The Semitic Languages. an International Handbook. (Handbücher Zur Sprach- Und Kommunikationswissenschaft, 36)

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

The Semitic Languages. an International Handbook. (Handbücher Zur Sprach- Und Kommunikationswissenschaft, 36) 153 BOEKBESPREKINGEN — SEMITICA 154 SEMITICA WENINGER, S., et al. (ed.) — The Semitic Languages. An International Handbook. (Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft, 36). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin & New York, 2011. (24,5 cm, IX, 1287). ISBN 978-3-11-018613-0. ISSN 1861-5090. / 329,-. The present reviewer of this volume will quickly run out of adjectives of praise to describe the marvelous, monumen- tal, and magisterial achievement found within the covers of this mighty and massive book (to use only words commenc- ing with ‘m’). Stefan Weninger and his associate editors, Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, and Janet C. W. Watson, not only have conceived the brilliant project, which far sur- passes comparable volumes in the scope of languages and topics covered, but have also assembled the best scholars in the world to produce the superb results. Those who labour in the field of Semitic Studies are familiar with similar volumes already available, and hence this new volume invites comparison (fairly or unfairly) with the following: a) Robert Hetzron, ed., The Semitic Lan- guages (London/New York: Routledge, 1998); b) Roger D. Woodard, ed., The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World’s Ancient Languages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004); and c) the two volumes edited by Alan S. Kaye, Phonologies of Asia and Africa (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1997); and Morphologies of Asia and Africa (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2007). By definition, the Woodard volume is limited to the ancient Semitic lan- guages; while the Kaye volumes treat only phonology and morphology, without entering into the domains of syntax and lexis, never mind areas further afield, such as sociolin- guistics and the like. The Hetzron book is the one that would come closest to the Weninger reference work, but the former does not com- pare in scope to the latter. To give two examples: a) this new work includes six essays covering 95 pages devoted to Akkadian, in contrast to a single chapter of 31 pages in the older; b) while an astonishing 17 essays spanning 201 pages 155 BIBLIOTHECA ORIENTALIS LXX N° 1-2, januari-april 2013 156 present Aramaic in all its varieties (ancient and modern), in Hebrew and Aramaic essays. When such occurs, the font is contrast to but two chapters (one for ancient, one for mod- the standard Hebrew one, sometimes with transliteration ern) comprising 61 pages in the Hetzron volume. accompanying the original, sometimes without – though All of the aforementioned works include grammatical “Christian Palestinian Aramaic” (ch. 33), by Matthew Mor- sketches of the individual languages, as does the current genstern, includes several words in the Syriac-derived script, work naturally. But what distinguishes the scope of the vol- though I must comment that said font is not very attractive, ume produced by Weninger and his colleagues is the array and/or the typesetters faced spacing problems, producing the of additional essays, on such interesting topics as the inter- result of CPA words difficult to read at times. Happily, the relationship between Semitic and each of the other language Syriac alphabet chart (presenting all three styles [Ser†o, families within the Afroasiatic phylum; the reconstruction Es†rangela, and Eastern/Nestorian]), just a few pages on (p. of proto-Semitic phonology, morphology, and lexicon; and 641) is a model of clarity. morphological and syntactic typology of Semitic (nine Of great value are the lists of references which accom- essays altogether; more on most of these anon). pany each chapter. Here again, it appears, the editors have And then there are such unexpected and fascinating arti- placed no restrictions on the authors, as some of these lists cles on such sociolinguistic themes as “Akkadian as a Dip- comprise very comprehensive bibliographies. The longest of lomatic Language” (Wilfred H. van Soldt), “Hebrew as the them (for a single language; see further below) attends the Language of Judaism” (Angel Sáenz-Badillos); “The Re- superb entry on “Arabic Dialects (general article)” (ch. 50), Emergence of Hebrew as a National Language” (Yael by Janet C. E. Watson; no doubt due to the amount of mate- Reshef); “Imperial Aramaic as an