Old Hijazi, is a variety of Old Arabic attested in Hejaz (the western part of Saudi Arabia) from about the 1st century to the 7th century. It is the variety thought to underlie the Quranic Consonantal Text (QCT) and in its later iteration was the prestige spoken and written register of Arabic in the Umayyad Caliphate.
Old Ḥijāzī is characterized by the innovative relative pronounʾallaḏī (Arabic: ٱلَّذِي), ʾallatī (Arabic: ٱلَّتِي), etc., which is attested once in the inscription JSLih 384 and is the common form in the QCT,[1] as opposed to the form ḏ- which is otherwise common to Old Arabic.
The infinitive verbal complement is replaced with a subordinating clause ʾan yafʿala, attested in the QCT and a fragmentary Dadanitic inscription.
The QCT along with the papyri of the first century after the Islamic conquests attest a form with an l-element between the demonstrative base and the distal particle, producing from the original proximal set ḏālika and tilka.
The emphatic interdental and lateral were realized as voiced, in contrast to Northern Old Arabic, where they were voiceless.
The consonants ⟨ض⟩ and ⟨ظ⟩ were voiced, in contrast with Northern Old Arabic, where they may have been voiceless[2]
The glottal stop /ʔ/ was lost in Old Hejazi, except after word-final [aː].[3] It is still retained in Modern Hejazi in few positions.
Historically, it is not well known in which stage of Arabic the shift from the Old Hejazi phonemes /p/, /g/, /q/ and /ɮˤ/ to Modern Hejazi /f/⟨ف⟩, /d͡ʒ/⟨ج⟩, /g/⟨ق⟩ and /dˤ/⟨ض⟩ occurred. However, the change in /g/ and /kʼ~q/ has been attested as early as the eighth century CE, and it can be explained by a chain shift/kʼ~q/ → /g/ → /d͡ʒ/.[4] (See Hejazi Arabic)
In contrast to Classical Arabic, Old Hejazi had the phonemes [eː] and [oː], which arose from the contraction of Old Arabic [aja] and [awa], respectively. It also may have had short [e] from the reduction of [eː] in closed syllables:[5]
The QCT attests a phenomenon of pausal final long -ī dropping, which was virtually obligatory.[6]
Comparison with Classical Arabic
last shared ancestor
QCT (Old Hejazi)
Classical Arabic
*-awv-
dáʿawa
دعا
dáʿā
dáʿā
sánawun
سنا
sánā
sánan
nájawatun
نجوه
najáwatu > najṓh
nájātun
nájawatu-ka
نجاتك
najawátu-ka > najātu-k
nájātu-ka
*-ajv-
hádaya
هدى
hádē
hádā
fátayun
فتى
fátē
fátan
túqayatun
تقىه
tuqáyatu > tuqḗh
túqātun
túqayati-hu
تقاته
tuqayáti-hu > tuqāt́i-h
tuqāt́i-hi
ExampleEdit
Here is an example of reconstructed Old Hejazi side-by-side with its classicized form, with remarks on phonology:
Basmala: final short vowels are lost in context, the /l/ is not assimilated in the definite article
Line 2: the glottal stop is lost in /qurʾān/ (> /qurān), proto-Arabic */tišqaya/ collapses to /tašqē/
Line 3: /taḏkirah/ < */taḏkirat/ < */taḏkirata/. The feminine ending was probably diptotic in Old Hejazi, and without nunation[7]
Line 4: /tanzīlā/ from loss of nunation and subsequent lengthening. Loss of glottal stop in /alarḍ/ has evidence in early scribal traditions[8] and is supported by Warsh
Line 5: Elision of the definite article's vowel in /lʿarš/ is supported by similar contextual elision in the Damascus psalm fragment. /astawē/ with fixed prothetic /a-/ is considered a hallmark of Old Hejazi, and numerous examples are found in the Damascus psalm fragment and support for it is found as well in Judeo-Christian Arabic texts. The word /ʿalay/ contains an uncollapsed final diphthong.
