Table Of ContentAPPROACHES TO ARABIC DIALECTS
STUDIES IN SEMITIC
LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS
EDITED BY
T. MURAOKA AND C.H.M. VERSTEEGH
VOLUME XXXVIII
APPROACHES TO ARABIC DIALECTS
APPROACHES
TO ARABIC DIALECTS
A Collection of Articles presented to Manfred Woidich
on the Occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday
EDITED BY
MARTINE HAAK, RUDOLF DE JONG, KEES VERSTEEGH
BRILL
LEIDEN •BOSTON
2004
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Approaches to Arabic dialects : A collection of articles presented to Manfred Woidich on the
occasion of his sixtieth birthday / edited by Martine Haak, Rudolf de Jong, Kees Versteegh.
p. cm. – (Studies in Semitic languages and linguistics ; v. 38)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Consists of articles in English, French, and German.
ISBN 90-04-13206-6
1. Arabic language–Dialects. I. Woidich, Manfred. II. Haak, Martine, 1959- III. Jong,
Rudolf Erik de. IV. Versteegh, C. H. M. V. Studies in Semitic languages and linguistics ;
38
PJ6709.A75 2003
492.7'7–dc21
2003050254
ISSN 0081-8461
ISBN 90 04 13206 6
© Copyright 2004 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
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CONTENTS
Preface ........................................................................................ vii
Bibliography Manfred Woidich ................................................ xi
The Arabic of Rabì'a: A q6ltu dialect of Northwestern Iraq ............ 1
Farida Abu Haidar
Zum Verbmodifikator là- in nordmarokkanischen Dialekten ................ 13
Jordi Aguadé
Variability reproduced: A variationist view of the [µ]/[∂] opposition in
modern Arabic dialects ................................................................ 21
Enam Al-Wer
Die arabischen Dialekte von Jaffa und Umgebung ............................ 33
Werner Arnold
Von an-"Àß6r (al-Qaßr) nach Ìgni (Ìgli): Ein Vorbericht zu einigen
arabischen Dialekten der Provinz 6r-Ra“ìdìya (Marokko) ................ 47
Peter Behnstedt
Les parlers arabes nomades et sédentaires du Fezzàn, d’après William
et Philippe Marçais .................................................................... 67
Dominique Caubet
Quadriliteral verbs in the Arabic dialects of eastern Arabia ................ 97
Clive Holes
Technicalities and terminology of raiding and warfare as revealed by
Bedouin oral narratives ................................................................ 117
Bruce Ingham
Jüdisches, christliches und muslimisches Arabisch in Mosul ................ 135
Otto Jastrow
Characteristics of Bedouin dialects in Southern Sinai: Preliminary
observations ................................................................................ 151
Rudolf de Jong
Variation and change in Arabic urban vernaculars ............................ 177
Catherine Miller
Remarks on ideophones in Nigerian Arabic ........................................ 207
Jonathan Owens
Negations in the dialect of es-Sal†, Jordan ........................................ 221
Heikki Palva
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Unmarked feminine nouns in modern Arabic dialects .......................... 237
Stephan Procházka
Relative-clause marking in Arabic dialects: A preliminary survey ........ 263
Jan Retsö
On verbal nouns in colloquial and literary Arabic ............................ 275
Judith Rosenhouse
The Arabic dialect of women in Meknes (Morocco): Gender linked
sound changes? ............................................................................ 291
Harry Stroomer
De la grammaticalisation de ‘comme’ (comparatif) en arabe .............. 309
Catherine Taine-Cheikh
Deixis et focalisation: La particule ta en arabe de Yafi' (Yémen) ...... 329
Martine Vanhove
Pidginization and creolization revisited: The case of Arabic ................ 343
Kees Versteegh
Is there an Orientalist linguistics? .................................................... 359
Abderrahim Youssi
Colloquial Arabic in the 17th century: Yùsuf al-Ma©ribì’s Egyptian-
Arabic wordlist .......................................................................... 373
Elisabeth Zack
Index of Varieties of Arabic .................................................... 391
Index of Persons ........................................................................ 395
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PREFACE
To find colleagues and friends of Manfred Woidich willing to con-
tribute to the collection of articles now in hand was not the most
arduous of tasks. When we first started to approach colleagues on
the subject of a Festschrift for Manfred—this was right under his nose,
during the fourth AIDA conference in Marrakech in April of 2000—
their reactions were heartwarming and encouraging. In part, this
enthusiasm to contribute must have been due to the scholarly stand-
ing of Manfred Woidich. But perhaps even more so to his person-
ality—modest, ambitious only to work hard and preferably in the
background—which, almost as a matter of paradox, earned him a
central position in the field of Arabic dialectology as one of its lead-
ing figures.
