zawǧaš ‘your (fsg) husband’; sawġōt ‘groceries’; mawḍūʔ ‘subject; mawǧūd ‘present’; tawǧīl ‘to make a dam around a palm tree (to hold water) (verbal noun)’. No such examples with retained *ay were recorded.40 Where the semivowel of a diphthong is doubled (ayy, aww), the diphthong is always retained, both syllable-initial and –final, as in the following examples: ʔawwal ‘first’; ʔayyih ‘which, any’; ʔayyōm ‘days’; ǧaww ‘weather’.

In the transcription throughout this study, an off-glide is written wherever one is audible in the recordings, e.g. bē t for [beːit] and bēt for [beːt]. 40 Although there is šay ‘thing’, but since the realisation [ʃaɪ] is in free variation with [ʃeː] and [ʃeːi], it cannot really be considered a retained diphthong. Also recorded were dubayy [duˈbayː] ‘Dubai’, but as a proper name it should be treated with caution, and ʔayḍan [ˈʔaɪdɑn] ‘also’, which is here considered a loan from MSA. 39

38

2.0 Phonotactics and stress 2.1 Elision 2.1.1 Elision of short vowels i and u in C C C In words that were historically *C C C, the short vowel has been elided definitively if it is high (an historical *i or *u), but retained if it is an historical *a.41 Some examples of C C C with an elided high vowel are: lsōn (< *lisān) ‘tongue’; ktēb (< *kitāb) ‘book’; snīn (< *sinīn) ‘years’; qbūr (< *qbūr) ‘graves’; byūt (< *buyūt) ‘houses’; ḍyūf (< *ḍuyūf) ‘guests’. Some examples of C C C with retained *a include: zamōn ‘era’; ǧamōl ‘beauty’; makōn ‘place’; ǧadēd ‘date harvest’. 2.1.2 Elision of short vowels i and a in verbs In verbs that end with –vC, this last vowel is prone to elision when a vowel-initial suffix is added to the base. Elision of this vowel is obligatory in the following categories: - in measure I 3fsg and 3cpl perfect forms: šarab + at → šarbat ‘she drank’; kadab + aw → kadbaw ‘they lied’. Note, however, that when a vowel-initial pronominal suffix is attached to a 3msg perfect form, the second base vowel is not elided but is stressed, e.g. ḍar bak ‘he hit you (msg)’; šar bu ‘he drank it (m)’. - in measures n-I and I-t perfect and imperfect verbs. Examples of perfect verbs with elided second base vowel: (n-I) nfataħ + at → nfatħat ‘she was opened’; (I-t) štaġal + aw → štaġlaw ‘they worked’. Examples of imperfect verbs with elided second base vowel include: (n-I) tinkisir + īn → tinkisrīn ‘you (fsg) break (intr.)’; (I-t) yixtilif + ūn → yixtilfūn ‘they are different’. In other places in verbs, elision of the vowel in the ending –vC tends to occur only in rapid speech. Some examples of measure II verbs are: xallaṣ + at → xallṣat [ˈxɑlsɑt]42 ‘she finished’; ħaṣṣal + aw → ħaṣṣlaw ‘they obtained’; daxxal + ak → daxxlak ‘he let you (m) enter’; ykissar + ūn → ykissrūn ‘they break (trans.)’. An exception to this rule is nhōr (< *nahār) ‘daytime’. In Egyptian Arabic, where as a rule short a in open syllables is retained, is nahār an exception as well in the exclamation of surprise ya nhār ʔiswid ‘good grief!’. See Hinds & Badawi (1986:888). 42 For reduction of geminates in consonant clusters CCC, see §2.2.5. 41

39

Examples of measure III verbs: sōfar + aw → sōfraw ‘they travelled’; ybōrak + ūn → ybōrkūn ‘they congratulate’; ʔaǧēwab + u → ʔaǧēwbu ‘I answer it (m)’. Instances of measures t-II and t-III verbs with vowel-initial suffixes have not been recorded, but it is likely that these forms behave the same as measures II and III respectively. 2.1.3 Elision of short vowel a in active participles In active participles, the short vowel a is consistently elided after adding the plural marker –īn: ǧēlas + īn → ǧēlsīn ‘sitting (cpl)’; sēmaʔ + īn → sēmʔīn ‘having heard (cpl)’. No fsg and cpl active participles of the derived measures occur in the texts; but for measures II and III elicitation yielded the following forms (without elision): (II) m kk rih (fsg), mfikkarīn (cpl) ‘thinking / having thought’; msōfarih (fsg), msōfarīn (cpl) ‘travelling / having travelled’. 2.1.4 Elision in other positions In other places, elision of short vowels is not as frequent and regular as in the abovementioned categories, although it does occur, but only when they are unstressed and in open syllables. The short i in the feminine morpheme –i(t) is usually elided when it is in an open syllable, as for instance in ħrīmtēn (← ħrīmitēn) ‘two women). Nouns of the pattern CvCvC with vowels other than a hardly occur, but one example is kutub, in which the second u is elided after attaching a vowel-initial suffix: kutbi (← kutub + i) ‘my books’. In nouns of the pattern CaCaC, the second vowel is always retained after attaching a vowel-initial suffix: qal mi ‘my pen’; ħaǧ ru ‘his stone’. Short a in CaCīC is never elided.

2.2 Anaptyctics 2.2.1 General In general, clusters of three or more consonants, either within word boundaries or in sandhi, are not allowed and are resolved by insertion of an anaptyctic vowel (usually ə, see §2.2.3 for a description of the phonetic quality of the anaptyctic vowel) before the last two consonants (for exceptions, see below under §2.2.5): ø → v / (Ca)Cb _ CcCd Some examples of resolved word-medial consonant clusters include: šift + hi → šifəthi ‘I saw 40

her’; baʔḍ + ham → baʔəḍham ‘some of them’; qalb + hi → qaləbhi ‘her heart’. Since a pause # counts as a consonant here,43 word-initial and –final consonant clusters are resolved by insertion of an anaptyctic vowel as well: #C1C2 → #vC1C2 and C1C2# → C1vC2#. Some examples of resolved word-initial consonant clusters include: # tqūl → # ətqūl ‘you (m) say’; # lsōn → # əlsōn ‘tongue’; # mduwwar → # əmduwwar ‘round’. Examples of resolved word-final consonant clusters are: baħr # → baħər ‘sea’; naʔast # → naʔasət ‘I/you (m) slept’. There were two nouns recorded in which the anaptyctic vowel was stressed, namely ǧil dhi ‘her skin’ and laħ mhi ‘her meat’, which suggests that here the anaptyctic vowel has become part of the morphological base. In both cases C3 has a high sonority, which makes it hard to pronounce these words without an anaptyctic vowel, so it is possible that speakers started to interpret these recurring anaptyctic vowels as part of the morphological base. 2.2.2 Anaptyctics in sandhi The abovementioned rule also holds for consonant clusters in sandhi, as the following examples demonstrate: qatalt ġūl → qatalət ġūl ‘I/you (m) killed a snake’; ss wwih44 mḍallaʔ → əss wwih əmḍallaʔ ‘you (m) make a triangular shaped beam of wood from it’. 2.2.3 The phonetic quality of the anaptyctic vowel The phonetic quality of the anaptyctic vowel is usually [ə] when it is unstressed. Where it precedes y, mainly in 3msg imperfect forms, it is [i]; the resulting diphthong iy is then monophthongised to ī, as in the following examples: yšill → iyšill [ʔiːˈʃɪlː] ‘he carries’; ydūx → iydūx [ʔiːˈduːx] ‘he smokes’; yrūħ → iyrūħ [ʔiːˈɽuːħ] ‘he goes’. In the data, several instances occur in which an anaptyctic vowel is inserted after resyllabification of CvCCvCv to CCvCCv (see below under §2.2.4). In these examples, the inserted vowel is of the same phonetic quality as the one whose elision caused a sequence of three consonants, namely [a]. Examples of resyllabification in which an elided u causes a sequence of three consonants have not been recorded.

The idea that a speech pause # can count as consonant is taken from Mitchel (1960:384), Fischer (1967:68-69), and Woidich (1979:79). 44 This form is morphologically tsuwwi ‘you (m) make’ + h (3msg pronominal suffix) with assimilation of the prefix t with s and regressed stress which causes shortening of the long vowel ī: ssuwwi (← tsuwwi) + h → ssuwwīh → ss wwih ‘you (m) make it (m)’. 43

41

2.2.4 Anaptyctics after resyllabification In the recorded material, several examples occur in which an anaptyctic vowel is inserted to resolve a consonant cluster resulting from resyllabification. In the following example, the pattern CvCCvCv is resyllabified to CCvCCv, and the inserted vowel is of the same phonetic quality as the one whose elision caused a sequence of three consonants, namely [a]: yiqfalu (a-elision) → yiqflu (anaptyctic vowel [a] inserted) → yiqaflu (i-elision) → yqaflu ‘they close’. In speech, the word-initial consonant cluster yq is resolved by inserting an anaptyctic vowel [i] before y: iyqaflu ‘they close’. Other examples of resyllabified 3cpl imperfect forms include the following: yisʔalūhi → yisʔlūhi → yisaʔlūhi → ysaʔlūhi ‘they ask her’; yiħrasūn → yiħrsūn → yiħarsūn → yħarsūn ‘they guard’. In one instance, a 2msg perfect form was resyllabified from CaCaCC to CCaCC: # fahamt kī (a-elision) → # fhamt kī (anaptyctic vowel ə inserted in both consonant clusters) → # əfhamət kī ‘you (m) understood how?’. 2.2.5 Exceptions In the data there are quite a few examples of retained word-initial consonant clusters. A feature these consonant clusters nearly all share is that they show an increasing sonority, 45 in that the second consonant has a higher sonority than the first. The following examples have been recorded (in the first three examples, the two consonants also have the same place of articulation): # šyūx ‘shaykhs’; # trēwōt ‘(young) boys’; # trōh = presentative particle; # klēt ‘I / you (msg) ate’; # flūs ‘money’; # xnēzih ‘Xnēzih (date palm species)’; # tbīʔ ‘you (msg) sell’; # šraħ ‘explain! (msg)’. The only recorded word-initial consonant cluster that shows a decreasing sonority is # ṣbar ‘have patience! (msg)’. One example was heard in which an i in a closed syllable was elided, resulting in a cluster of three consonants, which was then resolved by insertion of a vowel preceding the cluster: mskīnih (← miskīnih) [ʔəmˈskiːniʰ] ‘poor one (f)’. Word-final consonant clusters seem to occur much less frequently, as only two examples were recorded, namely ǧamb # ‘next to’ and bint ‘girl’, although in the first example assimilation occurred first: *ǧānib > *ǧānb > ǧamb. In the now standard form ǧamb the two consonants have the same place of articulation. The same is true for bint, where n

The following hierarchy of sonority is applied (in increasing order of sonority): plosives and affricates; fricatives; nasals; liquids; glides (see Hawkins [1984:98-9]). De Jong (1999:134) added a speech pause # to this list and gave it a sonority value of 0. 45

42

and t are homorganic. Note that in both examples the consonant clusters show a decreasing sonority. Word-medial consonant clusters of three or more are not attested in the data. In sandhi, clusters of three consonants may be retained if the first or the last two have the same or nearly the same place of articulation. Examples in which the first two consonants have the same place of articulation include: tistaqbalham b šallōt [təstɑqˈbɐlh m b ʃ ˈlːɔːt] ‘you (msg) receive them in šallihs46’; ʔašōn tšūfhi [ʔaˈʃɔːn ˈtʃʊːffi] ‘so you (msg) see her’; makīnt (← makīnit) ʔamūr [m ˈkiːnt ʔaˈmʊɻ] ‘Umar’s out-board motor’. An example in which the last two consonants have the same place of articulation: maʔham trēwōt [ˈmaʔəhɐm treːˈwɔːt] ‘they have (young) boys’. In case of a geminate, vowel insertion does not take place. If the first two consonants in a cluster of three constitute a geminate, the cluster is resolved by reduction of this geminate, as in the following examples: yšill + hi → yšillhi [ʔiːˈʃɪlhi] ‘he carries her’; ʔamm + nu → ʔammnu [ˈʔɑmnʊ] ‘our uncle’. The same rule applies in case of an elided vowel in measure II verbs: ħaṣṣalaw (a-elision) → ħaṣṣlaw [ˈħɑslaʊ] ‘they obtained’. Before a pause #, geminates are always reduced: šall # [ʃ l] ‘he carried’; ħaṭṭ # [ħɑṭ] ‘he put’. 2.3 Assimilation In the recorded material, numerous instances of complete and partial assimilation of consonants occur, both within word boundaries and in sandhi. An overview is offered below. 2.3.1 Complete progressive assimilation t + h → [tt]

mʔīšitham [əmʔiːˈʃɪtːɐm]

‘their way of life’

ṭ + h → [tt]

nixlaṭham [nɪxˈlɑtːɐm]

‘we mix them’

ħ + h → [ħħ ]

rūħham

[ˈɽʊˑħːɐm]

‘themselves’

x + h → [xx]

niṭbaxxi

[nɪtˈbɑxːi]

‘we cook it (f)’

f + h → [ff]

šōfhi

[ˈʃɔˑfːi]

‘he saw her’

s + h → [ss]

tʔikkassi

[ətˈʔəkːəsːi]

‘you bend its (f) branches’

šallih: a procession formed by all the men of a village to receive (male) guests from a neighbouring village at a wedding. 46

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2.3.2 Complete regressive assimilation t + ṣ → [ss]

bitṣīr

[bəsˈsiːɻ]

‘it (f) will happen’

tǧīb

[ʔəˈʤːiːb]

‘you (m) / she bring(s)’

t + ǧ → [ʤʤ]

tǧidd

[ʔəˈʤːɪdː]

‘you (m) / she harvest(s) (dates)’

t + d → [dd]

tdōfaʔ

[ʔəˈdːoːfaʔ]

‘she defends’

t + ḍ → [dd]

tḍarraṭat

[ʔəˈdːɑrːatɑt]

‘you (m) / she became too proud’

b + f → [ff]

b fanār

[ʔəf fəˈnɑːɻ]

‘with a lantern’

l + s → [ss]

ǧēlsīn

[ʤeˑˈsːiːn]

‘sitting (cpl)’

n + ṭ → [tt]

nṭūħ

[ʔəˈːtɔːħ]

‘we fall’

t + ǧ → [ʤʤ]

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2.3.4 Partial regressive assimilation s + d → [zd]

nisdikaw48 [nɪzˈdɪkaʊ]

‘we compress it (m)’

s + y → [zj]

misyid

[ˈmɪzjɪd]

‘mosque’

n + b → [mb]

tinbithi

[tɪmˈbɪtːi]

‘you (m) / she fertilize(s) her’

n + k → [ŋk]

minkam

[ˈmɪŋkɐm]

‘from you (cpl)’

n + ġ → [ŋɣ]

min ġarb

[mɪŋ ˈɣaːɽəb]

‘from (the) west’

2.3.5 Assimilation of l in the definite article əl- ~ ilThe l of the definite article əl- assimilates with all coronal consonants: t, ǧ, d, r, z, s, š, ṣ, ḍ, ṭ, l and n. Some examples are: əttōr ‘the bull’; ərrōs ‘the head; əǧǧawēnab ‘the sides’. 2.4 Stress 2.4.1 Stress in words with heavy sequences If a word contains only one heavy sequence (vCC or C), stress is usually on the vowel of the heavy sequence. Examples of stress in words with one heavy sequence vCC: m nṭaqih ‘area’; y šrab ‘he drinks’; naʔ st ‘I / you (msg) slept’; ʔaq llak ‘I tell you (msg)’; k naw ‘they were’; ʔ raf ‘knowing (msg)’; katīr ‘much, many’; ʔah li ‘families’. If a word contains more than one heavy sequence, stress is usually on the vowel of the last heavy sequence. Examples of words with two or more heavy sequences: xall ṣt ‘I finished’;

Actually, only the plosive element [d] of the affricate is doubled here. Once, the sequence tǧ resulted in a partial progressive assimilation: tǧīb [tʃiːb]. 48 sadak, yisdak: to stuff fresh dates in a small closed room to let the juice drip out. 47

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qadd m ‘opposite’; qōnūn ‘law’; yizzawwaǧūn ‘they marry’. However, these cannot be considered strict rules, since many examples were recorded that go against them. There seem to be two main tendencies causing this variation, namely regression of stress and progression of stress. Especially the former seems to be quite widespread and persistent, causing forms such as ys wwun (← ysuwwūn) ‘they make’; yirǧ ʔun (← yirǧiʔūn) ‘they return’; k tir (← katīr) ‘many, much’; z mon (← zam n) ‘time, era’; ʔ yyom (← ʔayy m) ‘days’; etc.. On the other hand, there is also a tendency to progress stress to the ultimate syllable, causing forms such as manq r (← m nqar) ‘chisel (used for removing the palm branch roots’; yirʔ f (← y rʔaf) ‘he knows’; yinħiz f (← yinħ zif) ‘it (m) is deleted’; əlmafs l (← əlm fsal) ‘place where s.t. is planted’. Another possible explanation for this variation in stress placement could lie in dialect contact, since it is not often that a dialect has different stress patterns for the same forms. During his field trip to the region, the present author had the impression that placement of stress could be one of the parameters by which different varieties of ŠA can be distinguished, although this cannot be backed up by any evidence, due to a lack of data coming from outside of əlǦēdih. Until sufficient data from different parts of the region are available and this question can be answered, the regression and progression of stress analysis is followed here for forms with heavy sequences. Note that heavy sequences of the type vCC that are partly formed by the definite article əl-, the verbal prefix n-, or the verbal infix –t-, usually do not draw stress. Thus, one hears əlb lad or əlbal d (^ lbalad) ‘the village’; yištəġəl (^y štəġəl) ‘he works’; yinfətəħ (y nfətəħ) ‘it (m) is being opened’. Although for the last form, the variant y n tiħ is used by some speakers. Similar examples with stress on the first syllable of measure I-t verbs were not recorded. 2.4.2 Stress in words without heavy sequences In nouns and verbs of the pattern CvCvC, there is also variation in stress placement. Thus, one hears b lad ~ bal d ‘village’; w lad ~ wal d ‘boy’; q lam ~ qal m ‘pen’; š rab ~ šar b ‘he drank’; f taħ ~ fat ħ ‘he opened’. The same variation occurs in perfect verb forms of measures n-I and I-t: nk sar ~ nkas r ‘he broke (intr.)’; št ġal ~ štaġ l ‘he worked’. This variation could again be due to dialect contact, although more data from different parts of the region will have to be looked at in order to either confirm or deny this.

