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The sound change j > y in the Arabic dialects of peninsular Arabia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

T. M. Johnstone
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Extract

An important phonological feature of many of the dialects of Arabia is the pronunciation of . This sound change is not confined to one dialect group, and unlike the affrication of and is non-conditioned. The evidence whether > in Classical Arabic or in the ancient dialects is rather inconclusive, and exceptin a few authors it is not categorically stated to be a sound change in the way that this is stated, for example, of 'aj'aja (iy[y] > ij[j] mainly in pause) for the dialect of the Tamīm.

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Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , June 1965 , pp. 233 - 241
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1965

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References

1 Johnstone, cf., ‘The affrication of ‘ kāf ’ and ‘gāf ’ in the Arabic dialects of the Arabian Peninsula’, JSS, VIII, 2, 1963, 210–26.Google Scholar

2 This is attributed to other tribes also. On this dialectal sound change cf. Sībawaihi, Kitāb (ed. Dérenbourg), I, 361, II, 314, 342; b. Jinni, Sirr Ṣinā’at al-i‘rāb (ed. Saqqā' and others, Cairo,1954), I, 192; cf. also Fleisch, , Traite de philologie arabe, I, Beyrouth, 1961, 78Google Scholar; Cantineau, , Cours de phonétique arabe, Paris, 1960, 86–7;Google Scholar and Kofler, , WZKM, XLVII, 1940, 122.Google Scholar On the possible confusion of more than one sound change cf. Rabin, , Ancient West Arabian, London, 1951, 199Google Scholar. For a summary of the views of the grammarians cf. Howell, , Arabic grammar, IV, Allahabad, 1911, 1374–8.Google Scholar

3 GVG, I, 123.

4 cf. Majdhūmacr;b, M. M., ShakṢiyyāt tarbawiyya, I,Khartūm, 1963, 129Google Scholar, discussing the comparable Tunisian form. The reference to this area in Brockelmann (GVG, loc. cit.) is to the sound change ≺. Cf. Stumme, , Mürchen und Gedichte aus der Stadt Tripolis in Nordafrika, Leipzig, 1893, 202.Google Scholar

5 Khata' al-'awāmm, 145–6 ed. Dérenbourg, , Morgenländische Forschungen, Festschrift… Fleischer, Leipzig, 1875.Google Scholar

6 Early Southern Arabian languages and Classical Arabic sources (University of London Ph.D. thesis, 1962), 250–2. I am indebted to Dr. Mahmūd al-Ghūl for this and the following reference.

7 cf. Tāj al-'arūs, sub .

8 Cantineau, Cours, 60, treats this case entirely separately from his discussion of > (59) saying ‘Un g tombe après un sans doute en passant par y dans le mot msíd …’.

9 Art. cit., 121–2.

10 Hadramoút, 539; Glossaire daṭinois, 258 f.

11 In the Beirut edition (1952), however, cf. also Musil, , Arabia deserta,New York, 1927, 600.Google Scholar

12 LA, s.v. cf., however, Leslau, , Lexique soqotri, Paris, 1938, 426.Google Scholar

13 Glossaire daṭínois, loc. cit.

14 op. cit., 1626.

15 In the same way as for example and [b. al-Sikkīt, Kitāb al-qalb wa 'l-ibdāl, (ed. Haffner, , Texte zur arabischen Lexilcographie, Leipzig, 1905)].Google Scholar

16 ‘Sprachliches aus den Zeltlagern der syrischen Wüste ’, ZDMG, XXII, 1868, 163.Google Scholar

17 This was later confirmed by Socin, v. p. 237 below.

18 ‘ études sur quelques parlera de nomades arabes d'Orient ’, AIEO, II, 1936, 24–5, and III, 1937, 137–8q.Google Scholar

19 Of his inquiries with the Bani Ṣakhr he says, however (art. cit., 138), ‘l'enquête a été simédiocre qu'il est difficile de faire fond dessus ’.

20 From my inquiries it would seem unlikely that this feature does occur in the dialect of Ḥāyil.

21 Hadramoût, 539. Dr. R. B. Serjeant, however, has informed me that this sound change is universal in the spoken Arabic of the uneducated classes.

