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The Active Participle in an Arabic Dialect of Cyrenaica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

T. F. Mitchell
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Extract

(a) Material for the present article was obtained before and during a recent period of study-leave in Cyrenaica. My particular informant, who also accompanied me during the tour, was Mr. Idris ‘Abdallah, from Gyrene, a member of the Ḥāsa tribe. The dialect illustrated may be termed the Bedouin dialect of the Jebel.

Examples are given throughout in Arabic script and follow the method used by my informant for writing his dialect. Thus presented, they are immediately intelligible to a literate Cyrenaican, who is accustomed to written colloquialisms, for example in letters, petitions, agreements, and vernacular (usually Bedouin) poems appearing in the local Press. The phonetic transcription is intended to suggest a pronunciation for the examples.

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , February 1952 , pp. 11 - 33
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1952

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References

page 11 note 1 The phonetic symbols used are those of the International Phonetic Association, with the following exceptions: ʂ is used for , ʈ for for , and ƹ for ʕ. For reasons of space, transcription is not used with the examples in the footnotes. An account of the phonetics and phonology of the dialect is in preparation.

page 11 note 2 The terms “participle” and “participial” refer throughout to the active participle only: the passive participle is not considered. The abbreviations “A.P.”, “perf.”, and “impf.” are used for the active participle, perfect tense, and imperfect tense respectively.

page 12 note 1 The suffix is also used with certain particles as .

page 12 note 2 When the participle is used, the negative particle carries the category of person.

page 13 note 1 The most interesting contrast ig perhaps that between participle and perfect tense.

page 13 note 2 “An objective description of the bits and pieces of speech, or of the constituents of language, records and classifies them according to what they sound or look like, to what company they keep by formal relationship and to the positions and combinations in which they occur” (Firth, J. K., Tongues of Men, p. 100)Google Scholar (italics mine). See also the same author's “Modes of Meaning” in Essays and Studies (English Association, 1951), in which meaning by collocation, distribution in collocation, and extended collocation are brought forward as technical terms.

page 13 note 3 The English is not translation qua translation, but rather statement of meaning about the Arabic examples, deriving in part from the associated collocations.

page 13 note 4 See note 2, p. 14.

page 13 note 5 Contrast Grammatical Context 2 below.

page 14 note 1 See also under “B” below (ref. note 1, p. 26).

page 14 note 2 Note the possibility of combination with the verbal auxiliary in The dog is still tied up (lit. I have still tied up the dog), I have just passed by it”. Compare its use with the imperfect (+ ) in “I am still tying up the dog”. is a multivalent particle of aspect, used after the imperfect and before a nominal or pronominal when aspect is

page 15 note 1 Carries the category of person.

page 16 note 1 There is not, of course, any necessary correspondence of time-reference between words and phrases appearing on the same Une.

page 19 note 1 Note “I heard you going (or preparing to go)”.

page 20 note 1 Taken from L'arabo parlato in Cirenaica, by Iannotta, Elpidio (Benghasi, 1933), p. 255, last line.Google Scholar

page 21 note 1 See note 1, p. 19. It may be observed in passing that (Perf.) is impossible in the dialect. The pronoun is essential in “He came and I went (later)”, the grammatical and situational implications of which are not within the scope of the article.

page 22 note 1 Or, perhaps, “He used to wear a black coat.” ( + Impf.) + may be considered under either continuative or habitual aspect.

When, however, habitual aspect is past, as under (ii), ( + Impf.) is more usual in the dialect, i.e. “He used to take the money from her”.

page 24 note 1 Panetta, Ester, L'Arabo Parlato a Bengasi, Rome, 1943.Google Scholar

page 24 note 2 Thus, Panetta, , op. cit., p. 264, 100Google Scholar (d): “Il participio attivo preceduto dal perfetto del verbo kān, rende il nostro piuccheperfetto” (italics mine). Cf. Iannotta, , op. cit., p. 107Google Scholar: “Preceduto dal passato di ‘kân’ il participio attivo traduce il nostro piuccheperfetto.’ An approach which seeks to equate linguistic categories of different languages must usually lead to errors of analysis and statement, whatever its value for the restricted purposes of translation.

page 25 note 1 Cf.

page 25 note 2 Further research may show that the great majority of verbs whose participial form may be considered under “B” are also distinguished formally by the fact that they do not appear with a following nominal or pronominal suffix in objective relationship. That many of them may perhaps be said notionally to be themselves “stative”, or to involve “action” over a relatively long period of time, does not come within the scope of objective linguistic discussion. The distribution of participle and imperfect tense is also of particular interest under “B”. Contextualization of differences between participles (and imperfects) might provide a basis for subsequent division of verb-types in the dialect.

page 25 note 3 In reply to, e.g. “Will you have some tea?”. It may be observed that use of the participle is a definite refusal and the host would not be expected to offer again. The perfect (or ) would allow more tea (or food) to be offered and taken.

page 26 note 1 See, too, the second example under “A”, Grammatical Context 1, which may also be included under “B” (note 1, p. 14, refers).Google Scholar

page 27 note 1 may be substituted for with the same implications and little change of meaning.

page 27 note 2 Contrast the use of the corresponding imperfect tense + :—

page 27 note 3 see 1 (b) above.

page 27 note 4 Contrast the use of the imperfect of, e.g. “to buy” in comparable sentences. See note 1, p. 25.

page 28 note 1 is also used in the dialect in the well-known sense of “to rob on the highway”.

page 29 note 1 Abstraction of “motive” verbs as a verbal group or sub-category finds justification in differentiation at other points in the dialect:—

(i) Given the junction of two verbals having the form of perfect and imperfect tenses in that order, it may be seen that differential relations obtain within the pattern as a function of the first verbal, thus,

Panetta's ḫáššō ḍāḥěkîn [sic] and ḫaššō u hům ḍāḥěkîn are only possible in Benghasi and probably do not “belong” to all speakers from the town (Panetta, , op. cit., p. 266, 102Google Scholar (a)). In the Bedouin dialect with which this article is concerned these sentences are impossible: cf. (or ) “They came in laughing”, and “They came in as they (sc. other people) were laughing”.

(ii) Purposive aspect with and without is also associated with the use of; motive” verbs in the above pattern (see note 2, p. 14). It may be observed that the grammatical isolate may mean either “He went off laughing at them” or “He went off to make fun of them”.

The pattern “motive” verb + A.P. is possible, cf.:—

This example does not present any new feature, but since no other examples are at present available further research in the pattern is desirable.

page 30 note 1 For this implication of , see other examples above, under ref. notes, pp. 19 and 21.

page 32 note 1 “I am taking it away to-morrow” is also possible.