45

In trisyllabic words of the pattern CvCvCv stress is always on the second syllable: baq rih ‘cow’; šaǧ rih ‘tree’; war qih ‘leaf’; qal mu ‘his pen’; ħaǧ ru ‘his stone’. The only recorded exception is s waʔan ‘regardless whether’, which is invariably pronounced with stress on the first syllable. Words with four syllables of the pattern ^CvCvCvCv(C) do not occur. Trisyllabic words to which a suffix is attached are resyllabified to CCvCCv(C) or CvCvCCv(C), with stress according to the rules on the heavy sequence, as in the following examples: raqabih + i → rq bti ‘my neck’; raqabih + ak → rq btak ‘your (msg) neck’; šaǧarih + u → šaǧ rtu ‘his tree’; šaǧarih + i → šaǧarti ‘my tree’. Examples of regression or progression of stress in such forms were not recorded. 2.4.3 The phonetic qualities of stress Stressed syllables have a higher pitch than unstressed syllables: maw↗ǧūd ‘present (msg)’; ka↗tīr ‘much, many’; yim↗šūn ‘they walk’. Short stressed a in open syllables Ca and in word-final -CaC is often considerably lengthened: raq bih [ɽ ˈqaːbiʰ] ‘neck’; baq rih [b ˈqaːriʰ] ‘cow’; naʔ s [nəˈʔaːs] ‘he slept’; ṭab x [təˈb ːx] ‘he cooked’; bal d [bəˈl ːd] ‘village’; ħaǧ r [ħəˈʤ ːɻ] ‘stone’. The same holds for short stressed a in CaCC with anaptyctic vowel (C CəC): q ləb # [ˈqaːləb] ‘hart’; š rəq # [ˈʃ ːɽəq] ‘east’; s qəf # [ˈs ːqəf] ‘roof’; b dər [ˈbaːdər] ‘Badr (proper name)’. In the following example, in which stress was progressed to the ultimate syllable, the short i is lengthened: yinħiz f [jɪnħɪˈzɪːf] ‘it (m) is erased’.

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3.0 Morphology 3.1 Nominal morphology 3.1.1 Personal pronominals 3.1.1.1 Independent personal pronominals sg

pl

3m hōh*1)

3c ham

3f

hīh*1)

2m ʔinti 2f

ʔintīn

1c ʔōnu ~ ʔānu*2) *1)

2c ʔintūn 1c hnīn*3)

In rapid speech, the final –h in the 3msg and 3fsg forms may be elided when a consonant-

initial word follows: hōh mā ybiyyan [ˈhoː ˈmaː ɪˈbɪjːən] ‘he does not show’; ʔawwal hīh tistuwi? [ˈʔawːəl hɪː tɪsˈtʊwi] ‘first … is it (f) possible?’. Although it is clearly audible when it is followed by the definite article: ʔilli hōh ilbaħr [ˈʔɪlːi ˈhoːh ɪlˈbaħəɻ] ‘… which is the sea’; … ʔalladi hīh innaxli [ˈʔ lː di ˈhɪːh ɪˈnː xli] ‘… which is the date palm’. *2)

For 1csg the most common variant is ʔōnu. In general, speakers tend to stick to one

variant, instead of switching between the two. According to some of my informants, ʔōnu is characteristic for əlǦēdih, whereas ʔānu belongs the dialect of the neighbouring village of Bukha, although I have not been able the verify this.49 In the 1cpl independent pronoun hnīn, the presumed older pharyngeal *ħ developed into a

*3)

glottal h, which is usually realised as a voiced [ɦ]: hnīn [ʔəˈɦniːn] ‘we’.

One informant also claimed that around the southern edge of əlǦēdih, the part which is closest to Bukha, people only use ʔānu. 49

47

3.1.1.2 Suffixed personal pronominals -V

-C

3m

-h

-u

3f

-hi (~ -ha) *1) *2)

-hi (~ -ha)

2m

-k

-ak (~ -ik) *3)

2f

-š

-aš

1c -

yi (nom.); -ni (acc.) -i (nom.); -ni (acc.)

sg

pl 3c

-ham

-ham*1)

2c

-kam

-kam

1c

-nu (~ -na)*4)

-nnu

*1)

The initial h of 3fsg –hi – and 3cpl –ham usually assimilates with preceding voiceless stops

and fricatives, as in the following examples: šēli(t) + hi → šēlitti ‘her headscarf’; ʔōdōt + ham → ʔōdōttam ‘their customs’; tʔakkis + hi → tʔakkissi ‘you bend and tie its (f) branches’; tirʔaf + hi → tirʔaffi ‘you (m) know her’; rūħ + ham → rūħħam ‘themselves’. When attached to the preposition li, 3cpl –ham may display vowel harmony: līhim ‘for them’. Although this is not consistent, as līham occurs as well. *2)

For 3fsg the most common form is –hi. However, all main speakers in the recordings used

–ha several times as well, and since its occurrence is unpredictable, it is probably the result of dialect contact with other varieties of ŠA, or GA that has –ha for 3fsg50. Some examples of –hi and –ha in identical positions are the following: xadahi51 ʔannak ~ xadaha ʔannak ‘they took her away from you’ ğğīb minha llīf ‘you get līf from it (f)’ ~ ys wwun minhi ħbēl ‘they make ropes from it (f)’ əlʔēd kam ṣubʔih bīhi? ‘How many fingers has the hand?’ ~ ġəbbit əlǦēdih bīha ʔabīd ‘the sea of əlǦēdih has slaves’

50 51

See Holes (1990:171). For the reduced 3cpl perfect suffix -a (← -aw) in xadahi ‘he took her’, see §3.2.2.1 under *3) .

48

*3)

For 2msg the most frequently used form is –ak and it should probably be considered

characteristic for the ŠA dialect under study here. The occurrence of –ik is rare and unpredictable and can therefore be seen as an influence from either Gulf Arabic, where –ik for 2msg is standard,52 or perhaps from other varieties of ŠA that are yet to be described. *4)

As with 2msg, the occurrence of –na next to –nu for 1cpl, probably indicates that two

paradigms are in use next to each other. In the data, -na occurred much less frequently than -nu and was used predominantly by one speaker. Therefore, -nu is regarded here as characteristic for the dialect under study here. Remarkable is the geminate in –nnu in case of a preceding vowel. Some examples are: līnnu ‘for us’; ʔaxūnnu ‘our brother’; laqēnnu ‘he found us’. In the data, only two examples occur of –na following a vowel; in neither there is doubling of n: lēna ‘for us’; līna ‘for us’. Thus, doubling of n seems to happen only in the suffix that is characteristic for the dialect, namely –nu. 3.1.2 Demonstrative pronouns near deixis For the near deixis the following demonstratives are used: hōdu (msg); hōdi (fsg); hōdīnu (cpl). In the last form, which is probably a cognate of EGA (haa)dheeleen,53 *l developed into n. When used attributively, demonstratives may be placed either before or after the noun they modify, as the following examples demonstrate. hōdu rryēl ~ ərryēl hōdu ‘this man’; hōdi lbalad ~ əlbalad hōdi ‘this village’; hōdīnu nnēs ~ ənnēs hōdīnu ‘these people’. Before a noun with the definite article, these forms may be reduced to hō: hō zzamōn ‘this time’; hō ssiyyōrih ‘this car’; hō ləħrīmtēn ‘these two women’. In one instance, hōdi was reduced to di: ləħrēmih di ‘this woman’. far deixis For the far deixis, the following demonstratives are used: hōdōk (msg), hōdīk (fsg), hōdīnōk (cpl). These forms are likely to be cognates of their EGA equivalents (haa)dhaak (msg),

52 53

Ibid. Ibid. p. 173. I used Holes’ transcription here.

49

(haa)dheech (fsg), and (haa)dheelaak.54 As in the plural form for the near deixis, the *l in EGA (haa)dheelaak developed into n in hōdīnōk. Like their near deixis equivalents, demonstratives for the far deixis may be placed either before or after the noun they modify when used attributively, e.g.: hōdōk əlbēt ~ əlbēt hōdōk ‘that house’. The singular forms may be reduced to hōk (msg and fsg), dōk (msg) and dīk (fsg), as in the following examples: hōk ərryēl ‘that man’; hōk ləħrīmih ‘that woman’; dōk əlwaqt ‘that time’; dīk əlbalad ‘that village’. 3.1.3 Intensive pronoun rūħ + suffix is an intensive pronoun, which is used to highlight the subject of a phrase, i.e. to add emphasis to a statement, for instance ‘he did it himself’ or ‘she wrote it herself’. Some examples are: šiftu rūħi ‘I saw him myself’; yidbaħūhi rūħħam ‘they slaughter it (f) themselves’; rūħnu nitwalli lʔarūs ‘we ourselves take care of the groom’. 3.1.4 Relative pronoun As a relative pronoun, both ʔilli and ʔalladi occur, although the latter seems to be a feature of older speakers mainly. All the younger informants used only ʔilli. Some examples of ʔilli are: əlʔarūs … yaʔni ʔilli yiba zzawǧih ‘the groom … you know … who wants a bride’; ʔaywa … ssammi zzafīfih ʔilli zziff əlʔarūsih ‘yes … she is called the zafīfih, the one who escorts the bride’. Some examples of ʔalladi are: hōdu lladi maʔnu ‘this is what we have’; ʔalladi maʔna hnīn mawǧūd maʔkam ʔintūn əb kumzōr ‘What we have here, is there with you (cpl) in Kumzār (too).’ 3.1.5 The definite article The definite article is usually əl- and sometimes il-. When prefixed to a noun that starts with two consonants, it becomes lə-, e.g. ləǧbēl ‘the mountains’; ləktēb ‘the book’. There were three nouns recorded in which the definite article has fused with the morphological base, namely əlmo (< *almā[ʔ]) ‘water’, which becomes ləlmo when made definite; ləʔši (< *alʕišā[ʔ]) ‘evening’, which becomes əlləʔši when made definite; and lbūb ’seeds’ in which the l of the article took the place of ħ in *ħbūb (possibly via an intermediary stage in which ħ first developed into h, which was then elided: ħbūb > hbūb / ləhbūb > būb / əlbūb). When lbūb is made definite, it becomes ləlbūb. Note that the singular is ħabbih ‘seed’. 54

Ibid.

50

3.1.6 Interrogatives mō ‘what?’ Some examples of mō are: mō hōdu? ‘what is this?’; əṭṭablih mō? ‘what is a ṭablih55?’ mō is often reduced to mə: mə nsuwwi bāʔ ? ‘so what did we do?’; ħrēmit hizzōʔ mə ǧēybih? ‘Hizzo’s wife … what did she bring?’. When mō is used in combination with ʔəsm ‘name’, it is usually even further reduced to m, and then directly attached to ʔəsm ‘name’, taking the place of the initial ʔ, as in the following examples: məsmu? ‘what is it called? ~ ‘what is his name?’; məsmak? ‘what is your name?’. wēš ‘what? ~ why?’ Next to mō, wēš is also used for ‘what?’, as the following examples demonstrate: wēš faʔal hō lwalad? ‘what did this boy do?’; ħrēmti ʔōnu wēš ǧēybih? ‘what did my wife bring?’; ʔala sabab wēš? ‘for what reason?’. wēš also expresses ‘why?’: yǧūn wēš? ʔala ʔaǧəl mā ysāʔdūk ʔinti ‘Why do they come? In order to help you.’ kēf ~ kī ‘how? ~ why?’ In kēf ‘how? ~ why?’, the final f is often dropped. ē is then raised to ī, although in the data one utterance occurs where it remained ē: kē ʔābu tēni kē sawwi? ‘how Abu Tēni … how did he do (it)?’ This elision of final f occurs both in context and before a pause, as the following examples demonstrate: fhamt kī? ‘did you (msg) understand how?’; xōlad ʔinti šīlu līk ṣōt maʔnu kī ‘Khōlad, why don’t you (msg) talk with us?’; ʔu ʔəqəb ʔadīlu bīh kī ybīʔu ‘and after (that) I don’t know how he sells it (m)’; kī yixdam bīkam hīdu ‘why did he do like this to you (mpl)?’. limō ‘why?’ limō for ‘why?’ occurs twice in the texts: qallēham limō? ‘he said to them “why?”’; limō ʔōd? ‘why then?’. lēš ‘why?’ lēš for ‘why?’ only came to the surface through direct elicitation and no examples occur in the texts. In the spontaneous recordings ‘why?’ was expressed only with wēš, 55

ṭablih: supporting pillar made from the trunk of a date palm.

51

kēf ~ kī and limō (see above), so lēš should be treated with some caution here. Some elicited examples are: mā mšēt ʔumōn lēš? ‘why didn’t you (msg) go to Oman?’; tħibb kūrih lēš? ‘why do you (msg) like football?’. mān ‘who?’ Examples: mān hōdu? ‘who is that?’; hōdu maʔ mān? ‘this (happens) with whom?’; laʔabət maʔ mān? ‘with whom did you play?’. māti ‘when?’ Examples: māti timšūn? ‘when are you (cpl) leaving?’; māti yǧībūhi līk? ‘when do they bring her to you?’; nǧību hnīn māti? ‘when do we bring him?’. wēn ‘where?’ Examles: hōdi ṭṭablih wēn әtkūn hīh? ‘this ṭablih56 … where is it (f.)?’; w iykūn әtnēnih wēn? ‘and two (of those) are where?’. Pronominal suffixes can be attached to wēn: wēnu? ‘where is he?’; wēnak əlyōm əlʔaṣr? ‘where were you today in the afternoon?’. ʔay ‘which?’ Elicitation yielded only ʔay as ‘which?’ for both masculine and feminine nouns, as in the following examples: ʔay wēħad ʔaħsan? ‘which one (m) is better’; ʔay wēħdih ʔaǧmal? ‘which one (f) is more beautiful?’; timši ʔay dukkōn? ‘which shop are you going to?’; ʔay siyyōrih mōnak? ‘which car is yours?’. Although in the texts, the following feminine form occurs for ‘whatever, no matter what’: ʔayyih šē ʔalladi ṣōbak inti ‘no matter what (comes) your (msg) way’. kām ‘how much / many?’ Examples of kām: kām yōm maʔkam? ‘how many days is it with you (cpl)?’; kām ʔədəq fōqhi? ‘how many bunches (of dates) are in it (f)?’. kəkətər ‘how much? ~ how many?’ This is probably a merger of kēf ~ kīf ‘how’ and kətr ‘abundance, quantity’. It is treated here as a single word because ‒ unsuffixed ‒ the second part is unstressed: kəkətər. No examples of it occur in the recorded texts; only kām is used there for ‘how much / many?’. Elicitation, 56

Id.

52

however, yielded the following examples: kəkətər tōxad li xaṣāb? ‘how much (money) is it (do you take) to Xaṣāb (place name)?’; kutbak kəkətərhi? ‘how many books do you (msg) have?’ Another function of kəkətər is to express that there is much / many of something, as in the following examples: tšūf ənnēs əlmawǧūdīn bi lmalʔab? ya ʔabūyi kəkətərham əlyōm! ‘Do you see the people at the pitch? Oh buddy, they are many today!’; ya ʔabūyi kəkətr ssamak ‘Oh buddy, so much fish!’. 3.1.7 Negational particle mā and enclitic –lu Nominal sentences57 can be negated with the particle mā or the enclitic –lu. mā is placed directly before the item it modifies, whereas the enclitic –lu is attached to it, as in the following examples: hōh mā ṭōlab

~

hōh ṭōl blu

‘he is not a student’

hōh mā xabīl

~

hōh xabīllu

‘he is not crazy’

Pronominals may also be negated with –lu: ʔōnu qatalt əlġūl hōlu ‘I killed the snake, he didn’t’; ham yilʔabūn kill yōm ... hnīnlu ‘they play every day ... we don’t’. 3.1.8 Some prepositions Listed below are some of the most common prepositions in ŠA. Note that fi and ʔind, very common in many other dialects, are not mentioned here, since they do not occur in ŠA. b ~ bi ‘in, with, at’ Preceding a single consonant, it is usually b with inserted anaptyctic vowel, e.g. əb xōlad ‘with Khōlad’; əb xaṣāb ‘in Khasab (place name)’. Before the definite article it is bi, as in bi lbēt ‘in the house’. Two instances were recorded of bi preceding lə-, which is an allomorph of the definite article əl- / il- that occurs before a noun that start with two consonants (see §3.1.5): # bi lərkīd ‘in the corners’ and ʔu xōlu bi ləkwēt ‘and his paternal uncle is in Kuwait’. Apart from ‘with, at’, b is also used for ‘in’, which would in most other dialects – including EGA – be a function of fi:58 bi lǦēdih ‘in əlǦēdih’; b hōdi lmanṭaqih ‘in this area’.

