Copyright by Phillip Weston Stokes 2017
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Copyright by Phillip Weston Stokes 2017 THE DISSERTATION COMMITTEE FOR PHILLIP WESTON STOKES CERTIFIES THAT THIS IS THE APPROVED VERSION OF THE FOLLOWING DISSERTATION: A HISTORICAL GRAMMAR OF CASE IN ARABIC Committee: Kristen Brustad, Supervisor John Huehnergard Na’ama Pat-El Danny Law Ahmad Al-Jallad A HISTORICAL GRAMMAR OF CASE IN ARABIC BY PHILLIP WESTON STOKES DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN AUGUST 2017 DEDICATION أﺣﻦ إﻟﻰ ﻟﻤﺴﺔ أﻣﻲ... To the memory of my beloved mother, Lynda Marie Danner, whose unconditional and steadfast love, support and encouragement made me believe I could do anything to which I set my mind; and whose love of learning about others inspired my own. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I graduated high school second to last in my class, and was certainly one of the last students my teachers at the time would have expected to achieve much academic success, let alone complete a Ph.D. at a prestigious research university. That I have is due to the contributions of many. My professors at Carson-Newman University pushed me to see that academic success was possible, combining the academic rigour and personal care for students that I hope to emulate. I came to the field of Arabic linguistics later than many of my colleagues, after completing my undergraduate studies and three years of seminary. In 2011, my wife and I moved to Amman, Jordan so I could pursue a M.A. in Arabic at the University of Jordan. During our two years there, I developed fluency in Arabic thanks to the countless Jordanians who welcomed us into their homes, invited me for late-night outings to coffee shops, and put up with my seemingly endless list of questions about a particular word’s use or the acceptability of a certain expression. On this side of this process, I am more convinced than ever that for someone to complete a graduate degree and enjoy a career devoted to a specialized field, they must have a passion that transcends the theoretical. My experiences with Jordanians (and others) in Jordan and Palestine gave me a true love of the people of the Middle East, their cultures and the Arabic language. I will always be grateful for that gift. As a scholar and thinker, I have grown more during my time at UT Austin than at any other time in my life. Thanks go first and foremost to Kristen Brustad and Mahmoud Al-Batal for taking a chance on a guy whose application featured an email address with the word ‘football.’ They encouraged and supported me from day one. As my supervisor, v Kristen deserves special thanks. She gave me the room to explore interests and ideas, discussing them endlessly with me, even when she disagreed. Before my first semester, I withdrew from another course so that I could register for Na’ama Pat-El’s comparative Semitics course. That turned out to be a decision that would shape the course of not only my time at UT, but also one that influenced the path of my future career. Na’ama pushed me to think critically and employ rigorous methodology. I went on to take multiple courses with her, and even when not enrolled in her classes, I have spent hours sitting in her office talking through some idea or another. This dissertation, and my work in general, owes a great deal to her influence. I thank John Huehnergard for constantly modeling the highest scholarship, all while being imminently approachable and affable. I would also like to thank Danny Law, whose talent for exploring the implications of the methodology we use has (hopefully) left its mark on my work in this dissertation and beyond. Lastly, my colleagues at UT have all been tremendously supportive and encouraging. There are too many to name here, but Tom Leddy-Cecere, Jason Schroepfer and Mike Turner deserve special mention for their friendship, encouragement and assistance throughout my program. Perhaps the most serendipitous experience I had during my time at UT was in September 2014, when Na’ama Pat-El invited me to contribute to a conference in Frankfurt, Germany. My respondent at the conference was Dr. Ahmad Al-Jallad of Leiden University. We spent a good deal of time before and after talking, and became quick friends. It is hard to overstate how influential Ahmad’s ideas and work have been on my own, but perhaps the best way to illustrate it is to note that this dissertation and the ideas proposed therein reflect his influence more than any other person’s. His willingness to share of his intimate knowledge of pre-modern Arabic, and especially pre-Islamic vi epigraphica, is truly astounding. Through Ahmad, I also got connected with Center for the Study of Ancient Arabia at Leiden, and my colleagues Dr. Marijn van Putten, Dr. Benjamin Suchard, Fokelien Kootstra, and Chiara Della Puppa. Each has contributed so much to this dissertation, always being willing to discuss any aspect. Special thanks are due to both Bejmain Suchard, who made many helpful suggestions and corrections to my thinking, and especially Marijn van Putten, who so graciously gave of his time and deep insight to improve many aspects of this dissertation. Were I to express my debt to these colleauges for some insight discussed in the pages of this dissertation, I would footnote every page. Finally, I thank my family and friends, who kept me sane during many stressful days and nights of writing. I would like especially to thank Rick Tyler, who has encouraged me and supported me in more ways than I can count over the past 8 years. My dad and my wife’s family have also been incredibly supportive throughout my Ph.D journey. I should most especially thank my wife, Rachel, whose willingness to move to the Middle East without ever having visited, based solely on the possibility that all my crazy plans might work, has made our dream a reality. She endured more than anyone the side effects of this demanding process, and did so with grace and love. The motivation and inspiration to complete the journey she provided is second only to that of our son, Luke Tyler, about whom I have thought every second of this process (even before he had a name). There were many times over the past year, sitting at my computer late at night that I contemplated throwing in the towel, but seeing my sweet son’s smile was always the motivation I needed to continue. Ultimately, I am only here because of, and thanks to, my momma, Lynda Danner, the biggest supporter and best friend I’ve ever known. This dissertation is, like all of my work, dedicated with love to her memory. vii A HISTORICAL GRAMMAR OF CASE IN ARABIC Phillip Weston Stokes, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2017 Supervisor: Kristen Brustad The dissertation provides a description of the diachronic development of nominal case marking in Arabic. It does so by integrating all available Arabic data, including especially newly identified corpora of Arabic dating to the pre-Islamic (pre-7th century CE) period. The dissertation provides the first synthesis of attestations of case in this epigraphic data, detailing the complexity and diversity already attested in the pre-Islamic period. Then, the dissertation treats the topic of case in the Qurʾān by relying solely on the consonantal manuscripts (Arabic rasm), without reference to the later reading traditions. Having established the diversity of case marking in the pre-Islamic period, the dissertation then proposes a new framework for interpreting the heterogeneous corpora typically labeled ‘Middle Arabic.’ The dissertation argues, contrary to prevalent scholarly trends, that these corpora continue pre-Islamic linguistic traditions. Finally, the dissertation addresses numerous relics of the case system attested in modern dialects, offering the first detailed diachronic explanations for several of them. Ultimately, the dissertation provides both the first comprehensive study of case across all attested varieties of Arabic, as well as a proposal for reframing our study of the relationships of these attested corpora. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables ................................................................................................................... xii Abbreviations ................................................................................................................. xiii Sigla ................................................................................................................................. xiii Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Semitic and Arabic Case: Evidence and Reconstruction ................................ 10 1.1.2 Diptotes ............................................................................................ 15 1.2 Outline ............................................................................................................. 16 Chapter 2 - Pre-Seventh Century Arabic ..................................................................... 19 2.1 Loss of Nunation ............................................................................................. 21 2.2 Safaitic ............................................................................................................ 22 2.3 Ḥismaic ........................................................................................................... 28 2.4 Classical Nabataean .......................................................................................