ARABIC-L: LING: More zaka:t

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Mon 19 Apr 1999
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject: transcribing zaka:t
2) Subject: archaic (Aramaic?) convention

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1)
Date: 19 Apr 1999
From: "R. Hoberman" <rdhoberman at ccmail.sunysb.edu>
Subject: transcribing zaka:t

Let me suggest a practical solution for transcribing the Arabic etymon of
English zakat and the like in English-language dictionaries.  The
normative Standard Arabic pausal form zaka:h doesn't explain the -t in the
English form zakat.  Since the word is often pronounced by Arabic
speakers as zaka:t, why not transcibe it as "zaka(t)"?  This should
satisfy the requirements of Standard Arabic, those Arabic speakers who say
zaka:t, and, most important of all, the curious English speaker who knows
no Arabic.  This would also work well in a revision of Wehr, too.

Bob
robert.hoberman at sunysb.edu

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2)
Date: 19 Apr 1999
From: Klaus Lagally <lagally at linde.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de>
Subject: archaic (Aramaic?) convention

As to <zaka:t> etc. :

I am not an Arabist, and I am far from my office now so that I cannot get
at any sources; but I recollect from memory that <zaka:t>, <.sala:t> as
well as <.haya:t> and <mi^ska:t> are special insofar as they obey an
archaic (from Aramaic?) writing convention, introducing a (silent) waw
before the final ta' marbuta instead of the expected 'alif which is
turned into a Qur'an madda instead; and that might well influence the
pronunciation in the pausal form to be -a:t instead of the common -a:h.

Any specialists around?

Klaus Lagally
--
Prof. Dr. Klaus Lagally  | lagally at informatik.uni-stuttgart.de
Institut fuer Informatik | Tel.  +49-711-7816392 |  Zeige mir deine Uhr,
Breitwiesenstrasse 20-22 | FAX   +49-711-7816370 |  und ich sage dir,
70565 Stuttgart, GERMANY |             (changed) |  wie spaet es ist.

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End of Arabic-L: 19 Apr 1999