Administrative Language rial surveyed in the article, the bibliography spans 17 pages! of the Achaemenid Period” (Margaretha Folmer); “Syriac as Needless to say, this review cannot comment on each of the Language of Eastern Christianity” (Françoise Briquel the 74 individual entries to this work; nor would it be wise Chatonnet); “Arabic as the Language of Islam” (Muhammad even to list them all here. To answer to the second of these A. S. Abdel Haleem); “Creating a Modern Standard Lan- remarks, I direct the reader to the publisher’s website, where guage from Medieval Tradition: The Nah∂a and the Arabic the full Table of Contents is provided: http://www.degruyter. Academies” (Dagmar Glaß); “Tigrinya as National Lan- com/viewbooktoc/product/175227. As to the first remark, I guage of Eritrea and Tigray” (Rainer Voigt); and “The Role here segue to specific comments on most (though not all) of of Amharic as a National Language and an African lingua the individual essays. As the reader will recognize, the franca” (Ronny Meyer). These contributions should attract majority of these are based on my own expertise in a spe- scholars from disciplines beyond linguistics (such as history, cific subset of the Semitic languages (namely, Northwest government, religion, sociology, anthropology, etc.). Semitic), though I also will attempt to do justice to essays As to the presentation of the individual languages them- in other areas. selves, the editors, wisely to my mind, have given each con- tributor considerable leeway in the presentation of his/her “Semitic-Egyptian Relations” (ch. 2), by Gábor Takács material. To be sure, the most widely studied classical lan- (pp. 7-18): guages are given the most comprehensive treatment – “Bab- While this entry, understandably so, presents only “exam- ylonian and Assyrian” (38 pp.), by Michael P. Streck; “Bib- ples of the common Afro-Asiatic” pronominal system (p. lical Hebrew” (35 pp.), by Lutz Edzard; and “Classical 10), one particularly noteworthy item is missing, to wit, the Arabic” (30 pp.), by Jan Retsö. By contrast, other languages existence of a 1st person common dual suffix -ny, known are presented with less depth, even though, in theory at from Old and Middle Egyptian, with cognates in Eblaite and least, there is a comparable amount of data which could be Ugaritic (further afield see also Homeric n¬fl). Happily, the presented; thus, for example, “Ugaritic” (13 pp.), by Dennis Semitic forms are noted by Streck on p. 344 (see below). Pardee; “Jewish Babylonian Aramaic” (11 pp.), by Michael (The Modern South Arabian languages also have 1st person Sokoloff; and “Tigre” (11 pp.), by Didier Morin. For common dual pronouns [both independent and suffixed], but another very long entry, this time for a modern language, these are extensions from the 2nd person forms [see the here I may note “Amharic” (35 pp.), by Ronny Meyer. chart on p. 1083].) Typically, these entries proceed as expected, through pho- Oddly, given the author of the present entry and his role nology, morphology (with ample paradigm charts, clearly as editor of the article to be cited, missing from the Refer- presented), and syntax. Many (especially the longer ones) ences is: Aaron D. Rubin, “An Outline of Comparative include a section on lexicon (something not normally found Egypto-Semitic Morphology,” in Gábor Takács, ed., Egyp- in comparable reference works), with attention to loanwords, tian and Semito-Hamitic (Afro-Asiatic) Studies in Memo- distinct vocables which differentiate one dialect from related riam Werner Vycichl (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 454-486. dialects, and other matters. In a few instances, to be honest, one is disappointed to Semitic-Berber Relations (ch. 3), by Vermondo Brugnatelli find not a grammatical sketch of a language, but rather more (pp. 18-27) conversation about the given language than paradigm charts, By citing W. M. de Slane’s pathfinding essay of 1856, in convenient presentation of forms, and so on. Here I must which the author “highlighted a number of ‘points de res- single out “Phoenician and Punic” (ch. 21), by Wolfgang semblance’ between Berber and Semitic” (p. 19), Brugna- Röllig; and “Mishnaic Hebrew” (ch. 23), by Moshe Bar- telli gives the impression that said scholar was the first to Asher – notwithstanding the erudition shown in the latter identify such common elements. The reader may be inter- especially. I will have more specific comments on these two ested to learn, accordingly, that Yehuda ibn Quraysh (9th contributions below. century C.E.) noted not only the obviously close relation- Almost always the