For verbal negation, see §3.2.11. This is a feature shared with the dialect of Soukhne in Syria, where fi for ‘in’ is very rare, and b- / bi- is used instead. See Behnstedt (1994a:158-60). 57 58

53

maʔ ‘with’ maʔ ‘with’ is used to express possession, both for animate and inanimate objects: maʔu bēt ‘he has a house’; maʔnu naxl ‘we have date palms’; maʔi bint ṣaġīrih ‘I have a small daughter’. Other examples of maʔ: hōdi taħṣal maʔ əḍḍhōrīyīn ‘this happens with the Ḍuhūrīyīn’; ʔaḍanni bi ttēlīfōn maʔi niktih ‘I think I have a joke in my phone’; nzēyn … maʔna zarōyih ‘ok … we have agriculture’; hōh maʔ əlħrīmih ‘he is with the woman’; hōdu maʔ mān? ‘this (happens) with whom?’. li ‘for, to’ li may also be used to express ‘to have’, but in a more abstract sense than maʔ, as it does not express possession or the presence of a physical object. Some examples include: ʔahl əlkamōzri mā līham šuġəl bīk ‘the people of the Kamāzra haven’t got anything to do with you’; mā līhim ʔalōqih bi lʔarūs ‘they don’t have any relationship with the groom’; ʔinti ǧalasət … līk maħall qaddōm əlmalōmih ‘you (msg) sit … you have a spot opposite the bed’. Other examples of li: sakkraw līk ilbēb ‘they closed the door for you (msg)’: ykidd li lbēt ‘he earns money for the house(keeping); xadōhi li lħafīz ‘they took her to the (shop)keeper’; ǧēb līnnu məlħ ‘he brought us salt’. ʔan ‘from, about’ When a vowel-initial suffix is attached to ʔan, the final n is doubled: xadaha ʔannak ‘they took her away from you’; əlkamōzrih mā masʔūlīn ʔannu ‘the Kamāzra are not responsible for him’. Other examples: tħakki ʔan hōdu ‘tell about this!’; hōdu ʔan əlmaʔīših ‘this is about the way of life’; rawwħaw ʔannak ‘they left you (msg)’. min ‘from, of’ Before the article, min is often reduced to mi: ysuwwūh mi lxūṣ ‘they make it (m) from the palm branches’; ṭalaʔ mi lbaħr ‘he came out of the sea’. When a vowel-initial suffix is attached to min, the final n is doubled: yōklūn minnu ‘they eat from it (m)’. Other examples: ʔinti flusak min wēn? ‘where do you (m) get your money from?’; hōh min ʔirōn ‘he is from Iran’; wēħad minkam ‘one (m) of you (cpl)’; min kill makōn iyǧūnnu ‘from everywhere they come to us’. min is also used in combination with the elative: tħibbi banīn xōli ʔaktar min tħibbi banīnnu hnīn ‘you (fsg) love the children of my paternal uncle more than you love our children’. 54

waru ‘behind’ As described in §1.2.2.3, the older ending *-āʔ first developed into –ō, which then became –u. When waru is suffixed, however, the older –ō reappears: warōh ‘behind him’; warōhi ‘behind her’; etc. Examples: əlmisyid ʔilli waru lmalʔab ‘the mosque that is behind the (football) field’; waru ʔarōḍi mħammad slēmōn ‘behind the land of Muħammad Slēmōn. kam ‘as, like’ kam is obviously a cognate of OA ka-mā, which becomes clear when suffixes are attached and the historical *ā reappears as ō: kamōh ‘as him’; kamōhi ‘as her’; etc. Other examples include: yilʔab kam Messi ‘he plays like Messi’; mā hōdu kam šuġlitkum ʔintūn ‘this is not like your (cpl) work’. fōq ‘on, above’ fōq is used for ‘on’, instead of ʕala which is common in most other dialects. Examples: ħammal fōq əħmōru ‘he packed (luggage) on his donkey’; naʔasnu fōq əssaqf ‘we slept on the roof’. 3.1.8 Some prepositions with pronominal suffixes li*1) ‘for, to’

b(i) ‘with, in’

maʔ ‘with’

waru ‘behind’

3m

lih

bih

maʔu

warōh

3f

līhi

bīhi

maʔhi

warōhi

2m

līk

bīk

m ʔak*2)

warōk

2f

līš

bīš

m ʔaš*2)

warōš

1c

līyi

bīyi

maʔi

warōyi

3c

līham

bīham

maʔham

warōham

2c

līkam

bīkam

maʔkam

warōkam

1c

līnnu

bīnnu

maʔnu

warōnnu

sg

pl

55

*1)

When li is used in combination with mō ‘what’ and pronominal suffixes, it behaves as an

enclitic, as the following examples illustrate: mōlu? ‘what’s (wrong) with him?’; mōlak? ‘what’s (wrong) with you (msg)?’; mōlham? ‘what’s (wrong) with them?’. These forms may display metathesis, i.e. mōlak? ~ lōmak? ‘what’s (wrong) with you (msg)?’. *2)

For these forms, one may also hear maʔāk ‘with you (msg) and maʔāš ‘with you (fsg)’.

Prepositions combined with pronominal suffixes can be negated by placing mā before it, or by attaching the enclitic –lu. If –lu is used after a vowel-final pronominal suffix, the vowel is lengthened. Some examples are: mā lih

~

lihlu

‘not for him’

mā maʔu

~

maʔūlu

‘not with him’

mā warōk

~

warōklu ‘not behind you (msg)’

3.1.10 ‘Yes’ and ‘no’ ‘yes’ is hā(y), with nasalised ā: [haːj]59, although the originally Egyptian but nowadays almost pan-Arabic ʔaywa is also heard regularly. For ‘no’ are used lā and ʔəlā. 3.1.11 Genitive marker The genitive marker is mōl, which is probably a cognate of MSA māl ‘property’. The final l is in free variation with n: mōl ~ mōn. Number and gender of the possesee are not marked on mōl. Some examples are: əlbēt mōni waru lmisyid ‘my house is behind the mosque’; wēn əlkōrih mōnu ‘where is his ball?’. Before the definite article əl-, the final n / l is always elided: əssaqəf mō lbēt ‘the roof of the house’. 3.1.12 Some conjunctions (ʔ)u ‘and’ Usually, the initial ʔ is only articulated after a speech pause. Examples: nizraʔ baṭṭēx u baṣal ‘we cultivate water melons and onions’; maʔnu ʔōdōt u taqēlīd ‘we have customs and traditions’; waḍʔat u yēbat bin ‘she gave birth and delivered a son’. Occasionally one may also her w(i), typically after a speech pause and before the definite article or a noun or verb that 59

Holes (1990:283) notes ha with nasalised a for ‘yes’ in EGA.

56

starts with two consonants and thus has an anaptyctic vowel. Some examples are: # w əstiʔrōḍih ‘and the cross beam’; # w əǧǧību ‘and you (msg) bring him’; # w əlxnēzih ‘and the Xnēzih (date palm species)’; # wi ham mā raǧʔaw ‘and they did not return’. ʔaw, walla ‘or’ Both walla and ʔaw are used for ‘or’. Some examples are: hōdi ṭṭablih wēn әtkūn hīh bi rrūs walla taħt ‘This ṭablih60 … where is it (f), at the front or below?’; ʔaw līt ʔaw šay banndaw ʔannak ‘ … or a light or something (else), they closed (it) from you (i.e. took it away from you)’; yaʔni suwaʔan ənnaxlih ʔaw əššīh ‘you know … whether it is the date palm or the she-goat’; faʔalt ʔaw mā faʔalt? ‘you (msg) did (it) or you didn’t do (it)’. lakan ~ lakanni ‘but’ For ‘but’, one hears lakan and lakanni. The ending –ni in the latter variant is probably a petrified 1cpl pronominal suffix (lakanni ‘but I …’). Nowadays it is used interchangeably with lakan. Some examples are: lakan ʔōħīn … ʔōħīn šīlu ‘but now … now there is nothing’; ʔaṭaha61 līk lakan limiddit ṣabʔit ayyōm ‘they gave her to you, but for a period of seven days’; maši bētu lakanni mā šōfēh62 ‘He went to his house, but he didn’t see him’; hāy faḍīyah lakanni maʔna hnīn lā ‘yes (it is) a disgrace, but with us (it is) not’. ʔašōn ‘because’ Examples: mā yxallī lxūṣ sīdi … ʔašōn sīdi mā yiṣlaħ ‘He doesn’t leave the palm branch long, because long is not good.’; lāzim iyʔəxxar lih waru ʔašōn əlxūṣ yikbar ‘He has to make space for it (m) (from) behind, because the palm branch grows.’ ləšōn ‘so that, in order that’ Examples: ʔaqtilham bāʔ? hāy ləšōn ətfəssarhi63 ‘So I kill them? Yes, so that you (can) explain it’; ǧēt ʔumōn ləšōn ʔatʔallam ʔarabi ‘I came to Oman in order to learn Arabic’.

ṭablih: see note 55. For the reduced 3cpl perfect suffix -a (← -aw) in ʔaṭaha ‘they gave her’, see §3.2.2.1 under *3) . 62 For an explanation of šōfēh ‘he saw him’, see §3.2.1. 63 -hi refers to a riddle in which people needed to be killed for it to be solved. 60 61

57

3.1.13 Conditional conjunctions The most common conditional conjunctions are ʔida and kō, of which the latter is probably the result of the development *kān > *kōn > kō. The final n might have been dropped in analogy with lō = cond. part., which only occurs once in the texts, but is common in EGA.64 Examples: ʔida mā šī maʔak bēt tiskan maʔ ʔəmmak ‘if you don’t have a house, you live with your mother’; ʔida lǧaww zēyn binimši ləǧbēl ‘if the weather is good, we’ll go the mountains’; ʔu kō mā šī maʔu xōl? ‘what if he doesn’t have maternal uncle?’; kō zamōn fəqər ʔinti kī maʔāk ʔalf ‘if it is a time of poverty, how can you have a thousand (dirham)?’. law was heard twice: ħatta law ḍyūf yaw ‘even if guests came’; yʔəxxar li lxōl law yǧi ‘he postpones (it) for the maternal uncle if he comes’. One speaker used lō once: lō bġēt əḍḍimmaru … ‘if you want to delete it …’. 3.1.14 Adverbs 3.1.14.1 Local adverbs The most common words for ‘here’ and ‘there’ are hinō and hinōk respectively. The short i is usually retained, even after a preceding vowel in sandhi, e.g.: ham ʔēyšīn maʔna hinō ‘they live here with us’; hōdu maʔu hinōk mazraʔih ‘this (man) has a farm there’. Apart from hinō and hinōk, one may hear minnu ‘here’ and minnōk ‘there’: tinʔas minnu? ʔəlā ʔanʔas minnōk u hōh yinʔas minnu ‘Do you sleep here? No, I sleep there and he sleeps here.’ 3.1.14.2 Some temporal adverbs ʔōħīn ‘now’ A possible explanation for ʔōħīn could be that it developed from alħīn, which is used for ‘now’ in EGA. The ō suggests that there once was a long ā, which might have arisen together with the elision of l: alħīn > āħīn > ʔōħīn. Some examples are: daxxlah65 əlkillih hōdi ʔōħīn ʔōd ‘so they let him enter this killih66 now’; lakan ʔōħīn hō zzamōn iybissalūn ləmṣalli ‘but now (in) this time they make bəsl67 from the mṣalli (date palm species)’

See Holes (1990:29). For the reduced 3cpl perfect suffix -a (← -aw) in daxxlah ‘they let him enter’, see §3.2.2.1 under *3) . 66 killih: room where the consummation of the marriage takes place in a traditional wedding ceremony. 67 bəsl is made from unripe dates (xalēl) that are boiled, together with ashes, and then dried. 64 65

58

marrōt, sōʔōt, ʔayyōmōt ‘sometimes’ ʔayyōmōt is remarkable, since it has the feminine plural marker –ōt attached to the already (broken) plural form ʔayyōm ‘days’. It is plausible that it is formed in analogy with sōʔōt (litt. ‘hours’) and marrōt (litt. ‘times’). Examples: marrōt yiǧlasūn maʔu ‘sometimes they sit with him’; sōʔōt ənṣəddaqqi ʔu sōʔōt ənkiddabhi ‘sometimes we believe her and sometimes we call her a liar’; ʔu ʔayyōmōt bāʔ nōxad sawġōt mi ddukkōn ‘and sometimes we take groceries from the shop’. dōm ‘in the past / always’ dōm can mean ‘in the past’ or ‘always’. Examples of ‘in the past’: əlkārib dōm iys wwuh li lyūx ‘the roots of the palm branches, in the past they used it for the fishing nets’; hōdi riħlitnu dōm ‘(like) this was our trip in the past’.68 Examples of ‘always’: hōh dōm yištəġəl ‘he is always working’; ham dōm ǧēssīn bi lmalʔab ‘they are always sitting at the (football) field’. mūl ‘never’ mūl is always used in combination with the negational particle mā, as in the following examples: mūl mā yilʔab kūrih ‘he never plays football’; mā ʔakrah innēs mūl ‘I never hate people’. ʔəqəb ‘after’ Examples: yǧi ʔəqəb ʔašar sanawōt ‘he comes after ten years’; ʔəqəb nuṣṣ sōʔih fatħaw lbēb ‘after half an hour they opened the door’. baʔd ‘after’ Examples: bašūfak baʔd əlʔaṣr ‘I will see you (msg) after the afternoon’; tinʔas baʔd əlġadi? ‘do you (msg) sleep after lunch?’ baʔdēn ‘afterwards’ Examples: baʔdēn naħḍar dēxal lmisyid ‘afterwards we visit the mosque’; nṣalli ʔu ništəġəl baʔdēn ‘we pray, and afterwards we work’ baʔd + pronominal suffix ‘still’ In this last example, dōm can also be translated with ‘always’: ‘our trip is always (like) this’, but in context refers to the past. 68

59

Example: baʔdu b xaṣāb ‘he is still in Khaṣab’. With negation it means ‘(not) yet’: mšēt ləǧbēl? lā baʔdi ‘Did you go to the mountains? No, not yet.’. mħall + pronominal suffix ‘still’ Examples: əǧǧaw mħallu zēyn ‘the weather is still good’; hīh mħallhi bxaṣāb ‘she is still in Khaṣab (place name)’. Examples with negation were not recorded. 3.1.14.3 Some manner adverbs hīdu ‘thus, like that’ Examples: qōlu kalimōt hīdu ‘say (cpl) words like these!’; kōn yitkallam hīdu ‘he was talking like this’. killu ‘constantly, all the time’ Examples: hōdi killu qərəṣ bēḍ ‘this (period) it is constantly bread with eggs’; hōh killu yitkallam ‘he is constantly talking’. wēyad ‘much, many, a lot’ Examples: ydūx wēyad ‘he smokes a lot’; šī hnūd wēyad əb musandam ‘there are many Indians in Musandam’ šway ‘a little, a bit’ šway is often repeated, i.e. šway šway. Examples: yiǧlisūn maʔu šway ‘they sit with him a bit’; lāzim әtqaṣṣ ʔanha ʔawwal šway šway ‘first you have to cut from it a bit’. tišših wēħdih ‘a little, a bit’ Examples: ʔaqall rōy tišših wēħdih ‘I tell Roy a little bit’; dardarnu lih tišših wēħdih ‘we sprinkled it a little for him’ mūlīyi ‘completely, at all’ mūlīyi, which occurs in OA as well,69 is used only negatively, as in the following examples: mā yimši xaṣāb mūlīyih ‘he never goes to Khasab (place name)’; mā šī qahwih mūlīyi ‘there is no coffee at all’. 69

See Holes (2008:484).