22 Glossaire daṭînois, 259.

23 cf. Der vulgärarabische Dialekt im Ḍofâr (K. Akad. d. Wiss. Südarabische Expedition, x), Wien, 1911, 78.Google Scholar

24 It is interesting to note that this feature was in fact noted for this area by Palgrave before Wetzstein published his work. Thus he says of the Arabic of Charak on the Persian coast ‘ … softening the hard Arab ‘j’ … into a ‘ y ’; a local mispronunciation, whence ‘Mesjid’ becomes ‘Mesyid’, ‘ ‘Ajman’ ‘'Ayman’, and so forth’ (Narrative of a year's journey throughcentral and eastern Arabia, II, London, 1865, 252).Google Scholar

25 Non-occurrence of this feature is shown on the map only for those marginal areas where it might be expected to occur.

26 From the notebook of Col. D. L. R. Lorimer on the Arabic of Ahwāz (SOAS Library) from which are taken the examples on pp. 236–7.

27 This south-eastern limit may, however, require some extension into Oman proper. Although in the dialect of Muscat (?) this feature occurs only in the word wȧyid > wāyid ‘ much ’ (cf. Jayakar, , ‘The O'm´nee dialect of Arabic. Part I’, JRAS, NS, XXI, 1889, 652), it may occur in the dialects ofthe Omani coast nearest to the Rās al-Khaima peninsula.Google Scholar

28 The original transcription has been retained in these examples with minimal modifications. Additionsi are given in round brackets.

29 viz. ‘mange: scabies’.

30 cf. Meiszner, , Neuarabische Geschichten ausdem Iraq, Leipzig, 1903, 116 (‘Packsattel’).Google Scholar

31 Meiszner, op. cit., 117 (‘kleiner Schlauch’).

32 Baghdādi hwāya may be the same word, but compare Malaika, N., Grundzilge der Grammatik des arabischen Dialektes von Bagdad, Wiesbaden, 1963, 35. The sound change > is not a feature of Baghdādi Arabic but compare the above and rajjāl, pl. r[i]yjāīl rijājīl, < ‘man’.Google Scholar

33 ‘Aus einem Briefe des Dr. Socin an Prof. Nöldeke’, ZDMG, XXIV, 1870, 470.Google Scholar

34 The examples for the dialects of the eastern Arabian coast arefrom my field notes unless differently specified. For other Kuwaiti examples cf. passim Holmes and Sam'ān, Handbook of Kuwaiti Arabic (publ. Kuwait Oil Co.), London, c. 1951 and 1957, and Hanafi, J., Mu'jam al-alfāẓ al-Kuioaitiyya, Baghdad, 1964.Google Scholar

35 cf. Socin, , Diwan aus Centralarabien, Leipzig, 1900, glossary.Google Scholar

36 cf. for example some of the technical terms in Johnstone and Muir, , Some nautical termsin the Kuwaiti dialect of Arabic, BSOAS, XXVII, 2, 1964, 299– 2.Google Scholar

37 cf. art. cit. in the preceding note. The fact that these are borrowed words would not seem to affect this argument, since local sound changes do affect other borrowed words, e.g. Pers. and also occurs as Port, cavilha >chāiya, etc.

38 In my notes I have noted it for Dhahran, but without examples.

39 ībūn is more characteristic of BaḤraini, yībūn of the other eastern Arabian dialects.

40 Landberg gives a comparable example, viz: 'īz (Ḥadramoút, 539).

41 This is not true of the people of DōḤa of Persiandescent in whose speech j > y occurs not uncommonly.

42 From the notes of my friend J. C. Wilkinson.

43 In most other eastern Arabian dialects khārij.

44 cf. masjid ‘Muscat (Masqat)’. In this area msīd may be from or Cf. also p. 241, n. 48.

45 In most other eastern Arabian dialects nājih.

46 From the notes of J. C. Wilkinson.

47 cf. also Cantineau, ‘études’, 25, 137.

48 cf. also Cantineau, ‘études’, 137. The wordmsīd is an exception to this generalization in Trucial Oman, and this may support the argument that msīd = . However, the non- occurrence of masjid = is also explicable in terms of the local pronunciation of the word