material is presented in transliteration, ships between and among Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic though there are exceptions, especially for many of the (and thus may be considered the first comparative Semitist), 157 BOEKBESPREKINGEN — SEMITICA 158 but this remarkable scholar also identified some shared fea- “Proto-Semitic Lexicon” (ch. 8), by Leonid Kogan tures between Semitic and Berber. (pp. 179-258): “Proto-Semitic Phonetics and Phonology” (ch. 6), by Leo- With this essay we return to another tour-de-force by nid Kogan (pp. 54-151): Kogan, presenting the most comprehensive treatment of the proto-Semitic (PS) vocabulary, adducing approximately 450 The pagination given here is not a misprint; indeed, this items from across the spectrum of semantic fields: the phys- chapter comprises 98 pages, which includes 21 pages of ical world, colours, plant names, animal names, body parts, References. But beyond the sheer quantity of material con- food, etc. – along with corresponding verbs. Among the veyed, this essay is simply brilliant, allowing the reader to familiar items, *dam ‘blood’ will serve as a good illustration investigate in an easily accessible manner, with clear sub- (p.
Recommended publications
  • Christians and Jews in Muslim Societies
    Arabic and its Alternatives Christians and Jews in Muslim Societies Editorial Board Phillip Ackerman-Lieberman (Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA) Bernard Heyberger (EHESS, Paris, France) VOLUME 5 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/cjms Arabic and its Alternatives Religious Minorities and Their Languages in the Emerging Nation States of the Middle East (1920–1950) Edited by Heleen Murre-van den Berg Karène Sanchez Summerer Tijmen C. Baarda LEIDEN | BOSTON Cover illustration: Assyrian School of Mosul, 1920s–1930s; courtesy Dr. Robin Beth Shamuel, Iraq. This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided no alterations are made and the original author(s) and source are credited. Further information and the complete license text can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ The terms of the CC license apply only to the original material. The use of material from other sources (indicated by a reference) such as diagrams, illustrations, photos and text samples may require further permission from the respective copyright holder. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Murre-van den Berg, H. L. (Hendrika Lena), 1964– illustrator. | Sanchez-Summerer, Karene, editor. | Baarda, Tijmen C., editor. Title: Arabic and its alternatives : religious minorities and their languages in the emerging nation states of the Middle East (1920–1950) / edited by Heleen Murre-van den Berg, Karène Sanchez, Tijmen C. Baarda. Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2020. | Series: Christians and Jews in Muslim societies, 2212–5523 ; vol.
    [Show full text]
  • Different Dialects of Arabic Language
    e-ISSN : 2347 - 9671, p- ISSN : 2349 - 0187 EPRA International Journal of Economic and Business Review Vol - 3, Issue- 9, September 2015 Inno Space (SJIF) Impact Factor : 4.618(Morocco) ISI Impact Factor : 1.259 (Dubai, UAE) DIFFERENT DIALECTS OF ARABIC LANGUAGE ABSTRACT ifferent dialects of Arabic language have been an Dattraction of students of linguistics. Many studies have 1 Ali Akbar.P been done in this regard. Arabic language is one of the fastest growing languages in the world. It is the mother tongue of 420 million in people 1 Research scholar, across the world. And it is the official language of 23 countries spread Department of Arabic, over Asia and Africa. Arabic has gained the status of world languages Farook College, recognized by the UN. The economic significance of the region where Calicut, Kerala, Arabic is being spoken makes the language more acceptable in the India world political and economical arena. The geopolitical significance of the region and its language cannot be ignored by the economic super powers and political stakeholders. KEY WORDS: Arabic, Dialect, Moroccan, Egyptian, Gulf, Kabael, world economy, super powers INTRODUCTION DISCUSSION The importance of Arabic language has been Within the non-Gulf Arabic varieties, the largest multiplied with the emergence of globalization process in difference is between the non-Egyptian North African the nineties of the last century thank to the oil reservoirs dialects and the others. Moroccan Arabic in particular is in the region, because petrol plays an important role in nearly incomprehensible to Arabic speakers east of Algeria. propelling world economy and politics.
