Abu-Dabar and the Ogre Part I

So, this text is very long, and is taking some serious time to translate. I've decided to split the paragraphs in several parts, so that I can get some comments, before I translate the full text completely wrong. So, without further ado, the first part.

Gan Abú-dabăr ġár-əs təmígni w-iggáda s-ġár-əs sə́bəʕa n tiriwín

There once was (a man called) Abu-dabar who had a wife, and he had seven girls from her'

• Gan 'there is, there was'
• Abú-dabăr Personal Name. Is this a historical figure?
• ġár-əs 'to him' to mean 'he had'
• təmígni 'woman, wife'
• w-iggáda 'and he brought' 3sg.m.pf. of 'to bring' This verb must mean 'he had from her seven daughters', or 'he gave her seven daughters'
• s-ġár-əs 'from her' literally.
• sə́bəʕa n tiriwín 'seven daughters'

Wə nəttín ġár-əs əlxərbuš-ə́nnəs ínni ʕángara

'And he had a garden in ʕángara'

• Wə nəttín 'and he'
• ġár-əs əlxərbuš-ə́nnəs 'he had a garden' The word for garden looks like Arabic xarbūš 'tent', but this doesn't make sense to me, semantically.
• ínni 'to be, exist'
• ʕángara 'place name'

w-išúwwa gan əġərsat-ə́nnes w-igáy gan timẓín id əlgafúl u ġar-əs gan tnuvín nə bẓalím

'And he watered the young palms and he cultivated  barley there and Sorghum and there he had  irrigated land of onions.'

• w-išúwwa 'and he watered', this can also mean 'he drank', so this move has both a transitive and intrasitive connotation.
• gan 'there is, there was', I don't quite understand what this word was doing here.
• əlġərsat-ə́nnes 'his plants', Paradisi translated as 'young palms' but is the plural of Arabic ġarsa(t) 'plant'. [Lameen:] I suspect Paradisi's gloss is correct. In an oasis, palms are the most conspicuous of the few plants that are always (trans)planted (ɣrs) rather than sown (zrʕ).
• w-igáy 'and he cultivated', I could not find this word in Paradisi's wordlist, is it Arabic?
• gan 'there is, there was' again, I don't get the word here.  is it 'he cultivated the barley that was there'
• timẓín 'barley'
• id əlgafúl 'and the gafuli'  [Lameen:] actually, this word is ultimately from Kanuri, though probably via Arabic; it means "sorghum".
• u ġar-əs 'and he had'
• gan 'there is, there was'
• tnuvín 'gedules' no idea what this word means, can't find it in Paradisi's wordlist, though it looks very Berber. Paradisi translates 'Gedùle'. [Lameen:]"Gedùle": I bet this is an Italian rendition of Arabic jadwal, originally "water conduit" and hence presumably "irrigated land." Adam - does this ring a bell?
• nə bẓalím 'of Onion', ultimately derived from Punic, compare Hebrew băṣālīm 'onions' (kind of winged the vocalisation there, but I think it's correct).

w-išuwi-tə́nət af afus-ə́nnəs w-irə́wwəḥ af tfillí-nnəs

'And he watered tehm on his hand (?) and returned to his home.'

• w-išuwi-tə́nət 'and he watered them'
• af afus-ə́nnəs 'on his hand', I don't understand this phrase. Paradisi translated something completely different Irrigava le palme a solo e tornava quindi a casa. 'He irrigated the palms alone and then went home to his house'. Does 'on his hand' mean 'alone'?
• w-irə́wwəḥ 'and he returned'
• af tfillí-nnəs 'to his home'

w-a-yaʕádd əlġə́bəs w-a-yúš mnišíw u gan tiríwt tməqqəránt tn-ís y-abbá-s:

'And he would go in the morning, and he would return in the evening, and one day the old(est) daughter said to her father:'

• w-a-yaʕádd 3sg.m.aor. 'he would go'
• əlġə́bəs 'morning', Arabic loanword, could not find it in my dictionary. Note that the meaning is 'in the morning', times do no seem to be designated with an 'at' or 'on', this is similar to Japanese, where expressions of time are one of the few things that don't take particles. [Lameen:] cp. Ouargli/Mzab ɣabəšša, presumably from Arabic ɣabaš "the last part of the night".
• w-a-yúš 'and he would come'
• mnišíw 'evening' here 'in the evening'
• u gan 'and there is/there was' in the meaning of 'and one day, once'
• tiríwt 'daughter'
• tməqqəránt 'old' fem. adj.
• tn-ís 'and she said'
• y-abbá-s 'to her father'

ərfə́ʕ-i ídd-ək a-ggúlax səwaní-nnək

 'Take me with you, so that I can see your garden'

• ərfáʕ-i 'take me' imp. sg. + -i 1sg.DO.
• ídd-ək 'with you'
• a-ggúlax 'to see' 1sg.aor.
• səwaní-nnək 'your garden', once again looks Arabic, but I can't find the word. [Lameen:] pl. of Ar. sāniya.