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3.1.15 Existential prepositions In the recorded texts, ‘there is / are’ is expressed consistently with fīh. Elicitation, however, also yielded šī, and since the negative equivalent ‘there is / are not’ is always expressed with šīlu or mā šī / šay (never mā fīh), it is likely that fīh has been imported.70 One speaker used hast once, which is used throughout the Gulf.71 Some examples are: fīh xaṭṭībih u fīh xīs ‘there is xaṭṭībih (date palm species) and there is xīs (date palm species)’; šīlu maʔnu batrul ‘we don’t have any petrol’; lədyēy mā šay ‘chicken is not there’; ʔu kō mā šī maʔu xōl? ‘and if he doesn’t have a maternal uncle?’ 3.1.16 Particles trōh trōh is a presentative particle and is likely to be a cognate of OA *raʔā, *yarʔā ‘to see’. In trōh, the 3msg pronominal suffix –h is petrified, i.e. it is always there, irrespective of the gender of the following noun, e.g. trōh siyyōrti ‘here’s my car’; trōh bēt əmħammad əslēmōn ‘here’s Muħammad Slēmōn’s house’. lu ‘right?, isn’t it?’ The particle lu is placed at the end of sentence, to express the equivalent of English ‘right?’ or ‘isn’t it?’.72 Some examples are: yēbat walad lu ‘she gave birth (litt. ‘brought’) a boy, right?’; əlmisyid əlfōqi bih ħōd dōm lu ‘the high mosque always had a water basin, right?’ ʔōd ‘so, then’ ʔōd can be translated with ‘so’ or ‘then’, as in the following examples: ʔu ʔəqəb ʔōd ṭalaʔ əlbatrul hōdu ‘so after that came this petrol’; daxxlah əlkillih hōdi ʔōħīn ʔōd ‘so now they let him enter the killih73’; ʔinti ʔōd ətšaddad ‘then you (have to) be strong’; ʔinti ʔōd taħbiš ləħrīmih ‘then you hold the woman’.

Holes (1999:72) noticed something similar for EGA. He states that the alternatives (to the by now standard fīh) hast, mish and šay are ‘fading out under the influence of pan-Arabic fīh.’ 71 See Holes (1990:72). 72 According to Holes (2008:485), this is also a feature of ‘some speakers of mountain dialects’ in Oman, who use lā. 73 killih: see note 66. 70

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bāʔ ‘so’ The particle bāʔ is equivalent to English ‘so’. Consider the following examples: tidfaʔ əflūs bāʔ ‘so you pay money’; ʔəlā wēn tistuwi bāʔ ‘no, so where does (this) happen?’; A: ʔaḍanni lqalam inkəsar B: kassartu mā ʔaḍanni bāʔ ‘A: I think the pen broke. B: You broke it! So, not “I think.”’; A: ħatta tistuwi hōdi lmasʔalih lāzim tiqtil əlʔəmmōt B: ʔaqtilham bāʔ ? ‘A: For this question the be solved, you have the kill the mothers. B: So I kill them?’ ʔū The particle ʔū was heard only twice and it seems to express contradiction. In the following example, the speaker had expected to receive sugar: hōdu ʔəq baħr ʔū … xalīfih mō msuwwi ‘this is salt from the sea … Khalīfih, what have you done?’. In the second example, the speaker is convincing someone that a car does drink, as opposed what he has just heard: ʔay tišr b ʔū ... tišr b ʔū ‘yes, it (f) does drink ... it does drink!’.74

3.2 Verbal morphology 3.2.1 General remark: ē –insertion between C3 and consonant-initial suffixes in perfect verbs A remarkable feature of the verbal system in ŠA is the fact that in perfect verbs there are two possibilities for all conjugations that involve consonant-initial suffixes, namely: (a) C1aC2aC3 + C(V)(C), e.g. ḍarabt ‘I / you (m) hit’; (b) C1aC2C3 + ē + C(V)(C), e.g. ḍarbēt ‘I / you (m) hit’. Option (a) conforms to the rules as they apply in most other dialects, whereas option (b) is unique to ŠA. Where ē is inserted between C3 and a consonant-initial suffix, the second base vowel is elided: ḍarab + ē + t → ḍarbēt ‘I / you (m) hit’; ḍarab + ē + nu → ḍarbēnu ‘we cooked’. In the recorded material, option (a) outnumbers option (b) by far. However, it should be stressed that both options are equally accepted by speakers, and that everyone I asked about it acknowledged that they used both forms. A possible explanation for option (b) could be that speakers started to treat perfect verbs with consonant-initial suffixes in the same way as doubled perfect verbs are treated, where insertion of ē is standard before consonant-initial suffixes: radd + t → raddēt ‘I aswered’. The fact that the final vowel in 74

See the last paragraph of sample text 2 on p.94 for the context of this phrase.

62

tertiae infirmae verbs becomes ē before consonant-initial suffixes (e.g. maši + t → mšēt ‘I / you (msg) walked’) might have enhanced this development, or could even have lied at the basis of it together with ē-insertion in mediae geminatae verbs. ē is also inserted between a 3msg perfect and a pronominal suffix, e.g. ḍarabhi ~ ḍarbēhi ‘he hit her’; ḍarabham ~ ḍarbēham ‘he hit them’. With 3msg, 2msg and 2fsg pronominal suffixes, it is possible to use both the -C variants in combination with the plain perfect base, and the -v variants combined with insertion of ē after the final root consonant: -C suffixes

-V suffixes

ḍar bu

~

ḍarbēh

‘he hit him’

ḍar bak

~

ḍarbēk

‘he hit you (m)’

ḍar baš

~

ḍarbēš

‘he hit you (f)

Since ē can only directly follow the last root consonant, forms such as ^ṭabxatēhi ‘she cooked it (f) and ^ṭabaxtēhi ‘I / you (m) cooked it (f)’ are not allowed. Preceding the h of the 3msg (-h) and 3fsg (-hi) pronominal suffixes, ē usually has a phonetic quality close to [ɪː] and may be shortened: ḍarbēh [ḍɑɻˈbɪh] ‘he hit him’. ē-insertion occurs in med. inf. perfects and perfects of the derived measures as well, e.g. fakkart ~ fakkarēt ‘I thought’; daxxalhi ~ daxxlēhi (← daxxalēhi) ‘he let her enter’; šift ~ šōfēt ‘I saw’. When the 3msg pronominal suffix is attached to a 3msg med. inf. perfect, insertion of ē is obligatory, i.e. šōf + 3msg → šōfēh ‘he saw him’. In this case ^šōfu ‘is not allowed. The advantage of this restriction is that no homophonic clash arises with šōfaw ‘they saw’, since the 3msg pronominal suffix –u is diphthongised to [aʊ] in pause, e.g. ḍarabu # [dɑˈɽɑːbaʊ] ‘he hit him’ (see § 1.2.1.6 for diphthongisation of the 3msg pronominal suffix –u before a pause). 3.2.2 Measure I: strong verbs 3.2.2.1 Measure I: strong verbs: perfect Measure I strong verbs have only one pattern for the perfect: C1vC2aC3. Depending on which syllable is stressed, the first vowel is either ə or a: C1əC2 C3 ~ C1 C2aC3. It may be that there 63

used to exist different patterns - the variation being in the quality of the first vowel - as is common throughout the region: for EGA, Holes notes C1iC2aC3 and C1aC2aC375; for EAD, Johnson also gives C1iC2iC376 apart from the types mentioned by Holes. Since in ŠA stress is often on the ultimate syllable, and pre-stress vowels are often reduced to [ə], it may be that whatever variation there may have been in the quality of the first vowel has disappeared by now, with the result that the first syllable only has ə whenever it is unstressed. When the first syllable is stressed, however, its vowel is a in all recorded verbs, which could be due to paradigmatic levelling. All measure I strong perfect verbs are transcribed as C1aC2aC3 throughout this study, which is not only for the sake of morphological consistency, but also because in the data the few instances in which the first syllable is stressed all show this pattern. Furthermore, extensive elicitation did not yield any differences in quality of the first vowel, which, admittedly, is also because all 3msg perfect verbs sound like C1əC2 C3 when cited in pause. In an attempt to tackle this problem, all 3fsg and 2cpl forms of the same verbs were asked as well; they consistently were of the patterns C1 C2C3at (3fsg) and C1 C2C3aw (cpl). Inflection: ḍarab ‘he hit’ sg

pl

3m ḍarab*1)

3c ḍ rbaw*2) 3)

3f

ḍ rbat*2)

2m ḍar bt ~ḍarbēt 2f

ḍarabtīn ~ ḍarbētīn*5)

1c ḍar bt ~ ḍarbēt *1)

2c ḍarabtūn ~ ḍarbētūn*5) 1c ḍar bnu*4) ~ ḍarbēnu

As mentioned above, 3msg perfect verbs are usually stressed on the last syllable; the

vowel in the first syllable then has the phonetic quality [ə]: ṭab x [ṭəˈbaːx] ‘he cooked’. *2)

When a vowel-initial suffix (3fsg and 3cpl) is attached to the base, the second base vowel

is consistently elided. In all examples in the texts, as well as in all elicited forms, the first vowel then had the phonetic quality [a] or [ɑ]. Other examples include: ṭalʔat ‘she came out’; kabrat ‘she grew’; qaflaw ‘they closed (tr.)’; šarbaw ‘they drank’.

75 76

See Holes(1990:204-5). See Johnstone (1967:42-3).

64

*3)

Where a suffix is attached to a 3cpl perfect form, the ending –aw is monophthongised to

ō: qaflaw + h → qaflōh ‘they closed it (m)’; šarbaw +hi → šarbōhi ‘they drank it (f)’. However, one speaker often reduced –aw to –a in these cases: n fxahi ‘they blew it (f) out’; x daha ‘they took her’; daxxlah ‘they let him enter’. In a few instances, he also reduced –aw to -a before a speech pause and in context, e.g. rōħa # ‘they went’; šalla ləħrēmih ‘they took the woman’. Since this speaker has lived outside of əlǦēdih in the mountains for a large part of his life, and other speakers do not show this feature, it is not considered characteristic for the ŠA dialect under study here. The ending –aw may also be monophthongised to –ō in sandhi, as the following examples demonstrate ṣabħō ṣṣubħ ‘they woke up in the morning’; mā ʔarfō lmakōn ‘they did not know the place’. Although the diphthong may also be retained, as in qaflaw əlbēb ‘they closed the door’. *4)

When a suffix is attached to a 1cpl perfect verb, the vowel in the ending –nu is

lengthened, as in the following examples: ḍarabnu + ham → ḍarabnūham ‘we hit them’; šarabnu + hi → šarabnūhi ‘we drank it (f)’. If the suffix is 3msg –h, the long vowel ū is often lowered to [o] or [ɔ]: ḍarabnūh [ḍɑɽ bˈnoːh] ‘we hit him’. This holds for weak verbs and those of the derived measures as well, e.g. lqēnu + h → lqēnūh ‘we found him’; ʔallamnu +hi → ʔallamnūhi ‘we taught her’. *5)

The final –n in these forms is remarkable. It may have arisen as a result of paradigmatic

leveling with the imperfect (see below under §3.2.2.2 for the imperfect conjugation): tiḍrabīn - ḍarabtīn (fsg); tiḍrabūn - ḍarabtūn (cpl), although this would not hold for cpl: yiḍrabūn ḍarbaw. Another possibility is paradigmatic leveling with the independent pronominals: ʔintīn ḍarabtīn (fsg); ʔintūn ḍarabtūn. Or both factors played a role and enhanced one another. The final n is dropped after suffixation: ḍarabtīn + hi → ḍarabtīhi ‘you (fsg) hit her’; ḍarabtūn + h → ḍarabtūh ‘you (cpl) hit him’. The same is true for weak verbs and those of the derived measures: lqētūn + h → lqētūh ‘you (cpl) found him’; bannadtūn + h → bannadtīh ‘you (fsg) closed it (m)’.

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3.2.2.2 Measure I: strong verbs: imperfect The imperfect of strong verbs has two patterns: yiC1C2aC3 and yiC1C2iC3. The lacking of a pattern ^yiC1C2uC3 is a feature shared with other dialects in the region.77 If C1 is x, ħ, q, ġ or ʔ,78 the prefix usually has the vowel a, e.g. yaħbiš ‘he grabs’, although yi- combined with any of the abovementioned consonants does occur. Inflection: yiḍrab ‘he hits’

yiǧlis ‘he sits’

sg 3m

yiḍrab

yiǧlis

3f

tiḍrab

tiǧlis

2f

tiḍrabīn

tiǧlisīn

1c

ʔaḍrab

ʔaǧlis

3c

yiḍrabūn

yiǧlisūn

2c

tiḍrabūn

tiǧlisūn

1c

niḍrab

niǧlis

pl

In inflections with prefixes only, stress can be either on the first or the last syllable: y ǧlis ~ yiǧl s ‘he sits’. When stress is on the last syllable in an a-pattern, the a is often lengthened: yiḍr b [jɪdˈɾɑːb] ‘he hits’. In 3cpl, 2cpl and 2fsg, stress is not stable. Apart from yiC1C2vC3ūn, one often hears yiC1C2 C3un,79 with penultimate stress and a short u in the final syllable,80 A plausible explanation for this variation could be regression of stress, as described in §2.4.1, although in the data the ratio of ultimate to non-ultimate (mostly penultimate) stress is about 1:1, so it would have to be a rather persistent tendency by speakers to regress stress. Another possible explanation could lie in dialect contact, since it is not often that a dialect has

Holes (1990:204-205) notes yiC0C2aC3 and yiC1C2iC3 for EGA; Johnstone (1967:42) notes yiC1C2aC3 and yaC1C2iC3 for EAD; Eades (2009:84) notes yiC1C2aC3 and yiC1C2iC3 (with ya- prefixes if C1 is post-velar) for Šawāwī. 78 In the data, no examples occur in which C1 is h or ġ, so it is impossible to say what vowel the prefix would have, although, since h and ġ are also post-velar, is not unlikely that they often have a as well. 79 This probably also holds for 2fsg (tiC1C2vC3īn ~ tiC1C2 C3in) and 2cpl (tiC1C2vC3ūn ~ tiC1C2 C3un), although the number of examples from texts is too scarce to state this with certainty. 80 Even y C1C2vC3un was heard a few times. 77

66

different stress patterns for the same forms, although more data will have to be looked at to either confirm or deny this. Until sufficient data from different parts of the region are available and this question can be answered, the regression of stress analysis is followed here. Some examples of differing stress patterns for these forms include: y z nun ‘they twine (a palm branch to make rope)’; yirǧ ʔun ‘they return’; yiṭlaʔūn ‘they come out’; tilʔabūn ‘you (cpl) play’; tirʔ fun ‘you (cpl) know’. When stress is non-ultimate, the final n may be dropped, as in yilʔ bu ‘they play’. When suffixed, these forms always lose the final n, and stress can be on the vowel in the verbal suffix, or on the base vowel . Examples with stress on the vowel in the verbal suffix: yidbaħūhi ‘they slaughter it (f)’; tirʔafūh ‘you (cpl) know it (m)’; tiḍrabīham ‘you (f) hit them’. Examples with stress on the base vowel: yiqf luh ‘they close it (m)’; yišr buhi ‘they drink it (f). This holds not only for strong verbs, but for all types, e.g. yšillūn + hi → yšillūhi ~ yš lluhi ‘they carry him’. In the recorded texts, a few instances occur where yiC1C2aC3ūn was resyllabified to yC1aC2C3ūn, e.g. yħarsūn ‘they guard’; ysaʔlūhi ‘they ask her’. My informants, who were all young men, said they would not often do this themselves, but that it is not uncommon among older people. 3.2.2.3 Measure I: strong verbs: imperative The imperative has the basic pattern C1C2vC3, in which the short vowel is identical to the characteristic vowel in the corresponding imperfect, e.g. yiḍrab ‘he hits’  ḍrab ‘hit! (msg)’; yiǧlis  ǧlis ‘sit! (msg)’ ‘hit!’

‘sit’

msg

ḍrab

ǧlis

fsg

ḍrabi

ǧlisi

cpl

ḍrabu

ǧlisu

According to my informants, the feminine singular and the plural are sometimes resyllabified to C1vC2C3v, e.g. ḍarbi ‘hit! (fsg) and ǧilsu ‘sit’! (cpl), although in the recorded texts no examples occur to back this up.81

81

Next to C1C2vC3v, both Holes (1990:206) and Johnstone (1967:44) mention C1vC2C3v for feminine singular and

67

3.2.2.4 Measure I: strong verbs: participles The active participle of measure I strong verbs has the basic pattern C1ēC2aC3: ‘hitting / having hit’ msg

ḍērab

fsg

ḍērbih

cpl

ḍērbīn

In fsg and cpl, the a of the basic pattern is elided after attaching the suffixes -ih (fsg) and –īn (cpl): ḍērab + ih → ḍērbih ‘having hit (fsg)’. The passive participle has the basic pattern maC1C2ūC3: ‘responsible’ msg

masʔūl

fsg

masʔūlih

cpl

masʔūlīn

3.2.2.4.1 Insertion of –in(n)- between active participle and suffixed pronoun When a pronominal suffix is attached to a singular active participle with verbal force, it is obligatory to insert the infix –in(n).82 If the suffixed pronoun expresses possession, this insertion does not take place, so ‘his player’ would be expressed with lēʔbu (← lēʔab + u). The infix –in(n)- always attracts stress, as in the following examples: šēyf + ham → šēyf nham ‘seeing / having seen (msg) them’; ḍērbih + hi ḍērbit nhi ‘hitting / having hit (fsg) her’. If the pronominal suffix is vowel-initial, the n is doubled: šēyf nnak ‘seeing / having seen (msg) you (msg)’; kētb nnu ‘writing / having written (msg) it (m)’. In active participles of the

common plural. 82 In Gulf Arabic Holes (1990:219) notes this feature as well for ‘some Gulf communities’. In Colloquial Arabic of the Gulf (2010:199-200), he is more specific by stating that these forms are found ‘in some parts of the Gulf region (notably the villages of Bahrain, parts of the UAE and Oman)’. Jonhstone does not mention it, while Eades (2009:89) found these forms as well in the dialect of Šawāwī, where –in(n)- is not only inserted between participles and object suffixes, but also between imperfects and object suffixes (he gives the following example: rǧūl yʕawwar nnak ‘(Your) feet hurt you’).

