Nubians and the Nubian Language in Contemporary Egypt: A Case of Cultural and Linguistic Contact 9004091971, 9789004091979

Table of contents :
NUBIANS AND THE NUBIAN LANGUAGE IN CONTEMPORARY EGYPT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Preface
SOCIOHISTORICAL REMARKS
1. Historical Overview
2. Conclusion
NUBIAN IN SOCIOLINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE
1. Historical Overview
2. The Process of Borrowing
3. Summary and Conclusion
Postscript
Preface to the Lexicon
Lexicon: Fadicca and Matoki
Appendices
Maps
Bibliography
Index

Citation preview

NUBIANS AND THE NUBIAN LANGUAGE IN CONTEMPORARY EGYPT

STUDIES IN SEMITIC LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS EDITED BY

J. H. HOSPERS Professor of Semitic Languages and Literature and Archeology of the Near East in the University of Groningen

xv ALEYA ROUCHDY NUBIANS AND THE NUBIAN LANGUAGE IN CONTEMPORARY EGYPT A CASE OF CULTURAL AND LINGUISTIC CONTACT

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NUBIANS AND THE NUBIAN LANGUAGE IN CONTEMPORARY EGYPT A CASE OF CULTURAL AND LINGUISTIC CONTACT

ALEYA ROUCHDY

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E.J. BRILL LEIDEN • NEW YORK • K0BENHAVN • KOLN 1991

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for performance and durability of the Com­ mittee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rouchdy, Aleya. Nubians and the Nubian language in contemporary Egypt: a case of cultural and linguistic contact / by Aleya Rouchdy. p. cm.—(Studies in Semitic language and linguistics, ISSN 0081-8461: 15) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 90-04-09197-1 (pbk.) 1. Nubian languages—Social aspects. 2. Languages in contact— Egypt. 3. Nubians—History. I. Title. II. Series. PL8571.R68 1989 496’. 5—dc20 90-19286 CIP

ISSN ISBN

0081-8461 90 04 09197 1

© Copyright 1991 by E.J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or translated in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche or any other means without written permission from the publisher Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by E. J. Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to Copyright Clearance Center, 27 Congress Street, SALEM MA 01970, USA. Fees are subject to change. PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS

nobichiassathabin djoro in kitabi agaddemetidjiri inagari nubi malleka inga agadimatitcher

I present this book to all my Nubian Friends

TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ................................................................................ Abbreviations ........................................................................................ Preface .....................................................................................................

ix xi xm

SOCIOHISTORICAL REMARKS ................................................................ 1. Historical Overview ................................................................ 2. Conclusion ................................................................................

1

Nubian

1 9

in Sociolinguistic Perspective............................................ 1. Historical Overview ........... 2. The Process of Borrowing ..................................................... 3. Summary and Conclusion .....................................................

11 29 32

Postscript ................................................................................................

38

Preface to the Lexicon ......................................................................... Lexicon: Fadicca and Matoki ............................................................ Appendices ............................................................................................ Maps ........................................................................................................ Bibliography ........................................................................................... Index .......................................................................................................

40 44 68 73 76 84

11

AKNOWLEDGEMENTS The field work for this study was conducted during sabbatical year in Egypt (1978-79) and during the winter of 1985-86 under grants from the American Research Center in Egypt and the Social Research Center. The grants supplemented my sabbatical salary from Wayne State University. This assistance is gratefully acknowledged. I am especially grateful to Mohamad Fikiri of the Social Research Center at the American University in Cairo, whose constant support, advice, and assistance in arranging meetings with Nubian speakers made my field work much easier. I am also indebted to the other members of the Social Research Center, and particularly to Dr. Leila Shukri, the Center’s Director. I must also single out Mr. Mohyeddin Sherif, a speaker of Fadicca from Abu Simbel and Cairo, and Mr. Abdo Mirghani, a speaker of Matoki from Sayyal and Cairo, without whom this work could not have been accomplished. I also want to thank the members of the Nubian Club and the Society Genena Wa Shibaak in Cairo, among whom are the writers Mahmoud Shourbagi, Nour Gaasir, and Zakiya Muhammad Ahmad. I am also grateful to Mr. Mutwalli Badr, Sheikh Abdel Gelil Ali, the late Mr. Youssif Sumbag and his family, and to Dr. Bahr of Ein Shams University, all of whom provided insights into Nubian grammar. My thanks also go to Zeinab Gamal of the American University in Cairo, General Wahba Salih, Mr. al Kaashif, Mr. Hasan Fakhr Eddin and the famous Haj Taha of the Nubian of the village of Dar isslam, as well as to Haj Abdel Waahid, Abdel Wahab Goma, and to my assistant Amal Agab. I am grateful to Fouad Dandarawi and to the members of his family in Cairo, and Abu Simbel, with whom I stayed and whose generosity and warmth I will always remember. My special thanks go to all the Nubian speakers who par­ ticipated in this study and whose names I cannot include here. Their warmth and generous cooperation made my research pleasurable and productive. I also wish to express my special gratitude to my former colleague Jane Hill, whose study of language death in Tlaxcalan Nahuatl intro­ duced me to the work of Nancy Dorian, whose work in turn inspired my initial research on Nubian. Parts of this research were summarized in two articles that appeared in Dorian’s volume Investigating Obsolescences: Studies in Language Death (Cambridge Press, 1989). She made a number of invaluable suggestions regarding these articles; however, all responsability for the shortcomings in this text is mine.

X

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It remains to express my gratitude to my friends and colleagues and Mohamed Sawaie and Kenneth Brostrom for their critical readings of the first draft of the present work and for their valuable comments. Finally I want to thank my son, Amr Hafez, who retained his sense of humor while reading the entire manuscript, and to my husband Hani Fakhouri for his illuminating suggestions and constant support during my research in Egypt and later while I was preparing the manuscript. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the contribution of the College of Liberal Arts, Wayne State University for the publication of this manuscript, without which this volume would not have been possible.

