Arabic-L:PEDA:jiim/giim

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Thu 13 Apr 2000
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject: jiim/giim
2) Subject: jiim/giim

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1)
Date: 13 Apr 2000
From: "Samia S. Montasser" <sam231 at gwis2.circ.gwu.edu>
Subject: jiim/giim

I would like to add here, that I have a Yemeni and an Omani students in my
"Modern Arabic Short Stories" class. Neither of them went to Egypt or had
an Egyptian teacher before. Both pronounce it as /giim/ and not /jiim/.
When I asked them, they said in the regions they came from, almost
everyone pronounces it as /giim/.
There is a dissertation at Georgetown by Sayyed Othman, I have not read
it, on the phonology in Sibawaih's book. He, Othman, told me that the
description of how this consonant is produced is that of a /giim/ and not
a /jiim/.
It is said that some tribes in Arabia used to say /jiim/ and some /giim/.
Wallaahu 'a3lam.
Samia Montasser

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2)
Date: 13 Apr 2000
From: Heba Aboul-Enein <haboulenein at hotmail.com>
Subject: jiim/giim

Greetings.

The jeem is seldomly used in Standard Egyptian Arabic. You don't hear it so
much in the media. It is used in some upper Egyptian dialects, e.g., the
name /9abdil gawaad/ becomes /9abdil jawaad/. Moreover, the qaaf sound is
sometimes represented as geem as in the word `able' /qaadir/ in classical
Arabic which becomes /?aadir/ with a glottal stop in Cariene Egyptian and
/gaadir/ in some upper Egyptian peasants dialects. It is even surprising
that the same word could be heard in some parts of Egypt as /yadir/ with the
/y/ sound (voiced uvular fricative as in the word /yabi/ or stupid).

So you can hear jeem or geem in Egypt with no much difference. However,
using the jeem in the TV or radio gives the impression that the person is
well-versed in Arabic or that he has lived for quite some time in the gulf
area.

Heba Aboul-Enein

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End of Arabic-L: 13 Apr 2000