ARABIC-L: LING: Geographical Names Discussion

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Thu 11 Mar 1999
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject: kaslaawi, etc.
2) Subject: Egyptian Arabic

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1)
Date: 11 Mar 1999
From: "Mohammad A. Mohammad" <mohammad at aall.ufl.edu>
Subject: kaslaawi, etc.

Dear Mr. Hoberman,

I am (originally) from 'Iksal, a village near Nazareth.  I am, therefore, a
kaslaawi and my feloow kaslaawis are kaslaawiyye. Here is what I remember
from my parents about many of the surrounding villages and their nisbas.

First your list:

Ramallah , ramlaawi. pl. ramlaawiyye (same for people from Ramleh)
Hayfa (=Heefa), heefaawi, heefawiyye
Yaafa, yaafaawi, yaafaawiyye
 Naablus (Naanbles) naabelsi, naabelsiyye or nawaabelse
'ariiHa (=RiiHa) riiHaawi, riHaawiyye ( I remember this in a fruit-pedler
selling bananas saying "riHaawi yaa mooz 'RiHaawi are my bananas."

>>From my memory:

9een Duur (pronounced 'in duur) 'induuri, 'induuriyye
dabburiye, dabbuuri, dabburiyye or dabaabre
naaSre, naSraawi, naSraawiyye
Tabariyya, Tabari, Tabriyye or Tabaarne
zir9iin, zir9iini, no plural (see below)
samax, samxaawi, samxaawiyye

I have gone through some other examples in my head and found that for some
names like biisaan I do not accept nor do I remember hearing the nisba
biisaanii.  Many of our neighbors are from biisaan. So one person is from
biisaan. For all it is 'ahl biisaan. Hope this helps.

Mohammad A. Mohammad
University of Florida
African and Asian
470 Grinter Hall
Gainesville, FL 32611
USA

email:  mohammad at aall.ufl.edu

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2)
Date: 11 Mar 1999
From: DWILMSEN at aucegypt.edu
Subject: Egyptian Arabic

You can see the same sort of thing in Egyptian Arabic:

maSr-i/maSarwa  (alexandrian reference to cairenes)
desuu'i/desai'a  (people of desuuq)
Sa at iid-i/Sa at aida )upper Egyptians)
baHraaw-i/baharwa (lower Egyptians)

the same can apply to family names (in fact desuu'i is a family name)

in a recent soap opera the two main (feuding) families were
@zaiza and sawalmi, presumably from @ziiz and siwailim (which itself
looks like a plural).

david wilmsen
director, arabic and translation studies division
american university in cairo

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End of Arabic-L: 11 Mar 1999