Line 8: Old Hejazi may have had /huww/ < */huwwa/ < */hūwa/ < */hūʾa/ with an originally long vowel instead of /huwa/ < */huʾa/ as in Classical Arabic. This is supported by its spelling هو which indicates a consonantal /w/ rather than هوا had the word ended in a /ū/.
Line 10: The orthography indicates /rāʾ/ , from */rāʾa/ < */rāya/ < */raʾaya/[9]
GrammarEdit
Proto-ArabicEdit
Nominal inflection
Triptote
Diptote
Dual
Masculine Plural
Feminine Plural
Nominative
-un
-u
-āni
-ūna
-ātun
Accusative
-an
-a
-ayni
-īna
-ātin
Genitive
-in
Proto-Arabic nouns could take one of the five above declensions in their basic, unbound form.
NotesEdit
The definite article spread areally among the Central Semitic languages and it would seem that Proto-Arabic lacked any overt marking of definiteness.
Old Hejazi (Quranic Consonantal Text)Edit
Nominal inflection
Triptote
Diptote
Dual
Masculine Plural
Feminine Plural
Nominative
-∅
ʾal-...-∅
-∅
(ʾal-)...-ān
(ʾal-)...-ūn
(ʾal-)...-āt
Accusative
-ā
(ʾal-)...-ayn
(ʾal-)...-īn
Genitive
-∅
The Qur'anic Consonantal Text presents a slightly different paradigm to the Safaitic, in which there is no case distinction with determined triptotes, but the indefinite accusative is marked with a final /ʾ/.
NotesEdit
In JSLih 384, an early example of Old Hejazi, the Proto-Central Semitic /-t/ allomorph survives in bnt as opposed to /-ah/ < /-at/ in s1lmh.
Old Ḥejāzī is characterized by the innovative relative pronoun ʾallaḏī, ʾallatī, etc., which is attested once in JSLih 384 and is the common form in the QCT.[1]
The infinitive verbal complement is replaced with a subordinating clause ʾan yafʿala, attested in the QCT and a fragmentary Dadanitic inscription.
The QCT along with the papyri of the first century after the Islamic conquests attest a form with an l-element between the demonstrative base and the distal particle, producing from the original proximal set ḏālika and tilka.
Writing systemsEdit
DadaniticEdit
A single text, JSLih 384, composed in the Dadanitic script, from northwest Arabia, provides the only non-Nabataean example of Old Arabic from the Ḥijāz.
Transitional Nabataeo-ArabicEdit
A growing corpus of texts carved in a script in between Classical Nabataean Aramaic and what is now called the Arabic script from Northwest Arabia provides further lexical and some morphological material for the later stages of Old Arabic in this region. The texts provide important insights as to the development of the Arabic script from its Nabataean forebear and are an important glimpse of the Old Ḥejāzī dialects.
Arabic (Quranic Consonantal Text and 1st c. Papyri)Edit
The QCT represents an archaic form of Old Hejazi.
Greek (Damascus Psalm Fragment)Edit
The Damascus Psalm Fragment in Greek script represents a later form of prestige spoken dialect in the Umayyad Empire that may have roots in Old Hejazi. It shares features with the QCT such as the non-assimilating /ʾal-/ article and the pronominal form /ḏālika/. However, it shows a phonological merger between [eː] and [aː] and the development of a new front allophone of [a(ː)] in non-emphatic contexts, perhaps realized [e(ː)]. (citation?)
^ abAl-Jallad, Ahmad (2015-03-27). An Outline of the Grammar of the Safaitic Inscriptions. Brill. p. 48. ISBN9789004289826.
^Al-Jallad, Ahmad (2015). "On the Voiceless Reflex of *ṣ́ and *ṯ ̣ in pre-Hilalian Maghrebian Arabic". Journal of Arabic Linguistics (62): 88–95.
^Putten, Marijn van. "The *ʔ in the Quranic Consonantal Text - Presented at NACAL45 (9-11 June 2017, Leiden)". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
^Cantineau, Jean (1960). Cours de phonétique arabe (in French). Paris, France: Libraire C. Klincksieck. p. 67.
