14.492, Qs: Demonstrative Pronouns, Arabic Dialect

[LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List:  Vol-14-492. Wed Feb 19 2003. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 14.492, Qs: Demonstrative Pronouns, Arabic Dialect

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1)
Date:  Tue, 18 Feb 2003 14:04:56 +0000
From:  Susan McBurney <mcburney at u.washington.edu>
Subject:  pronouns derived from demonstratives

2)
Date:  Wed, 19 Feb 2003 00:40:57 +0000
From:  Ramon Norman <RamonNorman at aol.com>
Subject:  Arabic Daad

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Tue, 18 Feb 2003 14:04:56 +0000
From:  Susan McBurney <mcburney at u.washington.edu>
Subject:  pronouns derived from demonstratives

In a number of languages, third person pronouns are historically
derived from demonstrative pronouns.  A commonly cited example is the
French third person pronouns il / elle, which developed from the
demonstrative ille in Vulgar Latin (Harris, M. 1978. The evolution of
French syntax: A comparative approach).

My question is this: are there languages where first and second person
pronouns are derived from demonstratives?

I will post a summary if there is any response to this query.

Thank you,

Susan McBurney

University of Washington
mcburney at u.washington.edu


-------------------------------- Message 2 -------------------------------

Date:  Wed, 19 Feb 2003 00:40:57 +0000
From:  Ramon Norman <RamonNorman at aol.com>
Subject:  Arabic Daad

I have a question about Arabic dialectology.  I have a friend who
traveled to Saudi Arabia to teach English.  He lived in the region of
Al-Hasa, a region in the eastern part of Saudi Arabia.  While there he
met individuals that told him that the Arabic letter Daad (Now usually
a voiced emphatic alveolar stop in Modern Standard Arabic, but
according to tradition some manner of lateral articulation) should be
pronounced from the side of the tongue with audible friction.  I am
not sure if he had the correct pronunciation or not, but to me it
sounded rather like Dhaa' (The voiced emphatic inter-dental
fricative).  However this lateral fricative articulation is the
articulation that most specialists in Semitic believe was the original
articulation of Daad.

Now my question, Is it possible that some dialects of Arabic,
particularly those confined to the Arabian Peninsula have maintained a
lateral fricative articulation of Daad?  I am not sure whether or not
the fricative lateral hypothesis was current when much of the work on
the Arabic dialects was undertaken so is it possible that improper
transcription has led us to believe in the universal merger of Daad
with the Dhaa' in all Bedouin dialects?  Are there any other reflexes
of classical Arabic Daad in the modern Arabic Dialects?

Subject-Language: Arabic, Standard; Code: ABV

Language-Family:  ; Code: AF

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