A grammar of neo-Aramaic : the dialect of the Jews of Arbel / by Geoffrey Khan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Khan, Geoffrey.

Series:

Handbuch der Orientalistik. Nahe und der Mittlere Osten ; Erste Abteilung, 47. Bd.

Handbuch der Orientalistik. Erste Abteilung, Der Nahe und Mittlere Osten, 0169-9423 ; 47. Bd. = Handbook of oriental studies. Erste Abteilung, The Near and Middle East

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Aramaic language--Dialects--Iraq--Irbīl Region--Grammar.

Aramaic language.

Jews--Iraq--Irbīl Region--Languages.

Jews.

Language and languages.

Aramaic language--Dialects.

Grammar.

Iraq.

Physical Description:

xx, 586 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston, MA : Brill Academic Publishers, 1999.

Summary:

Being direct descendants of the Aramaic spoken by the Jews in antiquity, the still spoken Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialects of Kurdistan deserve special and vivid interest. Geoffrey Khan's A Grammar of Neo-Aramaic is a unique record of one of these dialects, now on the verge of extinction. The transcribed texts in this volume record folktales and accounts of customs, traditions and experiences of the Jews of Kurdistan.

Contents:

Phonology

1. Consonants 17

1.1. Phoneme inventory 17

1.2. Phonetic realization 17

1.2.1. Labials 17

1.2.2. Dentals and alveolars 19

1.2.3. Sibilants 21

1.2.4. Emphatics 21

1.2.5. Affricates 24

1.2.6. Palatal 25

1.2.7. Velars and uvulars 25

1.2.8. Laryngals and pharyngals 26

1.3. Historical background of the consonants 27

1.3.1. The BGDKPT consonants 27

1.3.2. The affricate /c/ 34

1.3.3. Uvular stops 35

1.3.4. The voiced velar fricative /g/ 35

1.3.5. Laryngals and pharyngals 35

1.3.6. Emphatics 39

1.3.7. Diphthongs *ay and *aw 40

1.3.8. Elison of /l/, /n/, /r/, /d/ 41

2. Vowels 42

2.1. Phoneme inventory 42

2.2. Minimal pairs 42

2.3. Vowel length 44

2.3.1. The lengthening of /i/, /e/, /u/ and /o/ in open syllables 44

2.3.2. The distribution of /a/ and /a/ in open syllables 46

2.3.3. Vowel length in closed syllables 49

2.4. The marking of vowel length in the transcription 51

2.5. The phonetic quality of the vowel phonemes 51

2.5.1. Short vowels 51

2.5.2. Long vowels 53

2.6. The historical background of the a vowels 54

3. Consonant Gemination 56

4. Syllable Structure 62

4.1. Syllabic patterns 62

4.1.1. Epenthetic vowel after syllable with final laryngal or pharyngal 62

4.1.2. Closure of syllables by the semi-vowels /y/ and /w/ 62

4.1.3. /?/ at the beginning of a syllable 63

4.1.4. /h/ at the beginning of a syllable 64

4.1.5. Word-initial consonant clusters broken by an epenthetic vowel 64

4.1.6. Word-initial consonant clusters broken by a prosthetic vowel 65

4.1.7. Word-initial consonant clusters without an epenthetic vowel 65

4.1.8. Word-initial consonant clusters with initial /y/ 65

4.1.9. Word-initial consonant clusters with initial /w/ 65

4.1.10. Word-initial consonant clusters containing a pharyngal 65

4.1.11. Word-initial consonant clusters containing a laryngal 65

4.1.12. First consonant of cluster syllabified with preceding word 66

4.1.13. First consonant of CV sequence syllabified with preceding word 67

4.1.14. Word-initial cluster of three consonants 67

4.1.15. Word-final consonant clusters 67

4.1.16. Syllabification of CCC and CC consonant clusters within a word 68

5. Word Stress 70

5.1. Nominals 70

5.2. Adverbial expressions 72

5.3. Interrogative words 72

5.4. Verbs 72

6. Stress Groups 75

Morphology

7. Pronouns 81

