Waiting for the Police

Today, a rather morbid story.

Gan iwínan yərfíʕa af təgilí-nnəs əlḥə́ml ẓẓák s-ġár ləmluxíyət

'There was a (man) carrying a heavy load of Mulukhiyah on his head.'

• Gan 'There is, there was'
• iwínan 'one'
• yərfíʕa 3sg.m.pf. 'to carry'
• af təgilí-nnəs 'on his head'
• əlḥə́ml 'load' < Ar. ḥiml/ḥaml 'burden, load'
• ẓẓák 'heavy' m.sg.
• s-ġár 'from' <- Odd use of this ablative particle (which I still can't distinguish from s- 'from'), as here it shows a definition of material. This is similar to the Dutch word van 'of, from' 'een lading van Mulukhiyah' litt: 'a load from Mulukhiyah'
• ləmluxíyət 'mulukhiyah'

W-ižigáž žənqín-i n ašál u nəttín iʕəyáṭ w-itənn-ís: ləmluxíyət báhəyət!

'And he was walking in the streets of the village and he yelled and was saying: Good Mulukhia!'

• W-ižigáž 3sg.m.impf. 'to walk' looks like a causative of a root gž, not sure what that root would mean. Not attested in Aujila at any rate.
• źənqín-i 'in the streets' < Ar. zinaq 'narrow street' Wehr says that in Moroccan Arabic this is the normal word for 'street'. This word has been Berberised, the plural is also spelled dzanqín and the singular is tzenắqt.
• n ašál 'of the village' note how an interpretation 'country' would not make much sense here.
• u nəttín 'and he'
• iʕəyáṭ <Ar. ʕāṭa ‘to yell, scream’. In my notes I have written down that this is a 3sg.m. perfect. But I think an interpretation as imperfect would make more sense here. Sadly without any other forms, it is difficult to determine what the perfect would have looked like. This form also arose in the story about the donkey at the auction, where it also preceeded w-itənn-ís (an imperfect). 
• w-itənn-ís 3sg.m.impf. 'to say'. This is a pretty clear example of proof that the -ís is an obligatory indirect object, because in this case, there definitely isn't a 3rd person indirect object being adressed to.
• báhəyət 'good' < dial. Ar. bāhi, with feminine conjugation.

W-ižigáž ggút išfíwan u ižíž lúda

'And he was walking for many days, and he sold nothing'

• ggút 'many'
• išfíwan 'days'
• ižíž 'to sell' 3sg.m.pf.
• lúda 'nothing' Does this come from Arabic?

u tafút təḥmáya fəll-ís u taqqím təttá afiš-ə́nnəs id əlgəfán-nəs u təqqím am əžžaḥím fəll-ís

And the sun shone upon him and it was starting to eat his face and back of the head and it continued (to shine) like hell was upon him.

• tafút 'sun', this word mysteriously lacks a k as its final consonant (which it has in common with Ghadamès) the Proto-Berber word is *taʔfuḱt (Ghd. tofətt).
• təḥmáya 3sg.f.pf. 'to burn, scald'. Could be from two Arabic words: Ar. ḥamma 'to heat, make hot' or Ar. ḥamiya 'to be or become hot; to glow (metal)'. These two seem etymologically related in Arabic, though I've never heard of an -y intransitivising suffix.
• təqqím 3sg.f.pf. 'to stay' as an inchoative auxiliary verb.
• təttá 3sg.f.impf. 'to eat'. A well known irregular verb in Berber. Aor. əčč Pf. əčči/a Impf. tətti/a. The 3sg.f.impf. has lost its feminine prefix. If you imagine that word would have become **tətəttá, it doesn't take much imagination to figure out why it was simplified. Kossmann wrote an interesting article on the history of this verb. The verb 'to eat' is used symbolically here in the sense that it means that the sun is starting to cause a sunburn.
• afiš-ə́nnəs 'his face'
• id 'with' but here should be understood as 'together with, and'
• əlgəfá-nnəs 'his back of the head' < Ar. qafa(n) 'nape; occiput, back of the head; back; reverse'
• tăqqím 'she remained'. I think this should be read as '(the sun) continued (to shine)'
• am 'like'
• əžžaḥím 'hell' < Ar. žaḥīm 'fire, hellfire, hell'

u nəttín lləkká ižigáž u iʕəyáṭ: əlmluxíyət báhəyət

'and he was still walking and yelling 'Good mulukhiyah!'

