HARVARD MIDDLE EASTERN MONOGRAPHS

COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD

BY

HAIM BLANC
~

.•

D ISTRIBUTED FOR THE

.CENTER FOR MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES
OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY BY
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
CAMBRIDGE , MASSAC HUSETTS
1964

-
 FOREWORD

This study is the result of research carried on in Israel and in the

United States between 1957 and 1962. I had the good fortune of being
able to devote the years 1958- 1960 almost entirely to this project
under a research fellowship of the Center for Middle Eastern Stud ies,
and wish to express my indebtedness to Prof. H. A. R. G ibb, to D. W.
Lockard and to the staff of the Center fo r the cord ial reception and
generous help accorded me. I am also indebted to my chairma n,
Prof. H. J. Polotsky, for releasing me from my duties at the Linguist ics
Department of the H'ebrew Un ive rsity and for his inc isive comme nts
on various parts of thi s work. Special thanks are due C.A. Ferguson,
who was in strum en tal in getting me to the Center, follo wed thi s wo rk
in its various stages, and gave the typesc ript a th orough go ing-over.
My colleague G. Baer was ki nd eno ugh to go over the historical and
demographic sections, and the typesc ript was expertly a nd pains-
." -- takingly prepared for publication by Mrs. M. Smith of the Center.
The onerous typing job was done by Miss Carolyn Cross at the Center
and Miss Esther Rosenthal in Ierusalem.
Given the circumsta nces, research cou ld not be ca rried o ut in Iraq
itself, and the material had to be gathered from speakers resid in g
elsewhere. Speakers o f the A natol ian dia lects, consulted for com-
parative purposes, were also, though for different reaso ns, more
easily accessible in the U.S. or Israe l. I am, of course , aware of the
deficiencies of such a procedure, but I hope major mishaps have been
avoided. More detailed data on the sources used are given in sect ion
1.2 and in the notes, though the names of the native speakers cons ulted
have been omitted. Those who have kept their Iraqi nationality must,
I th ink , remain anonymous; these include all my Mus lim and mos t
of my Christian informants, without whose patient and friendly
cooperation th is study could never have been comp'eted. Of the many
others to whom I am indebted, I should li ke to mention Mrs. R.
Gone nc, for much of my information on Christ ian Baghdadi, and
her husband, J. Go nenc, for my data on the dialect of Qarabiis; my

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v
 vi COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD

old friend and teacher A. J. Chaurize for several useful hints, including
some on his native Siirt dialect ; Mrs. R. Shamash and her relatives
(Carmac, Siverek), A. Zakay (Mosul) ; S. Khalil (Hit); A. Haskel
(Basra); H. Kohen (Amara). Most of my information on Jewish
Baghdadi comes from a good· friend , A. Loya, and from the persons CONTENTS
whose acquaintance I made through him: his wife Gladys, his sisters 3
Bunayya and Naomi, his friend s Reuben and Ruth Khazzam (the I. INTRODUCTION
Aim and Scope . 3
latter from Basra) and Miss E. Cohen. It is, in fact, to A. Loya's Sources . 3
vast knowledge and keen insight that lowe some of my basic notions Baghdad 3
Other Dialects. . 4
as to the structures and interrelations of the dialects studied. The Mesopotamian Dialect Area 5
Overall view. The qeltu-gelet Split . 5
Main Contrastive Features o f the qeltu-gefet Split. 7
H.B. 8
The Baghdad Situation . .
Jerusalem Majority and Minorities: Some Figures 8
April 1963 Correlation between Community and Dialect 9
Degree of Uniformity with in Each Dialect 9
Communal Dialects in the Rest of Iraq . 10
Affinities with Other Dialects 10

2. COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN THE ARAB WORLD 12

Social Dialects. 12
Socio-Economic Groupings 12
Religious Groupings 13
Communal Differentiation in Arabic 13
Overall View 13
Minor Differentiation 14
Intermediate Differentiation 15
Major Differentiation 16

17
3. PHONOLOGY
17
Procedure and Notation
17
Consonants .
17
Overall View .'
Reflexes of the OA Interdenta ls . 19
19
Reflexes of OA/I l
Reflexes of OA/rl 20
Reflexes of OA/kl 25
Reflexes of OA/ql
26
30
Vowels .
30
, Overall View. .
Reflexes of OAlil and lui 35
Reflexes of OAlal . 38
41
Reflexes of OA/i and luI
41
Reflexes of OA final la'l
42
The 'imlila.
Reflexes of OA/ayl and lawl 50
Stress ..
52
~3
Consonant Clusters and Anaptyxi s.
c..:
u.. vii
c:::;
 "

CONTENTS ix
viii COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
Constructions with / miil/ 125
Overall View 53 Noun Plus Qua lifier 126
~O= ~ Anticipatory Pronou n Suffix Plus L 128
Object of Verb. 128
4. MORPHOLOGY 57 Object of Preposit ion and Noun. 131
Procedure and Notation 57
Basic Morphophonemics 6. SOME LEXICAL FEA TU RES . 133
57
Overall View 59 Introductory. 133
The Pronoun 59 Basic Vocabulary. 133
Subject Pronouns 59 The Swadesh List 134
Object Pronouns . . , . . 64 The Ferguson-Said Lis t. 135
Indirect and Double Object Pronouns 66 Interrogatives and Demonstratives 136
The Femin ine Suffix 68 Overa II View 136
Overall View. . . 68 Interrogatives 136
AJlomorphs in the Isolated Noun 68 The Demonstratives 138
AlJomorphs in Sandhi Elements of Non-Arabic Origin 140
71
Unit Nouns Turkish . Persian. Aramaic 140
72
Some Ot her Suffixes 73 The Heb rew Element in J 140
The Sound Plural Suffixes 73 Selected Lexical Items 145
Relational and Agent Suffixes 74
Hypocoristic Suffixes 74 7. SUMMARY AND CONCLUS ION. 160
The Noun 74 Summary of Findings. 160
Overall View 74 Muslims vs. Non-Muslims 160
Irregular Patterns 75 Jews vs. Christians. 162
Regular Patterns
The Nu merals
The Cardinal Numbers
, 75
90
90
Christians vs. Mosu l
Musl im vs. the Countryside.
Uniqueness of J
164
165
166
The Ordinals 93 Characterization of the Dialects 166
The Part iciple 93 Conservatism in JC 166
Fo rm I Participles . 93 Beduinization in M 167
Participles of Forms II and III 94 A Glance at Iraqi History 168
Other Participles 96
The Verb 97 ABBREV IATIONS USED IN REFERENCES ANO NOTES 172
Overall View 97
REFERENCES CITED 173
Form I '" . . 97
Forms lI , IIf , V. and vr, and Quadriconsonantal Verbs 108 18 1
Form IV NOTES.
III
Form VII . III
Form VIII. 113
Form IX 114
Form X 115 2
MAP. The Mesopotamian Dialect Area
Verb Modifiers. 115
Olher Morpheme Classes . 11 8
Determination Markers. 11 8
The Relative L' . . . 120
ReOexes of OA/Ii / and /, ila/ . 120
Some Prepositions 121

5. SOME SYNTACTIC FEATURES 124

Introductory. . . 124
The Postpositiona l Copula 124
C vs. MJ 124
Comparative 125
Absence of Article 125
 HARVARD MIDDLE EASTERN MONOGRAPHS

COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD

BY

-
HAIM BLANC

I
D ISTRIBUTED FOR THE

CENTER FOR MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES

OF HARVARD UN IVERSITY BY
HARVARD UN IVERS ITY PRESS
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSElTS
1964
 z
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:r:o......l~ INTROD UCTION
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00
V) LI AIM AND SCOPE. The present monograph attempts to de-
~ scribe the linguistic situation that obtains among the Arabic-speaking
::;ElF populations of Baghdad and other towns of Lower Iraq .1 Though

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detailed research was done for Baghdad o nly, the evidence indicates
that a wholly a na logo us situation ex ists in the other communally
mi xed urban centers of Lower Iraq. The basic feature of this situation
is the unusually profound and sharply delineated dialecta l cleavage
• that divides these populations into three non regional dialect groups,
Ul
/ corresponding to the three major rel igious communities, namely
.!;
\ / the Muslims, the Jews, and the Christians. Laconic statements on the
;;;
~
:;;
'. / existence of this trichotomy may lie fou nd here and th ere in the
literature, beginning with the late nineteenth century,2 and some
w
m
~
/ descriptive material on the several dialects is also available.' In the
~
~ / prese nt study, data collected at first hand from informants from the
( three communities will be set for th, collated, and compared. The
•• remainder of this chapter lists the sources used and presents an
,
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overall view of the Meso potamian dialect area and of the Baghdad
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situation. Chapter 2 discusses socia-reli gious dialects in the Arab
world a nd elsewhere, and Chapters 3- 6 study the main features of
Muslim Bag hdad i (= M), Jewish Bag hdad i ( = J), and Christian
Baghdadi (= C). Chapter 7 reeapitufates the main similarities and
r di fferen "es and probes the question of their ge nesis and preservati on.

