ARABIC-L:LING:"Zelemy" Responses

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Arabic-L: Thu 04 Mar 1999
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
[To post messages to the list, send them to arabic-l at byu.edu]
[To unsubscribe, send message to listserv at byu.edu with first line reading:
          unsubscribe arabic-l                                      ]

-------------------------Directory-------------------------------------

1) Subject: metathesis
2) Subject: metathesis
3) Subject: stranger, friend

-------------------------Messages--------------------------------------
1)
Date: 04 Mar 1999
From: DWILMSEN at aucegypt.edu
Subject: metathesis

this looks interesting.
it appears that this might be derived from /zamiil/ "colleague", the word
then having undergone metathesis (whereby two consonants are reversed -
consider /comfortable/, which can become /comfterble/ in spoken English.

you can see the same thing with /zoog/ "spouse" "husband", which usually
appears as /gooz/ in speech (of sourse in jordan it would be /jooz/).
a curious thing about this last is the feminine form retains its original
order of consonants:  /zooga/.

david wilmsen
director, arabic and translation studies
american university in cairo

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
2)
Date: 04 Mar 1999
From:  Robert Langer <rlanger at ix.urz.uni-heidelberg.de>
Subject: metathesis

What I thought of first is "zamîl" = "comrade"; "zamîlî" = "my comrade". Is
there a metathesis in Jordanian Arabic leading to zelem?

Robert Langer
Tutor, Islamwissenschaft, Universität Heidelberg

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
3)
Date: 04 Mar 1999
From: GnhBos at aol.com
Subject: stranger, friend

Dear Neal,

"Zelemy" is supposed to mean "Rejjal" or man. "Zameel" means friend.
A "Zelemy" can be either a stranger, or a friend.

George N. Hallak
http://aramedia.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
End of Arabic-L: 04 Mar 1999