7.1. Independent personal pronouns 81

7.2. Pronominal suffixes on nouns and prepositions 82

7.3. Demonstrative pronouns 84

7.4. Interrogative pronouns 86

7.5. The independent genitive particle did- 87

7.6. Reflexive and reciprocal pronouns 87

8. Verbs 89

8.1. Verbal stems 89

8.2. Inflection of present base 90

8.3. Inflection of the past base 93

8.4. Inflection of the imperative base 95

8.5. Weak verbs in stem I 96

8.5.1. Verba primae /?/ 96

8.5.2. Verba mediae /?/ 96

8.5.3. Verba tertiae /?/ 97

8.5.4. Verba primae /y/ 97

8.5.5. Verba mediae /y/ 97

8.5.6. Verba tertiae /y/ 98

8.5.7. Verba tertiae /y/, primae /y/ 99

8.5.8. Verba tertiae /y/, mediae /?/ 99

8.5.9. Verba mediae /w/ 99

8.5.10. Verba mediae /w/, primae /?/ 99

8.5.11. Verba mediae /w/, tertiae /y/ 99

8.5.12. Verba tertiae /w/ 100

8.5.13. Verba tertiae /w/, primae /y/ 100

8.6. Irregular and defective verbs 100

8.6.1. ?by 'to want' 100

8.6.2. ?ly 'to come' 100

8.6.3. ?my 'to bring' 101

8.6.4. ?zl 'to go' 101

8.6.5. y?l 'to know' 101

8.6.6. hw 'to give' 102

8.6.7. hwy 'to be' and copula 102

8.7. Weak verbs in stem II 106

8.7.1. Verba mediae /y/ 106

8.7.2. Verba tertiae /y/ 106

8.7.3. Verba primae /y/, tertiae /y/ 106

8.7.4. Verba mediae /w/ 106

8.7.5. Verba mediae /w/, tertiae /y/ 107

8.7.6. Originally stem II verbs conjugated like stem I verbs 107

8.8. Semantic distinction between stem I and stem II 108

8.9. Quadriliteral verbs 109

8.10. Compound verbs 109

8.11. Verbal forms with the affix -wa 110

8.11.1. Affix -wa attached to present base 110

8.11.2. Affix -wa attached to past base 111

8.12. Verbal forms with the particle la 111

8.13. Negation of verbs 115

8.14. Negation of present copula 115

8.15. Negation of past copula 116

8.16. Expression of the pronominal object 117

8.16.1. Object suffixes on present and imperative bases 117

8.16.2. Pronominal object with forms derived from past bases 118

8.16.3. Verbs with two pronominal objects 120

8.17. The existential particles ?it and lit 121

8.18. Pronominal complements containing the preposition b- 122

9. Verb Paradigms 124

9.1. qatil form 124

9.2. qtille form 128

9.3. qatilwa form 131

9.4. qtilwale form 131

9.5. Verbs with pronominal objects 132

9.5.1. qatil form 132

9.5.2. qtille form 133

10. Nouns 135

10.2. Nouns with -a inflection 136

10.2.1. Bisyllabic patterns 136

10.2.2. Trisyllabic patterns 140

10.3. Nouns with -ta inflection 142

10.3.1. Bisyllabic patterns 142

10.3.2. Trisyllabic patterns 145

10.3.3. Feminine -ta in loan words 146

10.3.4. Variant forms of -ta 147

10.4. Derivational suffixes 148

10.4.1. Diminutive suffixes (-ona, -ila) 148

10.4.2. Abstract suffixes (-ula, -atula, -anula) 149

10.4.3. -ana 150

10.4.4. -a?a 151

10.4.5. -na 152

10.4.6. -i 153

10.5. Compounds 153

10.6. Nouns ending in -e 153

10.7. Non-adapted loans 154

10.8. Kurdish derivational suffixes 155

10.9. Gender of nouns 155

10.9.1. Aramaic words 155

10.9.2. Loanwords 157

10.10. Plural forms of nouns 159

10.10.1. Plural ending in -e 159

10.10.2. Plurals ending in -ye from feminine singulars with -ta or -la 162

10.10.3. Plurals with the element -an- 163

10.10.4. Plurals ending in -ale 164

10.10.5. Plurals with the element -aw- 165

10.10.6. Reduplication of final radical 166

10.10.7. Irregular plurals 167

10.10.8. Pluralia tantum 167

10.10.9. Plural of compound nominals 167

10.11. Annexation of nouns 168

10.12. Nouns in absolute state 170

10.12.1. Regularly lacking inflection 171

10.12.2. Nouns attested in both absolute state and regular form 172

10.13. Definite article 173