Yəkrí fəll-ís, in-ís: Qámak a-mmánət timẓín w-a-nnəʕádd gan kúll kəm id əmmá-m id sətmá-m

'He answered to her and said: Now, when the barley is ripened, we will all go, you and your mother, and your sisters'

• Yəkrí fəll-ís 'he answered her'
• in-ís 'and he said to her'
• Qámak 'now', I don't quite understand this word here, it translates nicely in English, but this specific use of 'Now' in English is pretty odd, as it has very little to do with 'now' as in 'the present' and is more of a filler word in sentences.
• a-mmánət 'to cook, to ripen' 2pl.f.aor.
• w-a-nnəʕádd 'and we will go' 1pl.aor.
• gan kúll 'all', again I don't understand what gan means here.
• kəm 'you'
• id əmmá-m 'and your mother'
• id sətmá-m 'and your sisters', this is a fantastically suppletive noun. sg. wə́rtna- (+ kinship suffixes) pl. sə́tma- (+ kinship sufixes).

U baʕadén yəʕádd nəttín əlxarbuš-ə́nnəs u yəqqím išúwwa tnuvinəs w-irrə́wwəḥ mnišíw

'And then he went to his garden and he started watering the irrigation fields and he went home in the evening.'

• U baʕadén 'and then'
• yəʕádd nəttín 'he went'
• əlxərbuš-ə́nnəs 'to his garden', I expect directional suffix -i here, most other constructions with this verb take that suffix, apparently it's not obligatory.
• u yəqqím 'and he started to'
• išúwwa 'give water to'

w-in-ísnət i-tiriwín-nəs id əmmá-tsnət: ṣbáḥ a-nnəʕádd suwaní-nnax.

'And he said to his daughter and their mother: tomorrow we will go to our garden'

• w-in-ísnət 'and he said to them'
• i-tiriwín-nəs 'to his daughters
• id əmmá-tsnət 'and their mother'
• ṣbáḥ 'tomorrow' < Ar. ṣabāḥ 'morning', can this word mean 'tomorrow' in Arabic as well without any modification?
• suwaní-nnax 'our garden', once again without -i.

u frə́ḥnət tiriwín u širə́dnət ksum-ənnə́snət (or: ġəstin-nə́snət) u yušád ar təmigní-nnəs w-in-ís:

'And the daughters were happy, and they washed themselves and he came to his wife and said:'

• frə́ḥnət 3pl.f.pf. 'to be happy'
• širə́dnət 3pl.f.pf. 'to wash'
• ksum-ənnə́snət 'their meat' (themselves, their body, take your pick).
• variant of the above that Paradisi listed was: ġəstin-nə́snət 'their bones', clearly the proto-berber word for bone is underlying here, probably *iġăs, but with an added suffix -t of unknown origin.
• yušád 'to come' 3sg.m.pf.
• ar təmigní-nnəs 'to his wife' ar < ġər 'to, toward' I think.

nəġə́lli a-nnəʕádd ṣbáḥ u ddíwa dgulít?

'We want to go tomorrow, and what do you think?'

• nəġə́lli 3sg.pf./aor. 'to want'
• ddíwa 'what'
• dgulít 'to see' 2sg.pf. So literally 'what do you see?' to mean something like 'how do you see it' to 'what do you think of it?'

təkrí fəll-ís ənnát w-ətn-ís: Alá dgít báhi

'She answered him and said: That what you do is good'

• Alá 'that which'
• dgít 'to do' 2sg.pf. I'm a bit surprised to find a perfect here.
• báhi 'good'

W-in-ís: wə́tti-dikkə́ni čču-nnáx ṣbáḥ id báʕad ṣəbáḥ.

'And he said: prepare for us our food (for) tomorrow and (the day) after tomorrow.'

• wə́tti-dikkə́ni imp.sg. 'to prepare' + IO.1pl. [kato:] wə́tti from dial. wattī 'to make ready, to prepare' (2nd form of the verb)
• čču-nnáx verbal noun of 'to eat' + 1pl possesive suffix.
• ṣbáḥ 'tomorrow', I would expect a 'for tomorrow' here.
• id báʕad ṣəbáḥ 'and after tomorrow'

təkrí fəll-ís tn-ís: kúlli šə́i yutáya

'she answered to him and said: all things are prepared'

• kúlli 'all' I don't understand the extra -i here.
• šə́i < Ar. šayʔ 'thing'
• yutáya 3sg.m.impf. 'to be prepared' <? Is this a derivation of wə́tti somehow? [kato:] yutáya is the 1st form of the above, thus yūtī 'to be ready'. In dial. the act.part. wātī is preferred to the conjugated forms.

