ARABIC-L: LING: Geographical Names Query

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Wed 10 Mar 1999
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject: Geographical names like Rawabdeh

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1)
Date: 10 Mar 1999
From: "R. Hoberman" <rdhoberman at ccmail.sunysb.edu>
Subject: Geographical names like Rawabdeh

The names of two Jordanian prime ministers, Tarawneh and Rawabdeh,
reminded me of Palestinian terms like these:

talaaHme (pl. of talHami)-- people from beet laHm (Bethlehem)
sawaaHra --people from beet saaHuur
bajaajle -- " "  beet jaalaa
xalaayle -- "  " al-xaliil (Hebron)
fawaaghra -- " "  beet faaghuur
maqaadse -- " " al-quds /bayt al-maqdis (Jerusalem)

(I got most of these from Jabra Ibrahim Jabra's memoir Al-Bi'r al-'Uulaa;
the less familiar of them are villages in the Jerusalem-Bethlehem area).
These sometimes become family names, but mainly they're adjectives
describing people. This type of term is very productive among
Palestinians.  Is it elsewhere as well?  I'm interested both in how widely
these are used, and in the word-formation processes that form them in
Palestinian Arabic.  I'd like to collect as many of these as I can, so
I'll be grateful for contributions if you know of other examples!

Another question, especially for Palestinian colleagues: are there towns
which CANNOT form this kind of adjective?  What about Ramallah, Hayfa,
Yaafa, Naablus, 'ariiHa....?

Thanks for your help.

Bob Hoberman

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End of Arabic-L: 10 Mar 1999