^Putten, Marijn van (2017). "The development of the triphthongs in Quranic and Classical Arabic". Arabian Epigraphic Notes. 3: 47–74.
^Stokes, Phillip; Putten, Marijn van. "M. Van Putten & P.W. Stokes - Case in the Quranic Consonantal Text". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)[dead link]
^Al-Jallad, Ahmad. "One wāw to rule them all: the origins and fate of wawation in Arabic and its orthography". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
^"The people of the Thicket: Evidence for multiple scribes of a single Archetypal Quranic Text". Phoenix's blog. Retrieved 2017-06-01.
^"Can you see the verb 'to see'?". Phoenix's blog. Retrieved 2017-08-14.
External linksEdit
October 05, 2023
hijazi, arabic, hijazi, variety, arabic, attested, hejaz, western, part, saudi, arabia, from, about, century, century, variety, thought, underlie, quranic, consonantal, text, later, iteration, prestige, spoken, written, register, arabic, umayyad, caliphate, he. Old Hijazi is a variety of Old Arabic attested in Hejaz the western part of Saudi Arabia from about the 1st century to the 7th century It is the variety thought to underlie the Quranic Consonantal Text QCT and in its later iteration was the prestige spoken and written register of Arabic in the Umayyad Caliphate Old Hejazi ArabicQurayshi ArabicBirmingham Quran manuscriptRegionHejaz Saudi Arabia Era1st century to 7th centuryLanguage familyAfroasiatic SemiticWest SemiticCentral SemiticArabicOld Hejazi ArabicWriting systemDadanitic Arabic GreekLanguage codesISO 639 3None mis GlottologNone Contents 1 Classification 2 Phonology 2 1 Consonants 2 2 Vowels 2 3 Example 3 Grammar 3 1 Proto Arabic 3 1 1 Notes 3 2 Old Hejazi Quranic Consonantal Text 3 2 1 Notes 4 Writing systems 4 1 Dadanitic 4 2 Transitional Nabataeo Arabic 4 3 Arabic Quranic Consonantal Text and 1st c Papyri 4 4 Greek Damascus Psalm Fragment 5 See also 6 References 7 External linksClassification EditOld Ḥijazi is characterized by the innovative relative pronoun ʾallaḏi Arabic ٱل ذ ي ʾallati Arabic ٱل ت ي etc which is attested once in the inscription JSLih 384 and is the common form in the QCT 1 as opposed to the form ḏ which is otherwise common to Old Arabic The infinitive verbal complement is replaced with a subordinating clause ʾan yafʿala attested in the QCT and a fragmentary Dadanitic inscription The QCT along with the papyri of the first century after the Islamic conquests attest a form with an l element between the demonstrative base and the distal particle producing from the original proximal set ḏalika and tilka The emphatic interdental and lateral were realized as voiced in contrast to Northern Old Arabic where they were voiceless Phonology EditConsonants Edit Consonant phonemes of Old Hejazi Labial Dental Denti alveolar Palatal Velar Pharyngeal Glottal plain emphatic plain emphaticNasal m n Stop voiceless p ف t tˤ k kʼ q ق ʔ 1voiced b d ɟ g ج Fricative voiceless 8 s sˤ ʃ x ħ hvoiced d z dˤ ɣ ʕ Lateral ɮˤ d ɮˤ ضFlap Trill r Approximant l j w The sounds in the chart above are based on the constructed phonology of Proto Semitic and the phonology of Modern Hejazi Arabic Notes The consonants ض and ظ were voiced in contrast with Northern Old Arabic where they may have been voiceless 2 The glottal stop ʔ was lost in Old Hejazi except after word final aː 3 It is still retained in Modern Hejazi in few positions Historically it is not well known in which stage of Arabic the shift from the Old Hejazi phonemes p g q and ɮˤ to Modern Hejazi f ف d ʒ ج g ق and dˤ ض occurred However the change in g and kʼ q has been attested as early as the eighth century CE and it can be explained by a chain shift kʼ q g d ʒ 4 See Hejazi Arabic Vowels Edit