1.2 SOURCES. 1.21 Baghdad. Data o n M and C ste m principally

from persons residing or studying in the Un ited States, while data
o n J was gathered chiefly from persons now residing in Israel. The
half-dozen Muslim informants consist of four Sunnis and two Shiis,
all nati ve Baghdadis, fhough in some cases one of the parents, and
in most cases at least one gra ndparent, was not Baghdad i and even
not Arabic-speaking. All the Muslim informants were stud ents in
3
 4 COMM UNAL DI ALECTS IN BAGHDAD
their twenties, all males, and all from the middle o r upper strata of
Baghdad society, hence had a good command of modern litera ry
Arabi c. T he Christian info rmants consisted primarily of a woman of
Jacobite extraction and two men of Chaldean origi n; all three were
nati ve Baghdadis, but in each case one of the parents was from
outside Baghdad. In the last two cases, o ne gra ndparent was no n-
Arabic speakin g. Both of the men were university students, onc in
his thirties and one barely twenty; the woman , in her thirt ies, was a
housewife and d id clerica l wo rk ; all had a passable kno wledge of
modern literary Arabic. The Jewish info rmants were all nati ve
8aghdadis of nati ve slock, and in most cases both grandparents were
also nati ve Bag hdadis; th o ugh I was ex posed to this di alect from a
score or more persons, I count here only those four men and three
women, all in their thirties, whom I interviewed at length and re-
peatedly. All had a good knowledge of literary Arabic. In addi-
tion to these, [ made use of a number of tape recordings of Radio
Bag hdad prog ra ms in Muslim Baghdadi, and of the available litera-
fure on the dialects concerned.
1.22 Other dia lects. For purposes of pe rs pective and co m-
parison, it was found necessa ry to gather basic data on as many
other Meso potamian dialects as possible under circumstances that
made a fi eld trip to the area im practicable. I inter viewed at length
in the United States two Muslim informants from Mosul , and more
briefl y one Clujstian and (in Israel) one Jewish informant from
that city. I obtained ' particularly detailed data on the 'Ana dialect
fro m a single M uslim informa nt fro m that city. Fo r rural Lowe r
Iraq, I interviewed a Columbia University student who was a native
of Qa rya t Sayyid Razin, a hamlet of perhaps two hu~dred inhabitants
in the al-l;Iilla province (n al,l iya of Sadd at al-Hindiya, qa<;la' of Musa-
yyab); the in fo rmant, a Shiite in his middle twenties, seemed to
have retained a good command of his nati ve dialect. For the rural
dialects of the Amara region, I had no direct co ntact with info r-
mants, but have drawn on a number of tape reco rdings, one fro m
Radi o Bag hdad (a play in the ru ra l di alect of th at regio n, wi th no
specification of loca lity and an air of only partial authenticit y) and
two kin dly forwa rded to me by Gra ham Leonard , who made them
while in the Middle East. Both informants thus recorded were from
th e AI-8u M ~a mm ad su b-d istrict. Eac h reco rded a brief auto bio-
graphy. . a story or anecdote, and a number of wo rds and phrases
-
l NTROD UCTION 5
from a list provided by me. Mr. Leonard also sent me similar recor-
din gs of informants from Kuwayt. To Victor Ayoub [ am deepl y
mdebted for a similar recording, made in [ran, of an infor ma nt
from Ahwaz in Khuzistan. On the dialect of the Je ws of Amara I
have had many communications from a frien d to whom th is d ialect
is native and who has, in addition, permitted me to make use of
his unpublished work o n the verb in th at di a lect ( Ko hen, n,d.) .
For Basra, I have interviewed one Sunni Musli m in the United States
and obtained detailed data from one man there and ~ne woman in
!erusa.lem. ~he scanty information I have on Hit ste ms fro m a single
1Il1erVIew with a Karaite of that town now residing in Beersheba;
for Tekrit I have only some indirect information from persons who
made brief visits to the city. For the Anatolian dialects, I obtained
rather detailed information fro m Jewish informants from Urfa and
Swerek (Siverek) in Urfa province, a nd fro m CarmO c (also pro-
nounced Carmiik, perhaps i. q. <";ermik in Diya rbe kir province), and
from a Jacobite nati ve of Qara biis (perh aps i. q. Kara bahc;e in Diya r-
beki r province), as well as some sketchier data fra in a Chaldea n
native of Se'ert (Siirt, in the province of that name). All references to
these dialects not attributed to a ~v ritte n source come from these
informants.
1.3 THE MESOPOTA MIA N DiALECT AREA. 1.31 On the basis of
the inco mplete data furni shed by the literature and by my infor-
mants, it seems possible to sketch a tentative outline of the dialect
area that stretches from the Persian Gulf along 'and between the
Tigris and the Euphrates nearly up to th e ve ry sources of th e two
ri vers on the Anatolian plateau. In such a vast area, regional variation
is bound to be great, the more so as the population is separated, in
many points, by large stretches of desert with a nomadic population
and, in addition, by large non-Arabic-spea king co ncentrations. One
may, nevertheless, speak of a Mesopotamian dialect area . Within
this area one ' must fi rs t distinguish between two large groups of
dialects, each of which shares a great num ber of basic fea tures, and
. each of which correlates roughly with a regional su bd ivisio n and'
also (but even more ro ughl y) with a n ecological di visio n. T hese two
gro ups may be called (fro m t he 1st pers. sing. of the perfect of the
verb 'to say'), res pecti vely, qellu-dialects and gelel-dialects.4 The
latter are spo ken by the M uslim p~p ul a ti o n (sedentary and non-
6 COMMUNA L DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD I NTRODUCTION 7
sedentary) of Lower Iraq, and by the non-sedentaries in the rest of to the verb and III - prefi xed to the object, e.g. Mlsefta laxuyal =
the area; the former are spoken by the non-Muslim' population of Ise fet axuyal 'you saw my brother';
Lower Iraq and the sedentary population (Muslim and non-Muslim) U) the use of laku/ ' there is', usually with its negative Imakul over
of the rest of the area. This may be represented as follows: most of the area, though apparently not in Anatolia;
(k) many characteristic lexical items, e.g. Imall 'of, belonging to',
Muslim No n-Muslim IhassaC)1 'now', reflexes of OA /,albaril)al (not of /,al ba rib/) 'yester-
(no n-sed.) (sed.) day', Imezl ' table', Ibun!al 'wheat', Itemmanl 'rice', Ibazzun(a)1
'cat' (in Anatolia (j~an no r/), /j i gfua/ 'cigarette', /I axl and / lux/,another
Lower Iraq gelet gelet qeltll (r. and m. , respecti vely); and a large number of Turkish and Persian
Upper Iraq gelet qellll qellll loanwords.
Anatolia gelet qeltll qeltu 1.32 Of particular importance to the present stud y are the features
characteri zi ng the qellu-gelel split. These are illustrated in the table
The qellll-dialects a re akin to the oasis dialects described by Canti- below, with Mosul representing the qellu gro up and Muslim Baghdadi
neau· and to the sedentary dialects of the Aleppo region. The gelel- the gelet gro up. It must, of course, be kept in mind that not all of the
dialects are closely re lated with the Beduin dialects of the Samiya, differentiating features are eq ually general in the group they represent ;
on the one hand, and the dialects of Kuwayt, Khuzistan, and the all arc, however, representati ve to some degree, in the sense that
Persian Gulf area on the other. 7 The relationship between the Iraqi none are peculiar only to the dialect mentioned. In the tab le, the
dialects and Central Asian Arabic remains to be probed. 7a The main items are chosen to illustrate the following features: (a) refl exes of
fea tures that c haracteri ze the Mesopotamian dialect area, in the OA Iq/; (b) reflexes of OA Ik/; (c) reflexes of OA Ir/; (d) reflexes of
sense that they a re shared by most of the dialects irres pective of the of OA lui ; (e) reflexes of OA/al before Iii ; (f) lreflexes of OA lal
qellu-gelet ~icho t o my, and are lackin g or not common in most other before Iii ; (g) reflexes of OA word final /a'l ; (h) reflexes of the nominal