ABBREVIATIONS ar/A nub. comp. d.pl. sgpi. pis. s.o. s.t. V. ()

V (v)

o

Arabic (indicates the lexical item was borrowed from Arabic) Nubian compound dual plural (two plural suffixes added) singular plural plurals (more than one type of plural was encountered) someone something verb indicates the enclosed sound is sometimes dropped long vowel nasalized vowel or

PREFACE “The resettlement of Nubians was an inevitable consequence of the con­ struction of the Aswan High Dam and the resultant inundation of the entire Nubian valley within the Egyptian territory, and nearly one third of the Sudanese lands along the Nile of the Egyptian southern border” (Fahim 1975:9). The displacement of the Nubians from their ancient lands and their resettlement deeper in the land of Egypt had an impact on Nubian culture and the Nubian language as well. But who are Nubians? And how was their culture and their language affected by the resettlement? What impact will the resettlement have on the future of the Nubian language? The aim of this work is to examine these questions from the perspective of a “language-contact situation.” This is to my knowledge the first sociolinguistic study of the Nubian language from such a perspective. In recent years linguists and sociolinguists have turned their attention to the study of the “imperfect speaker” (Dorian 1981), and to the ques­ tion of “language maintenance and language shift” (Fishman 1964). However, Nubian has not been examined within this sociolinguistic con­ text because linguists have been interested in recording the best variety of Nubian rather than the varieties that have resulted from its contact with a dominant language, in this case Arabic. This has meant that the speech of the “perfect”, usually older, Nubian speaker has been studied. During my research in Egypt in 1978-79, and again in 1985-86, I recorded the speech of Nubians from different age groups and cultural settings in order to examine the impact of Arabic on Nubian. Egyptian Nubian consists of two dialects, Fadicca1 and Matoki, both of which are considered in this study. I have included a lexicon of the two dialects as they are presently used in Egypt. Several categories of locations were selected for this study. The first consisted of isolated villages where the Nubian inhabitants must take a bus to go to the nearest city. The second consisted of villages near Aswan where Nubians can walk or cross the river by boat to reach the city. The cities of Aswan, Cairo and Alexandria comprised the third category; Nubian men work in them, but still maintain a home in their villages in Southern Egypt. The different locations thus provided representative* I 1 Fadicca is also referred to as Fadija by the Nubians in Upper Egypt. In this text I will use the term Fadicca as it is used in Cairo by the Nubians.

XIV

PREFACE

samples of non-urban, quasi-urban, and urban speakers of Nubian. The relative amounts of Nubian and Arabic used as well as the degree to which borrowings and interference from Arabic are present in Nubian were examined in each of these categories. Before their resettlement in Upper Egypt in 1964, the Nubians occupied the banks of the Nile River between Aswan in Egypt and Wadi Haifa in Sudan. Because of this area’s remoteness, non-Nubian Egyp­ tians were generally ignorant of Nubian culture and language. Nubians were said to speak barbaric a pejorative term referring to a language that non-Nubians could not understand, or to the Nubians’ heavily accented Arabic. The Nubian region was referred to as bilaad al barabra (the land of those who speak barbari). However, the meaning of the term barbari extended beyond these linguistic boundaries and acquired a racial! con­ notation; it referred to all black people inhabiting the region along the southern Egyptian border and working in Egyptian urban centers. Nubians had long been familiar to non-Nubians as servants in private homes and in service jobs in restaurants and hotels. In the nineteenth century Burckhardt reported that /-ak/ and /-i/-> /-o/). This is a consistent pattern in the speech of group 3b.ii, because there is no gender differentiation in Nubian. The suffixes (-a) and (-ma) in Fadicca and Matoki respectively repre­ sent the copula in a sentence with a predicate nominative. The Fadicca

NUBIAN IN SOCIOLINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE

27

speakers in group 3b.ii always add this suffix (-a) to borrowed Arabic adjectives, while Matoki speakers belonging to the same proficiency group are inconsistent on this point. Arabic ‘stubborn’ ‘weak’

canid (m.s.) cantda (f.s.) dacif (m.s.) daHJa (f.s.)

Fadicca Matoki ^anldT canid-ma antd-a daif-a

daHf daHf-ma

The voiced pharyngeals are lost in the Fadicca examples. The addition of the Nubian suffix (-a) to the borrowed Arabic lexical item would be understood in Nubian as the copula in the sentence ‘he/she is stubborn.’ As can be seen, in Arabic the suffix (-a) marks an adjective or noun as feminine: ^antda means ‘stubborn’ (feminine). Egyptian Arabic speakers who do not understand the lack of gender differentiation and the mean­ ing of the suffix (-a) in Fadicca frequently wonder why Nubians so often address a particular sex incorrectly, and ridicule them for it. It is the existence of phonologically homophonous but semantically distinct mor­ phemes in the two languages that create these predictable deviations in Arabic performance by Nubians, giving rise to a linguistic stereotype of Nubian Arabic among Egyptian Arabs. When imitating Nubian speakers, actors and singers introduce incorrect gender markers of this type. In Matoki the copula is marked by the suffix (-ma); a speaker of Matoki will refer to a stubborn male in Arabic as camd, which is correct Arabic, or as ^anldma. A non-Nubian Egyptian typically concludes that the Matoki speaker knows better Arabic than the Fadicca, even though the Matoki version may show the suffix; but the suffix does not lead to gender confusion. The previous example of phonological and morphological interference produces imperfect Arabic. Similar phenomena occur when Arabic affects performance in Nubian. For example, in using words borrowed from Arabic, Nubian speakers in group 3b do not reduce morphological inflection (as is the case with ‘semi-speakers’) nor do they borrow Arabic morphology. Rather, Nubian morphology is supplied, which in some cases produces ambiguous structures. Pluralization is a case in point: Arabic kitdb (sg.) kitdb-i (sg.) kutub (pi.) kutub-i (pi.)

Matoki kitdb (sg.) kitdb-i (sg.) kutub-i (pi.) kutub-i (pi.)

‘book’ ‘my book’ ‘books’ ‘my books’

28

NUBIAN IN SOCIOLINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE

The word kitdb ‘bo©!^, a borrowing from Arabic into Nubian, is pluralized by Matoki speakers by using two plural markers, the Arabic plural kutub plus the Nubian plural ending (-i). According to the rules of the Matoki grammar, the plural should be kitdb-i. But the form kitdb-i in Arabic means ‘my book’; the Arabic suffix (-i) marks the possessive first-person singular. Bilingual Nubian speakers, being influenced by Arabic, feel that kitdb-i (singular Arabic form + plural Nubian ending) does not express plurality in Nubian; to avoid this ambiguity, they use the double plural markers. The resulting form kutub-i ‘books’ sounds “more plural” to them than the correct Nubian form kitdb-i ‘books.’ But a new ambiguity is produced (to the extent that the speaker is “hearing” Arabic as he/she speaks Nubian); kutub-i means both ‘books’ and ‘my books’ in Arabic. The erosion of linguistic skills within the group categorized as noncompetent bilinguals (3b.i and ii) takes two forms. The first group (3b.i) consists of urban speakers with strongly asymmetrical productive and receptive skills; among them the maintenance of Nubian is threatened. However, among speakers in group 3b.ii, we encounter a situation of language change. Here Nubian has remained a viable language despite a large number of Arabic words and usages. But infrequent usage of Nubian is causing some changes in the language that cannot be directly attributed to the influence of Arabic. This reduction in active and passive use results in the generalization of grammatical rules. An exam­ ple is the formation of plural nouns among Fadicca and Matoki speakers. The plural is traditionally formed by adding a suffix to the singular noun. The form of the suffix is conditioned by the immediately preceding sound. Some bilingual speakers, competent as well as noncompetent, are now generalizing by using one plural suffix for the majority of nouns given to them. For example, in interviews the suffix (-ku)~(-gu) was used more often among Fadicca speakers, and the suffix (-chi) among Matoki speakers. Fadicca agar ‘place’ tu ‘stomach’ Matoki kulu ‘stone’ ulug ‘ear’

