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Urban and rural Arabic in Khūzistān

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Bruce Ingham
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Extract

It has been frequently noted by linguists and other observers that in many parts of the Arabic-speaking world, the speech patterns of any one region divide quite sharply into two groups—that of the towns on the one hand, and that of the surrounding countryside on the other. The following is an attempt to show the relationship of two dialects of Arabic spoken in the province of Khūzistān in Iran which can be considered to be representative of urban and rural groups within their area.

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Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , October 1973 , pp. 533 - 553
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Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1973

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References

1 The following is in fact an elaboration of Blanc's remarks on urban and rural speech in Iraq—Blano, Haim, Communal dialects in Baghdad, Cambridge, Mass., 1964, 165–6Google Scholar. For examples of Iraqi dialects very similar to the rural variety to be discussed here, see Meissner, Bruno, ‘Neuarabische Geschichten aus dem Iraq’, Beiträge zur Assyriologie und Semitischen Sprachwissenschaft, v, 1, 1903, i–lviii, 1–148Google Scholar; also Weissbach, F. H., Beiträge zur Kunde des Irak-Arabischen, Leipzig, 1930Google Scholar. For a historical treatment of the relationship of urban and rural dialects in Iraq, see Le Cerf, Jean, ‘Structure syllabique en arabe de Bagdad et accent en arabe oriental’, Word, XXV, 3, 1969, 160–79CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For a synchronic treatment of the relationship of urban, rural, and literary Arabic in south-western Jordan, see Cadora, Frederic J., ‘Some linguistic concomitants of oontactnal factors of urbanization’, Anthropological Linguistics, XII, 1, 1970, 10–19Google Scholar.

2 The Kawāwila or Kāwliyya though ethnically of non-Arab origin, in this area, speak Arabic as their mother tongue and are affiliated to Arab tribes in many cases. My main Kāwli informant considered himself to be related to the tribe of Banī Lām. The Kawāwila and other similar groups are found in many parts of the Middle East. In nomadic areas traditionally their occupation was that of tinkers and craftsmen. The informant was a member of the group known as the Mullā Kāwliyya, who are settled just outside Ahwāz. Their main occupation is entertainment at weddings and other functions. For an account of their life and customs, see Dickson, H. R. P., The Arab of the desert, London, 1949, 517–19Google Scholar. For general information on the Gypsies in Persia, see Field, H., Anthropology of Iran, I, Chicago, 1939, 45–6, 123–4Google Scholar. My information on the Arabio of the Gypsies in other areas is from informants in this country. In many areas, they speak their original Indo-European language; see Littman, Enno, Zigeuner-Arabisch, Leipzig, 1920Google Scholar.

3 Fernea, R. A., Shaykh and effendi: changing patterns of authority among the El Shabana of southern Iraq, Cambridge, Mass., 1970Google Scholar; Salim, S. M., Marsh dwellers of the Euphrates delta, London, 1962Google Scholar. Both writers are concerned primarily with contrasting tribal and non-tribal social and economic patterns in small rural townships; see particularly Fernea, 66, and Salim, 141.

4 In Papers in linguistics, 1934–1951, London, 1957, 34–46Google Scholar, particularly 36–7. For examples of other dialects in which vowels in the high front and the high back regions have been assigned to one unit, see Johnstone, T. M., ‘Aspects of syllabication in the spoken Arabic of 'Anaiza’, BSOAS, XXX, 1, 1967, 3Google Scholar; also Lehn, Walter, ‘Vowel contrasts in Najdi Arabic’, in Stuart, Don Graham (ed.), Linguistic studies in memory of Richard Slade Harrell, Washington, D.C., 1967, 125Google Scholar. Both Erwin, Wallace M. in Short reference grammar of Iraqi Arabic, Washington, D.C., 1963, 37Google Scholar, and Blano, Haim in Communal dialects, 35Google Scholar, noted that the distinction of /i/ and /u / is neutralized in many environments in Baghāadī. In that dialect, however, sufficient examples of /u / in non-conditioning environments occur to justify distinguishing /i / and /u / in the transcription. In Kh., these do not occur. Contrast Baghdādī /kull θuluθ kulli∫ Ịuỵa ∫ugg ṣudug/ and Kh. /kill θiliθ killi∫ liỵa ∫igg ṣidig/, the distinction being that in the Baghdādī examples, liprounding is present, while in the Kh. examples, it is not.

5 For a description of the relevance of emphasis to the syllable, and an account of its phonetic exponents, see Lehn, Walter, ‘Emphasis in Cairo Arabic’, Language, XXXIX, 1, 1963, 29–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar; also Harrell, R. S., The phonology of colloquial Egyptian Arabic, New York, 1957, ch. viiiGoogle Scholar. For instrumental evidence of emphasis in these consonantal articulations, see el-Haleese, Y. A., A phonetic and phonological study of the verbal piece in a Palestinian dialect of Arabic, Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1971, 183–208Google Scholar.

