Arabic-L:LING:Abuu, abaa, abii responses

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Tue 14 Oct 2008
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1) Subject:Abuu, abaa, abii response
2) Subject:Abuu, abaa, abii response
3) Subject:Abuu, abaa, abii response
4) Subject:Abuu, abaa, abii response
5) Subject:Abuu, abaa, abii response

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1)
Date: 14 Oct 2008
From:Ernest McCarus <enm at umich.edu>
Subject:Abuu, abaa, abii response

Dear Mike,

Why Abizeid rather that Abuuzayd or Abaazayd?

The general's name is in a colloquial dialect rather than MSA. The
three-case system of Standard Arabic is reduced to a single-case  
system in
the dialects, the most frequently-used vowel replacing the others.  Thus
you hear names like Abi-Abdalla, priests addressed as 'abiinaa rather  
than
'abaanaa, masculine sound plurals in -iin for all syntactic functions,  
etc.

As for the Sibawayhi story, I only hope it is not true.

Best,
Ernest

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2)
Date: 14 Oct 2008
From:Tressy Arts <tressy.arts at gmail.com>
Subject:Abuu, abaa, abii response

On a related note, I have long wondered why the Islamic primary school  
in Nijmegen was called Abi Bakr. I thought it may have been short for  
madrasat Abi Bakr, but that would not apply to the general.

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3)
Date: 14 Oct 2008
From:rizwanur rahman <rahman_r at yahoo.com>
Subject:Abuu, abaa, abii response

Dear Schub
Such words really has not valid grammatical ground but such names are  
there among Mulsims. Zisha'n is a very common name of Muslims at  
various places. Gen. John Abizaid (born to Labanese father) is a  
retired general of US army and perhaps his name has infleunec of some  
Labanese dilect. Egyptians also do the same when saying 20, 30,  
40 ................... ('aishreen, thalaatheen, arna'aeen in place of  
'aishroon, thalaathoon, arba'oon...... in nominative case).

Rizwanur Rahman, Ph.D.
Centre of Arabic and African Studies,
Jawaharlal Nehru University,
New Delhi - 110067 INDIA

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4)
Date: 14 Oct 2008
From:sattar izwaini <sattarumist at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject:Abuu, abaa, abii response

Dear All,

Abizeid is a family name from Lebanon that goes back to many, many  
generations. It is already established beyond grammatical correctness.  
It seems that the spoken variety freezed it in this version.

Regards
Sattar Izwaini

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5)
Date: 14 Oct 2008
From:David Wilmsen <david.wilmsen at gmail.com>
Subject:Abuu, abaa, abii response

I would not expect to find abaa in names (or at least not very often),  
it being the vocative form: viz. yaa abaa l-qaasim.

On the other hand Abou in nominative and Abi in genitive could both  
work; think of Ali bin Abi Talib. That it might appear in surnames  
such as Abizaid must have its origins in truncations of names of the  
form "ibn abi fulaan".

The modern survival of the genitive Abi in surnames seems to be a  
Lebanese phenomenon. Or at least I am much more aware of it in Lebanon  
than I was while I was in Egypt.

So...

A search of the names of students, faculty, and staff at AUB reveals  
that names with Abou (or Abu) are much more common (n= 289) than those  
with Abi (n= 98 including 4 Abiad, which might be Abi Aad, of which  
there are 2, or Abyad).

A similar search of the website at AUC can only be made of faculty  
members and staff, but not students.

Comparing  faculty and staff members at AUC and AUB with names  
beginning with Abou or Abu and Abi, then, we find

At AUC
faculty and staff members with surnames beginning
with Abi = 0
with Abou = 24
with Abu = 5
with Aba = 1 (Abadir, which may be a false hit even though it is  
spelled ابادير which could mean something like "of the monestary"  
- it is a Christian name)

At AUB
faculty and staff members with surnames beginning
with Abi = 30
with Abou = 58
with Abu = 45
with Aba = 0

The reason why the numbers are smaller at AUC might be explained for a  
variety of reasons, which we do not need to go into here.   
Incidentally, names with Bou seem to be more common here than in Egypt  
too (I have seen for example Abou Jaudeh, Abi Jaudeh, and Bou Jaudeh,  
with various spellings).

This may not mean that surnames with Abi do not exist in Egypt and  
elsewhere. With all of the moving around that has occurred in the Arab  
world since, say, AD 711, people with Abi in their names might be  
expected to be found in many places throughout the Arab Middle East  
(and beyond). But it does seem that they are much more common in  
Lebanon.

I would not expect that General Abizaid would necessarily know why his  
name is Abi Zaid and not Abou Zaid, or even be aware that they are  
effectively the same name.

I do believe, however, that he is of Lebanese descent.

-- 
David Wilmsen, PhD, Arabic language and linguistics
Visiting Associate Professor of Arabic
Department of Arabic and Near Eastern Languages
American University of Beirut

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