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derived stems, insertion of -in(n)- is also obligatory: mizzawwǧ nham83 ‘marrying / having married them’. Plural active participles do not show this feature; on the contrary, they lose the final –n when suffixed: ħēbšīn + k → ħēbšīk ‘having grabbed (cpl) you (msg)’. In one sole instance, -in- was inserted between an imperfect verb and an object suffix: bəzzuwwǧ nhi ‘you marry her off’.84 3.2.3 Masure I: mediae geminatae verbs 3.2.3.1 Measure I: mediae geminatae: perfect The perfect of mediae geminatae verbs has the pattern: C1aC2C2. Inflection: radd ‘he answered’ sg

pl

3m

radd

3f

raddat

2m

raddēt

2f

raddētīn

1c

raddēt

3c raddaw 2c raddētūn 1c raddēnu

3.2.3.2 Measure I: mediae geminatae: imperfect There are three patterns for the imperfect of mediae geminatae verbs: yC1iC2C2, yC1aC2C2 and yC1uC2C2, although of the latter only two examples came up in both the recorded texts and elicitation, namely yħuff ‘he cuts’ and yṣubb ‘he pours’. The large majority of the med. gem. verbs in the data have i in their basic pattern.

Morphologically this is mitzawwaǧ nham: (assimilation of infix –t- with z) → mizzawwaǧ nham (elision of a) → mizzawwǧ nham. The geminate ww is then reduced to resolve the cluster of three consonants: [məzːawˈʤɪnhæm]. 84 According to Holes (1989:448), this is a feature of ‘some Omani speakers’, without specifying where exactly this occurs. Eades (2009:89) found –in(n)- insertion between imperfects and object suffixes in the dialect of Šawāwī as well (see note 82). 83

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Inflection: yridd ‘he answers’

ytamm ‘he stayes’

yħuff ‘he cuts’

sg 3m

yridd

ytamm

yħuff

3f

tridd

ttamm

tħuff

2m

tridd

ttamm

tħuff

2f

triddīn

ttammīn

tħuffīn

1c

ʔaridd

ʔatamm

ʔaħuff

yridd ‘he answers’

ytamm ‘he stayes’

yħuff ‘he cuts’

3c

yriddūn

ytammūn

yħuffūn

2c

triddūn

ttammūn

tħuffūn

1c

nridd

ntamm

nħuff

pl

In 2fsg, 3cpl and 2cpl, stress may be regressed; the vowel in the final syllable is then shortened, as in the following examples: tr ddin ‘you (fsg) answer’ ; yš llun ‘they carry’; tǧ ddun ‘you (cpl) harvest dates’. 3.2.3.3 Measure I: mediae geminatae: imperative The imperative of med. gem. verbs has the pattern C1vC2C2, in which the short vowel is identical to the characteristic base vowel in the corresponding imperfect: yridd ‘he answers’  ridd ‘carry! (msg)’; ytamm ‘he stayes’  tamm ‘stay! (msg)’. ‘answer!’

‘stay!’

‘cut!’

msg

ridd

tamm

ħuff

fsg

riddi

tammi

ħuffi

pl

riddu

tammu

ħuffu

3.2.3.4 Measure I: mediae geminatae: participles The active participle of med. gem. verbs has the basic pattern C1ēC2C2: ‘having put’ msg

ħēṭṭ

fsg

ħēṭṭih

pl

ħēṭṭīn 70

The passive participle of med. gem. verbs has the basic pattern: maC1C2ūC2: ‘put’ msg

maħṭūṭ

fsg

maħṭūṭih

pl

maħṭūṭīn

3.2.4 Measure I: mediae infirmae verbs 3.2.4.1 Measure I: mediae infirmae: perfect There are two patterns for the perfect of med. inf. verbs: C1ōC3 and C1ēC3. The occurrence of ō or ē as reflex of historical *ā is to a certain degree phonologically determined, but not completely predictable (see § 1.2.2.2.1). Inflection: kōn ‘he was’

ǧēb ‘he brought’

sg 3m

šōf

ǧēb

3f

šōfat

ǧēbat

2m

šift ~ šōfēt

ǧibt ~ ǧēbēt

2f

šiftīn ~ šōfētīn

ǧibtīn ~ ǧēbētīn

1c

šift ~ šōfēt

ǧibt ~ ǧēbēt

3c

šōfaw

ǧēbaw

2c

šiftūn ~ šōfētūn

ǧibtūn ~ ǧēbētūn

1c

šifnu ~ šōfēnu

ǧibnu ~ ǧēbēnu

pl

3.2.4.2 Measure I: mediae infirmae: imperfect The imperfect of med. inf. verbs has three patterns: yC1īC3, yC1ūC3 and yC1ōC3. Examples of yC1īC3 are: yǧīb ‘he brings’; yʔīš ‘he lives’; yzīd ‘he adds’; yqīṣ ‘he throws’. Examples of yC1ūC3 are: yšūf ‘he sees’; ydūx ‘he smokes’; yzūr ‘he visits’. Examples of yC1ōC3: yzōʔ ‘he vomits’; yṭōħ85 ‘he falls’; yxōf ‘he fears’. 85

For ‘he falls’ one may also hear yṭīħ.

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Inflection: yǧīb ‘he brings’

yšūf ‘he sees’

yṭōħ ‘he falls’

sg 3m

yǧīb

yšūf

yṭōħ

3f

tǧīb

tšūf

tṭōħ

2m

tǧīb

tšūf

tṭōħ

2f

tǧībīn

tšūfīn

tṭōħīn

1c

ʔaǧīb

ʔašūf

ʔaṭōħ

yǧīb ‘he brings’

yšūf ‘he sees’

yṭōħ ‘he falls’

3c

yǧībūn

yšūfūn

yṭōħūn

2c

tǧībūn

tšūfūn

tṭōħūn

1c

nǧīb

nšūf

nṭōħ

pl

In 2sg, 3cpl and 2cpl, stress may be regressed, e.g.: yq lun ‘they say’; tšū n ‘you (fsg) see’. 3.2.4.3 Measure I: mediae infirmae: imperative The imperative of med. inf. verbs has the pattern C1 C3, in which the long vowel is identical to the characteristic vowel in the corresponding imperfect: yšūf ‘he sees’ → šūf ‘see! (msg); yǧīb ‘he brings’  ǧīb ‘bring! (msg)’; yxōf ‘he fears’  xōf ‘fear! (msg)’. ‘see!’

‘bring!’

‘fear!’

msg

šūf

ǧīb

xōf

fsg

šūfi

ǧībi

xōfi

pl

šūfu

ǧību

xōfu

3.2.4.4 Measure I: mediae infirmae: participles The active participle of med. inf. verbs has the basic pattern C1ēyC3, which is probably a reflex of older *C1ēyaC3 in which the a has been elided: ‘seeing / having seen’ msg

šēyf

fsg

šēyfih

pl

šēyfīn 72

In rapid speech - but sometimes even in careful speech - the y may be completely inaudible, as in the following examples : šēyf [ʃeːf] ‘seeing / having seen (msg)’; ṭēyħih [ˈteːħiʰ] ‘falling / having fallen (fsg)’; rēyħīn [ɽeːˈħiːn] ‘going / having gone (cpl)’.

The passive particle of med. inf. verbs has the basic pattern maC1yūC3: ‘smoked’ msg

madyūx

fsg

madyūxih

pl

madyūxīn

3.2.5 Measure I: tertiae infirmae verbs 3.2.5.1 Measure I: tertiae infirmae: perfect The perfect of tert. inf. verbs has one pattern: C1aC2i, in which the final *-a has been raised to i (see §1.2.1.4). When consonant-initial suffixes are attached, the short final -i becomes ē: maši + t → mšēt. The fact that it is msēt probably means that the raising of *–a is a later development, otherwise one would expect ^mšīt. Inflection: maši ‘he walked’ sg

pl

3m maši

3c mašaw

3f

maš t

2m mšēt 2f

2c mšētūn

mšētīn

1c mšēt

1c mšēnu

In 3fsg, stress has been generalized as C1aC2 t, but this should be taken with some caution, since in the texts only one example occurs, namely baġ t ‘she wanted’. All elicited 3fsg forms had C1aC2 t, but this may be due to a tendency by speakers to stress the ultimate syllable when citing verbal inflections in pause. Also, it is unclear whether the first a may be elided when stress is ultimate (e.g. bġ t?). 73

In the texts, one 3cpl form occurs that has an i as its base vowel: mišaw ‘they walked’. 3.2.5.2 Measure I: tertiae infirmae: imperfect The imperfect of tert. inf. verbs has one pattern: yiC1C2i. Inflection: yilqi ‘he finds’ sg

pl

3m yilqi

3c yilqūn

3f

tilqi

2m tilqi 2f

2c tilqūn

tilqīn

1c alqi

1c nilqi

3.2.5.3 Measure I: tertiae infirmae: imperative The imperative of tert. inf. verbs has the pattern C1C2i: ‘find!’ msg

lqi

fsg

lqi

cpl

lqu

3.2.5.4 Measure I: tertiae infirmae: participles The active participle of tert. inf verbs has the basic pattern C1ēC2i for msg: ‘forgetting / having forgotten’ msg

nēsi

fsg

nēsyih

cpl

nēsyīn

In fsg and cpl, the y is often elided in rapid speech, as in the following examples: mēšyih [ˈmeːʃiʰ] ‘walking / having walked (fsg)’; nēsyih [ˈneːʃiʰ] ‘forgetting / having forgotten (fsg)’. mēšyīn [meːˈʃiːn] ‘walking / having walked (cpl)’. The passive participle of tert. inf. verbs has the basic pattern maC1C2i for msg; in fsg and cpl 74

the final i is lengthened to ī: maC1C2īyih (fsg), maC1C2īyīn (cpl). ‘forgotten’ msg

mansi

fsg

mansīyih

cpl

mansīyīn

3.2.5.5 ǧaru, yiǧru ‘to run’ and qaru, yiqru ‘to read’ Also recorded were ǧaru, yiǧru ‘to run’ and qaru, yiqru ‘to read’. Apart from the final –u in the 3msg forms, their inflection in both the perfect and the imperfect is identical to that of maši, yimši. It is difficult to explain the final –u in the 3msg forms. Both verbs were recorded only in elicitation and were pronounced with a retroflex r, i.e. [ˈʤæɽʊ] ‘he ran’, [ˈqaɽʊ] ‘he read’. Considering these verbs to be morphologically C1aC2i and thus regard the final -u as an allophone of –i is corroborated by forms such as əlǧərih [ʔəlˈʤəɽiʰ] ‘əlǦərih (place name)’ and kəttōrih [kəˈtːɔ:ɽiʰ] ‘sword’ in which the final –i is unaffected by the retroflex r. One could also propose that in the hypothetical older forms *ǧarā and *qarā (< *qaraʔ) the long *ā first developed into -ō and from there into –u. But that would not account for the rest of the paradigm, e.g. ǧrēt ‘I / you (msg) ran’ and not ^ǧrūt or ^ǧrōt. Further research will have to answer to this question. 3.2.5.6 Reduced variant of yibġi ‘he wants’ In rapid speech, the common verb yibġi ‘he wants’ is often reduced. This reduced variant has a full conjugation: ybo (3msg), tbo (3fsg), tbo (2msg), tbīn (2fsg), ʔābo (1cpl), ybūn (3cpl), tbūn (2cpl), nbo (1cpl). Also recorded were yiba and biġ for ‘he wants’. 3.2.6 Measure I: primae wāw verbs 3.2.6.1 Measure I: primae wāw verbs: perfect The perfect of prim. wāw is identical to the perfect of strong verbs, e.g. waqaf ‘he stood’; waqfat ‘she stood; etc (see §3.2.2.1). 3.2.6.2 Measure I: primae wāw verbs: imperfect Of prim. wāw verbs, only imperfects with the pattern yōC2aC3 have been recorded, although it may be possible that there are verbs that have a vowel other than a in their pattern. 75

Remarkably, 1csg is ʔawqaf, unlike in EGA86 and EAD87 where it has the monophthong ō, as in ʔōq f. Inflection: yōqaf ‘he stands’ sg

pl

3m

yōqaf

3f

tōqaf

2m

tōqaf

2f

tōqfīn

1c

ʔawqaf

3c

yōqfūn

2c

tōqfūn

1c

nōqaf

As can be seen in the paradigm above, the a of the basic pattern is elided when suffixes are attached: yōqfūn (← yōqafūn) ‘they stand’. 3.2.6.3 Measure I: primae wāw verbs: imperative For msg, the pattern of the prim. wāw imperative is ʔ C2aC3, e.g. ʔ qaf ‘stop! (msg)’. In the recorded texts, no fsg or cpl imperatives occur; elicitation yielded the following forms: ʔōq

(fsg) and ʔōq fu (cpl) ‘wait!’. However, since it is unclear where stress would be in

spontaneous speech, and whether or not the short a is elided, these forms should be taken with some caution. 3.2.6.4 Measure I: primae wāw verbs: participles Both active and passive participles of prim. wāw verbs have the same patterns as those of strong verbs (see §3.2.2.4), i.e.: active: wēqaf (msg), wēqfih (fsg), wēqfīn (cpl) ‘standing / having stood’. passive: mawǧūd (msg), mawǧūdih (fsg), mawǧūdīn (cpl) ‘present’

86 87

See Holes (1996:205). See Johnstone (1967:48).

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3.2.7 Measure I: primae hamza verbs 3.2.7.1 Measure I: primae hamza verbs: perfect Unlike in EGA and EAD88, historical *ʔ does not have a reflex ʔ in the basic perfect pattern in the verbs kal ‘he ate’ and xad ‘he took’ (the only prim. hamza verbs that were recorded), but has been elided definitively. Apart from 3msg, the paradigm for the perfect is exactly the same as that of tert. inf. verbs. Strangely enough, the participles fit the med. inf. template (see below under §3.2.7.4). 3msg kal was only heard in elicitation once and sounded like [kæl]. Inflection: kal ‘he ate’ sg

pl

3m kal

3c kal w*1)

3f

kal t*1)

2m klēt 2f

klētīn

1c klēt *1)

2c klētūn 1c klēnu

Note that in 3fsg and 3cpl stress is ultimate. It is, however, unclear whether elision of a in

the first syllable is structural or not, since only a few examples of these forms occur in the texts. The following occur: ləḍrūs kal t u lʔēd šallat ‘the teeth ate and the hand carried’; xad tti maʔu89 ‘she took her with her’; ʔu kalōhi [kəˈloːhi] tnēn u talātīn nafar ‘and 32 persons ate her’; ʔu klōhi tnēn u talātīn nafar ‘and 32 persons ate her’. Note the difference (kalōhi vs. klōhi) in identical surroundings in the last two examples. 3.2.7.2 Measure I: primae hamza verbs: imperfect Both kal ‘he ate’ and xad ‘he took’ have the pattern yōC1aC2 for their imperfect. For 1csg, though, elicitation only yielded ʔākal. Unfortunately, no 1csg forms occur in the texts, so it is impossible to check if ʔākal, instead of the expected ʔōkal, is actually used.

Holes (1990:205) notes ʔakal ‘he ate for EGA’; apart from ʔakal ‘he ate’, Johnstone (1967:47) also mentions kala ‘he ate’ for EAD. 89 This is a mistake made by the speaker and should have been maʔhi ‘with her’. 88

77

Inflection: yōkal ‘he eats’ sg

pl

3m

yōkal

3f

tōkal

2m

tōkal

2f

tōklīn

1c

ʔākal ?