    [Show full text]
  • Delateralisation in Arabic and Mehri
    Dialectologia 23 (2019), 1-23. ISSN: 2013-2247 Received 22 May 2017. Accepted 3 October 2017. DELATERALISATION IN ARABIC AND MEHRI Munira Al-AZRAQI Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Saudi Arabia** [email protected] Abstract The Arabic lateral ḍ was considered extinct. However, it was found lately in use in some Arabic dialects such as RiJāl Almaʕ in southwest Saudi Arabia and in some varieties of the Mehri language. Nevertheless, delateralisation is apparent. To assess the extent of delateralisation, this study investigates the current usage of the lateral *ḍ among RiJāl Almaʕ speakers in Abha city, southwest Saudi Arabia and Mehri speakers in Dammam, east Saudi Arabia. 74 speakers, 38 speakers of RiJāl Almaʕ in Abha city and 36 Mehri speakers in Dammam city, participated in this study. Their age ranges from 15 to 75 years old. The data comprises almost 56 hours of audio recording captured during informal interviews. The findings show that there is a delateralisation occurring among some younger and educated speakers of Mehri and RiJāl Almaʕ. Keywords delateralisation, Arabic, Mehri, RiJāl Almaʕ DESLATERALIZACIÓN EN ÁRABE Y EN MEHRI Resumen La ḍ lateral árabe se consideraba extinguida. Sin embargo, últimamente se ha constatado su uso en algunos dialectos árabes como RiJāl Almaʕ en el suroeste de Arabia Saudita y en algunas variedades de la lengua Mehri. Con todo, la deslateralización es aparente. Para evaluar el alcance de la deslateralización, este estudio investiga el uso actual de la lateral *ḍ entre los hablantes de RiJāl Almaʕ en la ciudad de Abha, situada al suroeste de Arabia Saudita, y entre los hablantes de Mehri en Dammam, al este de Arabia Saudita.
    [Show full text]
  • Classical and Modern Standard Arabic Marijn Van Putten University of Leiden
    Chapter 3 Classical and Modern Standard Arabic Marijn van Putten University of Leiden The highly archaic Classical Arabic language and its modern iteration Modern Standard Arabic must to a large extent be seen as highly artificial archaizing reg- isters that are the High variety of a diglossic situation. The contact phenomena found in Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic are therefore often the re- sult of imposition. Cases of borrowing are significantly rarer, and mainly found in the lexical sphere of the language. 1 Current state and historical development Classical Arabic (CA) is the highly archaic variety of Arabic that, after its cod- ification by the Arab Grammarians around the beginning of the ninth century, becomes the most dominant written register of Arabic. While forms of Middle Arabic, a style somewhat intermediate between CA and spoken dialects, gain some traction in the Middle Ages, CA remains the most important written regis- ter for official, religious and scientific purposes. From the moment of CA’s rise to dominance as a written language, the whole of the Arabic-speaking world can be thought of as having transitioned into a state of diglossia (Ferguson 1959; 1996), where CA takes up the High register and the spoken dialects the Low register.1 Representation in writing of these spoken dia- lects is (almost) completely absent in the written record for much of the Middle Ages. Eventually, CA came to be largely replaced for administrative purposes by Ottoman Turkish, and at the beginning of the nineteenth century, it was function- ally limited to religious domains (Glaß 2011: 836).