6 The consonant symbols used in both broad and narrow transcriptions have the value normally associated with the writing of Arabic. Symbols deserving special attention are the following: [j] /j/ is IPA , [Č] /č/ IPA t∫, and [y] /y/ IPA j; [ħ] /ħ/ is a voiceless pharyngeal fricative, [Ƹ] /ƹ/ a voiced pharyngeal continuant. A subscript dot is used to indicate ‘emphasis’ or velarization in the consonant. Where prominence serves to distinguish U and R forms, the prominent syllable is marked by /'/ at syllable onset. With the exception of /i/ which is dealt with above, the vowel units in broad transcription have approximately the same value as their equivalents in Baghdādī. The values of some of the vowel symbols used in close transcription have been given above. The rest have approximately their IPA value, except [ʌ] which here stands for a half-open central vowel.

7 A similar feature was recorded by Cantineau for the dialect of Baqqa which, he stated, has an allophone [q] of the phoneme /y/ in initial position. See Cantineau, J., ‘Études sur quelques parlers de nomades arabes d'Orient’, AIEO, II, 1936, 1–118Google Scholar, and III, 1937, 119–237, particularly II, 39.

8 Both T. F. Mitchell and el-Haleese mention that for comparable forms in Egyptian and in a Palestinian dialect, a more tense articulation for final geminates distinguishes them from non-geminates, even when there is no significant difference in duration. Palatographic evidence shows a clearer wipe-off for the geminates in these cases. See Mitchell, T. F., ‘Long consonants in phonology and phonetics’, in Studies in linguistic analysis, Oxford, 1957Google Scholar, particularly part B of this article and el-Haleese, , A phonetic and phonological study, 129Google Scholar.

9 The form /-kam/ is also attested for Riyāḍī, see 'Abboud, P. A., Syntax of Najdi Arabic, Ph.D. thesis, University of Texas, 1964, 16Google Scholar, and for a Cyrenaioan Bedouin dialect, see Mitchell, T. F., ‘Prominence and syllabication in Arabic’, BSOAS, XXIII, 2, 1960, 381Google Scholar, also for the tribes Shammar, , Sardiyya, , and Ṣakhr, Banī, Cantineau, , ‘Études’, AIEO, III, 1937, 185Google Scholar.

10 For farther details of this feature, see Johnstone, ‘Aspects’.

11 For an account of this phenomenon in the Najdī dialects, see Johnstone, T. M., ‘Further studies on the Dōsiri dialect as spoken in Kuwait’, BSOAS, XXVII, 1, 1964, 80Google Scholar.

[I would now wish to state this in rather different terms, namely that no non-final syllable, the vowel of which is a, can end with a guttural; and an anaptyctic vowel, always a, must occur immediately after the guttural, e.g. taħat, and not taħt. The syllabication of suffixed forms is determined by elision in the same way as the forms not involving a guttural, thus (in the dialect of 'Anaiza):

For some reason not known to me, both syllables of a form such as taħat are equally prominent. T.M.J.]

For examples of the same in a Cyrenaican Bedouin dialect, see Mitchell, , ‘Prominence and syllabication’, 388Google Scholar.

12 With this example, U and R use separate lexemes. The U lexeme /ħiḅla/ is not related to the root /Ƹ∫r/.

13 Here also R uses a separate lexeme—/gaƸƸad/.

14 Both these types are attested for Baghdādī. See Blanc, , Communal dialects, 101Google Scholar, and Erwin, , Short reference grammar, 107Google Scholar.

15 These forms would have cognates in Classical Arabic either of the form CaCaC /xi∫ab, x∫ab/ and /∫ijar, ∫jar/, or CiCaC or CuCaC as with the rest.

16 Meissner, , ‘Neuarabische Gesohichten’, p. xviiiGoogle Scholar, also gives the forms (e) fṭir and (e)fṭirr, but gives no singular forms. He does not list /krikk/. Johnstone mentions a sporadically occurring secondary gemination in similar forms. He gives the examples w dhim(m)a ‘camel-hair tyings of the crosspiece of a bucket’ and gṣub(b)a ‘barrel of rifle’, ‘Further studies on the Dōsiri dialect’, 88. Wetzstein, describing the dialect of the Wild 'Alī gives many examples of similar forms, including /abṣálla/, /iśgérre/, /igbílle/, /iśbíkke/; Wetzstein, I. G., ‘Spraohliches aus den Zeltlagern der syrischen Wüste’, ZDMG, XXII, 1868, 191Google Scholar.

