I demand a refund for this man!

Another silly story, but with quite a few interesting forms.

yəʕádd Žḥá ssúq-i w-isáġ aẓíṭ

'Žḥá went to the market and bought a donkey'

• yəʕádd 3sg.m.pf 'to go'
• ssúq 'market' + -i 'towards'
• w- 'and'
• isáġ 3sg.m.pf. 'to buy'
• aẓíṭ 'donkey'

u yəqqán-t s-ažíkər u yəʕádd w-aẓíŏṭ də́ffər-a(h)

'And he tied it to a rope and he went, and the donkey (followed) behind him.'

• yəqqán-t 'tie up' 3sg.m.pf. + 3sg.m. direct object suffix.
• s-ažíkər 'rope' + s- instrumental suffix.
• aẓíŏṭ 'donkey'. What is this ŏ doing here? Both forms, with and without are found throughout the text. I cannot make out any conditioning to see one form over the other. This looks like Paradisi's attempt to write aẓíwṭ, but we don't expect a w here. Proto-Berber form of this word was probably *ezyeḍ.
• də́ffər-a(h) 'behind him'.

Baʕadén ušan-íz-d itnén ən-qəṭṭáʕan

'Then two thieves came to him.'

• Baʕadén 'then'
• ušan-íz-d 3pl.m. 'to come' with 3sg.m. indirect object pronoun -ís- assimilated to the following -d, which is the common berber 'hither' particle *-dd. This particle seems obligatory for this verb (not unsurprisingly) but seems to have been lost in other forms. I will probably write a blog post on the inflection of this verb soon.
• itnén 'two' From Arabic iṯnān
• ən-qəṭṭáʕan genitive particle + 'thieves'. Certainly from the verb qaṭaʕa 'to cut; to deprive' but the derivation is strange to me. Surely dialectal. [Lameen:] 'The metaphor is "road-cutters" - people who block the road to demand money (quṭṭāʕ aṭ-ṭuruq).

iwínan itúar aẓíŏṭ u yərfáʕ-t ídd-əs w-iwínan yaqqán imán-nes amakán n-aẓíṭ

'One untied the donkey and took it with him and the other tied himself in place of the donkey'

•  iwínan
• itúar 3sg.m.pf. 'to untie' ? This word looks like a passive form of the verb ar with passive prefix -tu-. This is odd though, as this sentence can hardly be translated as passive.
• aẓíŏṭ, aẓíṭ two variant spellings for donkey in one sentence.
• yərfə́ʕ-t 'to take' 3sg.m.pf. + 3sg.m. direct object suffix. < Ar. rafaʕa 'to life, lift up, raise aloft' [Kato:] I think a study on Arabic loan strata in Libyan Berber would be fascinating. If this word is any indication, perhaps there are other old Andalusi Arabic words to 'reclaim'. yərfə́ʕ would derive more from the dial. vb. which in western libya means 'to bring, to take to' but which in the east means 'to raise, to lift'.
• idd-əs comitative preposition + 3sg.m. post-prepositional pronoun 'with him'
• yəqqán 3sg.m.pf. 'to tie'
• imán-nəs 3sg.m. reciprocal pronoun
• amakán 'place'  [Lameen:] amakan is Arabic (makān).'

Baʕadén yə́ḫzər Žḥá yufá amédən amakán n-aẓíṭ

'Then, Žḥá looked back and saw a man in place of the donkey'

• yə́ḫzər 3sg.m.pf. 'to look back' < Ar. ḫazara 'to  look askance, give s.o. a sidelone glance'
• yufá 3sg.m.pf. 'to find'

yuġá yəkrí s-ís ssúq-í w-in-ís y-əttážər wa-yuġáya s-ġár-əs aẓíṭ

'Het took (it) with him and went back to the Market and said to the merchant from whom he had taken the donkey:'

• yuġá 3sg.m.pf. 'to take'. I expect a direct object here that isn't there.
• yəkrí 3sg.m.pf 'to go back'
• s-ís 'with' + 3sg.m. post-prepositional pronoun.
• in-ís 3sg.m.pf. 'to say' + 3sg.m. indirect object pronoun.
• y-əttážər dative i, turned y because of the vocalic onset of the following word əttážər 'merchant' < Ar. tāžir 'id.'
• wa-yuġáya almost a relative clause construction. Dummy masculine pronoun wa  + 3sg.m.pf. ' to take'
• s-ġár-əs pronominal dative particle + 3sg.m. suffix.