Correct Plural agar-i tu-wi Correct Plural kul-wi ulg-i

Generalized plural agar-ku~ agar-gu tu-gu Generalized plural kulu-chi ulgi-chi

During the interviews, when plurals occurred in relatively rapid succes­ sion, the plural formation of the first noun was especially likely to be generalized to succeeding nouns. If the speaker began with a noun end­ ing with the plural suffix (-i), the same suffix was usually applied to the

NUBIAN IN SOCIOLINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE

29

next noun, with no regard for the conservative rules for plural for­ mation. Formation of the plural in Nubian was the linguistic rule about which bilingual Nubians disagreed during the interviews. Generalization of the plural was apparent in the speech of both competent and non-competent bilinguals. Whenever a competent bilingual (3a) or an imperfect bi­ lingual (group 3b.ii) was provided with a correct plural form, he/she would suddenly remember it and would apply it to nouns with similar patterns. Moreover, they insisted on correcting their earlier plural forms if they had been wrong. Non-competent bilinguals (group 3b.i) remained consistently unable to provide the correct form. The generalization of the plurals cannot be attributed to the direct influence of Arabic, but rather to decreased opportunities for use of the Nubian language. Similarly, “steadily decreasing use of Gaelic might be invoked to explain the amount of change [found in East Sutherland Gaelic], and clearly it is a major factor in the differences between semispeakers’ grammar and fluent-speakers’ grammar [as opposed to dif­ ferences found among fluent speakers themselves]” (Dorian 1981:153). It must be said, however, that decreasing usage cannot be considered apart from the phenomenon of language contact: the decreased use of Nubian is indeed caused by the dominance of Arabic, whether the influ­ ence of Arabic is direct or indirect, it must be considered first in examin­ ing the viability of Nubian and the erosion of language skills among the speakers of Nubian (see Linguistic Flowchart, p. 37). In addition, the attitude of Nubians toward their own language is a vital factor affecting their willingness in the future to speak Nubian or to switch to Arabic. The persistence or disappearance of the Nubian language hangs in the balance. 2. The Process of Borrowing Why does linguistic borrowing occur, and how does it occur? With regard to Nubian and Arabic, the following factors are relevant. First, some Nubian words cease to be used by the young generation growing up near or in urban centers where only Arabic is spoken. Second, par­ ticular objects for which Arabic has words were originally not found in the Nubian culture. This second type of borrowing occurs among both urban and non-urban speakers; for example, ‘chair’ {kursi in Arabic) is used in both dialects. Finally, owing to the pervasive contacts with Arabic culture, borrowing occurs within the core vocabulary. This includes function words (e.g., Idkin, ‘but’ and ilia ‘except’) and substan­ tives such as the Arabic words expressing dates, times, and days of the

30

NUBIAN IN SOCIOLINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE

week. Such function words are referred to as “free floaters” by Scotten and Okeju: “Given their morphological structure it seems easier to bor­ row them than it would be to borrow an inflected verb form...” (Scotten and Okeju 1973:873). In this context I observed that lexical items referring to human anatomy and kinship were provided in Nubian only, with the exception of ‘knee’ (rukba in Matoki). In addition, certain objects and animals that have always been part of Nubian culture are still referred to with Nubian words that have not been replaced by Arabic equivalents; for example: ‘goat’ ‘chicken’ ‘boat’ ‘house’

Fadicca misar dirbad sigir nog

Matoki berti darbad kub kd

Clearly, lexical items closely related to these speakers and their milieu are not easily replaced by their equivalents from the dominant language. The borrowed lexical items can be grouped according to morphemic, phonemic and semantic substitutions (Haugen 1950:214). 1. In loan-words both the meaning and phonemic shape are borrowed; examples are the use in Nubian of Arabic numerals and greetings. Sometimes, however, a Nubian morpheme is added; examine the following: ‘he cooked’ 2.

3.

Arabic tabakh

Fadicca tabakho

Matoki tabakhosu

Loan-translation occurs when the meaning is Arabic but the morphemic and phonemic shapes are Nubian. For example, ‘soon’ in Arabic is ba^di shiwayyah (meaning ‘after a while’); instead the Nubian word is egettir: But Nubians say kinnen aharro, which is the Nubian translation of the Arabic expression. Loan-blends occur when a speaker borrows a morphemic structure from Arabic and adds a Nubian item to it, for example, the borrowing of the Arabic definite article al ‘the house’ in-nog in Fadicca ‘the boy’ in-tod in Matoki

where /!/ of the Arabic article is assimilated into the first radical of the Nubian lexical item. In this connection, there is also borrowing between the two Nubian dialects; affixation is an example. The verbal noun ‘eating’ is kal-ar in Matoki and kab-dd in Fadicca. However, some

NUBIAN IN SOCIOLINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE

31

Fadicca speakers say kab-ar substituting the Matoki suffix /-ar/ for the Fadicca /-ad/. Haugen calls this type of loan a “hybrid” in which “only a part of the phonemic shape... has been imported while a natural por­ tion has been substituted for the rest.” (Haugen 1950:214). Such bor­ rowings from one dialect to another, or even from one language to another can make mutual understanding difficult, even for bilingual speakers. The phenomenon of borrowing depends largely on individual speakers; however, the amount of interference depends on several fac­ tors. Among them are the speaker’s usual milieu (urban center or village) and age. For example, young speakers incorporated Arabic pharyngeals when speaking Nubian while older speakers displayed Nubian phonological interference in their Arabic. The factor of gender also plays an important role in the process of borrowing. Non-urban and older females were linguistically more conservative; in fact, group 2 (see chart 2) consists entirely of women. The smaller degree of interference and borrowing from the dominant language here results, not from the fact they are women, but from the fact they are uneducated, which makes them linguistically more conservative. In order to clarify some of the phenomena discussed in this study (among them, borrowing), I have incorporated a Nubian lexicon. The entries include all dialectical variations; the variants have been verified by competent Fadicca and Matoki bilinguals. The causes behind the very considerable degree of variation are largely the same as those that produce the different types of borrowing: (1) variations within dialects that depend on the speaker’s home village; (2) variations attributable to the impact of Arabic; (3) generalization of Nubian grammatical rules; (4) the age of the speaker; and (5) the sex of the speaker (older females [group 2] again being more conservative linguistically). The variations can be classified as follows: 1. Sound variations Fadicca

