Arabic-L:GEN:Levantine books responses

[Dilworth Parkinson]

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Arabic-L: Wed 26 Jun 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:Levnatine books response
2) Subject:Levnatine books response

-------------------------Messages--------------------------------------
1)
Date:  26 Jun 2002
From:Srpko Lestaric <srpkole at EUnet.yu>
Subject:Levantine books response

Dear Bushra,
 
There must be lots of such books. Try, first of all, a masterpiece of a 
folkloristic effort: 
 
 
'ibraahiim muhawwi & shariif kanaa3ina: quul yaa Tayr... nuSuuS wa 
diraasa fi al-Hikaaya al-sha3biyya al-filasTiiniyya, Tab3a 3arabiyya 
munaqqaHa; mu'assasa al-diraasaat al-filasTiiniyya 2001 (Institute For 
Palestine Studies, E-mail: ipsbrt at cyberia.net.lb). The book was first 
issued as an English translation entitled "Speak, Bird, Speak Again": 
Palestinian Arab Folktales, Ibrahim Muhawi and Sharif Kanaana. 
University of California Press, 1989.
 
Another one from bilaad ash-shaam that comes to mind this moment would 
be also a superb compilation (35 genuine folk tales in Jerusalem 
vernacular) and a successful sample too how to transcribe al-3aammiyya 
by the Arabic letters:
 
Modern Arabic Tales, by Enno Littmann, PH. D., volume I, Arabic text, E. 
J. Brill, Leyden 1905 (Part VI of The Publications of an American 
Archaeological Expedition to Syria in 1899-1900 - Under The Patronage of 
V. Everit Macy, Clarence M. Hyde, B. Talbot B. Hyde and I. N. Phelps 
Stokes).
 
As for how to write dialects in Arabic script -- well, I dare say the 
best way is to do that as simple as possible, for the relationship 
between different aspects of the Arabic spoken dialects and the system 
of, say, classical Arabic script is somewhat complicated. One must at 
any rate know that very dialect to read correctly what you put down on 
paper.
 
You can perhaps try to discuss the matter with Mr. Muhawi, who is pretty 
competent -- he teaches translatology and the Arabic literature at 
University of Edinburgh:  <Ibrahim.Muhawi at ed.ac.uk>.
 
Best regards,
Srpko Lestaric

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
2)
Date:  26 Jun 2002
From:Jan Hoogland <j.hoogland at let.kun.nl>
Subject:Levantine books response

Hi Bushra,
That's an interesting topic.
I don't know anything about written Levantine dialects.
I can only tell you about written Moroccan dialect. It seems there are 
no rules at all. Any writer can just use his own set of orthograpic 
rules, not only considering representation of consonants or vowels, but 
also considering morphological phenomena like writing the negation 
ma - ... - sh attached to a word or not.
Funny things happen. For example you may notice someone who adds an alif 
to any verb conjugation ending in a long vowel u. (similar to the 3th 
person plural perfect verb in fusha).
In Moroccan Arabic the 3rd person masculin singular suffix can be -u or 
-h depending on the preceding sound (u after consonant, h after vowel).
Some writers, doing their best to represent the spoken language as 
closely as possible, will do this in their writing too.

Since Egyptian 'amiyyah is written quite often too, and even some novels 
have been published in dialect (I remember to have read this once), 
their might be some guidelines there?
Maybe Manfred Woidich can tell us about that?

Please keep us informed on your findings.
Jan

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
End of Arabic-L:  26 Jun 2002