dialect areas, may be summarized as follo ws : feminine morpheme in several environments; (i) the pron. suff. of
(a) presence of a Ipi phoneme over most of the area; the 3rd pers. masc. sing. and of the 3rd pers . fern . sing.; (j) the per-
(b) preservation of the interdentals 10/, 15/, and II:)I with two sonal endings of the verb in the 1st pers. sing., the 3rd pers. fern. sing.,
exceptions .noted so far, both in the qeltu-dialects ; and the 3rd pers. plur.; (k) the presence or absence of the two Form
(c) presence of the a ffri cates lei and Ijl, though the individua l I verb paradigms, as in OA l kalabl vs. Isarib/; ( I) the terms for
dia lects vary as to the historical correspondence of these ; 'here', 't here', and 'thus',
(d) a bsence of a 1'1 reflex of OA8 Iql so common in the regions
adjoining the Mediterranean, bo th western and eastern; Mosul Muslim Baghdadi
(e) the preservation of OA diphthongs laYI a nd lawl over a good
part of the area; (a) qal gal 'he said'
(f) the preservation of OA - Inl in the imperfect 2nd pers. fern. (b) ka n can 'he was'
sing. and 2nd and 3rd pel's. plur., e.g. M/tketbinl 'you (r.s .) write', yk un yku n 'he will be'
Itketbun/ 'you (pl.) write', /yketb un/ ' they write'; (c) gal) fal) 'he went'
(g) the use of a sort of indefinite article, e.g. M/fadd / ; (d) kell kull 'all'
(h) plurals of the type qldla for adjectives of the type qalltill , e.g. (e) jemc' jamc' 'mosque'
M/ksalal sing. Ikaslanl 'lazy'; (f) bazizin bzazin 'cats'
(i) the marking (with a frequency va rying from dialect to dialect) (g) soda soda 'black (r.)'
of the. definite direct object by a n anticipatory pron. suff. appe nded (h) badli badla 'a suit of clothes'
8 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD INTRODUCTION 9
i)en!a I) un!a 'wheat' War J) and proportionately even more Christia ns spoke other lan-
badleti badelti 'my suit' guages. The only point that is essentia l for this prefatory synopsis of
badletna badlatna 'our suit' the Baghdadi Arabic dia lects is that there is a majority dialect (of
(i) badletu badelta 'his suit' the gelel type) and two minority dia lects (of the qellll type).
badleta badlatha 'her suit' 1.42 That three markedly different dia lects, each with its own
abunu aba 'his father' phonology and (especially) morphology and each with its own
abuha abuha 'her father syntactic and lexical peculiarities, are spoken by members of the
(j) katabtu ktabet '{ wrote' three relig ions is beyond doubt. It seems nearly as certain, with
katabet ketbat 'she wrote' all the reservations stemming from the fact that th e inves tigati on
katabu ketbaw 'they wrote' was not carried out in situ, that th is dialect cleavage correlates rully
(k) katab ketab 'he wrote' with communal affiliat ion. Provided th ey are Arabic-speaking native
segeb serab 'he drank' Baghdadis, all Muslims talk M, all Jews ta lk J, and all Christians
segbet serbat 'she drank' ta lk C. A few qualifications which do not invalidate this statement
segbu serhaw 'they drank' are neverth eless in order. In the first place, J a nd C are spoken res-
(1) honi hna ' here' pectively by Jews and Christians largely at ho me and wit h coreligioll-
hnuka hnaka 'there' ists, wh ile M, the domina nt dialect, is used in public and in inter-
or honek communal situations by the many Jews and Christians who have a
hakeo hici 'thus' a command of it. A good many non-Muslims seem to be nearly
perfectly bi-dialectal. As a consequence of the special position of M
1.4 THE BAGHDAD SITUATION . 1.41 Recent figures for the total as majority dia lect, non-Arabic speaking Christians (most notably
population of Baghdad, with Kai)miya and other subur bs, give a the Armenians) who acqu ire A rabic as a second language may learn
total of abo ut 780,000' A breakdown of th is figure into members not C, but M ; I am personall y acquainted with a number of Baghdadi
of the Muslim, Jewjsh, and Christian communi ties is hard to come Armenians who, as a second language, speak o nly M. Another conse-
by and has, moreover, undergone considerable changes in the past que nce of the special status of M is th e tendency among some non-
two or three decades. T his change results principaily from (a) the Muslims, especially Ch ristians, to adopt it, or certain features of it,
very large immigration of Muslims that has taken place from the even when speaking with their coreligionists, s~ ' that there may
countryside, (b) the smaller but steady infl ux of Christians from the conceivably be non-Muslim homes in which M or somethin g very
north, (c) the wholesale emigration of Jews that took place about 1950. much li ke M is spoken rat her than C or J. Questi oned as to this, my
About 1920, the total population is estimated at around 200,000, informants all indicate that th ey know of no such situation, but they
with about 135,000 Muslims, 50,000 Jews, and 15,000 Ch ristians' 0 do report a number of ihdividual M features replacing "old-fashioned"
Judging from available ""stimates, I I it seems fair to state th at the C or J features in the speech of the younger ge neration.
ratio of Muslims to Jews to Christians for a century or so preceding 1.43 While J is a relatively unifo rm dialect, there are some mi nor
)950 was not far removed from this, i.e. oscillated around a ratio differences among my C in formants and some variat ion within M as
of 7 to 2 to 1. There are, unfortunately, no estimates of how many well.. The variati ons within C canno t, at the present stage, be cor-·
non-Arabic speakers there were in each community: Kurds, Turks, related with the speaker's affiliatio n to a specific sect or ri te. The
and Persians among the Musli ms; Armenians, Assyrians, and Aramaic- va riations within M do not seem to be in any way connected with
speakin g Chald eans among the Christ ians; perhaps some Persian- the five Muslim dialects believed to exist in Baghdad by L. Massignon
speaking Jews. My impression is that the Jews were almost all Arabic- (see note 2); some are clearly due to the existence, in present-day
spe'aking, while a good many Muslims (especially before World Baghdad, of large groups of immigrants from the countryside. Some
 10 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD INTRODUCTION II
of these va riants are id e ntified by my M informants as "provincial," the dialect of the Muslims bears a stron g fa mil y resemblance to that
though in some cases it might also be possible, given further resea rch, of the Lower Iraq i co untryside and to the nomads of the area as a
to correlate them witb social class, the lowe r strata being, to a whole ; that the dia lect of the Ch ristia ns is very close to that of Mosul ;
considerable degree, made up of just such recent arriva ls from the and that the dialect of the Jews, while no t as close as the other two to
vi lla ges. I have, so fa r, found no differences as between Sunnis and any dialect so far described , is far more similar to the Christian and
Shiis (a nd inform ants do not seem to be aware of the existence of Mosul type than it is to the Muslim dia lects of Lowe r Iraq. What
such differences) nor have I attempted to look for v'ariation as between Inferences may be drawn from th ese ali gnments wi ll be discussed in
the different quarters o f the city, though here informants are more Chapter 7.
inclined to believe that such differences exist, wh ile unable to cite
insta nces (cf. note 97a).
1.44 A situation quite si milar to that described above seems to
ex ist in the other to wns of Lower Iraq , though J have direct evidence
for Basra and Amara o nly. Not only do Jewish informants from
these cities speak a dialect which is, to all in tents and purposes, ,•
identical wit h Jewish Baghdadi, but the existence of the three-way
split in their ho me cities, with the Muslim s spea king a gelet-dialect
and the Jews an d Christian s a qellu-dialect is to them a matter of
common kno wledge. In the case of Basra, thi s is confirmed by a I
Muslim info rmant, who speaks a dialect quite similar to Muslim ,
I