11. Adjectives 174

11.2. Adjectives of Aramaic origin 174

11.3. Adapted loans 177

11.4 Unadapted loans 177

12. Numerals 179

12.1. Cardinals 179

12.1.1. Numerals 1-10 179

12.1.2. Numerals 11-19 179

12.1.3. Tens 180

12.1.4. Hundreds 180

12.1.5. Thousands 180

12.1.6 Combination of numerals 181

12.2. Ordinals 181

12.3. Fractions 182

13. Particles 183

13.2. Adverbs 183

13.2.1. Adverbs of Aramaic stock 183

13.2.2. Adverbial particles of non-Aramaic origin 185

13.3. Prepositions 186

13.4. Miscellaneous uninflected particles 191

Syntax

14. The Syntax of Nominals 195

14.1. Expression of definiteness 195

14.1.1 Indefiniteness expressed by the particle xa 195

14.1.2. Definiteness expressed by the suffix -ake 203

14.2. Absolute state 205

14.3. Gender 206

14.4. Number 207

14.5. Demonstrative particles 208

14.5.1. Function of the singular demonstratives 209

14.5.2. Use of ?iyya as a presentative 216

14.5.3. Function of the plural demonstrative 217

14.6. Possessive pronouns 219

14.7. Reflexive pronoun 220

14.8. Reciprocal pronoun 223

14.9. Genitive constructions 224

14.9.1. Annexation 224

14.9.2. Genitival apposition 224

14.10. Attributive adjectives 228

14.11. Attributive prepositional phrases 230

14.12. Non-attributive modifiers 230

14.13. Apposition 238

14.14. Conjoining of elements in a phrase 240

14.15. Repetition 241

14.16. Comparison of adjectives and adverbs 242

14.17. Numerals 244

14.18. Adverbial expressions 246

15. The Syntax of Verbs 248

15.1. The function of the verbal forms derived from present and past bases 248

15.1.1. qatil 248

15.1.2. qatilwa 259

15.1.3. qtille 262

15.1.4. qtilwale 264

15.1.5. Forms with la 265

15.2. The copula 275

15.2.1. The present copula 275

15.2.2. The past copula 276

15.3. The existential particles 277

15.4. The verb hwy 278

15.4.1. Future 278

15.4.2. Subjunctive 278

15.4.3. Imperative 279

15.4.4. Generic present 279

15.4.5. Generic past 279

15.4.6. la-qutil form 280

15.5. The verb gdr 280

15.6. The imperative 281

15.7. Expression of the passive 283

15.8. The passive participle 284

15.8.1. Intransitive verbal roots 284

15.8.2. Transitive verbal roots 285

15.9. The infinitive 286

15.10. Direct object 288

15.11. Indirect object 292

15.12. Double objects 293

15.13. Prepositional phrases with agreement pronouns 293

15.14. The particle hawa 294

15.14.1. With sense of reversion or repetition 294

15.14.2. Other occurrences 296

16. The Syntax of Prepositions 297

16.1. b- 297

16.2. l- 299

16.3. ta- 299

16.4. gaw 301

16.5. geb 302

16.6. res 303

16.7. min 306

17. The Clause 310

17.1. Copula clauses 310

17.1.2. Basic predicate-copula nexus 310

17.1.3. Subject nominals 311

17.1.4. Pronominal subjects 313

17.1.5. Splitting of predicate nominal 313

17.1.6. Placement of the nuclear stress 314

17.1.7. Apposition 315

17.1.8. Adverbial adjuncts 315

17.1.9. Variations in word order 317

17.1.10. Interrogative copula clauses 318

17.1.11. Cleft constructions 319

17.1.12. Existential uses of the copula 319

17.1.13. Negative copular clause 320

17.1.14. Omission of copula 321

17.2. Clauses with the existential particle ?it/?itwa 322

17.2.1. Complement before the particle 322

17.2.2. Complement after the particle 323

17.2.3. Adverbial adjuncts 323

17.2.4. Apposition 324

17.2.5. Position of nuclear stress 324

17.2.6. Possessive constructions 326

17.2.7. Negative existential and possessive clauses 326

17.3. Constructions with the verb hwy 327

17.4. Constructions with the verb gdr 328

17.4.1 Verb takes a complement 328

