{"title":"Definiteness, pronoun suffixes, genitives and two types of syntax in Sudanese Arabic1","authors":"James Dickins","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgac035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgac035","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article deals with Central Urban Sudanese Arabic, or ‘Sudanese Arabic’ for short—by which I mean, more specifically, the urban dialect spoken in Greater Khartoum (Khartoum, Khartoum North and Omdurman), and in other urban areas of central Sudan, roughly to the towns of Atbara in the north, Sennar on the Blue Nile and Kosti on the White Nile.2,3 It considers the relationship between the definite particle al- (plus allomorphic variants), for example in al-bēt ‘the house’, and what I shall argue is zero (Ø) commuting with al- (amongst other things), for example in bēt ‘a house’, as contrasted with al-bēt ‘the house’.4 What I term here, the ‘definite particle’ is more traditionally termed the ‘definite article’. For reasons why ‘definite particle’ is to be preferred to ‘definite article’ in the description of Sudanese Arabic, see Dickins (2009b; and Section 4 below). Henceforth, I shall, for brevity, refer to the definite particle as al-. I consider (i) Ø and (ii) al- in relation to (iii) pronoun suffixes, and (iv) annexes (‘genitives’).5 I use the following terminology: annexion-head meaning roughly the same as muḍāf (cf. Badawi, Carter and Gully 2015: 131) in traditional Arabic terminology (also termable annexed term, e.g. Watson 1993: 173, or genitive head in English), and annex (Watson 1993: 173) meaning roughly the same as muḍāf ilay-hi (cf. Badawi, Carter and Gully 2015: 131) (also termable genitive modifier in English). The entire phrase involving annexion I shall refer to as an annexion structure. I argue that not only do Ø and al- com-mute with one another, but that they also commute with pronoun suffixes and genitive annexes (incorporating also recursive elements), to give one form of syntax. In the linguistic model underpinning this paper—extended axiomatic functionalism (Dickins 1998; 2009a; 2020a)—this can be termed lexotactic. I also show, however, that these structures can be subject to a second, different, form of syntactic analysis in extended axiomatic-functionalism, termed delotactic. I finally consider in more detail the nature of definiteness and indefiniteness in Sudanese Arabic, justifying the grounds for definiteness which I identified in Section 2.2. Up to the end of Section 3 and in Section 5, this article draws heavily on Dickins (2013), which deals with Standard Arabic, having much the same structure as that article. The two articles can accordingly be partially read together, to provide a structural comparison between Standard Arabic and Sudanese Arabic in the relevant areas.","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136166872","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ekaterina Berzon, Maksim Kalinin, Sergey Koval, Sergey Loesov
{"title":"An Aramaic Verb Form in a Neo-Babylonian Letter","authors":"Ekaterina Berzon, Maksim Kalinin, Sergey Koval, Sergey Loesov","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgad003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgad003","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper offers an interpretation of an insufficiently understood verb form in the Neo-Babylonian letter OIP 114, 17:8, 29, thereby clarifying its contents. The word in question is shown to be an Aramaic verb form. This interpretation is supported by observations on the orthography and phonology of early Neo-Babylonian. It follows from the study that in eighth-century Neo-Babylonian two glottalized (‘emphatic’) consonants in the same word still underwent dissimilation, as in the second millennium bce (Geers’ law). The paper also demonstrates that, against communis opinio, erstwhile Aramaic fricative interdentals had shifted to stops by the eighth century bce, while the orthography of contemporaneous Aramaic alphabetic texts reflected an earlier stage of language evolution. This conclusion has been reached by means of comparing cuneiform renderings of proto-Semitic interdentals in West Semitic personal names in eighteenth-century bce Old Babylonian texts and in Neo-Babylonian texts from the ninth and eighth centuries bce.","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135489518","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Some linguistic features of the dialect of Acre and their possible explanation by the history of the city","authors":"Amal Zuʾbi","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgac029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgac029","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper introduces the main characteristics of a variety of Acre Arabic spoken by local residents in Acre today. The description provided is based on new evidence gathered in 2016–17 through interviews with various people, particularly older people, who grew up in Acre. Throughout the paper I discuss a number of distinctive phonological, morphological and syntactical features and compare them to Palestinian Arabic, especially Galilean Arabic, and also to Old Damascene Arabic and Egyptian Arabic. While some features occur in Palestinian Arabic but under different circumstances, other features do not occur in Palestinian Arabic, but are characteristic of Syrian Arabic and/or Egyptian Arabic dialects. Features of the dialect that are unique to Acre are presented, along with some speculations on how the linguistic evidence reflects the history of the city. Finally, a transcribed and translated text is provided.","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135439225","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Weighing the Baghdādī <i>Raṭl</i>: A Metrological Muddle","authors":"Daniel Martin Varisco","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgad002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgad002","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This study addresses a metrological muddle: attempts to determine the metrical equivalence of the Baghdādī raṭl, a measure for coins, commerce, and religious requirements during the Abbasid and Mamluk eras. Western writers Sauvaire and Hinz interpreted the measure of the widespread Baghdādī raṭl by determining a metric equivalent around three grams for the building block of the silver dirham weight. Islamic scholars, however, proposed three different dirham amounts for this raṭl and noted that there were two different ways of determining the standard ratio of the dirham to the dinar. These scholars applied the Baghdādī raṭl of their day to determine the weights of two earlier measures, the ṣāʿ and the mudd from the time of the Prophet Muḥammad. The study of Islamic era metrology has received little critical attention, apart from the field of numismatics, since the work of Walther Hinz, last updated in 1970. I provide a prolegomenon for the need to reread both earlier Muslim authors and the seminal works of Don Vasquez Queipo, Henri Sauvaire and others. Suggestions for approaching the interpretation of Islamic era weights and measures are provided.","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":"33 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135489511","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mohammed Nour Abu Guba, Bassil Mashaqba, Anas Huneety