17 Examples of forms which in both dialects show this type of syllabication are ‘green’, /ħaṃaṛ/ ‘red’, /ħawal/ ‘cross-eyed’, /ỵaḅaṛ/ ‘bad, ugly’. Contrast /?azrag/ ‘blue’, ‘white’, /?aṣfaṛ/ ‘yellow’.

18 It is a feature of both U and R that the syllable Ga- may be prominent in places where a syllable Cv- not involving a guttural would not be prominent. Examples: U /l'hawa:z/ ‘Ahwāz’, /'Ƹayu:z/ ‘old woman’, /'Ƹayim/ ‘dough’, /'ħali:b/ ‘milk’, compare /fi'ri:j/ ‘village’, /ṣi'u:ḷ/ ‘goats’.

19 For further examples of this kind of imperative form from the Najdī dialects, see Johnstone, , ‘Further studies on the Dōsiri dialect’, 82Google Scholar.

20 ‘Neuarabische Geschichten’, p. xli. To a minor extent, the same feature has been noted for the speech of Qaṭar, and Bahrain, , Johnstone, , Eastern Arabian dialect studies, London, 1967, 92 and 110Google Scholar.

21 For examples of similar passive forms from the Najdī dialects, see Johnstone, , ‘Further studies on the Dōsiri dialect’, 91Google Scholar.

22 In this feature, R agrees with certain Bedouin dialects. Landberg gives /àgrab/ ‘être près de’, and /àgbal/ ‘arriver’; Landberg, C., Langue des bédouins 'Anazeh, Uppsala, 1940, 80Google Scholar.

23 For further information on these dialects, see those sources already mentioned, also Montagne, R., ‘Contes poétiques bédouins (récueillis chez les Ṧammar de Ğeziré)’, BEO, v, 1935, 33–119Google Scholar, and Socin, A., Diwan aus Centralarabien, 3 vols., Leipzig, 1900–1901Google Scholar. According to local informants, the dialect of Zubair represents the northernmost limit of this type of dialect within Iraq as the speech of a major urban centre. Important in this classification are the existence of nominal forms in CvCC in Zubairi, whereas the rest of the area has CvCvC in corresponding forms with a few exceptions (compare Zubairī /bi∫t/, South Mesopotamian /bi∫it/ ‘light summer cloak’) and also many basic lexical items such as /hni:, hni:tan/ ‘here’, /baya, yabi/ ‘to want’. The affinity of the dialect to the speech of Arabia proper correlates with the town's traditional role as a ‘desert port’ or centre of contact between central Arabia and Mesopotamia. It is also interesting to note that the population of Zubair is largely of the Sunnī sect in contrast to the rest of the area which is Shi'ī.

24 gelet or qeltu being the word for ‘I said’ which exhibits certain characteristic phonological and morphological features. For further details of this classification see Blanc, , Communal dialects, 7Google Scholar.

25 Extra-linguistic factors correlating with this common linguistic grouping can be seen in common agricultural patterns, similar modes of dress, and also similar building styles using adobe or reed and matting as basic material. Even more important are the number of tribes and tribal sections whose members are found on both sides of the Iran-Iraq border. These include the Muhaiein, Banī Ka'b, Banī Tamīm, Banī Lām, Zuhairiyya, and Shuraifāt. Of equal importance is the fact that the area is a stronghold of Shi'a Islam in contrast to the predominance of the Sunni sect in neighbouring Arab populations. For information regarding tribal divisions of the area, see Field, H., Anthropology of Iraq, Pt. I, No. 2, Chicago, 1949Google Scholar, and Anthropology of Iran, i, 184–200; von Oppenheim, M., Die Beduinen, Bd. IV, Teil 1, Wiesbaden, 1967Google Scholar; 'Abbās al-'Azzāwī, 'Ashᾱir al-'Irᾱq, Baghdād, 1956, iv, 181–95Google Scholar; Lambton, A. K. S., Landlord and peasant in Persia, London, 1953, 292Google Scholar.

26 See Blanc, , Communal dialects, 146–59Google Scholar for a comprehensive list of common Mesopotamian lexical items.

27 Persian loan-words of some antiquity occur in all Arabic dialects of the area, viz. /hast, hassit/ ‘there is’ (Persian /hast/), /ro:∫na/ ‘aleove, window’ (Persian /rou∫ane/), /hi:č/ ‘nothing’ (Persian /hi:č/), /ča:ra/ ‘trick, strategem’ (Persian /ča:re/). In Khūzistān, many Persian administrative terms are used which are not used in neighbouring Arab countries, viz. /dami∫gaih/ ‘university’ (Persian /da:ne∫ga:h/), /?ida:ra/ ‘office’ (Persian /eda:re/), /∫arda:ri/ ‘municipal administration’ (Persian /∫ahrda:ri/).