Baghdadi. In the case of Amara and of the Basra Christians, there I

is some ev id ence from th e literature l2 and fro m two of my Baghdad i ,,I
Christian informants who , having visited these places, indicate that
the Christians there speak "just like we do." On the other hand, this
socia-religio us clea vage does not seem to exist in Upper Iraq. From
informants and from the Iitel'ature lJ it is clear that members of all
co mmunities in Mos ul speak a qeltu-di~l ect, as do those of 'Ana and
(probably) th ose of Tekrit and Hit. There are unquesti onably sub-
dialecta l differences within those citi es (my Jew ish informant from
Mosul happens to have a number of feat ures different from my
Christia n a nd Muslim Mos ul info rm ants), but these may not cor-
relate w:ith communal affiliation. Informants and literatu re (see
note 13) attribute these differences to quarters within the c ity and to
other variables (age, degree of educa ti on or modernization, ultimate
provenience fro m some neighboring town). Though minor differences
corre lating with communal affiliation may nevertheless exist, the
situation is at a ll events quite different from th at of Baghdad and
Lower Iraq.
1.45 Underscoring once more wha t has already bee n sa id about
(

,
L the qeltll-gelet split, ihs worth pointing out that, in a city li ke Baghdad,

•
:

2 and the Bed uin herdsman encamped nearby speak widely divergent
COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN THE ARAB WORLD
2.l SOCIAL DIALECTS. 2.ll Dia lects correspo ndin g to group
affi liation rather tb a n to geographical location have not bee n exten-
sively studied. Descriptions of territorial dialects can be cou nted in
the hundreds, a nd the various aspects of dialect geography have a
prime place in ling ui stics a nd a chap ter or two in any treatise o n
language. One looks in vai n for a nyth ing of the kind ha ving reference
to socia l dialects or to Hdialect sociology," though rece nt decad es
have brought forth, perhaps as a by-product of gene ra l develo pments
j'n socia l science, so me attempts in thi s di rection. 14 In part thi s lag
is, no doubt , due to the ract that geographicall y defined dialects are,
a t least in Europe, more co mm o n, more striki ngly differentiated , and
more eas ily pigeonholed. When o ne deal s, as t he dia lectol og ist usuaUy
does, with a relativel y homoge neo us rural population, o ne arrives a t
rough ly accurate results by fairly uncomp licated techniques requ iring
a tnin-imum of extra-li nguistic knowledge a nd all boili ng down to a
few common se nse field and mapping techniques, Co-terminous
social g roupings are clearly not as a menable to delimitation, and the
va riables wit h which a given ling ui stic feature is to be correlated may
be considerably more proble matic than is th e variable of spatial loca-
tion used for geog raph ical dialects, In addition, since socia l g roups
and social "distance" do see m somehow essentially different from
territoria l groups and spatial distance, there may well be a mo re
intrinsic differe nce betwee n social dialects o n the o ne ha nd and
geographical dialects on the other. On the evidence ava ila ble so far ,
it seems that differences a mo ng social d ia lects tend to be more s ubtle
and mo re marginally ling uistic than diffe rences among reg io nal
dialects. It is hard to find sociall y defi ned dia lects ex hi biting the so rt
of all-embraci ng phono logical a nd morphological differences that are a
com mo nplace in a rea dialectology, When this is the case, i,e. when
two social groups show this so rt of structural differentiatio n, it see ms
12
COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN THE ARAB WORLD l3
that a n explanation involving geography must inevitably be invoked:
migratIOn, mfluence of another territorial d ia lect or of a different
language. An exa mple fam iliar to Arabists is that of th e split between
sedentary and non-sedenta ry dialects in Arabic. The Galilean villager
dialects ex h l bltm~ major structural differences, but an explanat ion
of the fact must Invoke the Bedu in's ultim a te provenie nce (perhaps
~any ge ~eratlO n s remo ved) from the A rabian desert , whence his
?Ialect migrated with him . The villager's dialect was, of co urse, also
Imported from Arabia, but it was tran splanted at a different time
and underwent a separate evolution . The origi n of the d i ffer~nce mu s;
~hus be ,sought in geography and history, a nd it is its prese rvat ion that
IS due In large measu re to social dista nce.
2.1 2 Dialect differences among specifically reli gio us groupings
ha ve attracted even less attention than th ose among socia-economic
groups, and are in so me ways eve n more problematic. l s Some re-
ligious groups speak languages ex t raneou s to the area; others s pea k
t,he local language with some diffe rences due to the influence of a n
extraneQus .Iiturgical or sac red language. On th e basis o f th e frag-
ment a,ry eVidence at hand, it appea rs that differe nces amo ng religious
gro,upmgs are usually even more marginal than those among ot her
SOCIal groupings; they tend , typically, to be few a nd non-structural
in character: differences in the nam e of the Deity, different greetings
and other formulas, different given names, different lang uages used as
~odel s for imitation or So urces of borrowing. In suc h cases, it is
difficult to speak of " d ialects" at a ll, except in the broadest possible
se nse of the word. A few insta nces of more substantial dialectal
differenc~s among religiou s gro ups have, ho wever, been reported ;
here agam, these seem to have originated in migrations and to have
been preserved by social distance. These include those found here
and there in Arab ic (see nex t sectio n) , in parts of the Serbo-Croa tian
a rea and in parts of Persia,16
2.2 COMMUNAL DI FFERENTIATIO N IN ARABIC. 2.2 1 In matters
of dialect differentiation a lon g li~es of religious affiliation the
Ara~ic-speaking area presents a whole spectrum of situatio ns g'oino
f rom complete or nearly compl ete absence of d ifferentiat ion ' to the0
sh arp cleavage of Lower Iraq, but aside from North Afri ca, the
hterature ha s little to sayan the subject. Within this spec tru m one
14 COMMUNA L DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
must distingui sh between the two ex tremes of "minor differentiation"
and "major differentiation" with, of course, a number of intermediate
cases. Cases of " minor" differentiation are characterized by two
features, namely (a) differentiation is primarily margillal to the
linguistic structure, and (b) there is fluctuation in usage and poor
corre lati on of differences with religious affiliatio n. Cases of "major"
differentiation exh ibit the opposite characteristics. There is considerab le
evidence to suggest that minor and major differentiation are due to
entirely different sets of historical circumstances; some detai ls follow.
2.22 Minor differentiation . In the towns of Greater Syria, Egypt,
the Arabian Penins ula, and Upper Iraq , either no differentiation
alo ng religious lines has been reported , or the reports indicate
that differentiation is marginal, vague, and fluct uating. Jerusalem
Arabic. for example, is communa ll y differentiated insofar as some
(not all) Christians and Jews deviate from majority usage wi th respect
to intonation pattern s, voca l qualifiers, certain all ophones, the
frequency of certain consonantal assimi lations, the proportion of
Classical or Neo-Class ical vocabu lary item s, certain idioms, and the
prop~rtion and phonetic trea tm ent of European loanword s. 17 In the
case of the Jews , there are additional differences due to the presence
of a Hebrew vocab ulary and , for some speakers, the influence of a
number o r .non-loca l varieties of Arabic~ imported via immigration.
Some of the differences just listed are quite subtle, some are unstable,
and few if a ny correla te perfectly with communal affiliation. In other
words, it is quite difficult for anyone to say wit h certainty that a
given utterance will be spoken in a given way by a Jew , in another way
a
by a Muslim, and in a third way by Christian . A similar situation
seems to obtain in Aleppo and Cairo , though to an even lesser degree. ls
In Yemen, the dialect spo ken by the San'a Jews and that spoken by
the Muslims in that city differ principally (perhaps exClusively) by
the Hebraic element in use among the former. 19 In the North Pales-
tinian villages studied by the writer (Blanc, 1953) differentiation
among Muslims, C hristians, and Druzes is imperrectl y correlated
and limited to a handful of items, though some of them are structural
(e.g. the reflexes of OA /q/ and the OA interdentals). The vague
classification suggested by Feghali, 19.28, divid ing Mt. Lebanon into
Christian and Dru ze areas seems to be of the same character ; more
precise, if still preliminary, data on communal differentiation in
Lebanon may be found in Fleisch, 1959.
COMMU NAL DIALECTS IN TH E ARAB WORLD IS
2.23 Intermediate differentiation. In some cities of North Africa
(Algiers, Fez, Tlemcen, and some others) a differentiation which
/
might be called " intermediate " has bee n reported. Here we find
Jewish and Muslim dialects (there arc, so to spea k, no nati ve Arabic-
I
speaking Christians) wh ich prese nt, in addition to differences of the
minor variety. a number or morc strictly structural differences. These
correlate well, for the most part, with communa l affiliation. The
follow ing table, abstracted from Cohen, 1912, lists all the differences
reported there as between Muslim Algiers (= MA) and Jewish Algiers
( = JA):
(a) OA/. / -+ JA/s/ vs. MA/. /
OA/i/ -+ JA/z/ vs. MAIi/
(b) OA/r/ -+ lA/r/ vs. MA/R/ or /gj
(c) OA/q/ -+ lA/,/ vs. MA/q/
(d) OAft! -+ lAft! vs. MA/e/ (lts/)
(e) OA/ h/ -+ lA zero vs. MA/ h/
(f) OA/ iF'/ -+ lA/if 'a/ vs. MA/ iF'/