The bibliography of Manfred Woidich’s publications bears testi-
mony to his achievements in the field. He has written extensively
on many aspects of Arabic dialects, from negative constructions to
folk tales, from diglossia to phonology. His didactic materials for the
study of Egyptian and Standard Arabic have become the preferred
teaching manual in many language courses. The dialect atlas of the
Egyptian dialects, which he published together with Peter Behnstedt,
already stands as a monument of research in Arabic dialectology.
Their joint introduction to dialect geography, due to appear in the
Handbuch der Orientalistik series at Brill’s, will no doubt become essen-
tial reading for anyone working in this field. The present collection
is an homage to his achievements.
As editors, we have deliberately chosen to include only articles on
topics in the field of Arabic dialectology rather than inviting all
friends and colleagues working in different fields. In the resulting
volume various approaches to Arabic dialectology are represented,
reflecting the central themes of Manfred Woidich’s research. The
value of his work lies in the combination of his deep respect for fine
detail—and the patience to strive for the full hundred percent while
collecting field-work data—with a broad interest in languages in gen-
eral, both on the theoretical and practical level. He keeps himself
completely with novel approaches in general linguistics, eager to
apply new insights to as yet unanalysed phenomena; he is a true
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polyglot, in the sense of someone who loves language as well as
languages.
Although unassuming in his professional activities, Manfred will
always take pride in hosting a dinner party at his home, serving
pasta al dente with home-made pesto sauce, lavishly accompanied by
exquisite Frankish wines—or German beer for those who prefer—
all in the jovial atmosphere of Middle Eastern hospitality. All three
of us, in our different capacities, have had intensive contacts with
Manfred over the years: research, teaching, administration, the gen-
eral state of affairs in Dutch Oriental studies and other topics, but
the highlights of these contacts have always been the dinner parties.
And yes, there is always a lot of talk about Arabic dialects. He
never misses an opportunity to point out an especially interesting
Arabic expression, usually from one of his beloved Egyptian dialects.
With his encyclopaedic knowledge of these dialects he has acquired
quite a reputation as a latter-day Professor Higgins, even in Egypt.
He is known to have asked complete strangers in the Nile Valley or
the Delta whether their mother came from some unknown village
in Upper Egypt—and he would usually ‘guess’ right, leaving his
anonymous ‘victim’ and those present in a state of utter bewilder-
ment. He is a true master at finding a parallel between a word he
hears in any context with a word or expression from some Egyptian
dialect—a habit the Moroccan waiters in the restaurants he visited
during the Marrakech conference became well aware of.
There is always a sense of finality to a list of publications in a
Festschrift, which in this case would create quite the wrong impres-
sion. We have therefore ventured to add an item ‘to appear’, the
Cairene Egyptian grammar, which in many respects will sum up his
formidable knowledge about the dialect of Cairo; it may well have
appeared by the time this book is presented to him. As we write
these lines, we are aware that the occasion of his birthday itself may
not be very pleasant for him: an entire afternoon wasted with fes-
tivities, while he could have been at his computer, working on yet
another publication on the dialect of il-Ba“andi in the Dakhla oasis.
We sincerely hope that he will forgive us for this intrusion when he
has had a chance to read the articles collected in this volume, and
find the festive afternoon memorable at least.
One of Manfred’s first experiences with dialect differences must
have been when his classmates in Germany would tease him with
his ach-Laut whenever he had come to the blackboard to be heard