    [Show full text]
  • The Syrian Orthodox Church and Its Ancient Aramaic Heritage, I-Iii (Rome, 2001)
    Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies 5:1, 63-112 © 2002 by Beth Mardutho: The Syriac Institute SOME BASIC ANNOTATION TO THE HIDDEN PEARL: THE SYRIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH AND ITS ANCIENT ARAMAIC HERITAGE, I-III (ROME, 2001) SEBASTIAN P. BROCK UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD [1] The three volumes, entitled The Hidden Pearl. The Syrian Orthodox Church and its Ancient Aramaic Heritage, published by TransWorld Film Italia in 2001, were commisioned to accompany three documentaries. The connecting thread throughout the three millennia that are covered is the Aramaic language with its various dialects, though the emphasis is always on the users of the language, rather than the language itself. Since the documentaries were commissioned by the Syrian Orthodox community, part of the third volume focuses on developments specific to them, but elsewhere the aim has been to be inclusive, not only of the other Syriac Churches, but also of other communities using Aramaic, both in the past and, to some extent at least, in the present. [2] The volumes were written with a non-specialist audience in mind and so there are no footnotes; since, however, some of the inscriptions and manuscripts etc. which are referred to may not always be readily identifiable to scholars, the opportunity has been taken to benefit from the hospitality of Hugoye in order to provide some basic annotation, in addition to the section “For Further Reading” at the end of each volume. Needless to say, in providing this annotation no attempt has been made to provide a proper 63 64 Sebastian P. Brock bibliography to all the different topics covered; rather, the aim is simply to provide specific references for some of the more obscure items.
    [Show full text]
  • Phonetics and Phonology Paradox in Levantine Arabic: an Analytical Evaluation of Arabic Geminates’ Hypocrisy
    ISSN 1799-2591 Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 9, No. 7, pp. 854-864, July 2019 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/tpls.0907.16 Phonetics and Phonology Paradox in Levantine Arabic: An Analytical Evaluation of Arabic Geminates’ Hypocrisy Ahmad Mahmoud Saidat Department of English Language and Literature, Al-Hussein Bin Talal University, Jordan Jamal A. Khlifat Department of Linguistics, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA Abstract—This paper explores the phonetic and phonological paradox between two categories of Levantine- Arabic long consonants—known as geminates by looking closely at the hypocrite Arabic geminates. Hypocrite geminates are phonetically long segments in a sequence that are not contrastive. The paper seeks to demonstrate that Arabic geminates can be classified into two categories—true vs. fake geminates—based on the phonological process of inseparability and the Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP). Thirty Levantine Arabic speakers have taken part in this case study. Fifteen participants were asked to utter a group of stimuli where the two types of geminates interact with the surrounding phonological environment. The other fifteen participants were recorded while reading target word lists that contained geminate consonants and medial singleton preceded by short and long consonants and engaging in naturalistic conversations. Auditory and acoustic analyses of long consonants were made. Results from the word lists indicated that while Arabic true geminates embrace the phonological process of inseparability, Arabic fake geminates do not. The case study also shows that the OCP seems to bridge the contradiction between these two categories of Arabic geminates. Index Terms—Arabic geminates, epenthesis, inseparability, obligatory contour principle, CV phonology I.
    [Show full text]
  • Writing Arabizi: Orthographic Variation in Romanized
    WRITING ARABIZI: ORTHOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN ROMANIZED LEBANESE ARABIC ON TWITTER ! ! ! ! Natalie!Sullivan! ! ! ! TC!660H!! Plan!II!Honors!Program! The!University!of!Texas!at!Austin! ! ! ! ! May!4,!2017! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! _______________________________________________________! Barbara!Bullock,!Ph.D.! Department!of!French!&!Italian! Supervising!Professor! ! ! ! ! _______________________________________________________! John!Huehnergard,!Ph.D.! Department!of!Middle!Eastern!Studies! Second!Reader!! ii ABSTRACT Author: Natalie Sullivan Title: Writing Arabizi: Orthographic Variation in Romanized Lebanese Arabic on Twitter Supervising Professors: Dr. Barbara Bullock, Dr. John Huehnergard How does technology influence the script in which a language is written? Over the past few decades, a new form of writing has emerged across the Arab world. Known as Arabizi, it is a type of Romanized Arabic that uses Latin characters instead of Arabic script. It is mainly used by youth in technology-related contexts such as social media and texting, and has made many older Arabic speakers fear that more standard forms of Arabic may be in danger because of its use. Prior work on Arabizi suggests that although it is used frequently on social media, its orthography is not yet standardized (Palfreyman and Khalil, 2003; Abdel-Ghaffar et al., 2011). Therefore, this thesis aimed to examine orthographic variation in Romanized Lebanese Arabic, which has rarely been studied as a Romanized dialect. It was interested in how often Arabizi is used on Twitter in Lebanon and the extent of its orthographic variation. Using Twitter data collected from Beirut, tweets were analyzed to discover the most common orthographic variants in Arabizi for each Arabic letter, as well as the overall rate of Arabizi use. Results show that Arabizi was not used as frequently as hypothesized on Twitter, probably because of its low prestige and increased globalization.