Matoki

‘he governed’ ‘market9 ‘rich’ ‘he governed’ ‘business’

hokmo suk ghani hakam tigdra

hokmo sug geni hakam tijdra

Lexical variations Fadicca

Matoki

‘key’ ‘goat’ ‘hair’ ‘ beautiful ’

tere fag sir ashir

~ ~ ~ ~

kushar misar shinirti tonjil

32

NUBIAN IN SOCIOLINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE

‘breast’ ‘dough’ 3.

erti kalesi

~ og ~ dorkar

Lexical variations reflecting borrowing from Arabic. Fadicca

Matoki

‘family’ ‘hard’ ‘story’ ‘animal’ ‘basket’ ‘blue’

ko kugar banyid urti shibir dessi

~ ela (ar) gdsiya (ar) ~ hikdya (ar) ~ hayawdn (ar) ~ sabat (ar) ~ azrag (ar)

Sub-dialect variation in Fadicca and Matoki Fadicca Matoki

‘goat’ ‘bird’ ‘eyes’ ‘chopping’

misar sassur missichi keddar

~ mizar ~ zazzur ~ missiki ~ kettar

Examination of the lexicon makes it clear that there are differences in the rates at which the parts of speech are borrowed. The category of nouns is the largest, then verbs, followed by adjectives, participles, and function words (adverbs, prepositions, and interjections). The number of borrowed items within each category is directly related to the number of lexical items in that category in the lexicon. In Study in the Nubian Language, Mutwalli Badr, asserts that Nubians presently speak a language that is half Arabic and half Nubian, and that half the words in Nubian are borrowed Arabic words (1955:48). In order to determine the actual magnitude of lexical borrowing, I counted the number of entries which also have a corresponding Arabic word in use in Nubian. I found that 40% of the entries in the Matoki lexicon and 36% in the Fadicca lexicon have such corresponding Arabic words in use. These numbers indicate that a significant portion of the Nubian vocabulary is being replaced by Arabic. But does this signal language deterioration, or merely the mutation of Nubian into a special language? 3. Summary and Conclusion This study has its origin in my interest in bilingualism, especially when the languages are in contact, and in language death. The Nubian language is particularly interesting linguistically because the spoken for­ mat of the 20th century has survived despite the many changes that have occurred in the Nubian setting. Clearly the dominance of Arabic over Nubian is substantial, and there has been a decline in the usage of

NUBIAN IN SOCIOLINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE

33

Nubian, which is more apparent among the urbanites than non­ urbanites. A definite language shift has occurred among younger speakers, whether urban or non-urban. Despite the older generation’s loyalty to the Nubian language, and despite the present literary renais­ sance and the initiative undertaken to return to the old land, there are religious, political, economic, and demographic factors that are impos­ ing Arabic on Nubian speakers. I have listened to Nubian language instructional tapes, the most important being those by Mutwalli Badr; I have also examined two Nubian textbooks written in Arabic. The vocabulary was very limited and primarily related to family affairs and household activities. By implication then, Nubian is limited in its usage to such settings. Ideas and grammatical explanations are never discussed in Nubian, always in Arabic. It is true that Nubian has absorbed a large number of Arabic loan words. Function words such as prepositions and interjections are transplanted without modification from Arabic and are minimally affected by phonological interference from Nubian. Other lexical items such as verbs, nouns, and adjectives are adapted linguistically to the Nubian language. Nubians do not borrow Arabic morphology; they sup­ ply their own Nubian morphology in the majority of cases. Can Nubian at its present stage be considered a pidgin language? Cer­ tainly pidgin results from contact between languages, but the intensity of contact between Arabic and Nubian speakers prevents the develop­ ment of an independent speech pattern, a characteristic of true pidgin. There are predictable changes and errors caused by interference from the source language Arabic; they are not independent, pidgin-like developments. So Nubian is not a pidgin language, but rather a borrow­ ing language going through a process of change. But will this change produce a ‘tip’ toward the dominant language? Interference from Arabic has been found on all linguistic levels in the speech of the younger generation. Dell Hymes maintains that this type of interference can be compatible with maintenance of the language, and that with change there is still maintenance: Nubian is thus maintained but as a hybrid language, a mutation or special language used in interethnic communication. Another argument against the idea that Nubian is in the process of being “tipped” toward Arabic is the claim that a language can absorb a large number of foreign loanwords without giving way, so long as those loanwords are adapted to the borrowing language. This would be the case for Nubian if competent bilinguals keep close contact with ‘semi-speakers,’ that is, non-competent as bi­ lingual speakers (group 3b.i). The constant contact between competent

34

NUBIAN IN SOCIOLINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE

bilinguals and 4semi-speakers’ will prevent an inadequate acquisition, that will occur if ‘semi-speakers’ are the sole interlocuters. Moreover, it will prevent ‘semi-speakers’ from reaching the dangerous state of interlanguage ‘asymmetry’ where the receptive skills in the second language (Arabic) are greater than the receptive skills in the first language (Nubian). Voegelin and Voegelin (1971) and Bickerton (1981 & 1984) suggested that ‘imperfect acquisition’ or ‘inadequate acquisi­ tion’ are the causes of simplifications and losses in the speech of the last generation of speakers. However, this contact is hard to maintain with the coming new generation of Nubians in urban centers. It must be said, finally, that it is the use of Arabic in an increasing number of functions and the expansion of Arabic into an increasing number of settings and to even more speakers that ultimately will cause the Nubian language to “tip.” Since the Nubians recognize themselves as an ethnic group distinct from the rest of the Egyptian population, I consider important to know what they themselves think about the status of the Nubian language. In Arabic I asked some Nubian speakers about their feelings toward their language. The following representative comments provide some insights here (they are translated and paraphrased): 1.

