LL-L "Orthography" 2009.05.19 (01) [EN]

[Lowlands-L List]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 19 May 2009 - Volume 01
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Language Codes: lowlands-l.net/codes.php
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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
 Subject: Orthography

Dear Lowlanders,

As some of you probably know, until around the beginning of the 20th
century, Afrikaans used to be written with an adapted Arabic-script system
in Southern Africa's Islamic communities.

There is a blog snippet about this:

http://dawudlindewei.wordpress.com/2009/01/29/arabic-afrikaans/

I would like to run my "tweaking" of the example of 1877 by you for your
review:

Arabic script:

ان دي ÙƒÙÙˆÙ’Ù†ÙÚ Ù’ سْكَبْ اس بِيْدِيْ هُوْكَ اﷲ تََََعٲلا ان ڤارْلِكْ اﷲ
تََََعٲلا اِس بَاس فَِرْ آلْدِي اِتْسْ

Close transliteration:

ʔǝn dī kūniŋ skap ʔǝs bīdī hūka ʔallāh taʕālā ʔǝn ẘārlik ʔallāh taʕālā ʔis
bās fiar ʔāldī ʔits


Reconstruction:

En die koningskap is by die hoka (= hoge) Allah *ta῾ālā*. En waarlik Allah *
ta῾ālā* is baas vir al die iets.

*ta῾ālā* 'may be be exalted'
Translation:

And the kingdom is with the high Allah (may he be exalted!). And verily  Allah
(may he be exalted!) is master over all things.

Observations:


   - Short /i/ and short /e/ are shown as indistinct, which points toward a
   *schwa* pronunciation as in *en* and *is*.
   - In *vir*, both short /i/ and short /a/ are indicated (atypically two
   vowel diacritics). I take this as an attempt at symbolizing a low central
   vowel before /r/.
   - Long /o/ had already undergone raising to [u:], as in *hoge* = *hūka*.
   (Unfortunately, this brief sample does not show if raising had already been
   applied to long /e/.)
   - The velar fricative, spelled *g* in Afrikaans, is shown as *k*. I
   assume that the speaker (most likely a person from what is now Indonesia)
   pronounced it as [k].


Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

•

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