Arabic-L:LING:/l/ to /r/ change

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Fri 22 Aug 2008
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1) Subject:/l/ to /r/ change
2) Subject:/l/ to /r/ change
3) Subject:/l/ to /r/ change

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1)
Date: 22 Aug 2008
From:aziz abbassi <abbassiaziz at hotmail.com>
Subject:/l/ to /r/ change

Hi Munther:

  I can confirm what other colleagues noted for “Eastern Arabic  
Dialects” Re. /l/ to /n/ shift/switch as a true and common phenomenon  
in Moroccan Arabic. So in addition to the [Sma`in] case, also found in  
various parts of the country, Moroccan Arabic has : [yen`al XXX]    
(curse be on XXX), and oddly enough the phrase [na`latu allahi wa  
`alik] (Allah's curse be on you) but actually pronounced in MSA,  
perhaps for the sake of efficacy. In addition to this type of  
consonantal switch/shift there is a pan-Maghribi  /m/ to/n/ commonly  
encountered in utterance of the possessive adj/pron /mtaa`/ pronounced  
as [nta`] ex.  /ntaa`i/  (mine) ~ compare Egypt. bitaa`i where the /m/  
turns into /b/.  I just confirmed this fact for Algerian Arabic after  
listening to the opening of a duet where Cheb Mammi (Algerian singer)  
is quibbling with Kadhem Saher (Iraqi singer) about a woman saying:    
"had al mar?a ntaa`i.... ntaa`i   ?ana”. Another example is [nira]  
(the musical inst. Recorder) assumably from “lyre” or “Lyra” (Lat-GK)  
which would represent a complex borrowing with a possible semantic  
shift. Another consonant switch found in several parts of Morocco  
concerns, here the reverse of Munther’s cases, pronouncing  /n/ as /l/  
in reference to lamb (the meat) as “ghelmi”, instead of  /ghenmi/.

Aziz –a voice from your Texas days.


Aziz Abbassi
Foreign Language Consultant
Arabic Dialectology.

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2)
Date: 22 Aug 2008
From:Adam McCollum <acmccollum101 at gmail.com>
Subject:/l/ to /r/ change

Prof. Younes,
I at first said I did not know of any studies dealing with your  
question but I happened upon a reference a few days ago:

D. Testen, "The Significance of Aramaic r < *n," Journal of Near  
Eastern Studies 44 (1985): 143-146.

All the best,
Adam McCollum

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3)
Date: 22 Aug 2008
From:Adam McCollum [acmccollum101 at gmail.com]
Subject:/l/ to /r/ change

Prof. Horesh mentioned some Aramaic evidence with regard to the l-n-r  
exchange in the Semitic languages and invited others to offer more.   
Here are a few references:

1. In general n > r before n (Bauer-Leander, Biblisch-Aramäische  
Grammatik §13a).

2. In Syriac n > l in several foreign words (Nöldeke, Syriac Grammar  
§31b).

3. Nöldeke (Mandäische Grammatik, p. 54) gives the picture that in  
Mandaic (an Aram. dialect) the interchange between l and n is less  
frequent than in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, but the more recent  
Mandaic grammar (§27)—also including modern Mandaic—of R. Macuch gives  
a fuller picutre with many examples.  For r and l alternation see  
Nöldeke, p. 55 and §28 of Macuch.

4. For l-n-r interchange in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic see C. Levias, A  
Grammar of the Aramaic Idiom Contained in the Babylonian Talmud  
§§34-36 (available as a book but originally printed in the American  
Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures 13 (1896): 21-78 and  
subsequent vols.).

5. Akkadian tarlugallu (< Sumerian dar-lugal) to Aramaic tarnugla and  
similar forms (S. Kaufman, Akkadian Influences on Aramaic, p. 108).

6. Eastern Aramaic dialects alternate between l or n (instead of y) as  
the prefix for the imperfect (probably at first influenced by the  
Akkadian precative construction; see S. Kaufman, Akkadian Influences  
on Aramaic, pp. 124-126).

7. In a Jewish neo-Aramaic dialect there is a shift of l > r (under  
Kurdish influence) including Arabic loanwords, e.g. mal > mar, Hal >  
Har, ’asli > ’asri (G. Khan, The Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dialect of  
Sulemaniyya and Halabja [Leiden: Brill, 2004] §1.5; cf. H. Mutzafi,  
The Jewish Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Koy Sanjaq [Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz,  
2004] §1.1.3, under part 3i).  For Turoyo note O. Jastrow’s Lehrbuch  
der Turoyo-Sprache (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2002) §0.1.3.



[The phenomenon is also well attested in Ge‘ez (see §32 of Dillmann’s  
Ethiopic Grammar).  I am not sure how much it extends in the modern  
Ethiopian languages (Amharic, Tigrinya, Tigre, etc.), but the works of  
Wolf Leslau would no doubt make the matter clear.]

Adam McCollum

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End of Arabic-L:  22 Aug 2008