(g) fem . ending is lA [aj or [ej vs. MA [aj
(h) in certain words, different treatment of OA/u l in closed
syllables, e.g. / korsi/ vs. MAlkuRsi/ 'chair'
(i) certain differences in intonation and stress, largely affective
U) 3rd pers. masc. sing. pron. suff. after V: lA/ u/ vs. MA/a/
(k) differences in the phonemic shapes of so me five or six mor-
phemes, viz. those for the particles 'of,' 'with ,' 'as,' 'fro m
here,' ' there', a nd (perhaps) 'yesterday'
(I) some lexical differences, e.g. in kinship term inology and terms
of the stone-cutting trade (a Jewish monopoly)
(m) quan tity of Romance lexical loans: JA more, MA less
(n) degree of phonetic assim ilation of loa nwords: lA less, MA morc
(0) Hebrew loan words : JA many, MA none, exce pt one or two
loans from lA
Features (a), (b), a nd (c) do not correlate perfectly, i.e. some speakers
of lA show usage listed as MA and vice versa. Features (m) and (n)
also imply relat ive frequency rather than absolute presence or absence
of the given usage. Ex ternal influences seem to be directly involved
only in features (m), (n), and (0). A very simi lar picture emerges from
Fez and. from less detailed accounts, al so . for Tlemcen and some
towns of the Algiers region. 20 I call this differentiation interm ed iate
 16 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN DAGI-IOAD
because, though quite systematic and well-correlated, the differences
are few and the dialects belong to the same class or type, i.e. to the
urban or sedentary di alects of the region"
2.24 Major differentiation. For some other North African cities,
notably Oran, and some smaller towns of the region of Algiers,
reports indicate a differentiation between Jews and Muslims wherein
the former speak a "sedentary type" dialect and the latter, like the
Muslims of many North African towns, a " Beduin type" dialect. "
This may be called "major" differentiation, in that (a) it permeates
the whole phonology and grammar of the dialects, and (b) correlates
fully with community membership. The fact that the Muslim townsmen
speak a "Beduin type" dialect may be due to either migration or
diffusion. The parallel with the Lower Iraq situation is striking in all
respects, at least as regards the contrast between Muslims and non-
Muslims; whether the contrast between Jews and Christians should
be classified as major or merely as intermediate is of little consequence.
The only other case of major differentiation that comes to mind is
but partially ana logous: the Druzes of Mt. l;Ioran speak a dialect
wholly" different in type from that of the Muslims of the Horan
plain;23 these groups, howeve r, inhabit two adjoin ing but separate
rural areas, and the Druze dialect was almost certai nl y imported ill
tolo from Mt. Lebanon via migration. In this case, differentiation is
therefore essentially historical and geograph ical, and only incidentally
correlates with religious affiliation.
, phoneme NI in (} corresponding to MJ I¢f. There are, however,
3
PHONOLOGY
3.1 PROCEDURE AND NOTATION. The present chapter surveys
the phonologies of M, J, and C from a point of view that is essentially
historical and comparative. Phonetic description of phonemes is
held to a minimum ; on the other hand, a good deal of mo rpho-
phonem ic detail is included, especially in the sections on conso nant
clusters. In each of the sections, an overall view of the present situation
is first given, followed by a more detailed disc ussion of the divergence
in historical correspondences which constitutes the main differences
among the three dialects. The symbols used are, it is hoped, largely
self-explanatory and familiar; note, however, that since C is used for
" Christian Baghdadi," the symbol K will be used for "any consonant"
side by side with V for ".any vowel. " Word stress is marked only
where its position cannot be determined by the well-known rule
of thumb, "stress VKK or VK closest to the end of the word; if
neither VKK nor VK are present, stress first V. "
3.2 CONSONANTS. 3.21 Overall view. (a) The inventory of
consonant phonemes is nearly "the same" for M, J, and C. By this
is meant that a single set of sym bols can be used for all three with,
on the whole, very nearly the same allophonic content for each. One
exception is the absence of interdentals in C , resulting in an additional
considerable differences in distribution, frequency, and historical
correspondence. The following table lists the MJC consonants, with
phonemes not shared by all three dialects in parentheses:
b p d C g k q
f z s S g x h
(5 0)
m n r I w y
I;> r (<;I) \ ~ (¢) lJl
17
 18 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
(b) The phoneme Ipl occurs in all three dialects: MJC/pOsij 'veil',
I(opal 'ball', Ipardal 'curtain', Iplawl 'rice dish', Ipaspasl 'he wh is-
pered', I(appasl 'he threshed about'; occasionally J and C have Ipi
for M/b/ : JC Iqapagl 'lid' for M Iqabagj. This Ipi is, of course, found
largely in foreign words where it stands for an original Ip/, sometimes
also for origina l Ib/ : Ipaysekel/ 'bicycle', Ipasl and Il}asl 'bus' . In the
rural dialects, Ipl is less common, being often replaced by Ib/,24
(c) The phoneme Ihl is present in all three dialects, but while the M
pronomina l suffixes-/ hal and-/huml preserve it in all positions, some
all omorphs of the corresponding J and C suffixes are with, and others
without, Ih/, which is also dropped in a few other JC morphemes.
For details, see 4.2.
(d) In the three dialects, /'I is phonemically stable in positions
other than* _ V: MJC/t'axxarl 'he was late', M/se'all ' he asked',
Itse'linl 'you (f.s.) ask', Jhill "veil-born'. In# _ Y, however, phonetic
['] varies freely with zero, the latter being the commoner, and since
. ['] is ordinaril y also absent \\(hen prefixes are added , citati on forms
of such words will be written as beginning with a vowel: MJCjaswadl
C' 'black',. labOnal 'our father', lesmakl 'your (m.s.) name', as also
• lIas wadi 'the black one', IwabOnal 'and our father' , MC Isesmak/,
J/asesmakl 'what's your name?'.
(e) Non-syllabic [i] is assigned to IY/, syllabic [i] to Iii ; similarly,
non-syllabic [u] is assigned to Iwl and syllabic [u] to lui. Contrasts,
if any, are few and unstable, but any other procedure wou ld be self-
defeating, in that it would 'needlessly obscure statements of history,
comparison, . and morphophonernics. Tokens of such utterances as
M/iini umartakl " ordered you' and lani wmartakl " a nd your wife'
usually sound exactly a like though they may sometimes be distinct;
in general, transcriptions involving initial lyKI and IwKI should be
understood as [iK] - [y;K] and' [uK] - [wOK], respectively.
(j) On III vs. /! /,. see 3.23 belmv. As for I ~/, cf. MJCjjaHI 'it
. creaked' vs. /iazzl ' he sheared'" and JI,erf/, M/ ~uruf/, C/ zeref
'envelope'. In the labia Is, n'ote M/ fakkl 'he opened' vs. Ifakk/ , more
commonly Ifaeel 'jaw', though JCjfakkl 'he opened'; MJCjl}iil}al
'father' vs. Ibabal 'his door (M), her door (JC)'; the contrast Iml vs.
Iml is somewhat moot: only ImaYY/, ImaYI 'water', but both M/maral
and /mara/ 'woman'. A feature of the three dialects is the gem ination
and tafxim of a labial resulting from the loss of a following Iw/ :
MJCjffadl 'heart, entrails' ( < */fwad/), MJC/ l}l}ahdakl 'by yourself'
PHONOLOGY 19
( :< Ibwahdak/); M/ franisl 'lamps' (J/ ffanisl and Ifwan is I but C/ fawe-
nisi), M/l}l}abij/, J/ l}l}abij/, but C/ bawebijl 'slippers'. On taftim in J
words of Hebrew origin, e.g. lai:)elj (a general term of opprobrium)
cf. 6.42.
(g) Beyond these few remarks, the Baghdadi consonantal inventory
ca ll s forth no specia l comme nt as to its gene ra l nature. It now remains
for us to consider in detail th e historical correspondences which
constitute the essential differences between M, J, and C. The para-
graphs below are accordingly devoted to reRexes of the OA inter-
denta ls, of OA/ I/, OA/r/, OA/k/ , and OA/q/, respectively.
3.22 Reflexes of the OA interdentals. (a) In C, the interdenta l,
19/, 10/, and II>I have been replaced by the corresponding stops It/,
Id/, and /c)1, whereas they have been retained in M and J. Thus
Cjtnenl 'two', Ihadal 'th is', lal}yarJI 'white' vs. MJ/Onen/, Ihaem/,
jabyaQj. However, informants indi cate that th ere is fluctuation in
this respect among C speakers, with a good many of the younger
generation reintroducing interdentals as a result o f schoo l and
majority influe nce; two of my three main C informants used inter-
dentals themselves (at least whe n speak ing to me) but on direct
questioning readily volunteered variants with stops and characterized
them as "typically Christian"; the third used stops himself, often
clea rl y distinguishing C from M forms by that very feat ure. 26
(b) This is one of the few features in which J and C do not go
together; in this respect C does not even go with Mosul, and the onl y
other point in the Meso potamian area so far noted as having stops
for interdenta ls is L:armt1 c (Urfa province, Jewish informants);
Qa rabas and Mardin have int erdenta ls, while Siirl has the unusual
(for Arabic) replacement of the interdentals by the labiovelars IfI, lvi,
and Ivj.2' All other dialects of the area have interdentals. In M and J,
as well as in other dialects where interdentals are preserved, a few
individual item s may nevertheless be found in wh ich they are replaced
by stops: JCjjgedil M/i redil 'rat'. Jawaliqi , writing in Baghdad in
the twe lfth century, observed a tendency among the common people
to change 101 to Idl in three or four words (pp. 134, 155) including
the ancestor of this word Ijredi/, namely Ijuradl for Ijurao/.
3.23 Reflexes of OA/ I/. A velarized /!I is to be found in M, J, and
C, bu t whe reas all three have it in the name of God (except in jflm allaj
'goodbye', from jfi'amani- ll <1hj), it is mu ch more common in M than
in J or C: M/x'''1 'mother's brother', JCjxa l/, M/xa!!1 'vinegar',

