Emirati

[Jonathan Lighter]

Yes, but yours is the learned etymology.

The masses will believe me.

JL

On Sat, Mar 19, 2011 at 10:10 AM, Ben Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Emirati
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 7:19 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > According to John King of CNN, this is what you call a citizen of the
> United
> > Arab Emirates.
> >
> > Wikipedia agrees.
> >
> > In this case the "-i" "suffix of appurtenance" gets tacked onto a
> > perfectly normal English word.
> >
> > Because Emiratis are Arabs. So it sounds better than, I don't know,
> > *Emiratians?
>
> We talked about this in 2008. I wrote then:
>
> ==begin==
>
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0803B&L=ADS-L&P=R1224
>
> I believe the Arabic term for someone from the Emirates is
> <imaaraati>, which is <imaara(t)> 'emirate' + the <-i> "nisba" suffix.
> So you could view "emirati" as an imprecise transliteration of that on
> the model of "emirate". Or perhaps it originated as more of an expat
> mishearing/misparsing.
>
> Earliest I find from a quick check of the databases is from 1990:
>
> -----
> 1990 _Toronto Star_ 20 Aug. A11 (Factiva) Like many Emiratis, they
> follow news of the gulf conflict constantly, tuning into local radio
> stations and to the BBC World Service on short-wave radio every hour.
> -----
>
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0803B&L=ADS-L&P=2295
>
> AFAIK it's native Arabic, formed regularly from the root <?mr>, which
> gives sing. <imaara(t)>, pl. <imaraat> [where (t) is the fem. ending
> "ta' marbuta"], and then it becomes a demonym by application of the
> nisba suffix <-i>. I think the similarity to the Latinate "-ate" of
> "emirate" is purely coincidental. No need to posit a reanalysis -- cf.
> "sultanate", "caliphate", "palatinate", etc.
>
> ==end==
>
> --bgz
>
> --
> Ben Zimmer
> http://benzimmer.com/
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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