AMERICAN ORIENTAL SERIES VOLUME 59 TIIE CASE TOR FRICAITVF-I.AIERAIS IN PROTGSEMITIC AMERICAI\ ORIENTAL SERIES VOLT]ME 59 EDITOR ERNEST BENDER ASSOCIATE EDITORS JOHANNES RENGER LARRY V. CLARK JAMEST. MONROE ALVIN P. COHEN AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT t9?'t TTM, CASE FOR FRICAITVE.LATERAI-S IN PROTO.SEMITIC BY RICIIARD C. STEINER AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY NEW HAVEN. CONNECTICUT 19.17 COPYRIGHT I977 BY AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIEIY P5 3o) ) -)l tc11 PHOTOGRAPHED BY CUSHIN(J MALLOY. INC. ANN ARBOR MI(-HICAN, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA \- TO MY DEAR SARA v nrDD) 'rf r) rl)i !)rD )Xrnr "tt )xtr 't 'lPt;1 t:Pt r t tn:Pt I ill:1 illnt t)'t'1D nf yP)y ) ,'t I ' !, :t 1 D :t't P i x.l'rD )ll''rut '1] i'r'tl;t' '.l ibrJ;l t'rt'r ii lt)n VI This monograph is a revised and expanded version of my University of Pennsylvania doctoral dissertation (defended, 1973) , the research for vrhich was supported in part by a qrant from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. Professor Henry Hoenigswald -- whose brilliant lectu-res t ere my intro- duction both to the problem of the Proto-semitic .6 and to the methods needed for solving the problem -- was the supervisor. My sincerest thanks go to him for assuning this burden, in spite of the fact that I was not even a student in his depart- rnent, and for all the other help he has given me over the years . Thanks are also due to the other members of my committee -- Professors Roger AlLen, Barry Eich1er, and Svi Rin -- and also to the chairman of the Near Eastern section of the Orien- ta1 Studies department, Professor Erle Leichty. Every one of them was a great source of support and advice durin_q those difficult years spent on the brink of poverty. It hras my great privilege to have served as a research assistant to Professor William Labov. The work I did for him opened my eyes to the fact that the root causes and mechanisms of sound change are universal and that the Semitic linguist cannot afford to ignore the rich body of typological data available outside of his discipline. For this, and for his many acts of kindness and generosity toi.r'ards me, I lJill for- ever be grateful. I am also greatly indebted to another member of Professor Labov's research team. Mal-cah Yaeger, for reading and criti- cizing my book at two different stages of its development. Several important insights of hers are acknowledged in the footnotes. It is a particularly pleasant duty to acknowledge my in- debtedness to my three Israel,i teachers and advisors: Profes- sors Haim Blanc, Joshua BIau, and Shlomo Morag. Professor I"Iorag was my first teacher of Semitic linguistics, and Profes- sor Blau, through his mimeographed lecture notes, was my sec- ond. Both of them were kind enough to read and conment upon an earlier version of this monograph. Professor Blanc spent so many hours reading and criticizing my dissertation and an- swering questions in connection with it that f hardly know how to thank him. His penetrating corunents and vast bibliograph- ical knohrledge are reflected on page after page of this mono- graph. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Professor Robert Hetzron for his fri-endship and encouragement at times when it was most needed. I also want to thank hin and tto other good friends, Professors Daniel Boyarin and Federico Corriente, for their valuable co[unents on individual chapters of this monograph. VII I am deepty grateful to Professors Moshe Levison and David Segal for the hours they spent answerj-ng my questions on the statistics of incompatibility (Professor Segal is also the author of the pun in the title of this monograph) and to Rabbis Sigmund Handelman and cedaliah Shaffer for doing the lengthy calculations required by the Fj-scher exact test on their respective computers. Let me also take this opportunity to thank the University of Pennsylvania, the American Scandinavian Foundation, and the National Foundation for Jewish Culture for the fellowships and assistantships which supported me and my family for five years. I would also like to express my gratitude to the officers of the American Oriental Society -- Professors Ernest Bender, Stanley Insler, Johannes Renger, and Hugh stimson -- who pro- vided a great deal of help, financial and otherwise, in bring- ing this book to publication. Thanks also to my brave typist, Mxs. Frankie Shahar, for persevering through two months of grueling and mind-nurnbing work. Last but definitely not least I would like to thank my wonderful family, who helped me in so many ways, both large and sma11. My cousin. Dr. Bruce Maliver, lent me the Selec- tric