Remarks on the Origin of the Classical Arabic Future Mark sawfa/sa- from Related Semitic Roots

A Linguistic Innovation?

Authors

Keywords:

arabic, future tense, proclitic particle

Abstract

This survey is an attempt to reconsider the origin of the Classical Arabic invariable proclitic particles sawfa and sa- marking the future tense with the imperfect form yaf‘alu. Classical Arabic is the only Semitic language using two particles to indicate the future, with the exception of the Modern Arabic dialects and the Modern Neo-Aramaic varieties. Due to the historical linguistic contacts with other Semitic languages like Aramaic, Classical Arabic developed a new particle to express the future tense, as a linguistic innovation. The paper demonstrates that sa- is not a reduced form of sawfa, but a native Arabic abbreviated form to stress the future; by contrast, sawfa is a loan that entered Arabic and was juxtaposed with sa- as a borrowed particle.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

‘ABDALLĀH IBN AL-MUQAFFA‘, Kitāb Kalīla wa-Dimna. CHEIKHO, L. (ed.). Beirut, 1926.

’ABŪ BIŠR ‘AMR B. ‘UṮMĀN SĪBAWAYHI, Kitāb Sībawayhi. Le livre de Sîbawaihi: Traité de grammaire arabe. 2 vols. DERENBOURG, H. (ed). Paris, 1881-1889.

ABU AL-QASIM ‘ABD AL-RAḤMAN B. ’ISḤAQ AL-ZAJJAJI, Al-’Īḍāḥ fī ‘ilal al-naḥw. MAZIN AL-MUBARAK (ed). Cairo, 1959.

ABU MUḤAMMAD B. JARIR AL-ṬABARI, Ta’rīx al-rusul wa-l-mulūk. 15 vols. DE GOEJE, M.J. et al. Leiden, 1879-1901.

’ABU MUḤAMMAD ‘ABD AL-MALIK B. ḤISAM, Sīrat Sayyidinā Muḥammad Rasūl Allāh. 2 vols. WÜSTENFELD, F. (ed). Göttingen, 1858-1860

ALEXANDER, P. H. et al. (eds.), The SBL Handbook of Style for Ancient Near Eastern, Biblical and Early Christian Studies. Peabody, Massachussets: Hendrickson Publishers,1999.

AL-JALLAD, A. The Earliest Stages of Arabic and Its Linguistic Classification. In: Benmamoun, E.; Bassiouney, R. (eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Arabic Linguistics. Abingdon: Routledge, 2018. p. 315-331

AQUILINA, J. Maltese-English Dictionary, II vol. 2. ed. Valletta: Midsea Book, 2000.

BARTHELEMY, A. Notes de lexicographie et de grammaire arabes. In: Cinquantenaire de l’école pratique des hautes études. Mélanges publiées par les directeurs d’études de la section des sciences hisotriques et philologiques. Paris: Honoré Champion, 1921. p. 43-50.

BENMAMOUN, E. The Feature Structure of Functional Categories. A Comparative Study of Arabic Dialects. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

BROCKELMANN, C. Grundriss der vergleichenden Grammatik der semitischen Sprachen, II: Syntax. Berlin: Reuther & Reichard, 1913.

CLOUSTON, W. A. Arabian Poetry, for English Readers. Glasgow: Privately Printed, 1881.

COHEN, D. La phrase nominale et l’évolution du système verbal en sémitique. Études de syntaxe historique. Leuven and Paris: Peeters, 2003.

COHEN, M. Le système verbal sémitique et l’expression du temps. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1924.

COOK, E. M. Dictionary of Qumran Aramaic. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2015.

DONNER, H. (ed). Wilhelm Gesenius: Hebräisches und Aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament. 18. ed. Berlin: Springer, 2013.

DURAND, O. Dialettologia araba. Roma: Carocci, 2018.

FASSI-FEHRI, A. Issues in the Structure of Arabic Clauses and Words. Dordrecht: Kluver Academic Publishers, 1993.

GIBSON, J.C.L. Textbook of Syrian Semitic Inscriptions. Volume II. Aramaic Inscriptions including inscriptions in the dialect of Zenjirli. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975.

GRAGG, G. Semitic and Afro-Asiatic. In: HUEHNERGARD, J.; PAT-EL, N. (eds.) The Semitic Languages. 2. ed. London and New York: Routledge Language Family Series, 2019. p. 22-48.

HAELEWYCK, J.C. Grammaire compare del langues sémitiques. Éléments de phonétique, de morphologie et de syntaxe. 2. ed. Bruxelles: Éditions Safran, 2016.