3c yōklūn 2c tōklūn 1c nōkal

3.2.7.3 Measure I: primae hamza verbs: imperative The only imperative that occurs in the texts is kli (with diphthongised i: [ʔəˈklej]) ‘eat! (fsg)’. Elicitation yielded the following forms: kil (msg), kli (fsg) and klu (cpl). 3.2.7.4 Measure I: primae hamza verbs: participles Both the active and the passive participles of kal ‘he ate’ and xad ‘he took’ have patterns that are identical to those of med. inf. verbs, whereas the perfect has a paradigm identical to that of tert. inf. verbs (see above under §3.2.7.1). ‘eating / having ate’

‘taking / having taken’

msg

kēyl

xēyd

fsg

kēylih

xēydih

cpl

kēylīn

xēydīn

As with med. inf. participles, the y is often barely audible, even in careful speech. No passive participles occur in the texts, but elicitation yielded the following forms: makyūl (msg), makyūlih (fsg), makyūlīn (cpl) ‘eaten’ 3.2.8 šall, yšill ‘to carry’ and qōl, yqūl / qall, yqall ‘to say’ Another remarkable feature in the ŠA verbal system is the transition that the verb šall, yšill ‘to carry’ has gone through. It is assumed here that this verb was once mediae infirmae, i.e. *šāl, *yšīl, as it still is today in most other dialects, as well as in MSA. In ŠA, this verb went from being mediae infirmae to mediae geminatae, i.e. *šāl, *yšīl > šall, yšill. The only verbal category in which the old weak C2 is still present is in the passive participle: mašyūl (and not ^mašlūl). In all other verbal categories the verb behaves exactly the same as any other med. 78

gem. verb. The verb qōl, yqūl / qall, yqall ‘to say’ is undergoing a similar process, but seems to be only halfway there. Only if the verb is used in combination with an indirect object (i.e. ‘to say to IO’), which does not need to be introduced by the preposition li ‘to, for’, it is obligatory to use the med. gem. variant qall, yqall. In all other situations, it is obligatory to use qōl, yqūl. Consider the examples given below.

In the following situations, med. inf. qōl, yqūl is obligatory: - introducing direct speech: qōlat ʔōnu hōdu līyi ‘she said: this (m) is mine’ yqūl lā timši hūlandah ‘he says: don’t go to Holland!’ - introducing indirect speech: šift hizzō ʔu qōl ʔinnu byištiri siyyōrih ǧadīdih ‘I saw Hizzō and he said that he is going to buy a new car.’ yqūl ʔinnu laʔabt əlyōm ‘he says that he has played (football) today’ - with a following direct object: qōlaw lħaqq ‘they told the truth’ yqūl əlǧawēb ‘he says the answer’ But when an indirect object follows, be it an independent noun or a suffixed pronoun, it is obligatory to use mediae geminatae qall, yqall. Examples of qall, yqall + suffixed pronouns as indirect objects: qallēhi90 ‘he said to her’; qallatu ‘she said to him’; qallētu ‘I said to him’; yqallu ‘he says to him’; nqallham ‘we say to them’. Examples of qall, yqall + independent nouns as indirect objects: ħammūd qall xalīfih ʔinnu yilʔab zēyn ‘Ħammūd said to Khalīfih that he plays well.’; tqall hizzō ʔinnu rabīʔak ‘You say to you Hizzō that he is your (msg) friend’; tqallīn ʔəmmaš ʔinhi maǧnūnih ‘You (fsg) say to your mother that she is crazy.’ A possible explanation for this development could be the following. It is not unlikely that in

90

With inserted ē to resolve the cluster ll h: qall + hi → qallēhi.

79

the past indirect objects of qōl díd need to be introduced by the preposition li ‘for, to’, as is common in most other dialects. Thus the following forms may have existed: qōl līk ‘he said to you (msg)’; ʔaqūl līk ‘I say to you (msg). The next stage could be one in which l(i) became an enclitic: qōllak ‘he said to you’; ʔaqūllak ‘I say to you’. The long base vowels are now in a closed syllable, which would have resulted in them being shortened to o and u: qollak, ʔaqullak. At this point, speakers may have started to interpret the doubled l as part of the verbal root, instead of a combination of C3 and the enclitic preposition –l-. The shortened vowels o (in the perfect) and u (in the imperfect) may have become a under the influence of the preceding q: qallak ‘he said to you (msg)’; ʔaqallak ‘I say to you’. From now on, speakers would then use qall and yqall whenever an indirect object would follow. The same could be true for šall, yšill. Since the meaning of this verb is in fact wider than merely ‘to carry’ - it is also used in the sense of ‘to take with you’ -, it may be that in the past it also had a meaning similar to that of gēb, yǧīb ‘to bring’. Combined with li, one would hear forms such as šāl līk ‘he brought to you (msg)’ and ʔašīl līk ‘I bring to you (msg)’. If we follow the development as described above for qōl, yqūl > qall, yqall, it would look as follows: šēl līk (enclision of li) > šēllak (shortening of base vowel) > šellak (doubled l interpreted as part of the verbal root) > šell (paradigmatic leveling with the standard med. gem. pattern C1aC2C2) > šall ʔašīl līk (enclision of li) > ʔašīllak (shortening of base vowel) > ʔašillak (doubled l interpreted as part of the verbal root) > ʔašill The only difference with qall is that šall is now used in all situations, and not just when an indirect object follows. Perhaps somewhere in the future, qōl, yqūl will be completely replaced by qall, yqall. 3.2.9 The derived stems 3.2.9.1 Measure II Perfect The perfect of measure II strong verbs has the basic pattern C1aC2C2aC3, e.g. waǧǧal ‘he made a dam (to contain water) around a palm tree’; ʔarraš ‘he made an ʔarīš91’; ʔallam ‘he taught’. 91

ʔarīš: hut made from different parts of a date palm.

80

When vowel-initial suffixes (verbal or pronominal) are attached to the basic pattern, the second base vowel is often elided, and the resulting consonant cluster is then resolved by reduction of the geminate:92 xallṣaw (← xallaṣaw) ‘they finished’; sakkru (← sakkaru) ‘he closed it (m)’. Tertiae infirmae verbs have the basic pattern C1aC2C2i, as in the following examples: sawwi ‘he made’; sammi ‘he called’; ṣalli ‘he prayed’. As with measure I verbs, the final –i becomes ē before consonant-initial suffixes, e.g. sawwēt ‘I made’.

Imperfect The basic pattern for strong measure II imperfects seems to be yC1iC2C2aC3, in which the i often has the phonetic quality [ə].93 Some examples are: yṭəllaʔ ‘he gets out’; ywəddar ‘he stops (doing something)’; ybissal ‘he makes bəsl94’. However, when C1 is ħ, x, ʔ or q, the pattern is usually yC1aC2C2aC3, as in the following examples: yħaṣṣal ‘he obtains’; yxallaṣ ‘he finishes’; yʔaxxar ‘he is late’; yqaddam ‘he lets precede’.95 Only one verb of the same pattern occurs in which C2 is either one of those consonants, namely ydaxxal. If C2 is w, the first vowel in the pattern is u,96 e.g.: ytuwwar ‘he boils’; yḍuwwal ‘he collects’. The second base vowel may be elided when vowel-initial suffixes (verbal or pronominal) are attached to the basic pattern. The resulting consonant cluster is then resolved by reduction of the geminate,97 as in the following examples: yxallṣūn (←yxallaṣūn) ‘they finish’; ydaxxlu (←ydaxxalu) ‘he lets him enter’. The following tert. inf. measure II verbs occurred in the texts: ysuwwi ‘he makes’; ysəmmi ‘he calls’; yṣalli98 ‘he prayes’; yxalli ‘he lets’. In measure II imperfects, it is quite common that stress is regressed in 3cpl, as in the following examples: yd xxlun ‘they let enter’; yw ṣṣluh ‘they bring him’; yṭəllʔun ‘they take out’; ys wwun ‘they make’.

For morphological transparency, the geminate is retained in the transcription. The phonetic quality of the first vowel in measure II imperfects is reflected in the transcription throughout this study. 94 bəsl: see note 67. 95 Although yxəbbal ‘he makes crazy’ was also heard. 96 An exception is yrawwaħ ‘he goes’. 97 For morphological transparency, the geminatae is retained in the transcription. 98 In yṣalli, the first base vowel is a, as opposed to yṣəllaʔ ‘he shaves (the head of newborn)’, which also has ṣ as C1. 92 93

81

3.2.9.2 Measure III Perfect There are two patterns for the perfect of measure III strong verbs, namely C1ōC2aC3 and C1ēC2aC3. Some examples include: bōrak ‘he congratulated’; sōfar ‘he traveled’; dōfaʔ ‘he defended’; ǧēwab ‘he answered’; sēʔaf ‘he cooperated’. In the texts, no examples with vowelinitial suffixes occur, so it is impossible to say whether the a in the basic pattern is eligible for elision or not. No weak measure III verbs occur in the data. Imperfect There are two patterns for the imperfect of measure III verbs: yC1ōC2aC3 and yC1ēC2aC3. The long vowel is identical to the long vowel in the corresponding perfect: sōfar  ysōfar ‘he travels’; bōrak  ybōrak ‘he congratulates; sēʔaf  ysēʔaf ‘he cooperates’. When vowel-initial suffixed are attached, the a in the basic pattern may be elided: ybōrkūn (← ybōrakūn) ‘they congratulate’. No weak measure III imperfects occurred in the data. 3.2.9.3 Measure IV In the texts, just one example of a measure IV verb occurred: ʔaṣbaħat ‘she became’, which is interpreted as an influence of MSA here, since the lack of more examples probably means that measure IV is not productive anymore. 3.2.9.4 Measure t-II Perfect The perfect of measure t-II has the pattern tC1aC2C2aC3. Some examples are: tʔallam ‘he learned’; tqaddam ‘he preceded’; tbassal ‘it (m) was made into bəsl’99. When vowel-initial suffixes are attached to the basic pattern, the second a is often elided: tʔaṭṭraw (← tʔaṭṭaraw) ‘they put on perfume’. The following tert. inf. measure V perfects occurred in the texts: tʔašši ‘he ate lunch’; tħakki ‘he told’; twalli ‘he took charge’.100 99

bəsl: see note 67. These verbs are inflected as maši ‘he walked’ (see §3.2.5.1).

100

82

Imperfect The imperfect of measure t-II verbs has the pattern yitC1aC2C2aC3. Some examples include: yizzawwaǧ101 ‘he marries’; yitmakkas102 ‘he mingles (with other people)’. As in the imperfect of measure II, the second a in the basic pattern may be elided after suffixation of vowel-initial suffixes: yitʔallmūn (← yitʔallamūn) ‘they learn’. The above mentioned tert. inf. verbs have the following imperfects: yitʔašši ‘he eats lunch’; tiħakki ‘he tells’; yitwalli ‘he takes charge’.103 3.2.9.5 Measure t-III Perfect There are two patterns for the perfect of measure t-III verbs: tC1ōC2aC3 and tC1ēC2aC3. Some examples are: tḍōrab ‘he fought (with s.o.)’; tfēǧaʔ ‘he was surprised’. As in measure III, the second a in the basic pattern is eligible for elision when vowel-initial suffixes are attached: tḍōrbūn (← tḍōrabūn) ‘they fought each other’. No weak measure V perfects occur in the data. Imperfect Like for the perfect, there are two patterns for the imperfect of t-III verbs: yitC1ōC2aC3 and y tC1ēC2aC3. The long vowel is identical to the long vowel in the corresponding perfect: tḍōrab  yitḍōrab ‘he fights with s.o.’; tfēǧaʔ  yitfēǧaʔ ‘he is surprised’. The second a in the basic pattern is eligible for elision after suffixation of vowel-initial suffixes: yitfēǧʔūn (← yitfēǧaʔūn) ‘they are surprised’. No weak measure V perfects occur in the data. 3.2.9.6 Measure n-I Perfect The limited amount of n-I verbs in the data makes it hard to determine one or several morphological standard patterns for both the perfect and the imperfect. Most recorded strong perfects sound like nC1əC2 C3. Some examples are: nkəs r ‘it (m) broke (intr.)’; nǧər ħ

In yizzawwaǧ, the infix -t- assimilated with z: yitzawwaǧ → yizzawwaǧ. This verb obviously has its roots in English ‘to mix’. 103 These verbs are inflected as yimši (see §3.2.5.2). 101 102

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‘he was injured’; nxər f ‘it (m) was being plucked (from its dates)’; nkəb ʔ ‘it (m) was bended’. For fsg and cpl, elicitation yielded nkasrat ‘it (f) broke’; nǧarħaw ‘they were injured’; etc. The only recorded weak measure n-I verbs are nbēʔ ‘it (m) was sold’.104 Imperfect Most of the recorded n-I imperfects sound like yinC1əC2əC3, as in the following forms: ninġələb ‘we are beaten’; yinǧərəħ ‘he is injured’; yinfətəħ ‘it (m) is opened’. However, the following examples also occurred in the texts: yinħ zif ‘it (m) is deleted’; yinf sil ‘it (m) is being planted’; tinx raf ‘it (f) is being plucked (from its dates)’. When vowel-initial suffixes are added, the second base vowel is elided: yinġəlbūn (← yinġələbūn) ‘they are beaten’. The imperfect of nbēʔ is yinbīʔ105 ‘it (m) is being sold’. 3.2.9.7 Measure I-t Perfect As with measure n-I, it is difficult to determine one or several morphological standard patterns for both the perfect and the imperfect of measure I-t verbs, due to the limited number of examples that occur in the texts. Most perfects have ultimate stress and vowel with the phonetic quality [ə] in the preceding syllable: C1təC2 C3. Some examples are: štəġ l ‘he worked’; xtəl f ‘he was different’; ntәħ r ‘he committed suicide’. When vowel-initial suffixes are attached, the second base vowel is elided: ǧtamʔaw ‘they assembled’. Some of the recorded weak measure I-t perfects are: xtōr ‘he chose’; ħtēǧ ‘he needed’; qtaḍi ‘he required’; stuwi ‘it (m) happened.106 Imperfect The few recorded strong measure I-t imperfects either sounded like yiC1təC2əC3, as in yištəġəl ‘he works’, or they were clearly realised with two i’s, as in yixt lif ‘he is different’. When vowel-initial suffixes are attached, the second base vowel is elided: yixtilfūn (← yixtilifūn) ‘they are different’. Some recorded weak measure I-t imperfects are the following: yixtōr ‘he chooses’;

nbēʔ is inflected as ǧēb ‘he brought’ (see §3.2.4.1). yinbīʔ is inflected as yǧīb (see §3.2.4.2). 106 xtōr is inflected as kōn ‘he was’ (see §3.2.4.1); ħtēǧ is inflected as ǧēb ‘he brought’ (Ibid.); qtaḍi and stuwi are inflected as maši ‘he walked’ (see §3.2.5.1). 104 105

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yahtēǧ ‘he needs’; yistəħi ‘he is shy’; yistuwi ‘it (m) happens’.107 3.2.9.8 Measure X Perfect The perfect of measure X verbs has the pattern st C1C2aC3: staxdam ‘he used’; staʔǧar ‘he rented’; staqbal ‘he received’. One weak measure X perfect occurred in the texts: staq ll ‘he settled’. Imperfect The strong measure X imperfect has the pattern yistaC1C2aC3, as in yistaxdam ‘he uses’. In the texts, one med. inf. measure X imperfect occurs: yistifīdūn ‘they benefit’. 3.2.10 Internal passive Reinhardt already observed in 1894 that the internal passive in Omani Arabic was frequently used;108 Holes, in his 1995 article on passive verbs in Omani Arabic, states that the internal passive ‘… is still alive and well in Oman and conforms closely in its contemporary usage to Reinhardt’s description.’109 Holes found a total of 57 internal passives in his 5000 words long transcription of conversations with three elderly, uneducated speakers (two men and one woman), which he calls ‘a very high proportion’.110 He makes the following observations:111 (i) The majority (53 of the 57 instances) were imperfects, and all of them were 3 rd person singular. (ii) Of the four perfects, three were 1st person; the other 3rd person singular. (iii) All passives were of measures I and II. In the dialect under study here, the internal passive is much less frequent, as only six yixtōr and yaħtēǧ are inflected as ykōn and yǧīb respectively (see §3.2.4.2); yistəħi and yistuwi are inflected as yimši (see §3.2.5.2). 108 See Reinhardt (1894:154). 109 See Holes (1995:69). 110 Ibid. p. 70. 111 Ibid. 107

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instances occur in the 10.000 words long transcription of the texts. They conform to Holes’ observations, as they are all 3rd person imperfects of measure I and II. The internal passive patterns are yiC1C2aC3 for measure I and yC1aC2C2aC3 for measure II. The six internal passives as they were heard in the texts are listed below. ys wwuh әmḍallaʔ ? ʔaw hōdōk … ʔaw yišrax ‘A: they make a mḍallaʔ112 from it? B: or that … or it is split in two pieces’. sawwaw bīhi nabēt … tinbat ‘they put pollen in it … it was fertilised’ ʔəqəb ənnaxlih … baʔәd tiqfay … twaǧǧal ‘after the palm tree … after she has been cleared from its old branches … you make a dam around it’ ləxnēzih ybassal ‘the Xnēzih (date palm species) can be made into bəsl113’ hōdu xīs hāy … iysammi xīs ‘this is xīs (date palm species) yes … it (m) is called xīs’ ʔaywa ssammi zzafīfih … ʔilli zziff əlʔarūsih ‘yes she is called the zafīfih … the one who escorts the bride in procession’ It should be noted that all but the last of these internal passives come from one elderly speaker. None of the younger informants used internal passives in the recordings. When asked about it, they all said it is mainly older people who use internal passives, and that they would use the n-I measure instead. Elicitation yielded forms such as: əlqahwih tinšərəb ~

əlqahwih tišrab

‘the coffee is being drunk’

ləktēb yinkəteb

ləktēb yiktab

‘the book is being written’

~

3.2.11 Verbal negation and the prohibitive Perfect and imperfect verbs can be negated in of one two ways: by placing mā before it, or by attaching the enclitic -lu. Examples of negation with mā: faʔalt walla mā faʔalt? ‘did you (m) do it or did you not do it?’; əssamak mā yǧību ‘fish … they don’t bring it’; mā ʔadri kī ‘I don’t know how’; mā mšēt xaṣāb əlyōm ‘I didn’t go to Khasab (place name) today.’ 112 113

ḍallaʔ, yḍəllaʔ: ‘to split the trunk of a palm tree in four pieces’. One such a piece is called mḍallaʔ. bəsl: see note 67.