2.

3. 4. 5. 6.

A Nubian in Upper Egypt was astonished to find that I, a nonNubian, was interested in the Nubian language. He considered Nubian to be a language of no social importance, and there were no advantages to learning it. A young speaker from Cairo claimed that Nubian is becoming extinct, that only the elderly speak it, and the language will disappear with their deaths. Another maintained that Nubian is not a language because it is not written. “Nubian is an ethnic language, not a scientific language,” said another speaker. A Nubian teacher in New Nubia said that their customs and culture are changing, and this is affecting the language. One speaker, a middle-aged singer, said that the language will always be maintained as long as new Nubian songs are com­ posed. He added that as long as he can express feelings of sadness and happiness in Nubian, the language will be useful to him emotionally, and thus will remain a viable language.

In general, the Nubians’ attitude toward their mother tongue, coupled with the fact that they identify with the attitudes of the dominant linguistic group poses another threat to the survival of their language.

NUBIAN IN SOCIOLINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE

35

Older speakers (1,5,6) regretted the changes in the Nubian language and the dominance of Arabic. They exhibited a fatalistic attitude, a feeling of powerlessness over the flow of events in Egyptian society. Younger speakers (2,3,4) did not care whether the language was affected or not, and felt that the changes were for the good since Nubian, “is not an important language.” More than older Nubians, these younger Nubian speakers identify with the negative attitude of Arab Egyptians, who often believe that Nubian, “is not a read language” or “not an important language.” Dressier (1982) has argued that among the causes of language death is their stigmatization through association with socially stigmatized speakers. The Nubian language has no official status, nor is it used in the media or as a language of instruction in the schools. It is not an official language of religion, even among Nubians. Although the government has no policy of assimilation, the fundamental changes in the Nubian lifestyle since the resettlement are leading to assimilation. Despite the improvement in attitude toward Nubians since their relocation among non-Nubians, past conditions and attitudes make the shift to Arabic understandable. The long-term consequences of this language contact situation were unclear to me in 1979. But by 1986 it was apparent that Nubian is tip­ ping toward Arabic. Nevertheless, this process is occurring unevenly in urban and non-urban environments. But the persistence of Nubian in the villages is threatened by recent linguistic, social, and economic developments.

A model of the flow of events that leads to the 'Tip' or 'Persistence' of a minority language

Sociolinguistic Flowchart

OO

NUBIAN IN SOCIOLINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE

NUBIAN IN SOCIOLINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE

Linguistic Flowchart Borrowing Arabic-Nubian Language Persistence

Lexical Borrowing

Semi-Speakers group 3bi

Syntactic

non-competent as bilinguals foreign accent

Phonological Interference

Rule Generalization Rule Loss

A model of the flow of events in the development of bilingual speakers (group 3bi and ii)

37

POSTSCRIPT Nubian history has always been closely connected with Egypt’s socio­ economic environment. Old Nubia was always an Egyptian hinterland, and throughout history Nubia’s natural resources were sought by Egypt. In Pharaonic Egypt, interest in Nubia ‘‘resulted from a growing need for exotic raw materials and laterally also for gold. These needs resulted both from an increasing demand for such materials by the Egyptian elite and from the Egyptian government’s involvement in an expanding net­ work of luxury trade around the eastern Mediterranean. Satisfying the demands of this network required the increasingly efficient but also the increasingly costly exploitation of Nubia” (Trigger 1976:149). After the Arabs conquered Egypt in the seventh century A.D., Nubia continued to provide Egypt with natural resources. In Kitdb al-Suluk, alMaqrizi wrote that the Mamluk rulers of Egypt (13th-16th centuries) sent expeditions to Nubia, which was then rich in human and animal resources, to import slaves and cattle. These rulers extended their military and territorial control over Nubia in order to contain the upris­ ing of Arab tribesmen who had fled Egypt and found refuge there. It was not until the nineteenth century that the Nubians were drastically affected by Egypt’s economic needs. The building of the dams on the Nile in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries forced the Nubians to emigrate from their original land. The fate of the Nubians changed fundamentally in 1959, when Egypt and the Sudan signed a treaty which allowed Egypt to construct the Aswan High Dam. Each was responsible for the resettlement of their own population, most of whom were Nubians whose lands were to be submerged. The governorate of Kom-Ombo in Upper Egypt was the site chosen for the Nubians’ reloca­ tion. It became known as New Nubia. Before the 1964 resettlement, Nubians in Old Nubia had maintained their social, cultural and linguistic independence from Egypt. The Nubian language had shown great resistance to Arabic. Early contact between Arabic and Nubian speakers had resulted in a “two directional process of acculturation” that produced “nubianized Arabs” (Hasan 1967) and “arabicized Nubians” (Barclay 1965). The 1964 resettlement of Nubians among Arabic-speaking Egyptians has resulted in a onedirectional process of acculturation, producing “arabicized Nubians.” New Nubia is no longer an Egyptian hinterland; it is an integral part of Egypt and Nubians are part of Egyptian national life. They have become economically integrated into Egyptian society as a whole. The

POSTSCRIPT

39

physical separation of Nubians from non-Nubians has disappeared and social separation is diminishing. The geographical and social changes that the Nubians encountered after the resettlement of 1964 affected their language; aside from decreased usage, departures from gram­ matical and lexical norms began to occur. In conclusion, although the conditions characteristic of a threatened language prevail in the case of the Nubian language, “...it is only necessary to recognize that there is nothing foreordained about the extinction of local language in competition with a language of wider currency” (Dorian 1981:111).

PREFACE TO THE LEXICON The entries are arranged alphabetically in English. When both Arabic and Nubian are used for the same item, the most common is listed first. The entries consist of: 1.

2.

Single lexical items (e.g., ‘house’ ka in Matoki), and whenever possible the plural and its variations are listed (e.g. in Fadicca ‘child’ assar, assari~assarigu). Single lexical items followed by related and expanded entries, e.g.: in Fadicca

3.

‘good’ ‘good morning’ ‘goodbye’

massi maska fesho gendo

Compound lexical items; where a compound consists of both Arabic and Nubian words this is pointed out, e.g. in Matoki

‘he applauded’ ‘behind, s.o.’

keffig djumosu (ar + nub) itti werina khalfi (nub + ar + ar)

General Observations 1.

Nubian words never start with /r/ unless they are borrowed from Arabic. Some of the Fadicca speakers prefixed a vowel similar to the vowel of the borrowed lexical items, e.g., ‘shelf araf (nub) for raf (ar.) ‘feather’ Irish (nub) for risk (ar.)