šəkri-dík əlbarat-ənnúk wáya d-aẓíṭ-ká wáya d-amédən

'Give me back my money this isn't a domnkey, this is a man!'

• šəkri-dík imperative sg. 'to give back', caustive of əkrí 'to go back'. + 1sg. indirect object marker.
• əlbarat-ənnúk 'my money'
• wáya 'this' masc.sg. pronoun
• d-aẓíṭ-ká copula-donkey-negative
• amédən 'man'

ig-îs ləhəržət

'he made a noise to him' ??? (Italian: fece chiasso)

• ig-ís 3sg.m.pf. 'to do' + 3sg.m. indirect object marker
• ləhəržət not sure what this means. Italian translation says 'a noise', it looks like it comes from the Arabic word al-harža(t), but my dictionary fails me, it does not list it. It's a derivation of the root haraža 'to be excited, agitated, in commotion; to joke, make fun, jest' Should this sentence be translated as 'He did a laugh at him' ? Is this form maybe a dialectal verbal noun? [kato:] related to ELA harža 'noise' ? [lameen:] A complaining noise, I would think... "He made a fuss" might be more idiomatic.

Baʕadén išekr-ís əlbarat-ə́nnəs u yəʕádd Žḥá irə́wəḥ

'Then, he gave back his money and Žḥá went and returned home'

• išekr-ís 3sg.m.pf 'to return' + 3sg.m. indirect object
• əlbarat-ə́nnəs 'his money'
• iráwaḥ < Ar. rāḥa 'to go in the evening; to go away, depart, leave, go' [kato:] iráwaḥ is from ELA īrǝwwǝḥ 'to go back, return' [Phoenix:] Yeah this is a typical meaning in most Berber languages, so I take it most Maghrebine Arabic has that meaning instead of the Classical Arabic meaning. But since I had started citing from Classical Arabic, and I don't have any actual experience with Libyan Arabic I didn't want to state that outright.

 

 

Comments

[Jamal]

I started reading the story and thought that it will be a great one, but what the heck of text is in following paragraphs?

[PhoeniX]

I'm sorry, I'm not sure what you mean.

If you mean to say that this story is kind of weird, I can't say anything other than: "yes". Why two thieves would tie one of the two to a rope after stealing a donkey is beyond me.

[bulbul]

amakán < Arabic 'makān'?
qăṭṭáʕan - In Andalusian Arabic, the root qṭʕ is attested to mean "to rob / to assualt on the highway", so with a little derivation (nominum agentis QVTTāL) we get "highwaymen".

[bulbul]

Hm, in Moroccan Arabic, there's apparently a word 'qṭatʕi' meaning "highwayman, brigand" with an alternate 'qettaʕ'. Yes, that's the way they are written in the dictionary and moreover, the entry for 'qettaʕ' refers to the entry for 'qṭatʕi', but spells it 'qtaṭʕi'. What a mess. But anyway, due to the position in the dictionary, I assume that both these Moroccan words derive from the root qṭʕ, so we got 'qṭaṭʕi' and 'qeṭṭaʕ' both meaning "highwayman, brigand".

[Lameen]

də́ffər: no, it's Berber.

qăṭṭáʕan is more likely a Berber plural in *-ǎn. The nominative allomorph of the Arabic dual is as far as I know unattested anywhere in North Africa. The metaphor is "road-cutters" - people who block the road to demand money (quṭṭāʕ aṭ-ṭuruq).

amakan is Arabic (makān).

[kato]

qăṭṭáʕan : the itnin+dual doesn't really exist in libyan arabic. you'd either have the dual with no number, or zōz 'two' + pl. noun. the construction with zōz is very much western libyan, though. this word exists for something like 'highwayman' in ELA, but is pretty archaic, I don't think it's in common usage. I think a study on Arabic loan strata in Libyan Berber would be fascinating. If this word is any indication, perhaps there are other old Andalusi Arabic words to 'reclaim'.

yərfáʕ would derive more from the dial. vb. which in western libya means 'to bring, to take to' but which in the east means 'to raise, to lift'

iráwaḥ is from ELA īrǝwwǝḥ 'to go back, return'

[kato]

Hey, overlooked this one...

ləharžət: related to ELA harža 'noise' ?

[PhoeniX]

"ləharžət: related to ELA harža 'noise' ?"

Without a doubt! I am still not sure what the sentence means exactly though. Am I missing some Arabic expression here?

What kind of noise is he making?

Why is he making it?

[Lameen]

A complaining noise, I would think... "He made a fuss" might be more idiomatic.