Əlhín ‘Whatever; All That’
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The Jibbali (Shaḥri) Language of Oman Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics Editorial board A.D. Rubin and C.H.M. Versteegh VOLUME 72 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ssl Ali Musallam al-Mahri, circa 1976 (photo courtesy of Faisal al-Mahri) The Jibbali (Shaḥri) Language of Oman Grammar and Texts By Aaron D. Rubin LEIDEN • BOSTON 2014 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 0081-8461 ISBN 978-90-04-26284-3 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-26285-0 (e-book) Copyright 2014 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Global Oriental and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. For my sons, Sam and Freddie, with love. And in memory of Ali Musallam al-Mahri, a great story-teller. CONTENTS List of Texts . xix Acknowledgements . xxi Abbreviations and Symbols. xxiii Text Citation . .xxvii A Note on Transcription . xxix PART ONE GRAMMAR 1 Introduction . 3 1.1 Previous Scholarship on Jibbali . 3 1.2 The Name “Jibbali” . 9 1.3 Dialects of Jibbali. 11 1.4 The Position of Jibbali within MSA . 13 1.5 The Position of MSA within Semitic . 15 1.6 Johnstone’s Jibbali Texts . 17 1.7 Johnstone’s Audio Material . 18 1.8 New Material . 19 1.9 This Grammar . 20 2 Phonology . 25 2.1 Jibbali Consonants . 25 2.1.1 The Glottalics . 27 2.1.2 The Loss of b ....................................... 28 2.1.3 The Loss of m ...................................... 30 2.1.4 The Shift of b > m .................................. 33 2.1.5 The Loss of w, and the Shift of w > b . 33 2.1.6 The Loss of l ........................................ 35 2.1.7 The Loss of n ....................................... 37 2.1.8 Word-Final Liquids and Nasals. 37 2.1.9 The Loss of t-....................................... 38 2.1.10 The Non-Occurrence of d-/ð- ...................... 39 2.1.11 Gemination . 39 x contents 2.2 Jibbali Vowels . 40 2.2.1 The Effects of Guttural Consonants on Vowels . 42 2.2.2 The Effects of Nasals on Vowels . 42 2.3 Word Stress . 43 3 Pronouns . 45 3.1 Independent Personal Pronouns . 45 3.2 Suffixed Pronouns . 48 3.2.1 Suffixes on Singular Nouns . 48 3.2.2 Suffixes on Plural Nouns . 49 3.2.3 Suffixes on Verbs . 50 3.3 Direct Object Pronouns (t-) ................................. 54 3.4 Demonstratives . 57 3.5 Indefinite Pronouns . 60 3.5.1 dé ‘someone, anyone’ . 60 3.5.2 śé ‘something, any(thing)’; śé lɔ ‘nothing, not any(thing)’ . 61 3.5.3 kɔ(l) ṭaṭ ‘everyone, each one’ . 62 3.5.4 kɔl śé ‘everything’. 63 3.5.5 ɛðí-ilín ‘so-and-so’ . 64 3.6 Reflexives. 64 3.7 Reciprocals . 66 3.8 Relative Pronouns . 68 3.8.1 Relative ɛ-/ð-....................................... 68 3.8.2 kɔl ɛ-/ð- ‘whoever, everyone who’ . 71 3.8.3 əlhín ‘whatever; all that’ . 72 3.8.4 in ‘all that’ . 72 3.8.5 Relative mən tél ‘where’ . 73 4 Nouns .............................................................. 75 4.1 Gender . 75 4.2 Duals . 76 4.3 Plurals . 78 4.3.1 Masculine External Plurals. 79 4.3.2 Feminine External Plurals . 80 4.3.3 Internal Plurals . 82 4.4 Definite Article . 84 4.5 Diminutives . 86 4.6 Construct State . 87 contents xi 5 Adjectives . 89 5.1 Agreement . 89 5.2 Declension . 90 5.3 Substantivization. 93 5.4 Comparatives . 94 5.5 Quantifiers . 96 5.5.1 xɛ́rín ‘a little’ . 96 5.5.2 mən- ‘some’ . 96 5.5.3 kɔl ‘each, every’ . 97 5.5.4 kɛl ‘all (of the)’ . 97 5.5.5 (l-)ʿádɛd ɛ- ‘each, every’ . 98 5.5.6 mɛ́kən ‘a lot, many’ . 99 5.5.7 miṭ-ínɛ́ ‘some kind of’ . 99 6 Verbs: Stems . 101 6.1 G-Stem . 101 6.1.1 Ga-Stem. 102 6.1.2 Ga Internal Passive . 106 6.1.3 Gb-Stem . 107 6.1.4 Ga vs. Gb Meaning . 108 6.2 D/L-Stem . ..