2.

Assimilation occurs very often in both Fadicca and Matoki. When a prefix CV is added to a stem beginning with a vowel, a progressive or regressive assimilation occurs. This is indicated in the lexicon by the usage of parenthesis: in Fadicca

‘he will follow’

in Matoki

‘he is carrying

fa-irgi(n) firgt(n) d-inji anji

In the lexicon the assimilation is not always rendered since the speakers were trying to deliver what they considered ‘proper.’ However, assimila­ tion is always used in rapid and natural conversations.

PREFACE TO THE LEXICON

3.

41

Elision of final nasal consonants and syllables is very common, e.g., in Fadicca ‘your (sg) house' nog-inni nogin ‘their house' nog-tinni nogtin in Matoki ‘I do not have' ddmnu-ddm

In Fadicca the third person singular in the conjugation of verbs ends in /-n/, which is always dropped and the last vowel is nasalized. This nasalization is marked /v/. 4.

I have adopted the traditional order of Arabic conjugation when listing the Nubian verbs. The entry is given in the third person singular past tense and future tense. The reason for this order is that when checking the pronunciation with the Nubian speakers, I gave the word in Arabic, and the speaker would give the equivalent in Nubian. For example, I would say kataba, and the native speaker would reply bddjasu in Matoki or fayo in Fadicca. The past tense third person singular is formed by suf­ fixing /-vsu/ in Matoki and by suffixing /-o/ in Fadicca. The suffix /-so/ is added in Fadicca to denote an absolute past. This form is not given in the lexicon. a. The suffixes of the past tense in Fadicca are: third person singular /-o/, second person singular /-onami/, first person singular /-is/, third person plural /-san/, second person plural /-sokko/ and first person plural /-is/. In Matoki: third and second person singular /-vsu/, first person singular /-sa/, third person plural /-sa/, second and first person plural /-si/. b. The present tense is formed in Fadicca by prefixing /ag/ for all persons and by having the following suffixes: /-i/ third person singular /-nami/ second person singular /-ir/ first person plural /-inna/ third person plural /-rokima/ second person plural /-ir/ first person plural In Matoki by always prefixing /a-/ and adding the following suffixes: /-ir/ third, second and first person singular /-a/ third person plural /-u/ second and first person plural

42

PREFACE TO THE LEXICON

c. The future tense is obtained in Fadicca by prefixing /fa-/ to the present tense, /bi-/ to the present tense in Matoki. There is a progressive or regressive assimilation that occurs during the process of conjugation. For instance, if the verb ends in a vowel it is assimilated to the vowel of the suffix, e.g., ‘to forget' iwi ‘he forgot' iwosu in Matoki. If the verb begins with a vowel, this vowel is assimilated to the vowel of the prefix, e.g.: in Fadicca ‘he will slow down' fa-ibichi -> fabichi in Matoki ‘he answers’ a-ikkidi -> akkiddi The speaker did not always follow the rules of assimilation, and the entries were recorded as they were rendered by the speakers. 5.

A verbal noun is obtained in Fadicca by suffixing /-ad/~/-ar/, e.g.: In Matoki by suffixing /-ar/ or /-rar/ if the verb ends in a vowel, e.g.: ‘to defend' dafi’i ‘defending' dafirar

6.

The plural is formed: a. by suffixing /-i/ or /-ri/ in Fadicca, and /-i/ in Matoki if the words end in a consonant, e.g.: ‘bird' ‘chicken’ ‘sheep'

Fadicca sassur -> sassur-i dirbad-> dirbad-i eged -> eged-ri

Matoki zazzur -> zazzur-i darbad-> darbad-i eged -> eged-i

b. by changing /-u/ to /-w/ if the word ends in /-u/ and suffixing l-\l, e.g., ‘girl’

Fadicca bum -> bur-wi

Matoki bum -> bur-wi

Some Matoki speakers gave the above plural as burnorochi\ c. by suffixing /-nchi/ in Fadicca and /-chi/ in Matoki if the word ends in a vowel. The borrowed feminine Arabic words are made into the plural with the above suffixes, e.g., ‘bed’ ‘finger’

Fadicca angare -> angare-nchi soba -> soba-nchi

Matoki angare -> angarechi subay -> suba’chi

d. by suffixing /-gu/ or /-ku/ inFadicca in words ending in /-i/, eg-’

‘animal’ urti -< urti-gu~urtiku

43

PREFACE TO THE LEXICON

e. by adding /-i/ and dropping the short vowel in the last syllable, if it is followed by a consonant, e.g.: ‘boy’ ‘crocodile’

Fadicca wilid -> wildi elum -> elmi

‘gentlemen’

Matoki ogidj -> ogdji elum -> elmi

f. there are irregular plurals in the language such as ‘boat’ kubli, ‘mouth’ ag -> aglif and ‘boy’ tod -> afichi. There are other plurals which do not fall in any of the above categories. These plurals are the result of rule generalization by the speakers, or because they did not know the proper form and thought they had to give me a word. Examples of rule generalization are: in Fadicca ur -> urku ‘head’ ‘stomach’-> tugu

instead of uri instead of tuwi

in Matoki ‘stone’ ‘belt’

instead of kulwi instead of korsi

kulu -> kuluchi korsi -> korsichi

My explanation to the above pluralization of korsi - > korsi~korsichi is that since the speaker is bilingual, he/she wished to avoid saying korsi which is the Arabic singular word for ‘my chair’. Instead he/she chose the word korsichi, which is the plural for ‘belt’ and ‘chair’. The use of the two suf­ fixes for pluralization occurs consistently with words that sound Arabic, or that are borrowed from Arabic. As mentioned earlier, the plural formation was one of the topics on which the Nubian speakers seemed to disagree a great deal. There were great variations between speakers of the same dialect. They often generalized a rule by applying it to lexical items which should be pluralized by a different rule. This generalization is an indicator of the change that the Nubian language is going through. I reproduced the dif­ ferent items as they were spoken to me.