• u nəttín 'and he'
• lləkká 'still'

U taxzə́r ġár-əs təmígni w-ətn-ís: i-kí a-wá-n ləmluxíyət

'and a woman looked at him and said to him: hey you with the mulukhiyah!

• U taxzə́r 'and she looked'
• ġár-əs 'to him'
• təmígni 'woman'
• w-ətn-ís 'and she said to him'
• i-kí this should mean 'hey you!', but I don't really understand how it should be interpreted. Surely Paradisi had a reason to supply this word with a dash, so what's i? and what's kí?
• a-wá-n ləmluxíyət 'o that one of the Mulukhiyah' a- 'vocative' wá 'dummy pronoun' n 'possesive'

U yəxzə́r nəttín ġár-əs w-igá əlḥəməl-ə́nnəs dít n təmígni u tənšə́d-t: z-díwa?

'And he saw her and he put his load in front of the woman and she asked him: how much?'

• U yəxzə́r nəttín ġár-əs 'and he saw her'
• w-igá 'and he put'
• dít n təmígni 'in front of the woman'
• u tənšə́d-t 'and she asked him'
• z-díwa? 'how much?' litterally this is s- instrumental suffix + díwa 'what' =  'with what?'

In-ís: s-sə́bəʕa n millím.

'He says to her: 7 miliemes'

• s-sə́bəʕa 'seven' < Ar. sabaʕa(t) 'id.' [Lameen:] s- is "for" with prices (at least in Siwi), so "for 7 milliemes".
• n millím 'of milliem' [kato:] this wouldn't be 'thousand' i don't think, as in "7,000 dinars". at that time in libya, the millim was the subunit of the girsh which was the subunit of the dinar, so there were 100 girsh in a dinar, and 1000 milliemes in a dinar. him selling molokhiya for ~ 7 milliemes sounds about right for the 1960s.

Tn-ís ənnát: s-ə́rbəʕa bə́ss

'She says to him: (I'll do it) for 4 (milliemes) only'

• Tn-ís ənnát 'she says to him'
• s-ə́rbəʕa literally 'with four'. < Ar. arbaʕa(t) 'four'
• bə́ss 'only, just'. [kato:] common in many dialects.

In-ís: ə́rbəʕa ḥə́nṭā.

'He says to her: 4 is (too) little'

• ḥə́nṭā 'a bit, a little'

Tn-ís: nək ná-ka s-ə́rbəʕa n millím, yəʕžəb-kúya naġ yəʕžəb-kúya-ká?

'She said: I have told you, for four thousand, does it please you or doesn't it please you?'

• nək ná-ka 'I have told you'
• yəʕžəb-kúya 3sg.m. '??' + 2sg. direct object. I'm not sure what this verb means. Ar. ʕažaba 'to wonder, marvel, be astonished' makes very little sense semantically. Apparently this word has undergone a semantic shift in Libyan Arabic. Maybe it means 'to please' now, 'does it please you, or doesn't it please you?' makes sense. [kato:] also common in dial. Ar. as a way of saying "to like" e.g. yǝ‘žǝb-ak "does it please you? (do you like it?)". it takes the suffixed obj. pronouns. [Lameen:] The relevant form is ʔaʕjaba "to please".
• naġ 'or'
• yəʕžəb-kúya-ká negative of above.

In-ís: yəʕžəb-íya-ká.

'He said: it does not pleace me'

Tn-ís: blaš, u təqqə́š əlbáb fəll-ís

'She said: "too bad", and closed the door in front of him (litt. on him).'