    [Show full text]
  • Cognate Words in Mehri and Hadhrami Arabic
    Cognate Words in Mehri and Hadhrami Arabic Hassan Obeid Alfadly* Khaled Awadh Bin Mukhashin** Received: 18/3/2019 Accepted: 2/5/2019 Abstract The lexicon is one important source of information to establish genealogical relations between languages. This paper is an attempt to describe the lexical similarities between Mehri and Hadhrami Arabic and to show the extent of relatedness between them, a very little explored and described topic. The researchers are native speakers of Hadhrami Arabic and they paid many field visits to the area where Mehri is spoken. They used the Swadesh list to elicit their data from more than 20 Mehri informants and from Johnston's (1987) dictionary "The Mehri Lexicon and English- Mehri Word-list". The researchers employed lexicostatistical techniques to analyse their data and they found out that Mehri and Hadhrmi Arabic have so many cognate words. This finding confirms Watson (2011) claims that Arabic may not have replaced all the ancient languages in the South-Western Arabian Peninsula and that dialects of Arabic in this area including Hadhrami Arabic are tinged, to a greater or lesser degree, with substrate features of the Pre- Islamic Ancient and Modern South Arabian languages. Introduction: three branches including Central Semitic, Historically speaking, the Semitic language Ethiopian and Modern south Arabian languages family from which both of Arabic and Mehri (henceforth MSAL). Though Arabic and Mehri descend belong to a larger family of languages belong to the West Semitic, Arabic descends called Afro-Asiatic or Hamito-Semitic that from the Central Semitic and Mehri from includes Semitic, Egyptian, Cushitic, Omotic, (MSAL) which consists of two branches; the Berber and Chadic (Rubin, 2010).
    [Show full text]
  • 00. the Realization of Negation in the Syrian Arabic Clause, Phrase, And
    The realization of negation in the Syrian Arabic clause, phrase, and word Isa Wayne Murphy M.Phil in Applied Linguistics Trinity College Dublin 2014 Supervisor: Dr. Brian Nolan Declaration I declare that this dissertation has not been submitted as an exercise for a degree at this or any other university and that it is entirely my own work. I agree that the Library may lend or copy this dissertation on request. Signed: Date: 2 Abstract The realization of negation in the Syrian Arabic clause, phrase, and word Isa Wayne Murphy Syrian Arabic realizes negation in broadly the same way as other dialects of Arabic, but it does so utilizing varied and at times unique means. This dissertation provides a Role and Reference Grammar account of the full spectrum of lexical, morphological, and analytical means employed by Syrian Arabic to encode negation on the layered structures of the verb, the clause, the noun, and the noun phrase. The scope negation takes within the LSC and the LSNP is identified and illustrated. The study found that Syrian Arabic employs separate negative particles to encode wide-scope negation on clauses and narrow-scope negation on constituents, and utilizes varied and interesting means to express emphatic negation. It also found that while Syrian Arabic belongs in most respects to the broader Levantine family of Arabic dialects, its negation strategy is more closely aligned with the Arabic dialects of Iraq and the Arab Gulf states. 3 Table of Contents DECLARATION.........................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Durham Research Online
    Durham Research Online Deposited in DRO: 18 October 2017 Version of attached le: Accepted Version Peer-review status of attached le: Peer-reviewed Citation for published item: Bellem, Alex and Watson, Janet C. E. (2017) 'South Arabian sibilants and the Sert¡ s §scontrast.', in To the Madbar and back again : studies in the languages, archaeology, and cultures of Arabia dedicated to Michael C.A. Macdonald. Leiden ; Boston: Brill, pp. 622-644. Studies in Semitic languages and linguistics. (92). Further information on publisher's website: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004357617032 Publisher's copyright statement: Additional information: Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Durham University Library, Stockton Road, Durham DH1 3LY, United Kingdom Tel : +44 (0)191 334 3042 | Fax : +44 (0)191 334 2971 https://dro.dur.ac.uk PRE-PUBLICATION VERSION TO APPEAR IN L. Nehmé & A. Al-Jallad (eds) To the Madbar and Back Again: Studies in the languages, archaeology, and cultures of Arabia dedicated to Michael C.A. Macdonald, Brill (2018) South Arabian sibilants and the Śḥerɛ̄ t s̃ ~ š contrast1 Alex Bellem, Durham University & Janet C.E.