Yušád, yuná nəttín ídd-əs amakan-nəsín u yəmḥə́ṭṭət avŏṭ-idín

'He came, he entered with her, their place, and laid her down this night'

• Yušád 'he came'
• yuná nəttín 'he entered'
• ídd-əs 'with her'
• amakan-nəsín 'their place'
• yəmḥə́ṭ-ṭət 'he laid her down' < Ar. ḥaṭṭa + recprocal mm- prefix?
• avŏṭ-idín 'that night'.  The word for 'night' is clearly from *evə/ăḍ The *e to a shift for the initial vowel is discussed in my Master Thesis. Interesting is the rendering of *ə by Paradisi as ŏ, usually a *ə near an emphatic vowel is written with a, å or ă. There's some other instances of this vocalism like alŏġem for 'camel'. Further research might yield something.

Kkə́rən əlġə́bəš, iwátan twə́tta əlmətʕat-ennə́snət w-iwátan tšírad

'They got up in the morning, one prepared their things and one washed'

• Kkə́rən 'to get up' 3pl.m.
• iwátan 'one'
• twə́tta 'to prepare' 3sg.f.pf.
• əlmətʕat-ennə́snət 'their things' < Ar. ʔamtiʕa(t) 'things' pl of matāʕ, but rather looks like it is a plural formation ʔamtiʕāt. [kato:] əlmətʕat would look f.sg. to me, dial. imtā‘it- (in construct state), if the def.art. weren't there. [phoenix:] in that case -at is simply coloured -ət due to the presence of ʕ
• tšírad 'to wash' 3sg.f.pf.

u baʕadén udə́nnət udún kuwáyəs u ʕaddán ġəllíyən a-zrə́dən əlxərbuš-ənnəsín

'and then they put on clothes, right,  and went wanting to eat in their garden.'

• udə́nnət 'to put on' 3pl.f.pf.
• udún 'clothing' verbal noun of above verb.
• kuwáyəs I'm not sure what this means. I expect a reciprocal pronoun of sorts? [Lameen:] kwayyis "good" [kato:]kuwáyes occurred before, but here it could either be a sort of pause in the narrative, i.e. "they put on clothes, ok, and ..." or an adverbial "they put on clothes well, they dressed nicely, or completely", both of which functions it can have in ELA. (p.c. Benkato)
• ġəllíyən 'they wanted'
• a-zrə́dən 'to eat' < Ar. zarada 'to devour'
• əlxərbuš-ənnəsín 'their garden', I would really expect a 'in their guarden' here, now it looks like they want to go and eat their garden.

u baʕadén tíva tafút təbarút-i u ġəllíyən a-šəlḥamən afíw

'and then the sun went under while underway, and they wanted to light a fire'

• tíva tafút 'the sun fell'
• təbarút-i 'on, along the road'
• a-šəlḥamən 'to light' 3pl.m.aor.
• afíw 'fire'

Yəxzə́r abbá-s žibərət-ə́nnəs yúfa gallúda n afíw

'And the father looked in his bag and found no match there.'

• Yəxzə́r 'to look at'
• žibərət-ə́nnəs 'his bag', looks like it is from Arabic, but I can't find the original word.
• yúfa 'and he found', the translation is odd, Paradisi translates Ma non vi trovò fiammiferi. 'but he didn't find a match', where did Paradisi get this negative from?
• gallúda n afíw 'a match' litt. gallúda of fire, I am not sure what a gallúda is, could not find it at all. [Lameen:] gallúda: must be gan "there" + luda "nothing", hence "no match there". [Phoenix:] litt. 'nothing of fire' could this be the negation of wa n afíw 'that of fire' > 'match'?

Xzə́rnət tiriwín u nanət-ís: ábba, ábba əlbəqís n afíw!

'The girls saw (something) and said to him: daddy, daddy, a glimmer of fire!'

• Xzə́rnət 'to look at' 3pl.f.pf. Oddly lacks an object.
• u nanət-ís 'and they said to him'
• ábba 'my father'
• əlbəqís 'glimmer' [Kato:] ELA bǝgis 'twinkle (of a star, etc.)', verb ībǝggis 'to twinkle'

In-ís abbá-s: wəttímət šġírən, qámak a-ggə́ġd afíw s-ġár təfilli-y-íwan.

