Arabic-L:LING:Five or Six Nouns responses

[Dilworth Parkinson]

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Arabic-L: Mon 25 Feb 2002
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:Five or Six Nouns response
2) Subject:Five or Six Nouns response
3) Subject:Five or Six Nouns response
4) Subject:Five or Six Nouns response

-------------------------Messages--------------------------------------
1)
Date:  25 Feb 2002
From:"Schub, Michael" <michael.schub at trincoll.edu>
Subject:Five or Six Nouns response

The answer is "both:"  /hanuu-/ means "vulva," but is usually
(if modesty doesn't exclude it) translated as simply "thing."
      See *ZDMG* , Band 125, Heft 2. 1975 (270--272):  "The
Six Nouns."
      Best wishes,
                                   Mike Schub

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
2)
Date:  25 Feb 2002
From: Munir <zilanaw at fas.harvard.edu>
Subject:Five or Six Nouns response

The "five nouns" in common usage are ab, akh, fam, ham, and dhu.
However, there is an archaic biliteral noun, "han," meaning "a trifling
thing,"  that is inflected the same way the five nouns are.  The Alfiyya
of Ibn Malik mentions it.  Supposedly, this "sixth noun" has not been
used
since first century CE, although I am not sure of the exact date it fell
into disusage.

-Munir

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
3)
Date:  25 Feb 2002
From: Waheed Samy <wasamy at umich.edu>
Subject:Five or Six Nouns response

School kids - in Egypt - are only taught the 5: abun, akhun, Hamun,
famun, and dhu.
The 6th, vagina, is not normally taught in schools (only in institutes
of higher learning).
Waheed

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
4)
Date:  25 Feb 2002
From: SAKAEDANI Haruko <dr_harukos at hotmail.com>
Subject:Five or Six Nouns response

Generally, they are taught as "Five Nouns" in schools because:
1) "Hanuu(-ka)" has so a shameful meaning that the teachers   hesitate
to pronounce this word in front of their pupils,
and 2) Some grammarians do not regard it as a member of this group,
   but say that it inflects like other ordinary nouns and does not
change even if it occurs in "construction state."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
End of Arabic-L:  25 Feb 2002