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Examples of negation with –lu: yqōllu bas ilkilmatēn ‘He doesn’t just say the two words.’; yaʔni hōdōk əššay tēni yitbass llu ‘you know … the other thing cannot be made into bəsl’; tšūflu nxīlham ‘you (msg) don’t see their date palms’. When –lu is attached to a tert. inf. verb, the preceding vowel is lengthened: ʔadri + lu → ʔadrīlu ‘I don’t know’; ʔamši + lu → ʔamšīlu ‘I don’t go’. The enclitic –lu can also be attached to a verb that is suffixed with a pronominal suffix, i.e. verb + pronominal suffix + lu: qatal + ham + lu → qatalh mlu ‘he didn’t kill them’. If the pronominal suffix is vowel-final, the vowel is lengthened, as the following examples demonstrate: yismaʔ + hi + lu → yismaʔhīlu ) ‘he doesn’t hear her’; ḍarab + u + lu → ḍarabūlu ‘he didn’t hit him’. The prohibitive can also be formed in two ways: by placing lā before an imperfect, or by attaching the enclitic –lu to an imperfect. Examples: lā timši! ~ timšīlu! ‘don’t go! (msg)’ lā timšīn! ~ timšīnlu! ‘don’t go! (fsg)’ lā timšūn! ~ timšūnlu! ‘don’t go! (cpl)’ 3.2.12 Future marker To express futurity, the prefix b(i)- is attached to an imperfect verb. Examples: bitšūfu bi llēl ‘you will see him tonight’; ʔilli byišraħ hōdu lmawḍūʔ xalīfih ‘the one who will explain this subject is Khalīfah’; ʔōnu baqallak ‘I will tell you’.

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4.0 Sample texts114 4.1 Text 1 – On traditional wedding customs The following text is an excerpt from a conversation in which Hizzō and Mālallāh question Ħamīd on traditional wedding customs. It deals with the consummation of the marriage, which takes places in the killih. This is a room in the bride’s family’s house that is especially designated for this purpose. The killih is decorated by the women, both family and friends, with items such as embroidered fabrics, mats, mirrors, etc. After evening prayer, the groom is brought into the killih where he waits for his bride. Around three o’clock at night, she is escorted into the killih and stays there for approximately half an hour until the family comes to take her away. The next day, she is again let into the killih for half an hour. This cycle of events is repeated for seven days, while the groom stays inside the killih. After seven days, the couple moves in together; either in their own or in the groom’s family’s house. Speakers: Ħ: Ħamīd (50); Z: Hizzō (30); M: Mālallāh (appr. 28)

Ħ: min baʔəd ṣalāt əlləʔši115 … əlʔarūs lih nēs Ħ: After evening prayer ... the groom has people biydaxxlūh. mā kill wēħad ʔalladi bass that will let him enter. Not everybody can let iydaxxlaw.116 lih nēs yiqbaḍūn ʔēdow117 … him enter. He has people who hold his hand ... ʔalladi ham əlkəbbōri bi lb lad hōdey118. wi who are the elders of this village. He entered the d xal əlʔarūs d xal lkillih ... ʔarafət kīf? wi killih ... the groom entered the killih ... you tqahwaw … ʔu xallṣaw

understand (know how)? And they had coffee ... and finished.

For general information on the texts, see the Introduction under d. (pp. 17-19). For an explanation of əlləʔši ‘the evening prayer’, in which the definite article has fused with the morphological base, see §3.1.5. 116 An example of a diphthongised 3msg pron. suffix –u (see §1.2.1.6). 117 Idem. 118 An example of a diphthongised final –i (see §1.2.1.5). 114 115

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ʔu ḍall hōdu lʔarūs yitriǧǧi119 lʔarūsih ... li And this groom stayed, expecting the bride ... qabəl əlfaǧər yimkin əb sōʔih.

until maybe an hour before dawn.

M: bi hō lfatrih wēš … //

M: During this period, where ... //

Z:

marrōt

iys lafun

122

yiylasūn

120

121

maʔu

rabʔaw Z: Sometimes his friends sit with him ... they

... maʔu bi llēl bi lkillih.

chat with him in the evening in the killih.

Ħ: iys lafun maʔu alǧaməʔ mā biytammūn Ħ: The group chats with him, (but) they won’t iys lafun maʔu li ṣṣubəħ.

stay and chat with him until the morning.

Z: rabīʔu lxōṣṣīn yiylasūn maʔu šway.

H: His close friends sit with him a bit.

Ħ: ʔaywa yiylasūn maʔu ʔawwal illēl əšway Ħ: Yes, they sit with a bit him at the beginning taqrīban nuṣṣ sōʔih bi lʔəħdāšar baqallak. ʔu of the evening, maybe half an hour until eleven xalāṣ mišaw123. ham iyǧībuhi124 lih əssōʔah125 o’clock ... I’m telling you. Then they left. They talōt … ləħrēmih. əssōʔih talōt nuṣṣ sōʔih.

bring her to him a three o’clock ... the woman ...

Z: mān iyǧībhi lih?

at three o’clock (for) half an hour.

Ħ: əǧǧībhi lih əzzafīfih.

Z: Who brings her to him?

Z: ʔaywa kām əħrēmih?

Ħ: The zafīfih130 brings her to him.

Ħ: ətǧībhi126 lih ħrēmih waħdih127 zzafīfih.

Z: Yes, how many women?

Z: ħrēmih128 ssammay129 əzzafīfih?

Ħ: One woman brings her to him, the zafīfih. Z: A woman who is called the zafīfih?

Ħ: ʔaywa ssammi zzafīfih ʔilli zziff Ħ: Yes, she is called the zafīfih, the one who ʔəlʔarūsih.

escorts the bride.

A measure t-II verb that clearly has an i as its first base vowel. As to the geminate ǧǧ, only the plosive element [d] is doubled and the fricative [ ] is elided, i.e. [jɪtˈrɪdːi] ‘he expects’. 120 Two slashes / / indicate an unfinished word or sentence. 121 In yiylasūn ‘they sit’, ǧ is realised as [j], after which the diphthong iy is monophthongised to ī: [jiːləˈsʊːn]. 122 An example of regressed stress in a measure III verb: ysōlafūn → ys lafun ‘they chat’. For regression of stress, see also 2.4.1. 123 This is the only recorded instance of an i as base vowel in a tert. inf. perfect, i.e. mišaw instead of the expected mašaw ‘they went’. 124 An example of regressed stress in a med. inf. verb: yǧībūhi → yǧībuhi ‘they bring her’. See also §2.4.1. 125 A rare instance of a instead of i in the feminine morpheme. 126 Here ǧ assimilated partially to t, in that it has lost its voicing [ʃ]: tǧībhi [ʔəˈtʃiːbhɪ] ‘she brings her’. 127 waħdih occurs next to wēħdih as the fsg indefinite pronoun ‘one’. The h of the feminine morpheme –ih elided before the definite article: [ˈwaħdə zː ˈfiːfiʰ]. 128 An example of a word-initial consonant cluster: # ħr. 129 A passive measure II perfect; and an example of diphthongisation of final –i in context. 130 zafīfih: the woman who escorts the bride to the room (killih) where the groom is waiting for her. 119

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Z: əssōʔih talōt ilfaǧər? Ħ: ʔaywa ssōʔih talōt yēbatti

Z: At three o’clock at dawn? 131

lih ʔila Ħ: Yes, at three o’clock she brought her to him

maqdūr nuṣṣ šōʔih … nuṣṣ sōʔih xadatti for half an hour ... for half an hour she took her maʔaw.132 hōdi ys mmuhi133 zzaffih. ʔamma to him. They call this the zaffih.135 As to the ḍḍafrih waħdih tēni.

ḍafrih136, that’s someone else.

M: il …?

M: The ...?

Ħ: əḍḍafrih … w əḍḍafrih lladi tʔəddər134 Ħ: The ḍafrih ... the ḍafrih is the one who fixes əššaʔ r … hōdīk waħdih tēni.

the hair ... that’s someone else.

Z: hōdīk māti xidmitti? hal137 hōdi tibdaʔ Z: That one, when is her job? Does this start in əṣṣubəħ?

the morning?

Ħ: eh?

Ħ: eh?

Z: əzzafīfih tǧībhi138 līk bi llēl?

Z: The zafīfih brings her to you at night?

Ħ: əǧǧībhi līk b illēl.

Ħ: She brings her to you at night.

Z: daxxlaw ləħrēmih?

Z: They let the woman go in?

Ħ: ʔaywa.

Ħ: Yes.

Z: qaflaw lbēb min barra?

M: Did they close the door from the outside?

Ħ: ʔaywa qaflaw lbēb min barra.

Ħ: Yes, they closed the door from the outside.

Z: iyq u139 lbēb min barra … ənzēyn.

Z: They close the door from the outside ... nice!

Ħ: šallaw ʔannak ilehhh… əṣṣubəħ illi maʔak. Ħ: They took away from you the ehhh ... in the s waʔan kōnat əsrūǧih.

morning ... the one who (was) with you.

Z: ʔaw līt ʔaw šay banndaw ʔannak. ʔala Regardless of whether there was an oil lamp ʔawwal əsrūy140 … ʔaw əlfan r. ʔōnu mā (burning). maʔi hinō kō baruwwīh līkam.

Z: Or a light or something ... they turned it off

An example of assimilation of h with the voiceless stop t: yēbat (← ǧēbat) + hi → yēbatti ‘she brought her’. Diphthongised 3msg pron. suffix –u. 133 An example of regressed stress in a measure II verb: ysimmūhi → ys mmuhi ‘they call he’. For regression of stress, see also §2.4.1. 134 Here l is realised as a trill [r]: tʔəddəl [tˈʔədːər] ‘she fixes’. 135 zaffih: the act of escorting the bride to the killih. 136 ḍafrih: the woman who is responsible for fixing the bride’s hair and for making sure she looks pretty during the wedding ceremony. 137 The question particle hal was only recorded once. 138 Here ǧ is elided: tǧībhi [ˈtiːbhɪ] ‘she brings her’. 139 Here yiqfalūn ‘they close’ is resyllabified and the final -n is dropped: yq flu. 140 In srūǧih ‘lamp’ ǧ is realised as [j] and the feminine morpheme –ih is dropped: srūy. 131 132

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Ħ: lā ʔōnu mizzuwwiy141 əb fan r.142 lakan (from you). In the past it was an oil lamp ... or a hast əsrūǧih … əsrūǧih tirʔ

143

ʔinti?

lantern. I don’t have (it) here, if (I would) I’d

M: hāy hāy bīha tamər min fōq.

show it to you.

Z: ʔaywa srūyih.

Ħ: No, I got married with a lantern ... but there

Ħ: hahahaha hōday. hōdi min iyš lluhi is (also) an oil lamp ... do you know what a ʔann k … n fxah144 … xallak145 ʔinti b srūǧih147 is? ḍallōm146.

M: Yes yes, it has dates at the top. Z: Yes, a srūǧih. Ħ: Hahaha like this. This is from (the moment) they took it away from you ... they blew it out and left you in the dark.

Z: yalla nuṣṣ sōʔih hōdi māk148 ʔōħīn?

Z: Yalla, she (litt. ‘this [f]’) is with you for half an

Ħ: hā hōdi nuṣṣ sōʔih maʔak ʔinti.

hour now?

Z: nīk ʔaxd m ʔanʔ r?

Ħ: Yes, she is with you for half an hour.

Ħ: ʔōħīn ʔinti … əbnuṣṣ sōʔih … ʔinti149 w Z: Sex ... I go ahead .... I go wild? šaǧōʔtak bass hōh maʔ əlħrēmih.

Ħ: Now you ... for half an hour ... it’s just you and

M: ʔawwal yōm?

your bravery ... him and the woman.

Ħ: ʔawwal yōm … x daha150 ʔ nnak.

M: The first day?

Z: əʔqəb151 nuṣṣ sōʔih h ddaw li lbēb min Ħ: The first day ... they took her away from you. barra?

Z: After half an hour they ended it by knocking

In mizzuwwiǧ ‘having married (msg)’ ǧ is realised as y: mizzuwwiy. Assimilation of b with f in əb fan r ‘with a lantern’: [əfːəˈnɐˑɻ]. 143 An example of assimilation of h with a voiceless fricative: tirʔaf + hi → tirʔaffi ‘you (msg) know her’. 144 In n fxah ‘they blew it out’ the 3cpl perfect suffix –aw is reduced to –a: nafxaw + h → n fxah (see §3.2.2.1 under *3)); the –h refers to srūǧih ‘lamp’, which is feminine, so either the final –i of the 3fsg pronom. suffix –hi is elided or the speaker made a mistake by using the 3msg suffix -h. 145 Idem. Here: xallaw + k → x llak ‘they let you (msg)’. 146 Syntactically ḍalōm ‘darkness’ should have been definite, i.e. əḍḍalōm, but it is clearly pronounced without the article here. 147 srūǧih: oil lamp. 148 An example of an elided intervocalic ʔ: maʔak → māk ‘with you (msg)’. See §1.1.11. 149 Here the final –i is realised as [ʊ] under the influence of the following w: ʔinti w [ˈʔɪntʊ w] ‘you and’. 150 An example of a 3cpl perfect suffix –aw that is reduced to –a before a suffixed pronominal: xadaw + hi → xadahi ‘they took her’. See §3.2.2.1 under *3). 151 The first vowel in ʔəqəb ‘after’ is elided, after which the word-initial consonant cluster is resolved by insertion of the anaptyctic ə: ʔəqəb → ʔqəb [ʔəʔqəb] ‘after’. 141 142

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Ħ: xalāṣ xad ha ʔannak rōħa.152

the door from the outside?

Z: šalla

Ħ: Done, they took her away from you and left.

153

ləħrēmih?

Ħ: ʔaywa.

Z: They took the woman away?

Z: faʔ lət walla mā faʔ lət?

Ħ: Yes.

Ħ: lā lā lā faʔ lət ʔaw mā faʔ lət.

Z: (Whether) you did it or not?

Z: ənzēyn.

Ħ: No no no ... (whether) you did or not. Z: Nice.

Ħ: faʔ lət ʔaw mā faʔ lət xalāṣ x daha Ħ: (Whether) you did or not ... it was over ... ʔannak. māti yǧībūhi līk? iyǧībūhi līk bōkar they took her away from you. When do they aḍḍaħħu154 taqrīban əssōʔih kām … əssōʔih bring her to you? They bring her to you bi lʔ tsih.155

tomorrow at forenoon around what time? At

Z: ʔašar hīdu yaʔni.

nine o’clock.

Ħ: ʔaywa ʔala ʔan biyyūk nēs iybōrkūn līk Z: Ten ... like this, you know. ʔinti ba156 ṭūl lənhōr … iyyībuhi līk taqrīban Ħ:

Yes,

because

people

will

come

to

əssōʔih bi lʔašar … ʔašar u nuṣṣ ... x llaha congratulate you all day long. They bring her to maʔak baʔəd əšway … x daha ʔannak.

you around ten o’clock ... half past ten ... they leave her with you and after a while ... they take her away from you.

3cpl perfect suffix –aw reduced to –a before a speech pause: rōħaw # → rōħa # ‘they went’. See §3.2.2.1. 3cpl perfect suffix –aw reduced to –a in context: šallaw → šalla ‘they carried’. See §3.2.2.1 154 In ḍaħħu ‘forenoon’, which is a cognate of MSA ḍuħan (see Wehr [1979:627]) and Gulf Arabic ḍiħa (see Qafisheh [1997:411]), the ħ is consistently doubled and the older ending *–a has been backed and raised to –u. 155 A possible explanation for the origin of the form ʔitsih ‘nine’ is the following: (in *tisʕah the ʕ developed into ʔ) > *tisʔah (ʔ is elided definitively) > *tisah (i elided definitively) > *tsah (anaptyctic vowel becomes part of the morphological base and receives stress) > ʔ tsah. The a in the feminine morpheme is raised to ə, unlike in other feminine nouns where it is usually raised to a clear i. For morphological consistency, however, it is transcribed as ʔitsih here. 156 Here the speaker uses ba instead of bi. This could be a feature of the ŠA dialect(s) spoken in the mountains, where this speaker has resided for a large part of his life, although this cannot be confirmed. 152 153

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4.2 Text 2 – A joke The following text presents a joke that was told by Ħammūd (27) during a longer recording session in which he also told several anecdotes and riddles that other people had to solve by asking questions. In the joke, the people of Šaʔam – a town just over the border in the UAE, close to Ras alKhaimah – are ridiculed. Speakers: Ħ: Ħammūd (27); Š: Šhōb (27)

Ħ: ħallu157 minkam maʔu ləġəz maʔu niktih

Ħ: No one of you has a riddle … has a joke …

šay?

anything?