LEXICON English

Fadicca

able, capable above absence (non-existing) absent (v)

esko indoro“doro

eskerar dogo

agmini akummo, agmi, fagmi

ghiyabA ghibossu, aghibi, bighibi ghibebu, ghibebura sarkisu, aarki omr (pi: omri)A malle

Matoki

A

absent (s.o.) afraid (v) age all Allah also ancient angel anger angry (v) angry (s.o.) animal another ant anything appear (v) appearance applaud (v) applauding applause arrival arrive (v) ask (v) assurance

agmu djago, a(g)djagi, fadjagi umur (pi: umri)A malli nor

alo gadImA gadImA malayka (pi: malaykanchi)A malak, (pi: malaki)A, malaykachi simirkad zacalA simiko, agsimarki, zaclouso, a-zacali, zicilA fasimarki zacalebu, zaclanA urti (pis: urtiri~urtigu)~ urti (pi: urtichi)" haywan (pi: hayawanat)A hayawan (pi: hayawanat)A man owwuti guwa (pi: guwari) gor (pi: gori) ayhagaA ayhagatA bino, agbini, fabini, ban, binosu, banA yibanA binad, bayanA (statement) biyan, mazhar, bayanA oolegushro, agollegushi, keefig-djumosu, kefflcfa(a)llegushi (comp.) adjumi, kefflc-bigjumi (comp. A + nub.) ollenushrad~ollenushrir ollenushri keffig'^ tarar kirad kiro, akki, fakiA dasu, ata, bitaA issigdjo, agissigdji, issigsu, a(i)ssigi, fissigdjA“sa5alaA bI(i)ssigiA, sagalA akkidaA ikkidadA

45

LEXICON

assure (v)

akkido ~ akkadaA

aunt (maternal)

bess (pi: besku)

aunt (paternal)

any (pi: angu) ambanessi (pi: ambanessichi)

ikkidisu, a(i)kkidi, 5akkid, bi(i)kkidiA annekegld (pi: annekegdi) nessichi (pi: amba)

B back barber bark (v) barking barn basket bathe (swim) (v) bathing beard beautiful bed begin (v) behind (each other) belt big bird bite (v) biting bitter black

black (very) blind person blindness blood

djir, dzahr^dahi^ urganyi (pi: urganylgu) wooko, agwokki, fawokki

djefkid (comp.) hallag (pi: hallagi)A wukkisu, awukki, biwwukki wukkar wokkad mokhil (pi: mokhli) kerri (pi: kerrigu) sabat (pi: sabet'sabat (pi: sabati' sibita)A~ shibir sabeti~sibita)A~shibir (pi: (pi: shibri) shirbri) kucho, akkuchi, bowwisu, abowwi, fakuchi~fisso, agfissi, fafissi bibowwi bowwar kuchad sami ashir tonjil burdesse ashri tonji (for a girl) (for a girl) angare (pi: angarechi) angare (pi: angarenchi) iptadayo, agiptadayi, bediyosu, abediyi, faptadyi, iptada, yiptidiA bibediyi, badaA djir'dahr^ itti wenkhalfi (comp, nub + A)~khlafA~djerkid koris (pi: korsichi) koris (pi: korsichi) dul dawwi~dabbu zazur~csfur (pi: asfur“sassur“zazzur (pi: zazuri~casafTr)A asfuri“ sassuri~zazzuri)A achisu, achi, biachi acho, agachi, fa(a)chi achad achar narnTmui^ ur naddima urum (for nonurumme human)~dessis (green used for black person)'girgkT shidrum desih-urumme dugur dungir dugrar gew dls

46 boat body (corpse) bone book box boy braid brave (strong) bread

break (v) breaking breathe (v)

LEXICON

sigir“zigir~markibA (pi: kub (pi: kubli) sigri ~ sigrigu ~ marakib) gitaA gisir (pi: gisiri~gisri~gisirku) kid (pi: kidi”kidichi) kitab (pi: kitabi~kitabichi)A kitab (pis: kitabi, kutubi)A elba elba”celbaA (pi: elbari”celab)A wilid”walad (pi: tod (pi: affichi) wildi~wilad)A defira (pi: defay ir” mochi defrianchi)A shatir”djedaA, ogdja shatira” nasih ” gasiA, fals kaba, kabari (used for kal kahamaridA, anything made out of dewka, cIshA dough)

breathing breast brother bull burn (oneself) (v)

kordjiro, akkordji, fakordji kordjirad nafaska”dummo, agnafaskadumni, fanafaska dumni (comp. A + nub.) nafasA naffissad”tanaffusA djumussi (pi: djumussigu) inga gorondi (comp.)”kittT dijugro, agdjugi, fadjugl

burning bury (v)

djugad kunyiro, agkunyi, fakuni

burying business but butter

kunyad tidjara”tigaraA lakinA furu

togusu, atogi, bitogi togar nefeskaru, nefeski(a)ri, nefeskibari (comp. A. + nub.)”tanaffasA nefeskirar”tanaffusA erti og (pi: ertichi) ambes (pi: ambessi) gur (pi: gurwi) djugrosu, adjugri, bidjugri~hargosu, ahargo, bihargo (comp, nub. + A)“hara3, hargA djugrar'hargA kunyersou “ kuy yerosu, akunyeri, bikunyeri tigara”tijaraA elekin~lakinA des

C

call, s.o. (v)

tacho, agtachi, fatachi

uwwesu, a(u)wwi, bi(u)wwi

47

LEXICON

calling camel

tachad kam (pi: kamri)

carry (v) carrier carrying cat catch (v)

sokko, agsokki, fasokki sokkakagin

catching chair

dummo, agdummi, fadummi dummad kursi (pis: kursigu~kursi)A

change (v)

wiskiro, agwiskiri fawiskiri

changing cheese chest chicken child chin, beard

wiskirad dj ibin ~ gebin ~ gibnaA ok dirbad (pi: dirbadl) assar (pis: assari~assarigu) same'kakram (pi: samenchi) kikko, agikki, fakikki

chop (v) chopping city close (v) (to put pressure) closing clothes cold comb come (here) (v) commerce condolence congratulations cook (v) cook (n) corn

kam (pis: kamli" kamlichi) injisu, a(i)nji, binji injirar sat morrogrisu, amorrogri, bimorrogri morrograr kursi (pis: kursichi" kursi ~karasi)A ghayyeresu, aghayyeri, bighayeri, ghayyai^ ghayyerar ~ taghylr^ djibin~gibna~jibnaA

darbad (pi: darbadi) afi (pi: afichi) dagin~da5n~dagn (pis: dagni~du5un~dugun)A keddosu, akeddi, bikiddiA kikkad keddar^kettar^ medma~madina (pis: medlna“madina (pis: medmachi~mudun)A medmachi~mudun)A koffo, agkoffi, fakoffrgefkobosu, akobi, bikobi” fllo, aggeffili, fage£flli“5afal, 5afal ~ gafal “ kabasA gafalA kobar“kabsA koffad~giffilad 3afTgafalA kitti orki (for a person who is orokel cold), “urumku misht (pis: mishti"lamshat)A musht~misht (pis: “bessir (pi: bessiri) mushti^mustichi" imshat) ta“tacalaA kiro, agki, faki“indo kir tigara~tijaraA tidjara~tigaraA taffar cazaA baraka~mabrukA baraka‘,’mabrukA tabakhasu, atabakhi, tabbakho, agtabbakhi, bitabakhi, tabakhA fatabbakhi, tabakhA tabbakh (pi: tabbakhi)A tabbakh (pis: tabbakhi ~tabbakhm)A Iw mare