'The father said: Prepare the firewoord, Now I will bring the fire from the house'

• wəttímət 'prepare' imp.pl.f.
• šġírən 'firewood'
• a-ggə́ġd 'to bring' 1sg.aor.
• s-ġár təfilli-y-íwan 'from that house'

Yəʕádd abbá-s, yufí-t d-ámẓa, in-ís: ssalám ʕaléikum.

'The father went, and he found that there was an ogre, he said: Ssalam alaykum'

• yufí-t 'he found him'
• d-ámẓa copula + 'ogre'. I have never encountered this word in the masculine, most stories that I've read (mostly Riffian and Middle Atlast Berber) without fail have a tamẓa 'ogress', Paradisi lists this form in his word list, but here we do find the masculine ogre.

In-ís ámẓa: s-mág tušídda Abu-dábăr

'The ogre said: from where did you come, Abu-dabar?'

• s-mág 'from where'
• tušídda 'to come' 2sg.pf.
• Abu-dábăr interesting that the ogre instantly knows his name. Is part of the introduction ellided, or do ogres have powers to read minds?

In-ís: ušíġda s-ašál-i nək id ləhil-ənnúk

'I come from my village, me and my family'

• ušíġda 'to come' 1sg.pf.
• s-ašál-i 'from my village'
• id ləhil-ənnúk 'and my family', notice the vocalism i in the root here, in earlier text we found  ləhál to mean 'people', I expect this is the same word but why is the vocalism different? < Ar. ʔahl 'relatives, folks, family; kin; people, members, followers etc.'

W-in-ís ámẓa: mág ənníyən ləhil-ə́nnək?

'And the ogre said: where is your family?'

• mág 'where?'
• ənníyən 'to be present' 3pl.m.pf. Somewhat surprised by the gender here. This is his seven daughters and his wife. That's all feminines, why is the verb in the masculine? motivated by the word for family? But that word isn't a plural is it?

In-ís Bu-dábăr: akkiwán ərišína dilíwan

'Abu dabar said: There, they're down there'

• Bu-dábăr Interesting that here we find Abu-dabar without initial a.
• akkiwán 'there' more in the sense of voi-là or ecco in Italian. A sort of spoken pointing of the finger.
• ərišína 'to go down' but apparently also 'to be down' as it is in the 3pl.m.pf.
• dilíwan 'there', the actual place marker.

W-in-ís: ġəllíx afíw.

'And he said: I want the fire'

In-ís: ərfə́ʕ-i ẓuṭ ləktuf-ə́nnək

'He said (the Ogre): take me on your shoulders'

• ərfə́ʕ-i 'take me'
• ẓuṭ 'on'
• ləktuf-ə́nnək 'your shoulders', we've seen this word before as a singular əlkətf, this time it's a plural, points to Arabic kutūf which is funny because classical Arabic actually has ʔaktāf how about dialectal Arabic? [kato:] the plural in ELA is indeed kǝtūf, sg. katǝf

Yərwəʕ Bú-dabar s-ar ámẓa u yərfə́ʕ-ət ẓúṭ ləktuf-ə́nnəs u yəʕádd ar ləhil-ə́nnəs.

'Abu-dabar was afraid of the ogre, and he carried him on his shoulders and went to his family'

• Yərwəʕ 'to be afraid' 3sg.m.pf.

Uṣə́lən w-in-ís ámẓā: əġrəš-dík tiríwt tməqqəránt.

'They reached (them) and the ogre said: Slaughter your oldest daughter for me'

• Uṣắlən 'to reach' 3pl.m.pf.  < Ar. waṣala 'to join, unite'
• əġrəš-dík 'slaughter for me', the translation says 'kill', but Paradisi's wordlist has the common Berber *nġʔ for 'to kill', I could not find this word in his wordlist, but it is a broadly attested Berber verb that means 'to slaughter'.

U yəfki-sín afíw w-in-isín: a-ušə́ġd a-ufáx-tət təmmáya.

'And he gave them the fire, and he said to them: I will come (back) and I will find her cooked'

• təmmáya 3sg.f. 'to be cooked, ripen'

Yəʕádd ámẓa, w-əqqimán abbá-s n tiriwín id əmmá-tsnət vəllánət u yəqárəb ušú n ámẓa

'The ogre left, the daughters of the father and their mother started to cry and the coming of the ogre drew near'

• vəllánət 'to cry' 3pl.f.pf.
• yəqárəb 'to draw near' < Ar. qāraba 'to be near; to come near, come close, get close'
• ušú 'the coming' v.n. of 'to come'

End of part I!

