Arabic-L:LING:Al-3abd Allaah

[Dilworth Parkinson]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arabic-L: Mon 25 Aug 2008
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:Al-3abd Allaah

-------------------------Messages-----------------------------------
1)
Date: 25 Aug 2008
From:David Wilmsen <david.wilmsen at gmail.com>
Subject:Al-3abd Allaah

I haven't done a systematic observation of place names in Lebanon, but  
in driving round the country and noticing  road signs, I get the  
impression that constructions such as رملة البيضاء are  
common. I do not believe they are  analogous to family names. I  
actually know a young woman from the الطويل family, and it is  
obvious that what we see in her full name is not the same phenomenon.  
I admit that you caught me for a minute with شارع الحمراء,  
but there is a family of the name حمرا (without the hamza) from  
مرجعيون. It could be that the street was named for the family،  
you may sometimes see it written الحمرا on road signs. But it is  
just as likely that it was named الحمراء for other reasons -  
perhaps for the Andalusian palace. When the construction was first  
brought to my attention, it was pointed out to me that one might often  
hear the phrase عيد الكبير when the canonical construction  
would be العيد الكبير. So clearly the gender of the nouns  
involved is not the key to the question. It seems, rather, to be a  
general trend -  perhaps no longer productive - in some varieties of  
Arabic (and other Semitic languages - thanks Michael).

DW

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
End of Arabic-L:  25 Aug 2008
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/arabic-l/attachments/20080825/42e91538/attachment.htm>