• blaš surely dialectal Arabic, don't know what it means. [kato:] blaš - dial. Ar. in Libya meaning 'free' usually. i can't think of using it to say 'too bad', but a shift wouldn't be implausible. [phoenix:] Paradisi translates it as non fa niente 'it doesn't matter' which still makes little sense to me in the meaning 'free'. Do you mean 'free' as in 'not locked up' or 'free' as in 'for no money'?
• təqqə́š 3sg.f.pf. 'to close', it is curious to note that according to Paradisi this verb literally means 'to close from the outside', which would make no sense in this context.
• əlbáb 'door' < Ar. bāb 'id.'

u baʕadén yəxzə́r af əlḥəməl-ə́nnəs wa-ẓẓákən dax a-yərfə́ʕ-t

'And then he looked at his load that was (too) heavy to carry'

• u baʕadén 'and then'
• wa-ẓẓákən wa+ptc. of stative verb ẓẓák 'to be heavy'
• dax 'for, in order to'
• a-yərfə́ʕ-t 3sg.m.aor. + 3sg.m. direct object 'to carry'

lákən yəkrí u yə́vdəd u baʕadén yəmmúdd afus-ə́nnəs yəddúgg af əlbáb

'but he returned and stopped and then he extended his hand and knocked on the door'

• lákən 'but' I'd expect a word that means 'so, therefore' here, not 'but'
• yəkrí 'he returned'
• yə́vdəd 'to stop, stand' 3sg.m.pf.
• yəmmúdd 'to extend' 3sg.m.pf. <Ar. madda 'to extend, distand, expand, dilate; to stretch, stretch out'
• afus-ə́nnəs 'his hand'
• yəddúgg 'to knock' 3sg.m.pf. <Ar. daqqa 'to knock, rap, bang (on the door)' it's interesting to see that Aujila seems to consistently render C1aC2C2a verbs as C1C1úC2C2 (Paradisi writes it as ú not as û, which may point to an accented short u or schwa instead).

u təškí təmígni ġár-əs w-ətn-ís: amúr džižít s-alúwəl axér-lək-ká

'The woman came out to him and said to him: if yo had sold (it) in the first place, would it not be better?''

• təškí 'to come out, to leave' 3sg.f.pf.
• amúr 'if'
• džižít 'to sell' 2sg.pf.
• s-alúwəl 'at first' maybe 'at the first time' < Ar. ʔawwal 'first, first time'
• axér-lək-ká 'would it not be better?' axér = better. -ká = negative. But what is lək? < Ar. la-ka 'to you' ? [kato:] you've analyzed it correctly. it's Ar. xēyr l-ak "better for you (m.)" [phoenix:] interesting that this phrase switches to full-on Arabic. Also not here that axér has vowel e instead of i that we've seen so far.

Yəkri-ká fəll-ís žlán

'He didn't answer a word to her'

• Yəkri-ká + af/fəll 'to answer' 3sg.m.pf. + neg.
• fəll-ís 'to her'
• žlán 'word, speech, story'

u baʕadén yərfə́ʕ əlmizán-nəs wa yəḥməl-tíya u yəxbóṭ-ṭ af təgíli n təmígni

'and then he lifted up his scales that he was carrying and he smashed them on the head of the woman'

• yərfə́ʕ 'to lift up' 3sg.m.pf.
• əlmizán-nəs 'his scales'
• wa yəḥməl-tíya 'that he carried'
• yəxbóṭ-ṭ 'and he smashed it (scales is singular)' <Ar. xabaṭa 'to beat, strike'
• təgíli 'head'

tíva təmígni təmmút

'the woman fell and died'

• tíva 'to fall' 3sg.f.pf. This verb has a very strange imperfect form inə́vva with a prefix n- and gemination of v, which is usually avoided in Berber. [Lameen:] no, biconsonantal verbs of the form *ənC become iC in Awjila, so the original form of this verb is *ənv. Cp. iž impf. nəžža "to be sold", iš impf. nəšša "sleep".
• təmmút 'to die' 3sg.f.pf.