used to type the final copy of my dissertation. My bro- ther. Professor Mark Steiner, took out books for me from the Columbia University Library. My parents provided me with a fine home and a good education, and continued to help out in innumerable ways after I left home. My wife, Sara. created the hrarm, stable environment which enabled me to work at top efficiency. From the beginning of our marriage. seven years ago, she has done her utmost to maximize my time for writing and research by relieving me of alL household duties and shielding me from even the most minor disturbances and inter- ruptions. For all this, I thank her and the rest of my fami- ly from the bottom of my heart. E)r, x'1 rtr )-x) n:p D)ulr Dn nrir lDl) l)yrl;11 1:DtP't Ii'n;lD January, 1976 Richard Steiner Yeshiva Univ. \ Table of Contents tions and Symbols XI Introduction 1 Laterals: Definitions, SymboIs, and Typology tJ -T Fricative-Laterals in Modern Soutir Arabic l2 :II Semitlc Correspondence Sets Containing the l,lSA Fr icat ive-Late ra1 s 25 IV. Evidence from tlie Arab (lrarnmarians for Lateral .t' lrt Arabic 57 V. Evidence from Loanwords for Lateral r in Arabic (I) 68 VI. Evidence from Loanwords for Lateral ,r ln Arabic (ff1 74 VII. Evidence from Loanwo::ds for Lateral r in Arabic (fffl 81 VIII. Evidence from Loanwords for Lateral r in Arabic (IV) 90 IX. Evioence from Ru-Z.dagu - Rdg for Lateral i, in arabic 92 x. Evidence from Brlda - QiTda for Lateral- ". in (Pre-) Arabrc 95 xI . Evidence from a Ninth-Century Grarunari-an for Lateral .,. in Old Arabic Dial-ects 99 XII. Evidence from Arabic .i; - ,r Doublets for Lateral .r in (Pre-) Arabic lo2 XIII. Evidence from fncompatibility for Laterah- and r in Pre-Arabic r08 XIV Evj-dence from Doubl-ets that PS D and ^4 *"." Phonetically Sj-milar: Semitic Words for "Laugh" 111 XV Evidence from a Phonologj-cal- Correspondence that Pre-Hebrew D and .4 ,o.. Phonetically Similar: Semitic Words for ttI)rcss " t2L IX XVI. Evidence from Ba-Z.s amon - Altu for Lateral 3 123 XVII. Evi-dence from QArsbla - carsa for Laterat .d in Aramaic 130 XVIII Evi-dence from KaLclu - Xuiclim for Lateral ^4 in ttebrew 137 XIX. Evidence from a Conditioned Sound-Change for Lateral 5 in Akkadian t44 Evidence from a Conditioned Sound-Change for Lateral D in Pre-Aramaic 149 Conclusions 155 Directions for l'urther Research L57 List of References 16I Index 190 x Introduction MODERN SOUTH ARABIC AND THE LATERAL HYPOTHESIS The Omani Dependency of Dhofar or lufar in South Arabia is the Semitist's answer to Shangri-La. Wendell Phi1lips, explorer and personal friend of the now-deposed Sultan Said bin Taimur. describes the area in Unknown Oman (1966:168-70): In 1833 Andrew Crichton wrote, 'The whole of the southern waste is a wall of naked rocks, as dismal and barren as can well be conceived.t fhis statement was almost true except it overlooked the south-west monsoon from which Dhofar derives its unique climate, with its infl-ow of fog and drizzling summer rain yielding five inches on the coast and fifteen inches in the moun- tains As these air currents blow north-west along the Somaliland coast, they traverse no area of land (except the island of Socotra) and thus arrive saturated with moisture over Dhofar, causing a green carpet to arise from the earth. If ever this barrier of Somaliland were eliminated, all of south-west Arabia would climatically resemble Dhofar; and if Somaliland extended farther to the east the arid deserts would soon bury sweet-smelling Dhofar under the sands. Here smiling plenty is found in the very bosom of desolation, for the narrow half-moon shaped coastal plain of Dhofar is an abnormal feature in this other- wise arid South Arabian coast, as it is the only major fertile region between Muscat and Aden The Qara Mountains rise steeply to the north, lim- iting the coastal plain to a maximum width of ten miles. ... within these mountains love1y secluded little lakes and gorges are rich with tropical ferns and running streams Within and adjacent to these Qara Mountains, a natural asylum for primitive aborigines has exi.sted where there are stil1 nine illiterate tribes speaking four different Semitic tongues -- Shahari, Mahri, Batahari, and Harsusi 1 2 - Introduction Now, given that the Qara lr{ountains are the most inac- cessible part of a remote country that until 1970 had no radios, newspapers, printing presses, paved roads or second- ary schools to bring foreign ideas across its tightly closed borders, it is not particularly daring to claim -- as d.oes Patai (f969:146,\92) -- that the Qara tribes have preserved several- ancient customs which their less isolated neighbors long ago abandoned in favor of the prevailing Islamic-Middle Eastern norms.