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The Apophonic Chain and the Form of Weak and Strong Verbs in Palestinian Arabic

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The Apophonic Chain and the Form of Weak and Strong Verbs in Palestinian Arabic The Linguistic Review 2017; 34(1): 83–121 Noam Faust* The apophonic chain and the form of weak and strong verbs in Palestinian Arabic DOI 10.1515/tlr-2016-0006 Abstract: This paper explores the logic behind the various morpho-phonological subdivisions in the verbal system of Palestinian Arabic. It argues for the importance in the understanding of Palestinian Arabic of the apophonic chain proposed for Classical Arabic in Guerssel and Lowenstamm (1993). In Palestinian, it is first argued, the Measure 1 perfective template includes a hard-wired association of its two vocalic positions; the main differences in vocalization between the Palestinian and Classic varieties follow from this fact. The account is then extended to include three large subclasses of weak verbs. Following the analysis of Classical Arabic in Chekayri and Scheer (1996), it is argued that such verbs involve a null element ø, whose realization is determined by the apophonic chain. The second part of the paper provides an account of the entire inflectional paradigms of each of the verbs discussed, a task that was not fully undertaken in previous work. The mechanism of apophony is shown to be at work in this domain, too. An interesting case is discussed of an apparent shift in inflectional paradigm in some forms of the biradical verb. This shift is again shown to follow from the general mechanisms used in the analysis. Keywords: Palestinian Arabic, morphology, verb, inflection, apophony 1 General introduction This paper treats the verbal system of Palestinian Arabic, with emphasis on vowel alternations. Concentrating on Measure I verbs, all the inflectional forms of all major classes are treated. It is proposed that two theoretical tools, the apophonic chain and zero radicals, which have been applied with success to Classical Arabic (Guerssel and Lowenstamm 1993, 1996 and Cheykari and Scheer 1996, 2003 respectively), are central to the understanding of the synchronic system of Palestinian Arabic.1 1 Palestinian Arabic belongs to the larger group of dialects of “greater Syria” (Palva 2006). Even within modern-day Palestine/Israel it is certainly not uniform (Cantineau 1938, Blanc 1953). *Corresponding author: Noam Faust, Université Paris 8 /SFL CNRS, Saint-Denis, France, E-mail: [email protected] 84 Noam Faust 2 Introduction to the verbal system, and a riddle Verbs in Arabic are classified into “measures” (or “forms”) according to their syllabic structure and the affixes that theyappearwith.Thetablein(1)showssix of these measures in Palestinian Arabic (henceforth PA), based on Elihay’s (2007) dictionary of spoken Palestinian (which favors urban dialects), and validated with native speakers of the Jaffa dialect (henceforth JA). The same table also shows that the verbs of Measure 1 are further divided in Elihay’s description into five vocalization classes, according to the vocalization of the second base vowel (V2) in the perfective and imperfective stems (underlined). All other measures have one vocalization class, either [a-ɛ] or [a-a]: 2 (1) Measures and vocalization-based classes in PA (JA pronunciation) Theme Measure perf. imperf. [a] 1 [a-ɛ]katab iktɛb ‘write’ [a-a] fataħ iftaħ ‘open’ [a-o] daras udros ‘study’ [i] [ɛ-ɛ]misɛk imsɛk ‘hold’ [ɛ-a] rikɛb irkab ‘ride’ [a] 2 - [a-ɛ] kammal kammɛl ‘complete’ 3 - [a-ɛ] ʔ-akram ʔ-ikrɛm ‘respect’ 4 - [a-ɛ]n-ʔalab ni-ʔlɛb ‘turn over’ 5 - [a-ɛ] f-t-akar f-t-kɛr ‘think’ 6 - [a-a] t-naffas t-naffas ‘breathe’ Within Measure 1 (henceforth M1), one can divide the vocalization classes into two groups, according to the perfective vocalization: low <a,a> as in [katab] or However, the variation is mostly irrelevant with respect to the phenomena described here (bedouin dialects aside). The term “Palestinian” is thus adequate in the present context. Also, note that many of the phenomena discussed in this paper are also found in other dialects of the Levant (Fleisch 1961, 1974). I thank my informants Frida Elraheb and Dima Abul’assal for their collaboration during the preparation of this paper. 