u yəqqím yəvdída agur-ə́nnəs ir a-yúš əl-bulís

'and he stayed standing in her vincinity until the police came'

• yəqqím 'he remained'
• yəvdída 'to stop, to stand' 3sg.m.pf.
• agur-ə́nnəs 'near her'
• ir 'until'
• a-yúš 'to come' 3sg.m.aor.
• əl-bulís < Ar. būlīs 'police' < Fr. police 'id.' Arabic and Berber don't have p so they settled for the next best thing. [kato:] iIthink it could be English or Italian as well, since the French were never really in Libya and I don't see why the libyans would have borrowed the word from another arabic dialect. [Phoenix:] Italian seems unliekly polizia would probably be rendered different in Arabic. English is of course possible.

I am not really sure what invokes the rage of the man.

Comments

[kato]

been waiting impatiently for the next text! :p it's interesting that we're starting to see a few Arabic loans with g rather than q:

əlgəfán-nəs - this is Arabic, but not ELA. gǝfǝn 'nape (back) of the neck'
yəddúgg - ELA īdugg 'to knock'

millím - this wouldn't be 'thousand' i don't think, as in "7,000 dinars". at that time in libya, the millim was the subunit of the girsh which was the subunit of the dinar, so there were 100 girsh in a dinar, and 1000 milliemes in a dinar. him selling molokhiya for ~ 7 milliemes sounds about right for the 1960s.

bə́ss - 'only, just', common in many dialects.

yaʕžəb - also common in dial. Ar. as a way of saying "to like" e.g. yǝ‘žǝb-ak "does it please you? (do you like it?)". it takes the suffixed obj. pronouns.

blaš - dial. Ar. in Libya meaning 'free' usually. i can't think of using it to say 'too bad', but a shift wouldn't be implausible.

axér-lək-ká - you've analyzed it correctly. it's Ar. xēyr l-ak "better for you (m.)"

əl-bulís < Ar. būlīs 'police' - i think it could be english or italian as well, since the french were never really in libya and i don't see why the libyans would have borrowed the word from another arabic dialect.

u tăqqím am əžžaḥím fəll-ís - i think you've translated it nicely. "and it stayed like hell upon him" > "(the sun) continued (to shine) like hell on him"

[PhoeniX]

"been waiting impatiently for the next text! :p"

Glad you're enjoying it!

After this one only 2 more shorter text and one reaaaallly long one.

I'm not sure what I'll do after that, I might look into the el-foqaha texts. But I'll probably have to prioritize some research on Aujila instead.

[Lameen]

''žənqín-i'': don't you mean źənqín-i? (ź in his notation = dz.)

''gž, not sure what that root would mean'': one might compare Siwi ggəz "go down", with cognates widespread in Berber. But then why would a causative prefix be needed?

''This is a pretty clear example of proof that the -ís is an obligatory indirect object'': yes, nice one.

''lúda'': looks like a compound with Arabic lā, but I have no idea what the second element might be.

''əlgəfán-nəs'': surely əlgəfa-nnəs? (Ar. qafā = nape)

''U yăxzə́r nəttín ġár-əs'' - "looks at her" might be more precise.

''ssə́baʕa'': surely s- inst. + sə́baʕa?

''can anyone explain the use of s- here'': s- is "for" with prices (at least in Siwi), so "for 7 milliemes".

''ʕažaba'': the relevant form is ʔaʕjaba "to please".

''it's interesting to see that Aujila seems to consistently render C1aC2C2a verbs as C1C1úC2C2'': both these examples come from verbs with -u- imperfects in Arabic (yaduqqu, yamuddu)

''inə́vva with a prefix n-'': no, biconsonantal verbs of the form *ənC become iC in Awjila, so the original form of this verb is *ənv. Cp. "sell", "sleep".