20 COMMUNAL D IALECTS I~ BAGHDAD
JCfxall/, M/~ u gul l 'work', JCfsegel/, M/gabu!! 'before', JC/qabel/
and many others." The J words Imxabbal/ 'crazy' and Ibolal 'whore'
may be loans from M. The M words having /!I suggest that vela ri-
zation of OAIII occurred largely in roots where it was preceded by
lxi, Ig/, or Iq/. This III is typical not onl y of M but of the gelet-
dialects as a whole and of Beduin dialects in other areas as well ; the
qeltll-dialects go along with J and C in this respect, as do most other
sedentary dialects. 29 . the restitut ion of / r/ even whe n they retain all other features of their
3.24 Reflexes of OA/r/. (a) One of the most striking features
distinguishing J and C on the o ne hand fro m M o n the other is t~ e
treatment of OAlrl, for which M has Irl whcrcas J and C ha ve (In
the majority of words) 1i\I. Thus JCfgasl ' head', Ibagl ' hot', l 'yaggal
'outside', Ifegbiinl 'glad', Iqayesgabl ' he's drin king' , Iqaygidl ' he
wa nts' for M/ras/, II)ar/, l lia rra/, etc. However, the /rI vs. If!,/ contrast
is retained in J and C, though in different wo rd s. In 1, there IS often Irl
rat her than 1M in loanwords with etymological Ir/; this holds for
Hebrew wo rds, e.g. Iseferl 'scroll , sacred book' , I~a'a rl 'pam',
/ressana/ 'New Year's' ; and for such words of n ~.n-Arabic ~ri gin as
Iqond ral 'shoes' (Turk. klilldura), Idondermal Ice crea m (":urk.
dondlrllla) , Inafarl 'person' (Pers. lliijiir), learxl 'wheel'. (Pers. carx),
leaderl 'tent' (Turk. f adlr), and for loans from modern hteraryArablc
such as /ja ridaj 'newspaper', JsayyaraJ 'ca r'. However, th ere IS ~o~e
degree of fluct uat ion jn such cases: some info rma nts ha ve /cadegj
for 'tent', a ll seem to have Itayyagal for 'airplane'. Moreo ve r, so me
words with Irl are not obviously loanwords: Isarql 'east', Igarbl
'west', Iqecr.yi/ ' Sabbath ' oil lamp', ./qerrabal .'fl ask' for whl~h ,
incidentally, only the plural /qegagibl is give n by IIlfo rmants; Igrabl
'crow',
I n the last example a nd in Igarbl, the proxim it y of ety mological
Ii!,! cannot be a suffic ie nt reason for the retentio n of Irl, cf. Ii,ellbill
' sieve', pI. Igegabil/ . Etymologica ll y related roots sometimes spht
into doublets, the one reta ining Irl and the other showing Ig/ : j'aga bll
'Arabic', j' rubil 'a villager'; Ifaggl ' he poured , served' but Ifar~1
'he threw' ; Igayyagl 'he changed clothes' but Igayyarl 'he changed:
I ~jagal 'stone' bUl /bajarj 'jewer. 30 There is an a nalogolls s lt~ atlO n In
C but the distr ibution of Irl and Igj is not the same. Thus wh ile C has
Iri in the loans from Turkish. Persian, a nd modern literary Arab i,c
mentioned above Uqandara/, learex/, Idonde rma/, and so rorth). It
has Igl in fjogabi l 'sock' (J /j urabj). it has Irl in a good many roo ts
\
PHONOLOGY 21
for which J has Ig/, notably those of the words Iqaral ' he read',
larba'al 'four', Igarbell 'sieve'.
(b) Among literate and se mi-literate J and C speakers, th ere is a
tendency to replace Igl by /rI wherever it corresponds to the Irl of
literary Alabic and/or of the M dialect. Some do this only occasionall y,
as a styli stic device, while others seem to ca rry out the restitution more
consistently. Those who do this seem to be keenly aware of the IIlI
reflex of OA/rl as a blemish or defect of their dialect, a nd carry out
own dialects. ln Baghdad and the other towns of Lower [raq, jgl
for Irl is a sort of hallmark of no n-Musli m identity, a nd see ms to be
keenl y felt as such both by those who shun it and by those who
doggedl y reta in it , reflecting di ve rge nt attitudes toward the maj ority
community. As to fa lse restitution, i.e. Irl fo r etymo logical lilI, I have
found very little of it, which may be due to the fact that my informants
are all litera te , I have noted no instances amo ng J speakers, a nd
heard onl y one (and been told of another one) a mong C speakers,
both in ~vo rds of non-Arabic origin whose etymo logica l pron unci-
ation a nd spelling are not likely to be known. One C speaker regularly
says Iqasural 'spoon' for Iqasugal or Iqasollal (cf. Turk. ka~l k, Pers.
qiissoq); anot her informant te lls me that though she herself has Igl in
this word , she has heard it with Irl from other C speakers; she also
volunteered the information that Iqapaill ' lid ' (cf. Turk. k apak) is
sometimes pronounced Iqaparl by some C speakers. On M/gemarl
for l Cfqemagj 'cream' (Turk. kaymak , Pers. qeymaq), see the lexicon.
(C) A major co nsequence of this shift is the fact tlu~t, in J and C,
Igl now occurs in positions strange to it in OA or M, notably in
contact wi th Iq/, lxi, and Ib/.These contacts have often resulted in arti-
culatory problems a nd further phoneti c c hange via to ta l o r pa rtia l
assimilation. Thus M1Cflaxi 'another' has a feminine harking back
to OAf' al'uxra/, which takes either the shortened form M/luxl JCjlex/,
or the lo'nger form M/luxra/, l Cj1exxi/, with - Ixx/- fo r an expected
- Ixill - ; similarly l Cfaxxasl 'dumb', fern. l lxegsa/, Cfxagsaj. There
is a similar total ass imila tio n next to Iq/, so that in J the ve rb 'to read'
has lilI in a few forms but mostl y Iqql < Iqg/, e.g. Iqqetul 'I've read;
Iqadaqqal ' I' m reading', Iqqal 'read!' and so on ; the wo rd for ' near
is Jiqqib/, comparative laqqa bj. InC, the verb 'to read' has Irl and
the word 'near' has lal between Iql and IIl/, hence no contact, but
my C in form ants give unassim il atcd for ms such as laqgabl 'neare r',
 22 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
j'aqgabil 'scorpion', perhaps because elicited. In the above J examples,
assimilation is complete, i.e. Igl is not restored in more careful enunci-
ation, whereas such words as J/maqqal 'sauce', J/waqqal 'piece of
paper' do have more deliberate variants Imagqal and Iwagqa/ . On the
other hand, no assimilation takes place in J/qgunl 'horns', J/begq'nl
'pitchers'. In the last example, and in such words as JCffeg~iinl
' glad', there is practically no audible velar constriction in the lill,
which gives an auditory effect very close to that of [w). Instead of
assimilation to the following consonant, there is thus a tendency
toward vocalization of lill, which can be noticed even more fully
in other instances. In what ought to be phonemically J/lagqal ' frig ht'
(cf. J/n!ailaql 'became frightened '), one speaker has II'qa/, i.e. the
homophone of neo-classical I!iiqal 'energy', but the informant den ies
homophony. On the other hand J/lbO~i/, Cfmbe~al 'yesterday' have
lost all traces of Igl even in the speakers' reports] I
(d) The same Irl > lill shift is to be found in Mosul (among all
communities, but not among all speakers") and is reported for
Tekrit. It does not occur in the other qellu-dialects thus far examined.
As in J and C, Mosul has Irl in some loanwords, and in some Arabic
.r, words, e.g. Iqaral (but my Jewish Mosul informant has Iqagaf) and
assimilations similar to those mentioned for J and C, e.g. Imbe!)al
'yesterday', j'aqqabil 'scorpion'. A Mosul peculiarity is the 101 of
loba'al 'four', lob';nl 'forty', lob'iil 'Wednesday', no do ubt from the
chronological sequence [arb] > [agb] > [awb] > [ob]. All my Mosul
informants agree on these forms in 10/, but one of them uses only
forms in ,ar/-and considers the 101 forms very "old-fash ioned." One
is tempted to speculate that the presence of Irl rather than lill in these
words in C may be due to a similar sort of resti tution, i.c. that C
originally had some such form as loba'al which, because of its unusual
peculiarity in the Baghdadi milieu (into which it may have been
in:tported from the north , as so many other C features seem to have
been) was changed back to lar/ ; this would explain the presence of Irl
rather than If!,/ in such ,Yords. That some such explanation might be
valid is indicated by another C fo rm with Irl rather than IP'!, namely
Igarbell 'sieve', for which Mosul has lilubel/, with the vowel probably
resulting from a chronological sequence [irb] > [,gb] > [,wb] > [lib],
though the lal of the C form is puzzling (cf. also this word in the
lexicon, Chap. 6).
(e) The replacemcnt of Irl by Igl or the like is not unknown as a
PHONOLOGY 23
speech peculiarity of individuals in the Syrian and Egyptian area,
but as a stable phonetic feature of given dialects, it has been reported
only for some North African areas and, less clea rly, for the Arabic
dia lects of Central Asia. Ph. M'lf~ais mentions that many speakers
of Djidjelli (Eastern Kaby lia, Alge ria) have a uvular spirant for Irl,
and says that this is restricted to the town on ly (as distinct from the
surrou nding countryside) and Occurs nowhere else in Eastern Kabylia.
He indicates it is found in other old urban centers of the Maghreb
(Tunis, Constant ine. Algiers, Fez, Mek nes), considers it "une maladie
des vi lles" though it also occurs "dans Ie Rif". 33 Cohen reports a
uvular [R] for Muslim Algiers vs. an apical tr ill for Jewish Algiers
(i.e. the reverse of the Baghdad situation) though he adds that there
are individua ls in either community who ex hi bit the reverse phe-
nomenon. 34 Colin li sts as one of the features of Moroccan urban
dialects the fact that Irl "often" sounds like the French [R]." The
latter implies, and the first two state explicitly, that this [R] is not
merged with [g] into a single phoneme. On the Irl of Central Asian
Arabic, Tsereteli says the following: "Vibrant of back articulation:
is sometimes pronounced as uvu lar r, with which it interchanges" ;36
Vinnikov is silent on the phonetic shape of Irl, a nd at any rate the
Ir/ vs. Igl contrast is, presumably, maintained .
(j) The question that naturally comes to mi nd is whether this
Irl > II;I sh ift is, as seems to be the case for other features of the
qellu-dialects, a hallmark of Iraqi sedentary dialects. It is not present
in any of the gelel-dialects, but only some of the qellu-dia lects do have
it, namely Mosul, J, and C. The dialects of old urba n populations may
be presumed to hark back to dialects that were spoken in the area
before those of nomadic or recently sedentarized po pulations;
exam ination of older sources may therefore be of interest. We find
the replacement of / fl by lill first mentioned in the ninth century by
al-Jabi? of Basra (d. 864), though only as a luega (individual speech
peculiarity). He says that of all the luegdl " it is the least ugly and the
most commonly to be found among respected an d prominent per-
sonalities, as well as among individua ls of good speech and learn in g. "37
The phrasing suggests tha t, while not yet a dialect feature. thi s shift
might at that lime have been on the way to becoming o ne. or co n-
siderable interest, thou gh less explicit, is the description of the pronun-
ciation of the Hebrew Irl by Sa'adya Ga'on (d.940).38 Sa' adya was of
Egyptian birth but spent the latter part of his life in Iraq; in commenting
 24 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
on an obscure passage of the Sefer Yesira, he says that the Hebrew r be-
longs with b,g, eI, k,p, and 1, since it can be pronounced in two ways, one
