Arabic-L:LING:Wine Plural Responses

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Arabic-L: Tue 13 Jul 1999
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 to listserv at byu.edu with first line reading:
          unsubscribe arabic-l                                      ]

-------------------------Directory-------------------------------------

1) Subject: Wine Plural Response
2) Subject: Wine Plural Response

-------------------------Messages--------------------------------------
1)
Date: 13 Jul 1999
From: "Dr. Stefan Weninger" <Stefan.Weninger at lrz.uni-muenchen.de>
Subject: Wine Plural Response

Dear Alan!

There is one sentence "shaghaluu bi-khumuuri wa-'anbidhati" in T.abarii,
Taariikh (Cairo ed.), vol. IX, p. 422, lower half of the page. So here
you have at least one occurrence in a very good classical text.

Yours,
Stefan Weninger
Stefan.Weninger at lrz.uni-muenchen.de

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
2)
Date: 13 Jul 1999
From: Muhammad Deeb <mdeeb at gpu.srv.ualberta.ca>
Subject: Wine Plural Response

> Wehr lists nabiidh 'wine' with a plural form 'anbidha.
>
> Does anyone know if this plural form 'wines' actually occurs?

***
	The plural of "nabiidh" as "anbidhah" is regular and accurate.  The
word "nabiidh," here, in the sense of "substance set aside to ferment," is a
noun, as distinct from the adjectival form "nabiidh" (= "manbuudh"), in the
sense of "outcast" / "ostracized."  As a rule of thumb, nouns of the form
"fa at iil" have their broken plurals as "af at ilah."  Here are a few examples:

 -- "raghiif" (= loaf of bread), plu. "arghifah";
 -- "qaDiib" (= branch), plu. "aqDibah";
 -- "kathiib" (= sand-hill), plu. "akthibah."

	*Lisaan al- at Arab* states at the outset of the related entry that
"nabiidh" is "the singular of "anbidhah."  Granted, *Hans Wehr* may be
unsteady in some details, but in "nabiidh," it is quite sober!


> Also, normally dh is d in colloquial.  Why is it nibiit
> in Egyptian, but nibiid Lebanese Ar.?

***
	This is one of the rare examples in which "dh" becomes a "t" in the
Egyptian dialect, otherwise it is routinely pronounced as either a "daal" or
"zaal":

-- dhi'b	---> diib (wolf);
-- dhaqn  	---> da'n (chin);
-- dhayl	---> dayl, pronounced as the English "dale" (tail);

-- dhaat	---> zaat (self);
-- dhakiyy	---> zakiyy (intelligent / smart)
-- dhawq	---> zoo' (taste / tact).

	Interestingly, the "dh" in the last word "dhawq" becomes a "zaay"
when the word is used as a noun, otherwise, the "daal" is used instead in
verbal applications.  Thus, in the imperfect and perfect tenses, and the
imperative mood, the "daal" is substituted for "dhaal."  See for
illustration and juxtaposition:

  (1) Khalli @andak zoo'! 	(= Show some consideration!)

  (2) Daa' il-Hilw wi 'l-murr. 	(= He has experienced good and hard times.)

	The noun / verb as factor in determining the substitution of "dhaal"
with either "daal" or "zaay" in the Egyptian dialect shows a measure of
regularity.  (Further examples: "dahab" and "zahab" (gold & to go) "dakar"
and "zakar" (male & to mention).

	Levantine Arabic dialects (Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian) have
for "nabiidh" two variants: "nbiid" & "mbiid," but all Arabic dialects have
the adjectival form "nibiiti," derived from the same word, for wine-red,
maroon, red-maroon.

	The interchangeability between the "daal" and "dhaal" is not
uncommon in Arabic, both classical and colloquial.  I wonder if some
phonological and etymological affiliation can be detected between "nabadha"
the root of the word under scrutiny and the rare, almost obsolete, verb
"nabada" which means "to be still / to be immobile."

							M. Deeb

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
End of Arabic-L: 13 Jul 1999