[PhoeniX]

"''žənqín-i'': don't you mean źənqín-i? (ź in his notation = dz.)"

You're probably right. I work off a photocopy of a photocopy, and while the quality is pretty good, when I saw the ź, I assumed it was an artifact developed due to copying., and there's not exactly enough of that letter to be proven wrong.

"''əlgəfán-nəs'': surely əlgəfa-nnəs? (Ar. qafā = nape)"

A of course. Classical Arabic melted my brain for a second.

"''ssə́baʕa'': surely s- inst. + sə́baʕa?" Ah! of course.

"both these examples come from verbs with -u- imperfects in Arabic (yaduqqu, yamuddu)"

I realized that. I was more struck by the fact that the initial consonant was also lengthened in Aujili.

But... It still sort of confused me. As far as I understood from most other words found in Aujili, Libyan Arabic retained a two way opposition from Classical Arabic a, i, u to a, ə, ə.

Why is u retained in this specific context?

It also speaks for some inelegance in the vowel system of Aujila:

In the native system:
/aː/, /iː/, /uː/, /ə/

With /ə/ shifting to /ɐ/ in the vicinity of emphatic consonants.

In the Arabic system:
/aː/, /iː/, /uː/, /eː/, /oː/, /ə/, /ɐ/, /u/

Where /u/ is exclusively found in an extremely small group of words. I think it's only the CaCCa/CuCCu verbs. əddə́mləž simply has Schwa for /u/.

I'd rather find some way to explain away this /u/ as an allophone of /ə/.

Does anyone know what exactly the status of /u/ < Cl. Ar. u is in (Eastern) Libyan Arabic?

Else I should really get my hands on Owen's book soon.

What a nice soundshift *ənC > iC. Kind of reminds me of Hebrew and Akkadian.

[Lameen]

Given that dduqq retains the q, we can safely assume that the dialect it was borrowed from was quite different from Eastern Libyan Arabic...

[PhoeniX]

Ah of course, good catch.

Still surprising that Aujila allows for such a broad variety in phonology of loaned words. Seems like it did very little effort to 'nativize' the loaned vocabulary at all.

Aujila doesn't seem to have any other short vowel but /ə/, still in the loaned vocabulary it has up to three short vowels, with more or lesser presence.

[kato]

@phoenix:
The status of ELA vowels from CA I think could use a bit more study. I can't explain it all here. However, the Awjili data is probably a better indicator of the phonology of the loaning dialect than it is of the dialect spoken now. Contemporary ELA has retained a, i, u, and also has o and ǝ. Owens 1984 grammar has some comments on this. On the other hand, the old urban dialect of Tripoli Jewish has reduced all short vowels to ǝ.

Regarding *əlgəfa-nnəs. Good catch. ELA gǝfā, however, is 'lower back', which is maybe a semantic shift which has occurred in ELA recently, given the g of the borrowing.

@Lameen:
In this text, yəddúgg has g, unless that's a misprint. Didn't we see it before with q, though? In that case ELA could be a candidate, but most of the other words with q not g would have come from a different dialect, yes.

[PhoeniX]

In this text, yəddúgg has g, unless that's a misprint.

Haha silly me, I completely missed that I had g here, I assumed it was q since Lameen said it.

I really doubt that's a missprint, in the font of Paradisi g looks very different for q. I don't recall seeing this word in earlier texts with q.

----

The subject of which dialects influenced Aujila is quite confusing. There is definitely two strata of influencing Arabic languages.

One q dialect and one g dialect. One seems to retain a vs i/u, and the other either retains a/i vs u or a, i, u.

Once I have all the data collected from these texts I can say something more educated about this. ;-)

[kato]

There are definitely two influencing Arabic dialects. Problem is...one of them doesn't exist anymore. So the question becomes: what can we discover about it by looking at languages which borrowed from it or were otherwise influenced? If I may, Lameen's written on this problem for Siwi at http://sites.google.com/site/lameen/siwi-arabic.pdf?attredirects=0