HOWELL, M. S. A Grammar of the Classical Arabic Language. Book V. North-Western Provinces Government Press, 1880.

HUEHNERGARD, J. Proto-Semitic. In: HUEHNERGARD, J.; PAT-EL, N. (eds.) The Semitic Languages. 2. ed. London and New York: Routledge Language Family Series, 2019. p. 49-79.

KRAHMALKOV, Ch. R. A Phoenician-Punic Grammar. Leiden, Boston, Köln: Brill, 2001.

LANE, E. W. An Arabic-English Lexicon. 8 vols. London, 1863.

LARCHER, P. Le système verbal de l’arabe classique. 2. ed. rev. e aum. Aix-en-Provence: Collection Manuels, 2012.

LA ROSA, C. L’ arabo di Sicilia nel contesto magrebino: nuove prospettive di ricerca. Roma: IPOCAN – Istituto per l’Oriente Carlo Alfonso Nallino, 2019.

LI, T. The Verbal System of the Aramaic of Daniel. An Explanation in the Context of Grammaticalization. Leiden-Boston: Brill, 2009.

MACDONALD, M. C.A. Old Arabic. In: VERSTEEGH, K. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, vol. III. Leiden: Brill, 2008. p. 464-474.

MAIDEN, M. Morphological Innovation. In: MAIDEN, M.; SMITH, J.CH.; LEDGEWAY, A. (eds.). The Cambridge History of the Romance Languages, vol. I: Structures. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011. p. 216-267.

MARMORSTEIN, M. Tense and Text in Classical Arabic. A Discourse-Oriented Study of the Classical Arabic Tense System. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2016.

MEILLET, A. L’évolution des formes grammaticales. Scienta (Rivista di Scienza), vol. 12, n. 26,6, p. 130-148, 1912.

MOSCATI, S. An Introduction to the Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages. Phonology and Morphology. 3. ed. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1980.

MURAOKA, T. Classical Syriac. A Basic Grammar with a Chrestomathy. 2. ed. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2005.

MUWAFFAQ AL-DĪN ’ABŪ AL-BAQĀ’ YA‘īŠ IBN YA‘ĪŠ, Šarḥ al-Mufaṣṣal li-l-Zamaxšarī. 6 vols. EMĪL BADĪ‘ YA‘QŪB (ed). Beirut, 2001.

OREL, V.E.; STOLBOVA, O.V. Hamito-Semitic Etymological Dictionary. Materials for a Reconstruction. Leiden, New York, Köln: Brill, 1995.

PSICHARIS, J. Essai de Phonétique Néo-Grecque. Futur Composé du Grec Moderne. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1884.

RAḌĪ AL-DĪN MUḤAMMAD B. AL-ḤASAN AL-’ASTARĀBĀḎĪ, Šarḥ al-Kāfiyat Ibn al-Ḥājib. 5 vols. EMIL BADI‘ YA‘QUB (ed). Beirut, 2007.

RECKENDORF, H. Arabische Syntax. Heidelberg: Carl Winter’s Universitätsbuchhandlung, 1921.

ROSENTHAL, F. A Grammar of Biblical Aramaic. 7. ed. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2006.

RUBIN, A.D. Studies in Semitic Grammaticalization. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 2005.

SARTORI, M. La construction d’une idée grammaticale. sawfa et sa- entre fait grammatical et fait linguistique dans la grammaire arabe médiévale. Folia Orientalia, Kraków, v. 54, p. 243-277, 2017.DOI: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-01690363

SELLS, M. The Mu’allaqa of Tarafa. Journal of Arabic Literature, Leiden, vol. 17, p. 21-33, 1986.

SOKOLOFF, M. A Dictionary of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic of the Talmudic and Geonic Periods. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.

SOKOLOFF, M. A Dictionary of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.

STEWART, D. J. Clitic Reduction in the Formation of Modal Prefixes in the Post-Classical Arabic Dialects and Classical Arabic “sa-/sawfa”. Arabica, Leiden, vol. 45, n. 1, p. 104-128, 1998.DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/1570058982582226

UNGNAD, A. Akkadian Grammar. 5. ed. Atlanta: Scholar Press, 1992.VECCIA VAGLIERI, L. Grammatica teorico-pratica della lingua araba. 2 vols. 7. ed. Roma: Istituto per l’Oriente, 1996.

WEHR, H. Arabic–English Dictionary: The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, Edited by J M. Cowan. Ithaca, New York: Spoken Language Services, 1976.

WRIGHT, W. Arabic Grammar. II vols. 3. ed. Mineola: Dover Publications, Inc., 2018.

Downloads

Published

2024-07-09