{"title":"Polysyllabic shortening in Modern Standard Arabic","authors":"Mohammed Nour Abu Guba, Bassil Mashaqba, Anas Huneety","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgac030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgac030","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This is the first study that investigates polysyllabic shortening in Arabic. It aims to find out the extent to which Modern Standard Arabic employs this phonetic mechanism, which is usually associated with stress-timed languages. Data were collected from 10 Jordanian speakers reading 6 sets of words representing the six monophthongs in Arabic in a carrier sentence. Based on the acoustic analysis of 180 vowels, it was found that the vowels in monosyllabic words were significantly longer than their counterparts in polysyllabic words. However, the differences between the vowels in disyllabic and trisyllabic words were much smaller. Findings suggest that polysyllabic shortening is not invoked as a mechanism to maintain the stress-timed rhythm of stress-timed languages. Rather, it seems to be a universal phonetic feature that applies in different degrees that are commensurate with the rhythm of the language in question.","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134964922","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Spiders (Araneae) of the northeast of the Luhansk Oblast (Ukraine).","authors":"Nina Polchaninova, Oleksii Marushchak","doi":"10.3897/BDJ.11.e99304","DOIUrl":"10.3897/BDJ.11.e99304","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The dataset contains records of spiders collected in the northeast of Luhansk Oblast in the periods 1982-1989, 2009-2011 and 2021. It aimed at the inventory of spider fauna of the Striltsivskyi Steppe Nature Reserve and species distribution in the main grassland and forest habitats of the region. The research was also concerned with the impact of conservation management ‒ hay mowing or strict protection and man-induced steppe fire on spider communities.</p><p><strong>New information: </strong>The dataset includes records from seven geographical localities in the northeast of Luhansk Oblast with 1,955 occurrences of 6662 individuals. For the first time, it provides detailed information about spider species composition, phenology and habitat distiribution within the study area, including two conservation areas and the primary material on the studies on the impact of hay making and steppe fire on spider communities. All the records of 246 spider species with georeferencing were published in GBIF.</p>","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":"60 1","pages":"e99304"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10848449/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83030575","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"<scp>Karin C. Ryding</scp> and <scp>David Wilmsen</scp> (eds), <i>The Cambridge Handbook of Arabic Linguistics</i>","authors":"Maris Camilleri","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgac032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgac032","url":null,"abstract":"Journal Article Karin C. Ryding and David Wilmsen (eds), The Cambridge Handbook of Arabic Linguistics Get access Karin C. Ryding and David Wilmsen (eds), The Cambridge Handbook of Arabic Linguistics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2021. Pp. xx + 617. Price: £125.00 hardback. ISBN: 978-1-108-417303. Maris Camilleri Maris Camilleri Queen Mary University of London m.camilleri@qmul.ac.uk Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Semitic Studies, Volume 68, Issue 1, Spring 2023, Pages e23–e26, https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgac032 Published: 22 February 2023","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":"39 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134941950","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"<scp>Nick Posegay</scp>, <i>Points of Contact: The Shared Intellectual History of Vocalisation in Syriac, Arabic, and Hebrew</i>","authors":"Benjamin Suchard","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgac033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgac033","url":null,"abstract":"Journal Article Nick Posegay, Points of Contact: The Shared Intellectual History of Vocalisation in Syriac, Arabic, and Hebrew Get access Nick Posegay, Points of Contact: The Shared Intellectual History of Vocalisation in Syriac, Arabic, and Hebrew. Open Book Publishers, Cambridge 2021. Pp. xii + 376. Price: £30.95 hardback/£20.95 paperback/£0.00 PDF. ISBN: 978-1-80064-297-3. Benjamin Suchard Benjamin Suchard Ku Leuven & Leiden University benjamin.suchard@kuleuven.be Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Semitic Studies, Volume 68, Issue 1, Spring 2023, Pages e6–e11, https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgac033 Published: 22 February 2023","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134942311","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"<scp>Josef Tropper</scp> and <scp>Rebecca Hasselbach-Andee</scp>, <i>Classical Ethiopic. A Grammar of Gəʕəz</i>","authors":"Maria Bulakh","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgac034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgac034","url":null,"abstract":"Journal Article Josef Tropper and Rebecca Hasselbach-Andee, Classical Ethiopic. A Grammar of Gəʕəz Get access Josef Tropper and Rebecca Hasselbach-Andee, Classical Ethiopic. A Grammar of Gəʕəz (Languages of the Ancient Near East 10). Eisenbrauns. University Park, PA 2021. Pp. x + 430. Price: €69.95 hardback. ISBN: 9781575068411.1 Maria Bulakh Maria Bulakh HSE University, Moscow, Russia mbulakh@mail.ru Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Semitic Studies, Volume 68, Issue 1, Spring 2023, Pages e11–e23, https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgac034 Published: 22 February 2023","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":"132 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134942313","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Towards a Better Understanding of the Ḥarsusi Language","authors":"Aaron D Rubin","doi":"10.1093/jss/fgac031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgac031","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The Ḥarsusi texts collected by T.M. Johnstone and published by Harry Stroomer (2004) comprise the only corpus of Ḥarsusi texts published to date, and thus remain an invaluable source for the study of that language. A re-examination of the audio recordings of these texts reveal that the draft manuscripts on which the published edition was based contain numerous discrepancies, including many errors. By using these audio recordings in order to obtain corrected readings, we are able to better analyse and more accurately describe the phonology and morphology of Ḥarsusi, a language for which we as yet have no comprehensive description.","PeriodicalId":17130,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Semitic Studies","volume":"93 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134942314","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}