28 This word, meaning ‘one who has visited the shrine at Mashhad (fem.)’, is characteristic of the speech of Shi'īs in this region, for whom this pilgrimage is important.

29 Persian /gi:r kardan/ ‘to stick’.

30 Persian /goza∫tan, gozar-/, which yields similar meanings.

31 For a more detailed treatment of this sound change in the dialects of the area, see Johnstone, , ‘The sound change j > y in the Arabic dialects of peninsular Arabia’, BSOAS, XXVIII, 2, 1965, 233–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32 This feature was also noted by Meissner, , ‘Neuarabische Geschichten’, p. xxxviiiGoogle Scholar, as a form occurring in poetry.

33 This is connected with non-occurrence of OCv after the prominent. Similar forms were noted for the dialeot of Raqqa and of the Hadīdīn by Cantineau, , ‘Études’, AIEO, II, 1936, 116Google Scholar. Alternative developments are vowel lengthening, Cyrenaican [iktibietih], Mitchell, , ‘Prominence and syllabication’, 386Google Scholar; elision of the first vowel, 'Anaiza ktiltuh, Johnstone, , ‘Aspects’, 12Google Scholar; stressing of the penultimate syllable, Baghdādī /kit'bata/, Erwin, , Short reference grammar, 42Google Scholar.

34 /ṣo:ḅa:ṭ/ ‘hut’ or ‘bower’.

35 The 3rd person singular pronouns have the following forms, which are characteristic of the area: (a) independent, /hiwwa ?ihwa/ ‘he’, /hiyya ?ihya/ ‘she’; (b) conjoined, /-haw -hu/ ‘he’, /-hay -hi/ ‘she’. The conjoined variants are used in conjunction with certain particles, viz. /∫inhaw ∫hu/ ‘what is it (masc.)?’, /∫inhay ∫hi/ ‘what is it (fem.)?’, /yahaw yahu/. ‘which (masc.)?’, /yahay yahi/ ‘which (fem.)?’, /ma:haw ma:hu/ ‘it (masc.) is not’, /ma:hay ma:hi/ ‘it (fem.) is not’. As regards the alternation /hiwwa ?ihwa/ and /hiyya ?ihya/, it was not apparent what factors determined the occurrence of these forms. Similar forms were also noted by Johnstone, for Bahrainī (əhuwioa and ihiyye), Eastern Arabian dialect studies, 104Google Scholar. Corresponding plural forms occur which are also in alternation with more usual forms: /?ihṃa hiṃṃa/ ‘they (masc.)’, /?ihna hinna/ ‘they (fem.)’. Johnstone also mentions uhumme for Baḥrainī ibid.

36 This story is presented as heard and, as such, preserves a certain original ambiguity and lack of continuity. In many cases, the actual course of the action is not clear because of the frequent use of the pronouns ‘he’ and ‘they’. It is, however, presented here as representative of R speech. A slightly different and much shorter version of the same story is given by Weissbach, , Beitrᾱge zur Kunde des Irak-Arabischen, 13–14Google Scholar, Erzählung 2.

37 In many words, /i/ and /a/ alternate freely in positions before the main prominent syllable, thus /sič'čim sač'či:n/ ‘knife’, /čif'fiyya čaf'fiyya/ ‘head-cloth’. The word /bani/ occurring in names of tribes is usually non-prominent and the alternative form /bini/ is commonly heard.

38 /ča/, a particle appearing at sentence initial position, signifying surprise or urgency.

39 The U informant was not certain of the meaning of this word, and suggested ‘charm’ or ‘child's dummy’. Lane gives ‘ball of spun cotton’.

40 /ħazm/: the U informant believed this to be a unit of measurement.

41 /ya:ba w ya:/ a recurring phrase in narratives with the function of joining one set of aotiona to the next. Similarly, in concluding a story other set phrases are used, such as /tawwi činit Ƹidḥiṃ u ye:t/ ‘I was recently with them and came away’ or /witƸi:∫ inta sa:lim/ ‘and may you live in health’.

42 /?ixifa:lha mniṭfa:lha/: a saying, signifying that the outcome of a matter can be discovered from the aotions of children.

43 /?iṣṣiḅa:ħ iṛḅa:ħ/, literally ‘tomorrow there will be profit’.

44 /ga:mlak/: a deictic 2nd person singular particle used in narratives. Other examples occur, e.g. /yo:k ya:k/ ‘they came to you, he came to you’. For examples of this from other Arabic dialects see Johnstone, , ‘The verbal affix -k in spoken Arabic’, JSS, XIII, 2, 1968, 249–52Google Scholar.