Monophthong phonemes Short LongFront Back Front BackClose i u iː uːMid e eː oːOpen a aːIn contrast to Classical Arabic Old Hejazi had the phonemes eː and oː which arose from the contraction of Old Arabic aja and awa respectively It also may have had short e from the reduction of eː in closed syllables 5 The QCT attests a phenomenon of pausal final long i dropping which was virtually obligatory 6 Comparison with Classical Arabic last shared ancestor QCT Old Hejazi Classical Arabic awv daʿawa دعا daʿa daʿasanawun سنا sana sanannajawatun نجوه najawatu gt najṓh najatunnajawatu ka نجاتك najawatu ka gt najatu k najatu ka ajv hadaya هدى hade hadafatayun فتى fate fatantuqayatun تقىه tuqayatu gt tuqḗh tuqatuntuqayati hu تقاته tuqayati hu gt tuqat i h tuqat i hiExample Edit Here is an example of reconstructed Old Hejazi side by side with its classicized form with remarks on phonology Old Hejazi reconstructed Classicized Hafs bism allah alraḥman alraḥim 1 ṭaha2 ma anzalna ʿalayk alquran litasqe3 illa taḏkirah liman yaḫse4 tanzila mimman ḫalaq alarḍ walsamawat alʿule5 alraḥman ʿalay alʿars astawe6 lah ma fi lsamawat wama fi larḍ wama baynahuma wama taḥt alṯare7 wain taǧhar bilqawl fainnah yaʿlam alsirr waaḫfe8 allah la ilah illa huww lah alasmaʾ alḥusne9 wahal atek ḥadiṯ muse10 iḏ raʾ nara faqal liahlih amkuṯu inni anast nara laʿalli atikum minha biqabas aw aǧid ʿalay alnar hude11 falamma ateha nudi yamuse12 inni ana rabbuk faaḫlaʿ naʿlayk innak bilwad almuqaddas ṭuwe bismi llahi rraḥmani rraḥim 1 ṭaha2 ma ʾanzalna ʿalayka lqurʾana litasqa3 ʾilla taḏkiratan liman yaḫsa4 tanzilan mimman ḫalaqa lʾarḍa wassamawati lʿula5 ʾarraḥmanu ʿala lʿarsi stawa6 lahu ma fi ssamawati wama fi lʾarḍi wama baynahuma wama taḥta ṯṯara7 waʾin taǧhar bilqawli faʾinnahu yaʿlamu ssirra waʾaḫfa8 ʾallahu la ʾilaha ʾilla huwa lahu lʾasmaʾu lḥusna9 wahal ʾataka ḥadiṯu musa10 ʾiḏ raʾa naran faqala liʾahlihi mkuṯu ʾinni ʾanastu naran laʿalli ʾatikum minha biqabasin ʾaw ʾaǧidu ʿala nnari huda11 falamma ʾataha nudiya yamusa12 ʾinni ʾana rabbuka faḫlaʿ naʿlayka ʾinnaka bilwadi lmuqaddasi ṭuwaNotes Basmala final short vowels are lost in context the l is not assimilated in the definite article Line 2 the glottal stop is lost in qurʾan gt quran proto Arabic tisqaya collapses to tasqe Line 3 taḏkirah lt taḏkirat lt taḏkirata The feminine ending was probably diptotic in Old Hejazi and without nunation 7 Line 4 tanzila from loss of nunation and subsequent lengthening Loss of glottal stop in alarḍ has evidence in early scribal traditions 8 and is supported by Warsh Line 5 Elision of the definite article s vowel in lʿars is supported by similar contextual elision in the Damascus psalm fragment astawe with fixed prothetic a is considered a hallmark of Old Hejazi and numerous examples are found in the Damascus psalm fragment and support for it is found as well in Judeo Christian Arabic texts The word ʿalay contains an uncollapsed final diphthong Line 8 Old Hejazi may have had huww lt huwwa lt huwa lt huʾa with an originally long vowel instead of huwa lt huʾa as in Classical Arabic This is supported by its spelling هو which indicates a consonantal w rather than هوا had the word ended in a u Line 10 The orthography indicates raʾ from raʾa lt raya lt raʾaya 9 Grammar EditProto Arabic Edit Nominal inflection Triptote Diptote Dual Masculine Plural Feminine PluralNominative un u ani una atunAccusative an a ayni ina atinGenitive inProto Arabic nouns could take one of the five above declensions in their basic unbound form Notes Edit The definite article spread areally among the Central Semitic languages and it would seem that Proto Arabic lacked any overt marking of definiteness Old Hejazi Quranic Consonantal