Francisco del Rio Sanchez
580 California St., Suite 400
San Francisco, CA, 94104
"Influences of Aramaic on dialectal Arabic", in: Archaism and Innovation in the Semitic Languages. Selected papers
Sign up for access to the world's latest research
Abstract
AI
AI
The paper explores the influences of Aramaic on dialectal Arabic, challenging the traditional view in the Spanish academic context that limits Aramaic's relevance to biblical philology. It emphasizes the need for comparative studies in Semitics and acknowledges the increasing interest among Arabic students in various Aramaic dialects. By addressing the complexities of borrowings and linguistic similarities between Aramaic and Arabic, it contributes to a deeper understanding of the historical and linguistic connections between these Semitic languages.
Key takeawaysAI
AI
- Aramaic significantly influenced dialectal Arabic, particularly in phonetics and morphology.
- Scholars now explore Aramaic dialects beyond biblical contexts, enriching Semitic studies.
- Aramaic loanwords in Arabic often reflect cultural and linguistic contact, not direct borrowing.
- Phonological similarities indicate possible Aramaic substratum effects in Arabic dialects.
- Research on Aramaic influences remains complex and underexplored in Arabic dialect studies.
References (23)
- Libanese: Youssef Hobeyka, The influences of Syriac on the Lebanese and Syrian dialects, «Abrohom Nuro Library» 16, Piscataway: Gorgias Press 2011; Anis Frayha, Mu'ǧam al-alfāẓ al-'āmmiyya, Beirut: Librairie du Liban, 1973; Riccardo Contini, 'Le substrat araméen en neo-libanais: Préliminaires à une enquête sisthématique', Afroasiatica Tergensia : Paper from the 9th Italian Meeting of Afro-Asiatic (Hamito-Semitic) Linguistics. Trieste 23-24 April 1998, eds Marcelo Lamberti & Livia Tonelli, Padova: Unipress, 1999, pp. 101-128. (2) Antilebanon- Qalamūn: Werner Arnold & Peter Behnstedt, Arabisch-aramaische Sprachbeziehungen im Qalamun (Syrien). Eine dialektgeographische Untersuchung mit einer wirtschafts-und sozialgeographischen Einführung von Anton Escher, Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz, 1993. (3) Anatolia: Otto Jastrow, 'Aramäische Lehnwörter in den arabischen Dialekten der Südost-Türkei', Akten des 27. Deutschen Orientalistentages, eds Stefan Wild & Hartmut Schild, Würzburg: Ergon, 2001, pp. 615-621;
- O. Jastrow, 'Aramäische Lehnwörter im arabischen Dialekt von Kinderib (Südost-Türkei)', Estudios de Dialectología Norteafricana y Andalusí 8 [Homenaje a Peter Behnstedt en su 60 aniversario/ Festschrift für Peter Behnstedt zum 60. Geburtstag] (2004), pp. 99- 103. (4) Dialect of Aleppo: Barsum Ayyub, al-Uṣūl al-suryāniyya fī asmāʼ al-mudun wa-l-qurā al- sūriyya wa-šarḥ ma'ānihā, Aleppo: Mardin Publ. House, 2000; Ğirğis Šalḥat, Luġat Ḥalab al- suryāniyya, Aleppo: Imprimerie Maronite, s.d. (5) Dialect of Mosul: Dawud al-Ğalabi, al- Athār al-arāmiyya fī luġat al-Mawṣil al-'arabiyya, Mosul: The Chaldean Star, 1935. 12 For example and in the case of Aleppo: Muhammad Khayr al-Dīn al-Asadī, Mawsū'at Ḥalab al-muqārana, 7 vol., Aleppo: Aleppo University Press 1981-1988; Marwan al-Rifā'ī, Aṣl al-laqš al-ḥalabī, Aleppo: Ray, 2005, pp. 25-104.
- 13 Jan Retsö, 'Aramaic/Syriac Loanwords', in Encyclopaedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, ed. K. Versteegh, I, pp. 179-181; Peter Behnstedt, 'Arabe Levantino', in Manual de Dialectología Neoárabe, eds Federico Corriente & Ángeles Vicente, Zaragoza: Instituto de Estudios Islámicos y de Oriente Próximo, 2008, p. 175.