soft (rax) or weak (/Ialas) and the other hard (qase) or strong (gibbor) .
What is mo re to the point, the r is pronounced in these two ways by
Old Testament readers of the Tiberian school, whereas those of Iraq
pronounce it in these two ways "in th eir speech , but not in their
reading." He states that they refer to one variety of r by the term
makrux and to the other by th e ter m gayr makn/x. It is tempting to
believe (as do Gumpertz, Mansour, and Morag) th at this refers to a
situation exactly parallel to that found in J today: they had two ways
of saying r in their [Arabic] speech, namely one Irl and one 1M reflex for
OA/r/, but only one, namely Ir/, in thei r reading of the Hebrew
Scriptures, and the terms used to designate them (unknown to the
Arabic dictionaries) so und as thou gh th ey might mean so mething
like "uvular" and " non-u vul ar," res pectively (see note 37). It is sur-
prising that if this had been the case, Sa'adya should say nothing of
the similarity of one of these pronunciations with Arabic Ii!.! or the
le nis variant of Hebre w g; the proposed interpretation seems plausible
enough, but others a re not excluded. It must be added that the fact
that Sa'adya speaks of the Jews onl y does not necessa ril y imply that
thi s pronunciation was to be found among Jews to the exclus ion of
Muslims and Christians; hi s focu s 0( att ention is Old Testament
reading, not comparative dialecto logy. Incidenta ll y, it is not at all
certain that the words " in their speech" refer to Arabic. A century
later, Ibn Sinii (d . I 037) specifically includes a "/g/-like Ir/" among
sounds Jlo t occurring in Arabic, and while he discusses other dialectal
or ind ividua l peculiarities, is silent on Irl > /gj.39 Unlike Jiihi ~ and
Sa'adya, however, Ibn Sin a did not reside in Iraq. Thus from the
older sources that have thu s fa r come to my attention, the most th at
can be sa id is that there may be traces of such a shift in the older
sedentary dialects of Iraq. It certainly cannot be said to have been a
very widespread shift , if one may judge from it s abse nce in some of
the prese nt-day qelill-d ialects, notabl y the A natolian varieties. The
evidence from the Central Asian dialects is moot and as yet hard to
interpret. Another piece of negat ive ev idence is the treatment of
Arabic loanwords in the Neo-Aramaic dialects of Upper Iraq and
Kurdistan: a ll such words with etymological Irl have Ir/, implying
Irl and not Igl in th e so urce dial ects' o For what it is worth, I note
I in pass ing that amo ng the Iraqis I have known, no less th an six (th ree
PHONOLOGY 25
Muslims, two Jews, and one Christian, all of Baghdad) were unabl e
to produce the ap ica l trill that is normal in their dialects, a nd rep laced
it by 1£/ or a similar spirant. In other words, they all had a true
lufJga for which, incidentally, they had no name, nor have I been
able to find one in any Iraqi dialect, though in other dialects, where
it may be less comm on, names for it do exist. The re lation ship between
this luega, past or prese nt, and the so und shift Irl > 11;1- if any _
remains to be probed.'!
3.25 Reflexes o f OA/kf. (a) In J and C, the regular ren ex o f OA/kl
is Ikl while in M, what must have been front varia nts and back
variants of OA/kl have split into the two phonemes lei and Ik/.
Thus JCf kiinl ' he was', M/ciin/, but MJCfykun/ ; JCfkbil;1 ' big',
M/cebir/, JCfk biii;l, 'big (pl.)', M/ki?arl (probably from OA/kubiir/,
cf. 3.3 below) ; J/kalb/, C/kalebl 'dog', M/ealeb/ , pI. J/klib/, C/kl eb/,
M/eliib/ ; JCfke1i1 'all', M/ kullf. There is thus, in M, morphophonemic
alternation of lei and Ikl in certain roots, e.g. those for ' to be' and
'big'; that th is alternat ion is not sub· phonemic is beyond doubt ,
cf. M/bikl 'in you (m.s.)', Ibiel 'in you (f.s.), Ibiieerl 'tomorrow' vs.
Ibiikerl 'a virgin '. [n addition, this al ternation is used fo r stylisti c
purposes, in that many word s have, in M, two poss ible fo rms, a
"plain colloquial" o ne in lei and a "mildl y formal " or "sem i-li terary"
one in Ik/, e.g. leiinl vs. Ikiinl 'he was', leene!1 vs. Ikenetl ·1 was, you
were' lijiel 'that one (f.)' vs. lijik/ ; in so me cases this in vo lves other
changes in the direction of Classical Arabic, e.g. leebirl vs. Ikabirl
with the lal restored, or Ikalbl (esp. in the imprecation Ikalb ebn
elkalbl 'dog son of a dog') wit h th e anaptyctic lei of lealebl re moved
as wel1. 42 A phoneme lei also occurs in J and C, usually in loa nwo rds,
which are common to MJC, e.g. IM!f 'desert, co untryside" (Pers.
cII/), leiiyl 'tea' (Pe r~. cay), I~uel 'fau lt, guilt' (Tu rk. SIII'). As refle x
of OA/kl it occurs in J and C in what must be loanwords from M or a
similar dialect, e.g. leaHabl 'he clung', probably fro m k-I-b ; it also
occurs in a few Arabic words where it is not a reflex of / k/ , e.g.
leaqlabl 'tumbled ove r'. In cases where M has Ikl ra ther than an
expected lei , i.e. where the OA form is likel y to have had a fro nt
variant, borrowing from Classica l ca n usually be ass umed : Iktabj"
' book' (and throughout this root). .
(b) The situation in Mis, ·in this respect, practicall y identica l with
that obtaimng in th e rural gelel-dialects of Iraq, a nd with so me of
the nomadic dia lects of the a rea, though so me Beduin dialects (t he
26 COMMUNA L DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
large r, mo re full y nomadic tribes o f ca mel herders, a pparently of
Ce nt ral Arabia n ori gin) have a dental affrica te /c/ as o ne of the
re fl exes o f OA/ k/, the ot her being / k/ and the alternat ion simila r to
t hat of M43 The I a nd C situati o n is exactl y p a ralleled by that of
Mosul a nd th e Ana to lia n di a lects; the 'Ana d ia lect has p reserved
/ k/ by a nd large, but, t hough o f geltu type, does show so me words
with /e/, a nd thu s exhibits in this respect a situa ti on th at is interme-
diate betwee n t he gelet and qe/tu types: / kbir/ ' big', /~ a ka/ /ye~ k i/
'to spea k', but / baea/ / ye bei/ ' to wee p', /efm /, /ykun/ ' to be', l ealeb/
'dog'. Broadenin g t he circle of co mp ari so n we note that a Sim il a r
affricatio n o f OA/ k/ in certain environments is characteristic of the
dialects furth er to the so uth (Kuwayt, Persia n G ulf) and t he rural
populat io ns east of th e Jorda n, on the fri nges of th e Syri a n desert ;
whereas non-affricat io n is characteristic of the sedentary populatIO n
of t he rest of Greate r Syri a a nd, west of t he Jord a n , eve n of a good
44
many semi-nomad ic or rece ntl y sedentarized po pulalio ns.
(c) Affricati on of Ikl does not see m to have been pa rticula rly co m-
mon in t he o lde r A ra bic dia lects." Abo ut all we fi nd are reports of
kaskasa and kaikasa in certain tribes, i. e. the replacement o f k ci/ by
si" or Sill a formulatio n that might possibly suggest some sort of
affrication; at any rate, this replacement occurs o nly in the pron.
suff. - Ikil df t he 2nd pers. fern. sing 4 6 Suggestions t hat it mi ght have
47
taken place in other cases as we ll are few, vague, and late. There is
one early sta tement h inti ng a t possible affrication . Sibaway hi (d . 79 1)
lists a mo ng co nso nants heard amo ng the Ara bs but lacki ng in the
script "a ka/ that is between jim and k. iif,"48 but this is not explai ned
further and, so fa r as [ know, isolated . To sum up, evide nce fro m
present distribu tion as we ll as fro m older sources points. to. no~­
affricat ion in o ld sedenta ry populations vs . co nd itio ned ~ffrIcatlOn tn
popu l a~ions descended fro m, or in fluenced by, No rth A rabian no mads;
th us J a nd C belo ng t o th e former, and M belo ngs to the latter, a fact
wh ich I think th e ensuing sectio ns will te nd to co nfi rm.
3.26 Reflexes of OA/qj. (a) In I a nd C, t he reflex of OA/ql is,
in practica lly eve ry insta nce, Iq/ ; in M, it is usuall y /g/, t ho ugh Iq/
is com m o n a nd there a re seve ra l insta nces of a Ikl reflex a nd a hi
reflex. Mo~t hi gh-frequency roots a nd words ex hibit the typical
co rres po ndence of JC/ql for M/g/ : JCfqal /, M/g.11 'to sa y'; JCfqam/,
M/ga ml 'to rise'; J/qa lb/, C/qaleb/, M/ga!u ~1 ' heart', JC/q a ma£/,
M/gumarl 'moon' ; JC/b'q/, M/bagl 'to steal'; 118qil/, Cftaqil/,
PHONOLOGY 27
M/8egil/ ' heavy ', etc. While IC/gl < OA/ql is relati ve ly ra re (JC
/ gam az/, M/ guma zl 'to jump') a nd presumably res tric ted to loa ns
a I~/ reflex, in M is m o;e comm o n: / buqal 'to stay', /qubal/ ' to agree':
Iqasmarl to in veigle, Iqa nn a'i ' to co nvince', /qeral ' to rea d ',
etc.
In M , th ere are three items wi th a Ik/ reflex: Iwa ketl ' time', / keta l/
' to ki ll', I kufaxl ' to sla p'" a nd a numbe r o f insta nces of a Ijl reflex:
IrnJ/ ' friend , lover', /jede rl 'pot' (fo r which J/geder/, cf. 6.5 below),
II! a rijiyal :co nfl agra tio n' (also used in C, tho ugh I/hgiq if) ; so me
form s In IJI ha ve equi va lents or doublets in Igl or Iq/ : Isarjil 'easte rn '
in Ihawa sa rjil 'east wi nd ', MJ C/ biib essa rj il 'the Eas t Gate' (name
o f qua rter,) but o th erwise MIC I;a rq il; /jedd a ml an d Igedda ml
' befo re' (JCfqeddam / ; cf. a lso / mgaddi/-/ mj add ij 'begga r' in 6.5
below). In such cases, my M informants tend to co nsider the fo rm in
Ijl as " pro vincia l" a nd to prefer e.g. Igeddiiml to Ijedd a m/ , Ige rib/ to
IJeribl ' nea r', Iqaryal to Ijaryal 'village'so I,adiql fo r /,ad ijl in t heir
own speech; they thu s use fo rm s in jj/ in a few words o nly. and
speakers wi th add itio na l forms in Ijj wo uld, indeed, seem to show the
i n fl~e nce of ru ra l dialects, wh e re jjj refl exes are comm on (see nex t
sectIOn) . An alogously to the stylisti c va riati on descri bed above
betwee n Ikl a nd lei , M spea kers have so me " m ildly fo rm al" fo rm s
in Iql for " plain coll oquial" fo rm s in Igl o r Ik/ : Iqaribl for Igeribl
'near', Iwaqtl fo r Iwaketl 'time', Iqawil for Iguwi/ 's trong', etc. In
all threedialects, Iql a nd Igl also Occ ur in loa nwo rds: MJ C / pur taqiil/
'orange', MJCfg!ii,1 'glass'.
(6) The qel/II-dialects as a who le go alo ng with J a nd C in having a
Iql reflex of OA/q/. Here aga in, 'An a has /q/ in most cases but /gl in
some : Iqall ' to say', 18qill ' heavy', /qaml ' to ri se', Iwaqetl ' t ime',
Iqata l/ ' to. kill ', but Iga hwal 'co lfee', /grayyebl ' nea r', I bag ral 'cow';
a Simil a r situa tio n o btai ns in Hi t. In Carmue we have fo r OA/ql a / kl
with a ll ophones [q] [k] and [k 'J that pa irs off wit h a shi ft of OA/kl
to lei in a ll positions, pa ra lleling the situat ion in the sedenta ry dialec ts
dubbed " par lers S," by Ca nt inea u, suc h as that of Sukh ne and
Centra l Pal es tin e (Ca ntin ea u, 1939; 1956, p. 126). As for t he situa ti o n
in M, it clo sely resembl es tha t fo und in th e other gelet-d ial ects , th o ugh
there a re (as reg~rds re flexes of OA/q/) two d iffere nces between th e
urban gelet-di alec ts (includ ing M) and th e rura l ones. The first is that
som.c o f th e rural dialects have few refl exes in 1'1 /, so me a ppare nt ly
haVin g no ne ; th e second is that all rll ra l gelet-d ialec ls examined

