On interdental fricatives in the first-layer dialects of Maghrebi Arabic

The present paper aims at revisiting the question of interdental fricatives in the so-called pre-Hilali Arabic dialects, that is the descendants of the first stage of Arabicization in North Africa. It attempts to challenge, from a diachronic and comparative approach, the view that the absence of interdental fricatives—and their merger with dental stops—is a hallmark of pre-Hilali Arabic. On the basis of neglected data, we will provide evidence suggesting that interdental phonemes occur or did occur in some of the Arabic dialects which resulted from the early Muslim conquest of North Africa.

Arabic loanwords in seven Ethiopian languages

Within the Theory of Constraints and Repair Strategies (Paradis, 1988a,b; Paradis & LaCharité, 1993, 1997, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2008, henceforth TCRS), we provide a formal analysis to the Arabic loanwords in seven languages spoken in Ethiopia: Ge’ez, Tigre, Tigrinya, Amharic, Harari, Argobba and Gurage. The analysis draws upon a corpus of 540 loanwords extracted from the works of Leslau (1956a,b,c; 1957a,b,c; 1958; 1963; 1990). The article presents theoretical challenges to the TCRS Loanword Model (Paradis & LaCharité, 1997), in particular to the Threshold Principle which stipulates that an illicit segment should universally undergo less than two repairs to be licensed in the borrowing language; beyond this limit, it will be deleted. The adaptations of Arabic segmental malformations in these seven Ethiopian languages, however, exceed this number totaling in certain cases to six repairs. The article also discusses the Arabic gutturals, [ʔ], [ʕ] and [ħ], which undergo unpredictable deletion in Amharic and Argobba, showing that the Non-Availability Hypothesis (Paradis & LaCharité, 2001) cannot account for these deletions either. Although the Francophones systematically delete gutturals in Arabic loanwords due to the non-availability of Pharyngeal node in French, the inventories of Amharic and Argobba include the laryngeal [h], the uvular [q] and the glottalized ejectives, thus employing Pharyngeal node plus the features [RTR] and [constricted glottis] as phonologically treatable primitives.

Case alignment in Kabyle Amazigh

This paper examines the state alternation in Kabyle, arguing that state is the morphological realization of Case. The free state is accusative case, and the construct state is nominative case. Taking morphological patterns and syntactic distribution into account, Kabyle is found to be a Type 2 marked nominative language. Both states, or cases, are morphologically marked. The free state is the default case. This analysis accounts for the bulk of the distribution of free state and construct state nouns, and situates Kabyle as belonging to a typologically rare alignment system that is concentrated in Afroasiatic and African languages.

Avoidance of final monopositional vowels

A group of Arabic dialects in Yemen exhibit a velar k in the subject suffixes of the perfect paradigm. The 1sg subject suffix surfaces in the various dialects as -ku, -k or -kw. In addition, the vocalization of the base may or may not be colored with a round vocalic quality, depending on both the realization of the suffix and the verbal type faʿal or fiʿil. Based on inquiries among speakers from Lower Yemen, we propose a path of evolution that leads from -ku to the labialized -kw, to a “colored” stem, and finally to the grammaticalization of coloration and loss of labialization. Two pressures propel the passage between stages: a functional pressure to distinguish between 1sg and 2msg, and a phonological pressure to avoid monopositional final vowels. The phonological pressure is shown to also motivate palatalization in the 2fsg -ki ⇒ -ky (⇒ -š), as well as the effect of pre-pausal nasal insertion, viz. -ku ⇒ -kum# and -ki ⇒ -kiŋ#. We further show that final vowels resulting from the interaction of the subject suffixes with object clitics are phonologically long—even if phonetically neutralized—and hence they do not violate the phonological requirement. The formal theories of strict CV (Lowenstamm 1996, Scheer 2004) and Element Theory (Kaye et al. 1985) are used to explain the a-synchronized development in the different verbal patterns, as well as the extent of the phonological ban on monopositional vowels.

A Ḥarsusi text re-examined

Ḥarsusi, one of the six languages that comprise the Modern South Arabian branch of the Semitic family, is still rather poorly attested. One of the major sources of information is a small corpus of texts collected by T.M. Johnstone and published posthumously by Harry Stroomer. The errors present in that published edition have a negative impact on our limited understanding of Ḥarsusi grammar and vocabulary. The present article, which includes a re-edition of one of Johnstone’s texts, along with translation and commentary, aims to improve upon our current knowledge of Ḥarsusi.

Statistical gender indexicality in the grammar of vernacular Arabic varieties

This paper studies how gender indexicality occurs in some vernacular Arabic varieties, as a phenomenon linked to linguistic variation. Its objective is to test the types of gender indexicality found in this context, and to describe the areas of grammar where they are applied, particularly concerning phonology and morphology. To do this, several different contexts within the Arabic-speaking communities have been analysed since the indexed form strictly depends on the background and may not be understood without an in-depth analysis of the social and cultural circumstances surrounding the speech-act. The analysed data, coming from specialized literature and fieldwork, show that some variants tend to index the gender of the speaker more than that of the addressee. Furthermore, gender indexicality in contexts of variation shows more often sex-preferential tendencies rather than sex-exclusive tendencies.

The Causative Stem in Soqotri

Soqotri is an understudied Semitic language belonging to the Modern South Arabian branch and spoken by the approximately 100,000 inhabitants of the island of Soqotra. The present contribution offers a list of verbs belonging to the so-called causative stem in Soqotri (a cognate of the Arabic stem IV), based on the analysis of the data in the two recently published volumes of the Soqotri oral literature as well as the fieldwork notes of the authors.

Active participles in Jordanian Arabic

This study examines the categorial status, syntactic derivation, and tense of active participles in an urban variety of Jordanian Arabic. It is shown that unlike in other Arabic varieties, active participles in Jordanian Arabic fall into three distinct categories (namely, nominal, adjectival, and verbal) with respect to their morphophonological, syntactic and semantic structures. Moreover, it is argued that active participles are not lexically underspecified or homophonous, but are rather derived distinctively in the syntax. This study also explores tense in active participle clauses. Verbless clauses with adjectival and nominal active participles as the only predicates solely project present tense; a past or future tense is available only if a copula is involved. In contrast, clauses with verbal active participles, which are morphologically unmarked for tense, are shown to license temporal adverbs of different time references. It is argued that such clauses project a covert agreement tense whose time frame is established by time adverbs.

The polyfunctional lexeme /fard/ in the Arabic dialects of Iraq and Khuzestan

The primary aim of this paper is to explore the functions of the word /fard/ in Iraqi and Khuzestani Arabic. The study is based on the analysis of various text corpora and the elicitation of further examples from native speakers of the varieties investigated. The analysis of these data has shown that /fard/ is a polyfunctional item. Its various functions are the result of several grammaticalization processes. In the first stage, the noun “individual” has become a quantifier that expresses singularity. From this stage it developed into an intensifier, a marker of approximation and the scalar adverb “only.” It has been demonstrated that, from its use as a presentative marker, it developed toward an indefinite article. In contrast to the definite article, which is a grammatical category in nearly every variety of Arabic, the use of an indefinite article is rarely found in spoken Arabic. In Iraqi and Khuzestani Arabic, /fard/ is an indefinite article that possesses a wide range of applications and only a limited set of constraints. Its use, however, remains optional to a very high degree. Its main function is that of a presentative—i.e., introducing a new referent into a discourse. In addition, it also functions as an individuation marker, as a marker for expressing the speaker’s epistemic status (knowledge/ignorance) regarding a referent, and indicating free choice from a set of potential referents. Related to this last function is its use as a mitigating device in imperatives and polite requests.