- 14 The nouns of professions like nāṭūr, ṭārūq, gāṣūd (CāCūC) in Syrian Arabic have an Aramaic origin: P. Behnstedt, 'Arabe Beduino', in Manual de Dialectología Neoárabe, eds F. Corriente & A. Vicente, p. 78.
- O. Jastrow, 'Árabe de Anatolia', in Manual de Dialectología Neoárabe, eds F. Corriente & A. Vicente, p. 215.
- Jean Cantineau, Le Dialecte Arabe de Palmyre, 2 vol., Beirut: Institut Français de Damas, 1934, II, p. 36.
- P. Behnstedt, 'Arabe Levantino', in Manual de Dialectología Neoárabe, eds F. Corriente & A. Vicente, p. 151. See also Preface, p. 41.
- 18 An exception can be the aforementioned work of W. Arnold & P. Behnstedt, Arabisch- aramaische Sprachbeziehungen im Qalamun (Syrien). Eine dialektgeographische Untersuchung mit einer wirtschafts-und sozialgeographischen Einführung von Anton Escher, Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz, 1993.
- W. Arnold & P. Behnstedt, Arabisch-aramaische Sprachbeziehungen im Qalamun, pp. 67-68; O. Jastrow, 'Árabe de Anatolia', in Manual de Dialectología Neoárabe, eds F. Corriente & A. Vicente, p. 228. P. Behnstedt, 'Árabe Levantino', in Manual de Dialectología Neoárabe, eds F. Corriente & A. Vicente, p. 156.
- Henri Fleisch, Études d'Arabe Dialectal, Beirut: Dar el-Machreq, 1974.
- Jordi Aguadé, 'Árabe marroquí (Casablanca)', in Manual de Dialectología Neoárabe, eds F. Corriente & A. Vicente, p. 303. Jan Retsö has suggested that some Arabic dialects of North Africa, being in fact descendants of dialects spoken in Syria and Arabia, share morphological and lexical features with Aramaic: J. Retsö, 'kaškaša t-passives and the dialect geography of Ancient Arabia', Oriente Moderno 19/80 (2000), pp. 111-118
- 24 It was suggested by Carl Brockelmann, Grundriß der vergleichenden Grammatik der semitischen Sprachen I: Laut-und Formenlehre, Berlin: Reuther & Reichard, 1908, p. 310.
- 25 For example, Damascene: -kon, -hon, Beduin dialect of Negev: -kuw, -kin, -hun, -hin, etc. Cf. Mark W. Cowell, A Reference Grammar of Syrian Arabic, Washington: Georgetown Univ. Press, 1964, pp. 167-170; P. Behnstedt, 'Noch einmal zum Problem der Personalpronomina hanne (3 Pl.) -kon (2 Pl.) und -hon (3 Pl.) in der syrich-libanesischen Dialekten', Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 141 (1991), pp. 235-252;
- Alan S. Kaye & Judith Rosenhouse, 'Arabic Dialects and Maltese', The Semitic Languages, ed. Robert Hetzron, London-New York: Rouledge, 1997, p. 287; O. Jastrow, 'Árabe de Anatolia', in Manual de Dialectología Neoárabe, eds F. Corriente & A. Vicente, p. 220.
- Werner Diem, 'Zum Problem der Personalpronomina hǝnne (3.pl.), -kon (2.pl.) und -hon (3.pl.) in den syrisch-libanesischen Dialekten', Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 121 (1971), pp. 223-230.
- J. Blau, 'On some Arabic dialectal features paralleled by Hebrew and Aramaic', Jewish Quaterly Review 76:1 (1985), p. 6.
- J. Blau, 'The influence of living Aramaic', in J. Blau, Studies in Middle Arabic, p. 289. M. W. Cowell, A Reference Grammar of Syrian Arabic, pp. 234 and 343; A. S. Kaye & J. Rosenhouse, 'Arabic Dialects and Maltese', in The Semitic Languages, ed. R. Hetzron, pp. 291-292, 303.