17.4.2. Verb used with no nominal complement 328

17.5. Verbal clauses 329

17.5.1. Pronominal subjects 330

17.5.2. Subject nominals 334

17.5.3. Agreement between verb and subject 341

17.5.4. Direct object nominals 342

17.5.5. Prepositional phrases 352

17.5.6. Nominal complements after verbs of movement 355

17.5.7. Negative clauses 356

17.5.8. Interrogative clauses 358

17.5.9. Adverbial insertions 359

17.6. Extraposition 362

17.6.1. Structure 362

17.6.2. Function 362

17.6.3. Clause-final extraposition 367

18. Clause Sequences 368

18.1. Connective particles 368

18.1.1. w- 368

18.1.2. -is 371

18.2. Intonation group boundaries 376

18.3. Anaphora 379

18.4 Chiasmus 379

18.5. Morphological weight 380

18.6. Stress position 381

18.6.1. Position of nuclear stress in a clause 381

18.6.2. Position of nuclear stress in a word 382

18.7. Intonation patterns 384

18.7.1. Intonation contour marking a major juncture 384

18.7.2. Intonation groups marking a minor juncture 385

19. Syntactic Subordination of Clauses 386

19.1. Relative clauses 386

19.1.1. Attributive relative clauses 386

19.1.2. Nominal relative clauses 393

19.1.3. Relative clauses introduced by interrogative particles 397

19.2. Indirect questions 400

19.2.1. Structural features 400

19.2.2. Use of the subjunctive 401

19.2.3. Idiomatic usage 401

19.2.4. Extraposition 402

19.2.5. Indirect question with structure of relative clause 402

19.3. Temporal clauses 402

19.3.1. waxtit 402

19.3.2. xa waxit/waxt 404

19.3.3. ?o-dammit, kud dammit 405

19.3.4. bar 405

19.3.5. hatta 406

19.3.6. qamol 408

19.3.7. Asyndetic temporal clauses 409

19.4. Conditional constructions 410

19.4.1. Constructions with the particle ?agar 410

19.4.2. Asyndetic conditional constructions 415

19.4.3. Conditional functioning as topic 415

19.4.4. Conditionals used in a concessive sense 416

19.5. Complement clauses 416

19.5.1. Complement clauses after the verb gzy ('to see') 416

19.5.2. Speech introduced by the verb ?mr ('to say') 418

19.5.3. Complement clauses after an imperative 418

19.5.4. Extraposition from complement clauses 418

19.5.5. Position of complement clauses 419

19.5.6. Complementisers 419

Texts

Informant S

The story of the missing heifer 422

The story of two eggs 426

Informant L

The town of Arbel 432

The history of Arbel 432

The professions of the Jews 434

The Jewish community 436

Trade with the Muslims 438

Miraculous cure of a child by the informant's father 440

Life as a goldsmith in Arbel 448

Relations between Jews and Muslims 458

Flight to Suleimaniyya 478

Phrases used when people meet 488

Informant Y

Everyday life 490

Houses 1 490

Synagogues 492

Houses 2 494

Passover 494

New Year 498

Weddings 498

Circumcision 498

Baking of bread 500

Preparation of food 502

Preparations for winter 504

Clothes 506

The tragic death of a young man 506

Angels come to the aid of the Jews 508

The Jews are falsely accused of murder 512

The drowning of a man 516

Leaving Iraq 518

Informant B

Houses 1 520

Professions 520

Houses 2 520

Family history 522

Jewish communities in the villages 524

Ishaq Sisawa 524

Cancellation of citizenship 526

Passover 528

Simhat Torah 528

New Year 530

Weddings 530

Circumcision 532

Food 532

A bishop who was a friend of the Jews 534

Recipe for sawar ('burghul wheat') 536

Preparations for winter 536

A dispute between a Muslim and a Jewish weaver 536

The murder of a Jewish girl 538

The murder of a Jewish boy 540.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9004115102

OCLC:

41173697