Arabic-L:LING:Plurals

[Dilworth Parkinson]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arabic-L: Fri 15 Jun 2007
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 from same address you subscribed from to
listserv at byu.edu with first line reading:
            unsubscribe arabic-l                                      ]

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

1) Subject:Plurals

-------------------------Messages-----------------------------------
1)
Date: 15 Jun 2007
From:"Marco Hamam" <marco.hamam at poste.it>
Subject:Plurals

Hi everybody. I would like to add another element to the discussion  
of plurals in the Quran, if i am allowed.
I already knew the question of اثنتي عشرة أسباطا which,  
as far as I know, has not been solved by the mufassirin. Reading the  
Quran I had some other big problems with plurals and duals. Maybe you  
can help me deal with them and maybe this will be a starting point  
for a broader discussion.
Here I give some of the problems I remember (I wrote down the  
interested ayas on a piece of paper...it must be somewhere...):

1.
سورة الانسان ، 15 ، 16
وَيُطَافُ عَلَيْهِمْ بِئَانِيَةٍ  
مِنْ فِضَّةٍ وَأَكْوَابٍ كَانَتْ  
قَوَارِيرَا قَوَارِيرَا مِنْ  
فِضَّةٍ قَدَّرُوهَا تَقْدِيراً
/Qawaariir/ is the plural of /qaaruura/. And it is evidently a  
DIPTOTE name (in arabic mamnuu3 min aS-Sarf) like, for instance, / 
kawaabiis/ as a plural of /kaabuus/ (kawaabisu / kawaabisa) or as the  
hundrends of names with /mafaa3iil/ wazn. So why is it /qawaariiraa/  
(with a big alif) and not /qawaariira/ with no alif? You'll notice  
that later correctors have been puzzled by that and have made this  
alif as the alif after waw al-jamaa3a (a prosthetic alif with a sukun  
on it). Yet, why is an alif there?

2.
سورة الانسان ، 4
إِنَّا أَعْتَدْنَا لِلْكَفِرِينَ  
سَلسِلَا وَأَغْللًا وَسَعِيرًا
Same problem with /salaasilaa/ . Why this last alif? (Where alif  
lacks like in /kaafiriin/, /salaasilaa/, /aghlaalaa/, you have to add  
the little alif).

3.
سورة الحج ، 19
هَذَانِ خَصْمَانِ اخْتَصَمُوا فِي  
رَبِّهِمْ
Why has the dual /khasmaani/ a plural /ikhtaSamuu/ and not a dual  
verbal form (+ the pronoun -him instead of -himaa)? Why is it not / 
ikhtasamaa fii rabbihimaa/?

4.
سورة التحريم ، 4
  إِنْ تَتُوبَا إِلَى اللَّهِ فَقَدْ  
صَغَتْ قُلُوبُكُمَا
The subject of the hypotetical phrase is dual: /in tatuubaa/ . But  
then there is /Saghat quluubukumaa/. Why is it not /Saghaa  
qalbaakumaa/ given that we have two hearts?

These were the parts I could remember. I hope it will stimulate a  
discussion.
Regards,

Marco Hamam

------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
--
End of Arabic-L:  15 Jun 2007
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/arabic-l/attachments/20070615/0555a1f1/attachment.htm>