Arabic-L:LING:Compounding response

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Tue 14 Dec 1999
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject: Compounding response

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1)
Date: 14 Dec 1999
From: Martine Haak <haakmart at dds.nl>
Subject: Compounding response

Some names of plants and flowers appear to be examples of "real"
compounding, such as   'jullanaar' = pome granate blossom, 'Habbhaan' =
cardamom and 'HaSaalubaan' = rosemary.

Wehr's dictionary also mentions quite a few compounds with 'xaana' or
'daar' as the second part of the compound, or 'baash' as the first. These
seem to be comparable with words with a prefix such as 'laa' in
'laa-jinsiiya' = statelessness and 'al-laa-shu9uur' = the unconscious, etc.

Examples are:

 'antiikxaana' = museum, 'raSdaxaana' = observatory, 'daftarxaana' =
archives, public records office, 'tarsxaana', also occurring as 'tarsaana'
= arsenal; shipyard, dockyard, 'jabxaana, jabaxaana' = powder magazine;
ammunition; artillery depot, and 'salxaana' = slaughterhouse, abattoir with
-xaana

'silaaHdaar' = sword-bearer, shiled-bearer, squire, 'xazandaar, xaznadaar'
= treasurer, 'sirdaar' = general, and 'Tabardaar' = sapper, pioneer with -daar

'baashHakiim' = physician-in-chief, 'baashkaatib' = chief clerk,
'baashmufattish' = chief inspector, and 'baashmuhandis' = chief engineer

There are of course many words which are semantically compounded though not
 morphologically, especially in botanical and zoological  names such as for
instance 'burghuut al-baHr' = shrimp.

In loanwords we find complete compounds taken over, as in 'banknoot' =
banknote, or even taken over as compound where they were separate words in
the original language, as in 'roobabeekiyaa' = junk (from the Italian 'roba
vecchia').

It seems safe to state that compounding is an extremely rare phenomenon in
written Arabic, and that only very few compounds fought their way into
Wehr's dictionary, often originating from loanwords or dialectisms. A nice
dialectal compound which is mentioned in Wehr is the Egyptian Arabic
'bulhoon' (pl. 'balaahiin') = sphinx, from 'abuu al-hawl'.

In my view, research concentrating on compounds in Arabic should focus on
(one or more of the) colloquial dialects, which often have combinations of
words with a specific meaning.

Good luck,     Martine
Martine Haak
Diemzigt 7
1111 TW  Diemen
020-6905605
haakmart at dds.nl
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End of Arabic-L: 14 Dec 1999