- M. W. Cowell, A Reference Grammar of Syrian Arabic, p. 476.
- Compare Dan 2:17 אזל לביתה lǝbayteh ↄa zal ("[Daniel] went to his home") and Ez 5:3 עליהון אתה ↄa ta ca lēhōn ("he came to them") with Syrian waṣalnā lǝ-'Ammān ("we have arrived to c Ammān") or Lebanese raḥ as-su' ("he went to the sūq"). 33
- Secondly, in the dialects in which the special marker for the direct object has practically disappeared, the differentiation between subject and object becomes more precarious. In these cases, the solution to this problem is similar to Aramaic: a) Using an unmarked object. Compare Dan 3:5 קרנא קל תשמעון tišmǝ'ūn qal qarnā "[when] you hear the voice of the horn" or Syriac ܒܝܬܐ ܒܢܐ bnā baytā "he built a house" 34 with bā' il-bēt "he sold the house", šaft ǝl-bint "he saw the girl" (Damascus), šǝfna ğīġānna "we have seen our neighbours" (Iraq, qǝltu), ğaṛṛaytu ǝlxanğar "I drew the dagger" (Kinderib, qǝltu). b) With a periphrasis of direct object formed with a proleptic pronoun and the datival preposition l-. 35 Compare Syriac ܒܠ ܠܛܟܣܐ ܝ ܒܠܘܗ̄ balbǝlūy lǝ-ṭeksā "they confused the order" with šifto l- Aḥmed "I saw Aḥmed" (Levantine) or tzawwağha l-ṣadīqta "he married his friend" (Iraq, gəlet). Thirdly, as in Aramaic, the proleptic pronoun is also attested in pronominal possessive constructions (the genitival periphrasis called səmīkūt kəfūlah סמיכות כפולה according to the terminology of Uzi Ornan): compare the Syriac ܒܪܗ ܕܡܠܟܐ breh dǝ-malkā "the son of the king", with 'ammo lǝ-flān "somebody's uncle" (Lebanese), baytu la-ğārna "the house of our neighbour" or bittu laš-šayḫ "the daughter of the Sheikh" (Cilicia). 36
- 33 About the possibility of use l-before personal and indefinite pronouns (li-man) as in Aramaic, see J. Blau, 'The influence of living Aramaic', in J. Blau Studies in Middle Arabic, p. 289.
- J. Blau, 'On some Arabic dialectal features paralleled by Hebrew and Aramaic', Jewish Quaterly Review 76:1 (1985), pp. 7-9.
- S. Weninger, "'ramaic-Arabic Language Contact', The Semitic Languages, ed. S. Weninger, p. 750; J. Blau, A Grammar of Christian Arabic, based mainly on South-Palestinian Text from the First Millenium, I-III, «Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium» 267, 276, 279, Subsidia 27- 29, Louvain: Secrétariat du CSChO, pp. 413-415.
FAQs
AI
What explains the typological similarities between Aramaic and dialectal Arabic?
The study indicates that typological similarities stem from shared linguistic developments due to prolonged bilingualism between the two languages from the First Millennium B.C.E.
How has modern research addressed past biases in Semitic studies?
Recent scholarship has shifted focus towards comparative Semitics, integrating Aramaic dialects into Arabic studies fundamentally altering previous academic biases evident in earlier studies.
What morphological similarities exist between Aramaic and Arabic dialects?
There are notable similarities in personal pronouns and verb morphology, indicating a potential Aramaic substratum affecting Levantine and Anatolian Arabic dialects' grammatical structures.
When did Aramaic influence on Arabic become a recognized subject in linguistics?
The influence of Aramaic on Arabic has been acknowledged since at least the 19th century, with a surge in interest and investigation occurring in the last few decades.
What methodologies do scholars use to identify Aramaic loanwords in Arabic?
Scholars often check for the absence of cognates in Arabic roots, with significant studies focusing on Qur'anic Aramaic lexicon and dialectal borrowings dating back to earlier linguistic works.