Text Edit Nominal inflection Triptote Diptote Dual Masculine Plural Feminine PluralNominative ʾal ʾal an ʾal un ʾal atAccusative a ʾal ayn ʾal inGenitive The Qur anic Consonantal Text presents a slightly different paradigm to the Safaitic in which there is no case distinction with determined triptotes but the indefinite accusative is marked with a final ʾ Notes Edit In JSLih 384 an early example of Old Hejazi the Proto Central Semitic t allomorph survives in bnt as opposed to ah lt at in s1lmh Old Ḥejazi is characterized by the innovative relative pronoun ʾallaḏi ʾallati etc which is attested once in JSLih 384 and is the common form in the QCT 1 The infinitive verbal complement is replaced with a subordinating clause ʾan yafʿala attested in the QCT and a fragmentary Dadanitic inscription The QCT along with the papyri of the first century after the Islamic conquests attest a form with an l element between the demonstrative base and the distal particle producing from the original proximal set ḏalika and tilka Writing systems EditDadanitic Edit A single text JSLih 384 composed in the Dadanitic script from northwest Arabia provides the only non Nabataean example of Old Arabic from the Ḥijaz Transitional Nabataeo Arabic Edit A growing corpus of texts carved in a script in between Classical Nabataean Aramaic and what is now called the Arabic script from Northwest Arabia provides further lexical and some morphological material for the later stages of Old Arabic in this region The texts provide important insights as to the development of the Arabic script from its Nabataean forebear and are an important glimpse of the Old Ḥejazi dialects Arabic Quranic Consonantal Text and 1st c Papyri Edit The QCT represents an archaic form of Old Hejazi Greek Damascus Psalm Fragment Edit The Damascus Psalm Fragment in Greek script represents a later form of prestige spoken dialect in the Umayyad Empire that may have roots in Old Hejazi It shares features with the QCT such as the non assimilating ʾal article and the pronominal form ḏalika However it shows a phonological merger between eː and aː and the development of a new front allophone of a ː in non emphatic contexts perhaps realized e ː citation See also EditArabic language Varieties of Arabic Hejazi Arabic Semitic languagesReferences Edit a b Al Jallad Ahmad 2015 03 27 An Outline of the Grammar of the Safaitic Inscriptions Brill p 48 ISBN 9789004289826 Al Jallad Ahmad 2015 On the Voiceless Reflex of ṣ and ṯ in pre Hilalian Maghrebian Arabic Journal of Arabic Linguistics 62 88 95 Putten Marijn van The ʔ in the Quranic Consonantal Text Presented at NACAL45 9 11 June 2017 Leiden a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a Cite journal requires journal help Cantineau Jean 1960 Cours de phonetique arabe in French Paris France Libraire C Klincksieck p 67 Putten Marijn van 2017 The development of the triphthongs in Quranic and Classical Arabic Arabian Epigraphic Notes 3 47 74 Stokes Phillip Putten Marijn van M Van Putten amp P W Stokes Case in the Quranic Consonantal Text a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a Cite journal requires journal help dead link Al Jallad Ahmad One waw to rule them all the origins and fate of wawation in Arabic and its orthography a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a Cite journal requires journal help The people of the Thicket Evidence for multiple scribes of a single Archetypal Quranic Text Phoenix s blog Retrieved 2017 06 01 Can you see the verb to see Phoenix s blog Retrieved 2017 08 14 External links Edit Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Old Hijazi Arabic amp oldid 1169528312, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
