Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T09:10:15.287Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The broken plural in Soqotri

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2020

Leonid Kogan*
Affiliation:
Russian State University for the Humanities / National Research University – Higher School of Economics, Moscow

Abstract

The article investigates the broken pural in the Modern South Arabian language Soqotri (island of Soqotra, Gulf of Aden, Yemen). It is based on extensive field research and rich collections of lexical evidence. Primarily synchronic in its approach, the article pays attention to historical problems of Modern South Arabian and Semitic phonology and morphology whenever appropriate.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © SOAS University of London, 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

To the memory of Robert Ratcliffe

The article has been written in the framework of the project 34.5109.217 supported by the Ministry of Science and Education of Russia. My sincere gratitude goes to Dr Maria Bulakh for her valuable remarks on this article and, more broadly, for numerous discussions on Soqotri grammar and lexicon.

References

BDB = Brown, F., Driver, S.R. and Briggs, Ch.A.. 1906. A Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. Oxford.Google Scholar
Bittner, Maximilian. 1909. Studien zur Laut- und Formenlehre der Mehri-Sprache in Südarabien, I. Vienna: Hölder.Google Scholar
Bittner, Maximilian. 1915. Studien zur Šḫauri-Sprache. I. Vienna: Hölder.Google Scholar
Bittner, Maximilian. 1918. “Charakteristik der Sprache der Insel Soqoṭra”, Anzeiger der pilosophisch-historischen Klasse der kais. Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien 55, 4883.Google Scholar
Blau, Joshua. 1998. Topics in Hebrew and Semitic Linguistics. Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Bulakh, Maria and Kogan, Leonid. 2011. “Arabic influences on Tigre: a preliminary evaluation”, BSOAS 74/1, 139.10.1017/S0041977X10000698CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bulakh, Marie and Kogan, Leonid. 2013. “Эфиосемитские языки”, Языки мира. Семитские языки. Эфиосемитские языки. Moscow, pp. 13141.Google Scholar
СSOL I: = Naumkin, Vitaly, Kogan, Leonid et al. 2014. Corpus of Soqoti Oral Literature. Volume One. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
СSOL II = Naumkin, Vitaly, Kogan, Leonid et al. 2018. Corpus of Soqoti Oral Literature. Volume Two. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/9789004376205CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diem, Werner. 1979. “Studien zur Frage des Substrats im Arabischen”, Der Islam 56, 1280.10.1515/islm.1979.56.1.12CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diem, Werner. 1980. “Untersuchungen zur frühen Geschichte der arabischen Orthographie. II. Die Schreibung der Konsonanten”, Or 49, 67106.Google Scholar
Fischer, Wolfdietrich. 1987. Grammatik des klassischen Arabisch. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
GAG = von Soden, W.. 1995. Grundriss der akkadischen Grammatik. Rome: EPIB.Google Scholar
Greenberg, Joseph H. 1955. “Internal a-plurals in Afroasiatic (Hamito-Semitic)”, in Lukas, Johannes (ed.), Afrikanistische Studien. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 198204.Google Scholar
Jahn, Alfred. 1905. Grammatik der Mehri-Sprache in Südarabien. Vienna: Hoelder.Google Scholar
Johnstone, T.M. 1975. “The Modern South Arabian languages”, Afroasiatic Linguistics 1/5, 93121.Google Scholar
Kogan, Leonid. 2015. Genealogical Classification of Semitic. The Lexical Isoglosses. Berlin: De Gruyter.10.1515/9781614515494CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kogan, Leonid and Naumkin, Vitaly. 2014. “The vowels of Soqotri as a phonemic system”, in Elmaz, Orhan and Watson, Janet C.E. (eds), Languages of Southern Arabia. Oxford: Archaeopress, pp. 5780.Google Scholar
LS = Leslau, Wolf. 1938. Lexique Soqoṭri (Sudarabique moderne) avec comparaisons et explications etymologiques. Paris: Librairie C. Klincksieck.Google Scholar
Miller, Anthony G. and Morris, Miranda. 2004. Ethnoflora of the Soqotra Archipelago. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Royal Botanic Garden.Google Scholar
ML = Johnstone, T.M.. 1987. Mehri Lexicon and English–Mehri Word-List. London: SOAS.Google Scholar
Naumkin, Vitaly, Bulakh, Maria, Cherkashin, D., Kogan, L., Issa, A. and Gumaan, I.. 2014. “Studies in the verbal morphology of Soqotri I/1. Strong triconsonantal roots in the basic stem (the analysis)”, Zeitschrift für Arabische Linguistik 59, 2556.Google Scholar
Palmer, F.R. 1962. The Morphology of the Tigre Noun. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ratcliffe, R. 1998a. The “Broken” Plural Problem in Arabic and Comparative Semitic. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: Benjamins.10.1075/cilt.168CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ratcliffe, R. 1998b. “Defining morphological isoglosses: the ‘broken’ plural and Semitic subclassification”, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 57, 81123.10.1086/468623CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rhodokanakis, N. 1915. Der zweigipflige Akzent in Minao-Sabaischen. Vienna.Google Scholar
Rubin, Aaron. 2010. The Mehri Language of Oman. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/9789004187627CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubin, Aaron. 2014. The Jibbali (Shaḥri) Language of Oman. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/9789004262850CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sima, A. 2009. Mehri-Texte aus der jemenitischen Šarqīyah. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Simeone-Senelle, Marie-Claude. 1997. “The Modern South Arabian languages”, in Hetzron, Robert (ed.), The Semitic Languages. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 378423.Google Scholar
Simeone-Senelle, Marie-Claude. 2011. “Modern South Arabian”, in Weninger, Stefan (ed.), The Semitic Languages: An International Handbook. Berlin: de Gruyter, pp. 10731113.Google Scholar
Stein, Peter. 2003. Untersuchungen zur Phonologie und Morphologie des Sabaischen. Rahden: Leidorf.Google Scholar
Steiner, Richard C. 2003. Stockmen from Tekoa, Sycomores from Sheba: A Study of Amos’ Occupations. Washington, DC: The Catholic Biblical Association.Google Scholar
Watson, Janet C.E. 2012. The Structure of Mehri. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Wranik, W. 2003. Fauna of the Socotran Archipelago. Field Guide. Rostock: University of Rostock.Google Scholar