Š: ʔaḍanni bi ttēlīfōn maʔi niktih.

Š: I think I have a joke in my phone.

Ħ: maʔi niktih maʔi niktih! … niktih bi

Ħ: I have a joke I have joke! A joke in Šiħħi.

ššiħħay158. iyq lun ʔaww həl159 šaʔam … ʔahəl šaʔam They say that the people of Šaʔam … when yōm ʔawwal əsnīn … ʔawwalmā ǧēbaw līhim160 long ago … when they first brought them ehhh ehhh əssiyyōrih … ʔaww lmā ǧēbaw līhim a car … when they first brought them a car, əssiyyōrih ħaṭṭaw līhi šiǧ r. qallōhi161 kley162 … they laid down some grass for it. They said to ṭēyʔ lu163 tōkal əkley ṭēyʔ lu tōkal bayyataw it: ‘Eat!’ It doesn’t want to eat. ‘Eat!’ It doesn’t maħħ164 šiǧ r. bayyatu maʔhi … ṣabħō165 want to eat. They laid down some grass for it ṣṣubəħ … hō ššiǧar əmħallu.

for during the night. They placed it with it …

ħallu is an indefinite pronoun: ħad + lu > ħallu ‘nobody’. Diphthongised final –i. See §1.2.15. 159 Final –l of ʔawwal and initial ʔ of ʔahl are elided; the now final –a of ʔawwa merged with the now initial a of ahl: ʔawwal ʔahəl → ʔawwa ahəl → ʔaww həl. 160 Vowel harmony in the 3cpl pron. suffix –ham: lī + ham → līhim ‘to them’. 161 For an explanation of qallōhi ‘they said to her’ and (in the next paragraph) qallōh ‘they said to him’; qallēham ‘he said to them’ and qallēkam ‘he said to you (cpl)’, see §3.2.8. 162 Diphthongised final –i; see also the next phrase, where it is diphthongised in context. See §1.2.15. 163 ṭōʔ, iyṭūʔ is only used in negated form and expresses ‘to not want s.o.’. Here the active participle is used in combination with the negational clitic –lu: ṭēyʔih + lu → ṭēʔ lu ‘she does not want’. 164 It seems that the sequence ʔh in maʔhi ‘with her’ assimilated to ħħ, after which the final -i is dropped and the geminate ħħ is reduced to ħ: maʔhi → maħħi → maħħ [maħ]. 165 An example of a 3cpl perfect suffix –aw that is monophthongised in sandhi. 157 158

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they woke up in the morning … this grass was still there. xadōhi li lħ fīz166 marratan ġēr qallōh ʔabūy

They brought it back to the (shop)keeper and

hō ssiyyōrih nbōh lu

said to him: ‘Buddy, this car … we don’t want

167

qallēham limō? qallōh

ħaṭṭēn168 līha ʔakəl mā tōka169 … ətmūt u

it.’ He said to them: ‘Why?’ They said to him:

tiblīnnu hnīn bīhi mā yist way. qallēh170

‘We put down food for it … it doesn’t eat … it

əssiyyōrih mān la171 qallēkam tōkal?

(will) die and you will blame us for it … it’s not going to happen!’ He said to them: ‘Who is it that told you it eats?’

qallōh … ham … ʔahəl šaʔam iyriddūn li mō

They said to him … they … the people of

lħ fīz iyqōlu172 ʔay tišr b ʔū173 … tišr b ʔū …

Šaʔam answered to (the one of) the

əlladētar iyʔ bbuh əlmo174 … ysūfūh lu bāʔ.

(shop)keeper: ‘Yes, it does drink … it does drink … the radiator, they give it water.’ So, they saw it (drink water), right?

An example of regressed stress: ħafīz → ħ fīz [ˈħaːfiz] ‘(shop)keeper’. Note that the long ī is shortened but remains tense [i] and does not become lax [ɪ]. See §2.4.1. 167 nbōh is the reduced variant of nibǧīh ‘we want her’ (see §3.2.5.6). The n assimilates partially with the following b: [əmbɔːhɪlə]. 168 Final –u elided: ħaṭṭēnu → ħaṭṭēn ‘we put’. 169 Final –l elided without compensatory lengthening of a: tōkal → tōka [ˈtoːkæ] ‘she eats’. 170 This is a mistake and should have been qallēham ‘he said to them’. 171 This is a strongly reduced ʔilli, or perhaps ʔalladi, although this speaker does not use ʔalladi elsewhere. 172 In yqōlu ‘they say’ q is spirantised to [x] and the final –n is elided: [jˈxɔːlʊ] ‘they say’. 173 The particle ʔū expresses contradiction; see §3.1.16. 174 For an explanation of əlmo ‘water’, in which the definite article has fused with the morphological base, see §3.1.5. 166

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4.3 Text 3 – On date palms The following text comprises the first few minutes of a conversation about the culture surrounding date palms. The main speaker is Muħammad; the questions are asked by Ṣōlaħ. After some talk on how to plant a tree, the conversation soon turns to the uses of the different parts of the tree; in particular in relation to the construction of huts. Several technical terms occur in this text which, for stylistic reasons, have not been translated. Words displayed in italics are explained in a glossary at the end of the text (in order of occurrence). Speakers: M: Muħammad (appr. 60); Ṣ: Ṣōlaħ (24)

M: ənnaxlih trōh ehh … ənnaxlih … M: The date palm ... here is ehh ... the date palm titkawwan min ṣarmih ʔawwal. tğīb … tiqlaʔ comes from the ṣarmih first. You bring ... you əṣṣarmih u tifsilhi … ʔəqəb tibħat əlmafs l … pick a ṣarmih and plant it ... after you dig the mafsal tibħataw. tğīb əṣṣarmih tifsilhi … mafsal ... a mafsal ... you dig it. You bring the talʔat.175

ṣarmih and plant it ... it (will have) sprouted.

lāzim әtqaṣṣ ʔanha ʔawwal šway šway baʔəd You have to cut it first a little after ... when it … lamma titwassa176. ʔaza177 kabrat əssuwwi gets bigger. When it grows, it produces kārib. kārib.

Ṣ: The mafsal?

Ṣ: əlmafsal?

M: The mafsal ... mafsal ... after eh ... first you

M: əlmafsa … əlmafsa178 … əlmafsal ʔəqəb eh make it (the mafsal) a little bigger for it (the … ʔawwal әtwussaʔ lēh šway.

ṣarmih).

S: әtw ssa179 lēhi?

Ṣ: You make it bigger for it?

M: kō ğarrat әtwussaʔ lēh … xallīhi ʔōwdih180 M: If it sprouts, you make it bigger for it ... you yaʕni mafsal zēyn.

leave it big ... you know, a good mafsal.

ṭ is realised without velarisation [t]: [ˈtælʔɐt] ‘she sprouted’. Final ʔ is elided, with compensatory lengthening of a: titwassaʔ → titwassā ‘she becomes bigger’. 177 This speaker uses ʔaza instead of ʔiza as a conditional particle. According to my informants, he is an exception in doing this. 178 Two instances of elided final consonants (see §1.1.15). 179 Final ʔ is elided, but without compensatory lengthening of a: twussaʔ → tw ssa 180 Cognate with GA ʕōd (f. ʕōdih) ‘big, large’ (see Qafisheh [1997:449]); here it is slightly diphthongal: ʔōwdih. 175 176

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ʔəqəb181 ənnaxlih baʔәd tiqf y … twağğal182 After the date palm ... after (that) you remove … tawğīl … qafīyih183. ənnabēt tinbitti … the kārib... you make a dam around it ... making әtʔakkəssi184 … tirğa185 ğğidd … ssuwwi minhi a dam ... removing the branch roots. The pollen tamәr. bass ʔilli … əlkārbih … əlkārib dōm ... you fertilise it ... you tie its branches ... you iysuwwūh li lyūx … iys wwuh li llīx kārib come back and harvest the dates ... you get (litt. šīlu maʔnu hōdu mō būh186 ʔawwal lu? ‘make’) dates from it. But ... a kārbih ... in the əlkārib iys wwun minhi lkārib.

past they used it for the fishing nets ... they used it for the net ... before we didn’t have any plastic floats, right? The kārib ... they made floats from it.

əlxūṣ … əlxūṣ әns wwih әdʔūn … әnʔәrrəš The palm branch ... the palm branch, we make bih … ʔarīš. xūṣ əl… əl… kill yaʕni killu min dʔūn from it ... we make huts from it ... a hut. ənnaxlih … s waʔan əllīf … əllīf illi Palm branches ... the the ... everything, you lmanq r187 yōm taqfīh … taqfīh u … әğğīb know, everything from the date palm ... even minha llīf yifħaḍūh188 … yifħa // ys wwuħ189 the fibre ... the fibre that (the chisel) ... when ħbēl … iys wwun ħawēbīl … ħōbūl190 u ħbēl you remove the branch roots ... you remove the ħatta lədʔūn.

branch roots and take the fibre from it ... they put it in water so it becomes soft ... they make ropes from it ... they make ħawēbīl from it ... ħōbūl and ropes. Even the dʔūn.

In ʔəqeb ‘after’, q spirantised to a voiced fricative [ɣ]: [ˈʔəɣəb]. waǧǧal, ywaǧǧal: to make a dam around a palm tree to hold water. 183 qafīyih: verbal noun of qafi, yiqfi ‘to remove the palm branch roots (kārib)’. 184 ʔakkas, yʔakkas: to tie the small branches that hold the date bunches to the bigger branches (xūṣ), so that they have more space. 185 Final ʔ in tirǧaʔ ‘you (msg) return’ is elided: tirǧa. 186 būh: a plastic float. 187 manqar ‘chisel’ seems to be a mistake, since it has no function in the sentence. 188 faħaḍ, yifħaḍ: to put līf ‘fibre’ in water to make it soft. 189 The 3msg pronominal suffix –h assimilated with the initial ħ of ħbēl: ys wwuh ħbēl → ys wwuħ ħbēl ‘they make ropes (from) it (m)’. 190 ħōbūl (pl. ħawēbīl): rope wrap used for climbing palm trees. 181 182

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Ṣ: yizfinūn191 bih әddaʔәn?

Ṣ: They make the ḍʔūn from it?

M: yizfinūn bih ddaʔәn hā. yaʔni lħabәl … M: They make the daʔn from it, yes. You know, ʔəqəb əlxōṣ192 … alxōṣ … tōxad … hōdi killu the rope ... after the palm branches ... the palm min ənnaxlih. әğğīb əlħabәl … alkārib … branches ... you take ... all this is from the date alxūṣ … əl ehh … məsәmu … əddaʔәn. palm. You get rope ... kārib ... branches ... the əddaʔәn … әnʔәrrəš bih … li lәbyūt.

what’s it called ... the daʔn. The daʔn ... we make huts with it ... for the houses.

əlğidәʔ … nifraqu193 ʔarba194 filqōt. əlğidәʔ … The trunk ... we split it in four pieces. The trunk niflaqu ʔarbaʔ maʔāk195 lu. iysәmmuh ... we split it in four pieces, right? They call it a mağza196 … iysәmmuh mağza. ʔarbaʔ filqōt … maǧzaʔ ... they call it a maǧzaʔ ... four pieces ... әmḍalla197.

triangle in diameter.

Ṣ: li ssaqәf?

Ṣ: For the roof?

M: li ssaqәf mō lbēt … əssaqәf198 mō lbēt M: For the roof of the house ... the roof of the әss wwih әmḍalla … yiḍәllaʔūh199. … ʔaw house ... you make it shaped triangle in hōdōk … ʔaw yišrax200 … bass201 šaraxtēn.

diameter ... they make it triangle in diameter. Or that ... or it is split in two pieces ... only two pieces.

zafan, yizfin: to tie a rope (made of līf ‘fibre’) through palm branches to make a daʔn. An example of phonetic overlap between ū and ō (see §1.2.2.5). Here the speaker says xōṣ; in the next sentence he says xūṣ ‘palm branch’. 193 An example of l being realised as [r]: niflaqu [nəfˈraqʊ] ‘we split it in four parts’. See §1.1.7. 194 The final ʔ in ʔarbaʔ is elided: ʔarba ‘four’. 195 maʔāk ~ maʔak is idiomatic for ‘you know? / you understand?’. 196 In maǧzaʔ the final ʔ is dropped and of the affricate ǧ only the plosive element [d] is realised, which is probably due to the difficulty of pronouncing [ ] before [z]: [ˈmɐdza]. 197 In mḍallaʔ ‘(a beam of wood) shaped triangle in diameter’ the final ʔ is dropped: mḍalla. See also the glossary below. 198 In saqf ‘roof’ the q is affricated: [ˈsaːqxəf]. See §1.1.5. 199 In yiḍəllaʔūn ‘they make a beam of wood triangle in diameter’ the prefix is clearly yi-, whereas it is usually ybefore a verb base that starts with two consonants. 200 An internal passive: yišrax ‘he is split in two pieces’. 201 In bass ‘but, only’ the geminate ss is reduced and assimilated with the following š: [bɐʃ]. 191 192

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S: yišrax bi lwusəṭ?

Ṣ: It is split in the middle?

M: bi lwusəṭ bass. hōdōk lәmḍallaʔ M: Only in the middle. That mḍallaʔ ... so they iys wwuh li lʔərəš202 bāʔ.

make it for the hut.

Ṣ: lәmḍallaʔ x fīf

Ṣ: The mḍallaʔ is (too) light for the hut?

203

li lʔarīš?

M: hā iys wwuh ʔarbu

204

… mēddōt bāʔ … M: Yes, they make four ... mēddihs ... mēddih.

mēddih.

Ṣ: The sides?

Ṣ: əǧğawēnab?

M: Yes, the sides (of the roof) are (made from) a

M: ʔāh əğğawēnab mēddih w әstiʔrōḍih. bāʔ mēddih and a stiʔrōḍih ... so here it is ... the minnu hīh … lәstiʔrōḍih lu?

stiʔrōḍih, right?

wi hinōk … w әlb rraʔay … ṭabalōt … əṭṭablih And there ... and the outer ... ṭablihs ... what’s a mō? əṭṭablih mā msawwey minhi šī ʔilli ṭablih? Nothing is made from it except that it is maqšūrih min waru. yiqšarūhi bqadūm lu? planed from the outside. They plane it with an iyṭәllʔūn

minhi

lkārib

əlwarōney

… axe, right? They take out the kārib that’s behind

iysәmmūhi ṭablih.

... they call it a ṭablih.

Ṣ: әb mō yistaxdamūhi?

Ṣ: What do they use it for?

M: hōdi yistaxdamūhi marēkīz … li ʔarbaʔ M: They use this (for the) corners ... for four marēkīz.

corners.

4.4 Glossary with the texts ṣarmih: A young date palm, less than two years of age. mafsal: A hole in the ground of approximately one meter deep, in which a ṣarmih is planted. After the ṣarmih is planted, the hole is filled with soil, so that two thirds of the ṣarmih are underground and only the top end with the branches is left outside. In doing so, the date palm will be more firmly rooted in the ground when it grows bigger. kārib (coll. sg. kārbih): The roots of the palm branches. Once a year, the dead branches of a ʔərəš must be a strongly reduced form of ʔarīš ‘hut’. It seems to be a combination of regressed stress (ʔ rīš) and strongly reduced vowels (ʔ rīš → ʔərəš). 203 Another example of regressed stress: xafīf → x fīf [ˈxaːfif] ‘light’. See also §2.4.1. 204 Here, after elision of the final ʔ, the a is raised and backed to [ʊ]: ʔarbu ‘four’. When I asked my informants about this, they said that it is characteristic of this man’s speech (although he does not do it elsewhere); it may also be the result of dialect contact. 202

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date palm are cut off. However, the roots are left untouched until they are dry enough to cut them off more easily. These roots are roughly between ten and twenty centimetres long. In the past they were used as floats that were tied to fishing nets. ħōbūl (pl. ħawēbīl): A rope wrap used for climbing palm trees. daʔn (pl. dʔūn): A thick ‘mat’ made from palm branches (xūṣ) that are tied together with rope made from the fibre that surrounds the stem of a date palm. dʔūn are used for both the walls and the roof of a hut (ʔarīš). filqih (pl. –ōt): One piece of a trunk that has been split into four pieces through the vertical axis. It is roughly triangle in diameter, in that it has two straight sides (the insides of the trunk) and one rounded side (the outside of the trunk). maǧzaʔ: Idem mḍallaʔ: When a filqih / maǧzaʔ is made perfectly triangle in diameter (ḍallaʔ, yḍəllaʔ), it is called mḍallaʔ, which may refer to both the shape (i.e. triangle in diameter) and to the beam itself. For the construction of a hut, four mḍallaʔs are needed: two mēddihs and two stiʔrōḍihs (see below). mēddih (pl. –ōt): A support beam placed on the long side of a rectangular roof. stiʔrōḍih (pl. –ōt): A support beam placed on the short side of a rectangular roof. ṭablih (pl. ṭabalōt): A support pillar made from a whole trunk. Since the trunk of a date palm is usually thicker at its base than at the top, it needs to be planed (qašar, yiqšar) first. A ṭablih is placed in each of the four corners of a hut (ʔarīš).

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