2 The forms in the table are the bare stems, i. e. the unsuffixed perfective 3msg and the stem without any inflectional prefix in the imperfective. The vowel following the prefixal personal element is included only in those paradigms where it is stressed, as in 3msg [yíktɛb], [yudros]́ and [yílbas]. Its quality is clearly related to that of the stem vowel (for vowel harmony in PA, see Mohanan (2003) and references therein). As all high vowels, this vowel disappears when it would be in an open syllable; see section 4.1 below. Weak and strong verbs in Palestinian Arabic 85 non-low <i,ɛ> as in [misɛk]. To distinguish this division from the division into vocalization classes, I call these groups the [a]-theme the [i]-theme. All other measures belong to the [a]-theme. The goal of this paper is to uncover the logic linking the perfective and the imperfective stems, and provide an account of the system as a whole. Following the work of Guerssel and Lowenstamm (1993, 1996) on Classical Arabic (CA), the following claim will be made: (2) Given the unsuffixed perfective form, the form of the imperfective is predictable by applying the apophonic chain ø =>i =>a =>u( =>u) (The symbol <ø> is used throughout this paper for a null vocalic element, rather than a mid, front rounded vowel) The analysis of CA in Guerssel and Lowenstamm (1993, 1996), which will be presented below, is limited to verbs such as those in (1). These are called “strong” verbs, because they have three or more consonants that are surface- true throughout the inflectional paradigm. In all measures there are also “weak” verbs that do not fall under that definition. In PA, weak verbs can be divided into three classes: biradicals, hollow and weak-final verbs.3 M1 examples of the first two cases are presented in (3). Biradical verbs (3a) are weak because they only have two surface radicals, of which the second is reduplicated (See Lowenstamm 2010 for a recent review of the debate around this topic). Hollow verbs (3b) also have only two surface consonants, but in these it is the medial consonant that is absent, and this absence is compensated by the length of the stem vowel. (3) Biradical and Hollow verbs in M1 (JA pronunciation) Weak type perf. imperf. a. M1 biradical - [a-i] ħall ħill ‘solve’ [a-u] ħatṭ̣ħutṭ̣ ‘put’ b. M1 hollow - [a-i] sa:ṛ si:ṛ ‘become’ [a-u] ka:n ku:n ‘be’ In both biradicals and hollow verbs the perfective stem only has one vowel [a] (or its lengthened version [a:]. One may say that unlike strong verbs, biradicals 3 There are also weak-initial verbs, e. g. [wasaḷ - uṣɛl] “connect” but they are very few and phonologically unsurprising. 86 Noam Faust and hollow verbs never belong to the [i]-theme. However, as in strong verbs, there are two possible imperfective realizations [i] or [u] for biradicals and [i:] or [u:] for hollow verbs. As we will see, the assertion in (2) suffices to describe this behavior, too. The third group of weak verbs consists of weak-final verbs, i. e. those verbs that do not have a final stable consonant. The table in (4) presents these verbs in all measures. Note that in measures other than M1, the distribution of vocalization parallels that of strong verbs: all measures have the alternating [a-i] vocalization, except for M6 which again has identical stems in both aspects. (4) Measures and vocalization-based classes in PA (JA pronunciation): final- weak verb Theme Measure perf. imperf. [a] 1 - [a-i] rama irmi ‘throw’ [i] [i-a] nisi insa ‘forget’ [a] 2 - [a-i] rabba rabbi ‘raise’ 3 - [a-i] ʔ-alʁa ʔ-alʁi ‘cancel’ 4 - [a-i] n-ʕada ni-ʕdi ‘be infected’ 5 - [a-i] k-t-afa k-t-afi ‘be satisfied’ 6 - [a-a] t-xabba t-xabba ‘hide’ Once again, one can notice two themes in M1, the [a]-theme in the <a,a> vocalization [rama] and the [i]-themeinthe<i,i>vocalizationin[nisi]. However, unlike strong verbs, each weak-final theme class has a single distinct V2 alternation. If a weak-final perfective ends in [a] or [i], the corresponding imperfective will always have a V2 [i] or [a] respectively, whereas in strong verbs we saw that perfective [ɛ]and[a]maycorrespondtoimperfective [a] or [ɛ]. Since weak-final and hollow verbs (but not biradicals) have only two surface consonants, scholars often seek to answer the following question: (5) What is the identity of the weak segment of weak verbs such that it gives rise to all and only the differences between weak and strong verbs? Following work in Chekayri and Scheer (1996, 2003) on Classical Arabic, this paper will propose the following answer: (6) The missing segment in weak verbs is ø. Its surface realization is derived by the apophonic chain. Weak and strong verbs in Palestinian Arabic 87 Note that under this view, the missing segment is not really absent; it only has no form of its own. It should thus be distinguished from the absence of an element. This distinction will be crucial to the analysis. An answer to the question in (5) must of course cover the entire inflectional paradigm, not only the bare stems that appear in the tables above. Thus, the second concern of this paper will be the analysis of the inflection of the verbs in (3) and (4) as compared to that of the verbs in (1). In anticipation of that discussion, I’d like to introduce a problem from the inflection of biradicals.
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