    [Show full text]
  • Arabian Epigraphic Notes ISSN: 2451-8875
    http://www.arabianepigraphicnotes.orgArabian Epigraphic Notes ISSN: 2451-8875 E-mail alerts: To be notified by e-mail when a new article is published, write “subscribe” to [email protected]. Twitter: Subscribe to the Journal on Twitter for updates: @AENJournal. Terms of usage: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/. © the author. A Publication of the Leiden Center for the Study of Ancient Arabia http://www.hum.leiden.edu/leicensaa/ On the uses of writing in ancient Arabia and the role of palaeo- graphy in studying them Michael C.A. Macdonald University of Oxford Arabian Epigraphic Notes 1 (2015): 1-50. Published online: 05 May 2015 Link to this article: http://hdl.handle.net/1887/32745 Arabian Epigraphic Notes 1 (2015): 1-50 On the uses of writing in ancient Arabia and the role of palaeography in studying them Michael C.A. Macdonald (University of Oxford) Abstract Literacy was widespread in large areas of ancient Arabia, as shown by the huge numbers of graffiti by both settled people and nomads. But, it isstill extremely difficult to establish a reliable chronology for the literate periods of pre-Islamic Arabian history. This has led to a misuse of palaeography in an attempt to create chronological sequences based on letter forms from undated inscriptions and documents, on widely different kinds of surface, with different purposes, and often separated by large distances. This prac- tice is not confined to Arabian inscriptions but is widespread in Semitic epigraphy.
    [Show full text]
  • Case in the Qurˀānic Consonantal Text
    Case in the Qurˀānic Consonantal Text By MARIJN VAN PUTTEN (Leiden University) and PHILLIP W. STOKES (University of Tennessee) Abstract The nature of the language underlying the Qurˀānic Consonantal Text (QCT) has been a topic of scholarly discussion for well over a hundred years. The traditional position is that this language was essentially identical to that of the pre-Islamic poetry. The mismatch between the language of the reading traditions and the orthography has normally been explained as the result of orthographic conventions such as ‘pausal spelling’. A minority of scholars have challenged this view, suggesting instead that the Qurˀān was originally delivered in a local dialect and only subsequently brought in line with Classical Arabic. Neither permutation of these two positions has been based on the one part of the Qurˀānic text that can, with certainty, be dated back to the early Islamic period, the Qurˀānic Con- sonantal Text. This paper examines the nominal case system of Qurˀānic Arabic. Instead of relying on traditions that developed a century or more after the original composition of the Qurˀān, we rely primarily on the QCT itself, paying special attention to implications of internal rhyme schemata, as well as patterns in the orthography. We will show, based on internal data supported by, but not dependent upon, the orthography that the language behind the QCT possessed a functional but reduced case system, in which cases marked by long vowels were retained, whereas those marked by short vowels were mostly lost. A place where the short case vowel appear to have been retained is in construct.
    [Show full text]