Considering that the father went to the ogre, he apparently did not find the match, but I really don't see how the text gives that connotation.

Comments

[Lameen]

əġărsat-ə́nnes 'his plants', Paradisi translated as 'young palms' but is the plural of Arabic ġarsa(t) 'plant'.: I suspect Paradisi's gloss is correct. In an oasis, palms are the most conspicuous of the few plants that are always (trans)planted (ɣrs) rather than sown (zrʕ).

gan: it looks to me like a lot of sentences in this text make sense only if we assume that gan can simply mean "there".

gafuli: actually, this word is ultimately from Kanuri, though probably via Arabic; it means "sorghum".

"Gedùle": I bet this is an Italian rendition of Arabic jadwal, originally "water conduit" and hence presumably "irrigated land." Adam - does this ring a bell?

əlġábəs: cp. Ouargli/Mzab ɣabəšša, presumably from Arabic ɣabaš "the last part of the night".

săwaní: pl. of Ar. sāniya.

kuwáyəs: kwayyis "good" (we discussed this previously, right?)

gallúda: must be gan "there" + luda "nothing", hence "no match there".

ləhil: a to i in an Arabic loan! Maybe the change is more recent than it looks.

General point: at least in this text, it looks a lot as though -i doesn't appear on words with possessive pronouns.

[kato]

bẓalím also Ar. bǝṣǝl 'onion', but that seems a pretty unusual form that Awjili's got. how do you analyze it?

săwaní actually pl. from dial. sāniya/sǝwānī 'farm, orchard, garden'

wə́tti from dial. wattī 'to make ready, to prepare' (2nd form of the verb)

yutáya is the 1st form of the above, thus yūtī 'to be ready'. In dial. the act.part. wātī is preferred to the conjugated forms.

əlmətʕat would look f.sg. to me, dial. imtā‘it- (in construct state), if the def.art. weren't there.

ləktuf the plural in ELA is indeed kǝtūf, sg. katǝf

Uṣắlən in ELA yūṣǝl is rather 'to arrive, to reach'

[kato]

Lameen - spot on, gedùle is probably jadwǝl pl. jǝdāwil 'irrigated plot of land', irrigated with those hand-dug rows of trench things, that is.

ǝlbaqis cf. ELA bǝgis 'twinkle (of a star, etc.)', verb ībǝggis 'to twinkle'

kuwáyəs occurred before, but here it could either be a sort of pause in the narrative, i.e. "they put on clothes, ok, and ..." or an adverbial "they put on clothes well, they dressed nicely, or completely", both of which functions in can have in ELA.

[PhoeniX]

Lameen:

"gan: it looks to me like a lot of sentences in this text make sense only if we assume that gan can simply mean "there"."

My thought too, although I can't find that at all in Paradisi. It's funny that we've seen that use so many times in this text, while it didn't occur in the others.

"kuwáyəs: kwayyis "good" (we discussed this previously, right?)"

Yes I thought so too, but somehow didn't end up in my notes, and the search function on this blog is terrible. So, sadly I had trouble finding it.

"gallúda: must be gan "there" + luda "nothing", hence "no match there"."

How do you explain the n afíw though. 'he found nothing of fire', do you think it could be considered a negation of wa n afíw 'that of fire', which may have the meaning 'match' (doesn't have an attestation, of course)

Adam:
"bẓalím also Ar. bǝṣǝl 'onion', but that seems a pretty unusual form that Awjili's got. how do you analyze it?"

This word is commonly found in Berber -im is the Punic/Hebrew plural ending. That's why we thing that it's from Punic, not Arabic. Several languages lack the initial b which seems to suggest that it was originally *v, but that's a bit uncertain, but an interesting point.

"əlmətʕat would look f.sg. to me, dial. imtā‘it- (in construct state), if the def.art. weren't there."

I was just trying to explain the ending as -at instead of usually found -ət. This is probably just coloring of ə by ʕ then.

"Uṣắlən in ELA yūṣǝl is rather 'to arrive, to reach'"

isn't that the the dialectal reflex of classical waṣala thought?

I need to sit down later and put all these comments into the text and change the translations. Thanks!

[kato]

Phoenix:

bẓalím: cool! so, we know that the punics ate onions. what else do we know they ate?

yūṣǝl: yea, it's the dialectal reflex of waṣala; i was just pointing out that the meaning in dialect is 'to arrive' rather than 'to join, etc.'

[PhoeniX]

"wə́tti from dial. wattī 'to make ready, to prepare' (2nd form of the verb)

yutáya is the 1st form of the above, thus yūtī 'to be ready'. In dial. the act.part. wātī is preferred to the conjugated forms."

Does this verb have a classical cognate?