Linguistic Variation in Egyptian Judaeo-Arabic Folk Tales and Letters from the Ottoman Period

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Linguistic Variation in Egyptian Judaeo-Arabic Folk Tales and Letters from the Ottoman Period Linguistic variation in Egyptian Judaeo-Arabic folk tales and letters from the Ottoman period Magdalen Majella Connolly Emmanuel College, Cambridge 28th February 2018 This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ii To Mak, for his perseverance, patience and encouragement and in loving memory of my granny, Honoria Edmondson (née Fitzgerald), 25th August 1919 – 21st November 2017. i Acknowledgements Let me begin by thanking the funding bodies, which have, in the most practical of terms, made this PhD research project possible. I am honoured to have been a recipient of the Cambridge Home and European Scholarship Scheme (CHESS) and a Rothschild Hanadiv Europe field-work grant. There are a great number of people to thank who have, in their various ways, contributed to the compilation of this thesis. First and foremost, I am indebted to Prof. Geoffrey Khan (FAMES), my supervisor, who with his warmth, humour and immense intelligence has guided me through this process with patience and generosity. I am particularly grateful to him for his help in the past seven weeks and for his careful and patient proof-reading of this thesis. I could not have wished for a better supervisor. It was a great honour to be examined for the PhD by Prof. Benjamin Hary and Dr. Michael Rand. I greatly appreciate their insights, comments and criticisms, which have enriched this final version of the thesis. I would also like to thank Dr. Aaron Hornkohl (FAMES) and Dr. Michael Rand (FAMES), who in their different ways have encouraged and supported me throughout the last three years. I am especially grateful to Dr. Aaron Hornkohl, who so kindly agreed to proof-read this thesis at the last minute. His meticulous proof-reading has been invaluable. I would also like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation for the wonderful Hornkohl family, Anna, Yoel, Yoni and Emily, who have welcomed so many students into their home with great warmth and generosity. I also owe a great debt of gratitude to Dr. Esther-Miriam Wagner (Woolf Institute) for taking me under her wing at the start of this process. Her work on written Judaeo-Arabic correspondence is a great inspiration for those of us who aspire to follow in her footsteps. I cannot thank Prof. Siam Bhayro (University of Exeter) enough for introducing me to the Cairo Genizah, and thus many years of learning. I am profoundly grateful to Prof. Heikki Palva who very kindly sent me his personal copy of a microfilm from the Firkovitch collection, containing manuscripts, which (at the time) I would otherwise have been unable to examine. His generosity is very much appreciated. I am indebted to Mahsa Naraghi and the IT office at Emmanuel College for lending me a computer for the past eight months so that I could write up this thesis. To my parents, I thank you for bringing me up in such a way, and in such an environment that undertaking a PhD was not complete madness. To my many siblings, sisters- and brother-in-law, nieces and nephews; I love you all. I will always be profoundly grateful to Alan and Sheila MacDermot, whose generosity made all of this possible. ii It is difficult to express the extent of my deep and heartfelt gratitude and love for Mak. His support throughout the many challenges of the past few years has not only been crucial to the successful completion of this thesis, but also to huge personal growth. Cambridge, 28th February 2018 iii Table of Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................. ii Table of Contents ................................................................................................................................... iv 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Diglossia and Variation in Arabic ....................................................................................... 1 1.2. Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 6 1.3. Corpora ............................................................................................................................... 7 (i) Fifteenth/sixteenth-century folk tales ....................................................................... 7 (ii) Late fifteenth-century letters ................................................................................... 9 (iii) Eighteenth/nineteenth-century folk tales ............................................................. 10 (iv) Eighteenth/nineteenth-century letters ................................................................... 11 1.4. Aims of this study ............................................................................................................. 12 1.5. Thesis Structure ................................................................................................................ 12 2. Orthography and Phonology ............................................................................................................. 13 2.1. Consonants ........................................................................................................................ 13 2.1.1. The diacritical dot ............................................................................................. 13 2.1.1.1. peh for fā’.......................................................................................... 14 2.1.1.2. dalet for ḏāl ....................................................................................... 17 2.1.1.3. kaf for ḫā’ and kāf ............................................................................. 20 2.1.1.4. gimel for ġayn ................................................................................... 22 2.1.2. gimel for ğīm ..................................................................................................... 24 2.1.2.1. The origins of fronted ğīm and its chronological development ........ 26 2.1.2.2. JA orthographic representations of ğīm ............................................ 32 2.1.2.2.1. The diacritic ...................................................................... 32 2.1.2.2.2. Assimilation and metathesis ............................................. 38 2.1.3. Graphemic subsitutions, tafḫīm and tarqīq ....................................................... 41 2.1.3.1. Graphemic Substitutions ................................................................... 43 2.1.3.1.1. gimel for sīn ...................................................................... 43 2.1.3.1.2. ṭet/ṭet + dot for ḍād ........................................................... 43 2.1.3.1.3. ṣadeh/ṣadeh + dot for ẓā’ .................................................. 44 2.1.3.1.4. tav for dāl .......................................................................... 44 2.1.3.1.5. dalet for tā’ ....................................................................... 44 iv 2.1.3.1.6. sin/šin for sīn ..................................................................... 44 2.1.3.1.7. ṣadeh + dot for ẓā’ ............................................................ 45 2.1.3.1.8. ṣadeh + dot for ẓā’ ............................................................ 45 2.1.3.1.9. zayin for ḏāl ...................................................................... 45 2.1.3.1.10. samekh for šīn ................................................................. 45 2.1.3.1.11. ṣadeh + dot for ẓā’ .......................................................... 46 2.1.3.1.12. zayin for ḏāl .................................................................... 46 2.1.3.1.13. zayin for ḍād ................................................................... 46 2.1.3.1.14. tav for ḍād ....................................................................... 46 2.1.3.2. tafḫīm ................................................................................................ 46 2.1.3.2.1. ṣādeh for sīn ...................................................................... 47 2.1.3.2.2. ṭet for tā’ ........................................................................... 47 2.1.3.2.3. ṣadeh for sīn ...................................................................... 47 2.1.3.2.4. ṭet for tā’ ........................................................................... 48 2.1.3.2.5. ṣadeh + dot for dāl ............................................................ 48 2.1.3.2.6. ṣādeh for sīn ...................................................................... 49 2.1.3.2.7. ṭet for tav ........................................................................... 49 2.1.3.2.8. ṣadeh + dot for dāl ............................................................ 49 2.1.3.3. tarqīq ................................................................................................. 50 2.1.3.3.1. samekh for ṣād .................................................................. 50 2.1.3.3.2. dalet for ḍād ...................................................................... 50 2.1.3.3.3. samekh for ṣād .................................................................. 51 2.1.3.3.4. tav for ṭā’ .......................................................................... 51 2.1.3.3.5. dalet for ḍād ...................................................................... 51 2.1.3.3.6. samekh for ṣād .................................................................
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