48

LEXICON

cotton cough (v)

koshmag koho, agkohi, fakohiA

coughing country, homeland courtyard cover (n)

kohadA irki (pi: irkigu) hosh (pi: hoshi)A gata~ghata (pis: gatagu ~ghutyan)A tl (pi: tigu) wittiki witti (pi: wittiri) ulum (pis: ulmi~ulumgu) kog (pi: kogli) sereyo, agsereyi, faserey *’zaracaA sereyad~zarcA kubbayaA

cow craziness crazy crocodile crow cultivate (v) cultivating cup cure (v) cut (v)

weyyo, agweyyi, faweyyi bishefiyi kekko, agkekki, fakekki

cutting

kekkad

goton“5otnA akohhesu, akohhi, bikohhi, kahA kohhar“kuhhaA anna“eshsheg hosh (pi: hoshi)A togreddi (pi: tagredlchi) tl (pi: tichl) witti witti elum (pi: elmi) sagay (pi: sagayyi) terosu, ateri, biteri terar kubbaya (pis: kabbay chi ~ kubbay at)A dibitti (pi: dibittichi) sheflyosu, asheflyi, bishefiyi ~ shefi ” khafA merosu“mersu, ameri, bimeri merar

D dagger dance (v) dancing date (fruit) day, time deaf death defend (v) defending demolish (break) demolishing deny (v) denying desert

kandi (pi: kandi) arago, agaragi, fagaragi ~ragas~ra5sA aragad ~ rags ~ raDsA fenti (pi: fenti) ugres mumur~nedj (pis: mumri ~nedjl) wayinyo, agwayinyi, fawayinyi wayindad koshobo, agkoshobi, fakoshobi koshobad nanyo, agananyi, fananyi nanyad saharaA~natchi

kandi (pi: kandichi) sewisu, asewi, bisewi sewar betti (pi: bettichi) naharki ~ narhar ~ nahai^ tereg (pi: tergl) diyar dafecesu, adafecl, bidafici, daficA dafierar“difacA willosu, awilli, biwill willar gfubosu, agubi, bigubi gubar j abali ~ gabali" saharaA

49

LEXICON

die difficult (hard, cruel) dig (v) dinner disease dish (deep) distribute (v) distributing (separating) divide (v) dividing dividing (into half) divorce (v) divorcee (single) divorcing do, s.t. (v) what are you doing? dog door dough dream (to see) (v) dream (n) drink (v) drinking drown (v) drowning dry (hard) dryness dust dying

diyo, agdi, fadiyo gasiya~gasiA findo, agflndi, fafmdi ashaA dadi (pi: dadichi) ferrigo, agferrigi, faferrigiA ferrigad ~ tawzl* ~ tafricaA fago, agfadi, fafagi” gassimo, agassimi, fagassimiA fagadA fagati~fagata (comp.) tallego, agtallagi, fatallagiA, a~mugo, agmugi, famugi asaba~cazabaA t2ilagadA awo, agawi, fa(a)wi ming-agawi mug (pi: mugri) bab (pi: babi)A nisar-weka-nalo, agnisarweka-na, fanisar-weka-na (comp.) nisar (pi: nisari) niyo, agni, fani niyad kindo, agkindi, fakindi kindad samara" kugra sammafi eskid diyad

diyosu, adi, bidi sacib~gasiA golosu, agoli, bigoli asha“cashaA oddil waza(a)su, awazai, biwazaiA wezerar " wazat ~ tawz^ A bagosu, abag, bibagA bagai^ bagattiA tallegosu, atallegi, bitallegi" talla5 “ tallagA tallegebu, tallegebura" mutalla’ “mutallag"^ tallegar^talag^^ awosu, a(a)wi, b(i)awai irrminga awi wel (pis: weli~welichi) kalesi"dorkar uter-nalsu (comp.) uti (pi: utichi) niyyesu~nisu, ani, blni niyyar kiddosu, akkidi, bikiddi kiddar sowwud" gasiA ~ nashifA eskid

E

eagle ear earring

sagay (pi: sagayi)A ukki (pi: ukkl) baltawi (pi: baltawigu [specific crescent-like earring] )A

sagay (pi: sagayi)A ulug (pis: ulgi'ulgichi) fidaw“zumam~halag (pis: fidawi~zumami~ hcilagi)A

50

LEXICON

earth (world) East easy eat (v)

arid ~ ard ~ duny aA ~ gu r matto sahalaA kabo, agkabi, fakagi

eat (I will not) eating education egg eight eleven empty enough (that’s) evening, good exchange (v)

ay fakabmi kabad errebbay a~ tarbiy y aA kumbo idwo dime-wera (comp.) fadiya~fadyaA

excrement exit (run away) (v) exiting eye

maskagr ~ maskany a wiskeru, agwiski, fawiski

ard~ardiA~gur malti sihirsahlA kalisu, akali, bikali, kalA ay bikalmini kalar~aklA doyi“donyi gaskatti (pi: gaskattichi) doni“idu dimin-wer (comp.) sudi kitte-kitos (comp.) misa 1 kher~masa3 il kherA ghayyerisu, aghayyeri, bighayyeri, ghayyai^ onyi belosu, abeli, bibeli

unyi falo, agfa, fafa~falA falad~falir~khurugA many (pis: manyi~manyiri~ miss (pis: missichi” manyigu) missiki)

F face family

farewell (to say) (v) farewell (n) farmer (peasant) fast (Ramadan) (v) fast (n) fat father (my) fear feast

kony (pi. konyu)

kony~koy (pis: konyi~koyyi) nas (people)~cela ela“gabfla~eherhobaA (family)A~ko (pis: elan~ko (pis: elachi" chi~elatA~kou) gabilachi ~ ehelgi “ ehelechi ~ hobachiA ~ koman'kornmn) waddao, agwadi, fawadi, wadiosu, awaddi, waddacA biwaddi, waddacA salam~tawdI