Arabic-L:LING:ahlan wasahlan and etymology

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Wed 13 Jun 2007
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject:ahlan wasahlan

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1)
Date: 13 Jun 2007
From:t.milo at chello.nl
Subject:ahlan wasahlan

All the comments on the phrase /ahla-n wa sahla-n/ "welcome" so far were
lexicographic and/or syntactic as perceived solely from within the  
confines
of Classical Arabic. But etymology, when investigating the the origin  
of a
word or expression", is not confined by language or culture barriers.

In the case of Arabic, after identifying the root morphemes of an Arabic
word, and after verifying whether its meaning falls in line with that of
other words that share these root morphemes, etymology would verify if
whether the word exists in Arabic alone. That can be done by  
analysing the
root morphemes and verifying whether these can be traced to common  
Semitic
(within the constraints of the full set of established rules of  
historical
sound change). If not, the extra-Semitic source must be sought,  
identified
and a systematic analysis must be made of how the word was adapted to
Arabic, using as many analogous cases as possible. If, however,  the  
root
morphemes are shared with common Semitic, then all related words in all
other Semitic languages must be collected in order to clarify the  
meaning of
the word concerned and to understand whence and how its meaning  
evolved. The
result of such a labour is an etymology.

In the case of  /ahla-n wa wahla-n/, it should also be investigated  
how and
why its meaning interchanges in classical Arabic with /marHaba-n/, also
"welcome", and how and why /ahla-n/ and /marHabaa/ flip-flop in the  
dialects
(East-West ahla-n was sahla-n means "hello" and /marHabaa/ "welcome"  
while
North-South these meanings are reversed). In this context etymology  
should,
among other things, verify whether this phenomenon has pre-Arabic or
extra-Arabic aspects.

However, in this sense etymology of Arabic is not studied at all. At  
least
to my knowledge, since Brockelmann's "Grundriss" (1908-1913) no
comprehensive reference work, let alone an etymological dictionary  
was ever
made to deal with Arabic or even Semitic etymology. This remains a  
worrying
and curious black hole in the discipline. All more recent historical
grammars in the field , with the sole exception of Burkhart Kienast,
Historische semitische Sprachwissenschaft, have apologetic titles like
"Manual", "Einführung", "Essay", "Outline", "Introduction", "Beiträge",
"Lectures", etc. More seriously, all of them ignore or dismiss the  
massive
evidence that dialect Arabic can contribute to clarify the history of  
the
Arabic language. Only very recent essays such as one by Jonathan Owens
(Pre-diaspora Arabic, in Diachronica 22:2, 2005) and Pierre Larcher  
(Arabe
Préislamique - Arabe Coranique - Arabe Classique: Un continuum? - in:  
Die
dunklen Anfänge, Berlin 2005) start to question the position of  
Classical
Arabic as the focus and reliable starting point for Arabic historical
linguistics. Al other works uncritically assume CA is the common  
origin of
all modern forms of Arabic.

These circumstances make Arabic etymologizing an academically unsound
exercise. In comparison, no germanist in his right mind would use Hoch
Deutsch as a reliable last resource for German or Germanic etymology.
Remember, the real business of the Grimm brothers was to collect  
evidence of
historical German outside and independent of High German, not to collect
fairy tales.

The good news is: there lots of work to do in this field.

Enjoy!

Thomas Milo

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End of Arabic-L:  13 Jun 2007