28 COM~'I UNAL D IALECTS IN B AG I~DAD
thus far 51 have a conditi oned affrica ti on of OA/q/ quite similar to
that of OA/k/. What must have bee n back va riants of OA/ql have
yielded Ig/, whereas fron t va ri ants yielded Iii· with concom ita nt
morphophonem ic alterna ti ons: Irfii l 'compani on', pI. Irefgan / ;
Isediil ' fr iend', pI. Isedga n/ ; j'aseil 'in love' , pI. /, ussag/ : IWed l
'sillin g', Ige'adl 'he sat'. My info rm ant from the Musayya b district
indicated that upon returning to his village from his studies in the
city, he was exposed to rid icule fo r pulling on 11)l:)eril (urban) airs
because he used Iga'edl instead of IWed/. In his speech as we ll as in
that of Kweres, this iii is ide ntica l with the reflex of OAlil, i. e. both
are affr icates; in some areas th e two do not merge. as OAfj! yield s
[1.] (reco rdin g from Amara reg ion) or [y] (recordi ng from Khuzistan ,
Kuwayt), whi le the Iii < OA/ql is affr icated. In the few wo rds with
iii OA/ql borrowed by M, the morp hopho nemic altern at ion does not
take place: M/rfii/, pI. Irefian/. The affricati on of OA/ql is a hallmark
of the co untrys ide ; it is al so character ist ic of the nomad dialects of
the Iraq i and Syrian desert a reas ,52 with a dental affrica tion to [dz]
differentiating, as in the case of Icl < Ik/, the full y no mad ic camel
herde rs of Arabian ori gi n from the sheep-and- goat Bed uins who have,
-, li ke rural Lower Iraq, Iii a nd Ie/. It is noteworthy that the sedentar y
• a nd sedentari zed populations east of th e Jo rd a n who have lei < Ikl
do fl ot have any affrication of OAjq/ . showing a similarity with M
wh ich is probably not fortuitous. In those instances where M has
preserved (o r re in troduced) Iq/, the rural dialects that lack Iql com-
mon ly have either th ei r nor ma l Ig/-/il (ige ral 'to read', /iese ml
'part') or, no doubt in an attempt to imitate the urban or Classical
Iq/, they have 1M: Igubgiib/ ' wooden sli pper' , M/qubqab/ : Igas mar/
'he inveigled', M/qasmar/ ; Iga nn a' i 'he convinced', M/qanna'l,
etc. 53
To sum up, M has reflexes of OA/ql that are typical of sOI';e Beduin or
Beduinized populations, tho ugh the partial preservati o n of Iql and
the abse nce of affricatio n keeps M apart from th e Iraqi village and
nomad di alects; whereas J and C go along with the typicall y urban
Iql of the Upper Iraqi , A natolian, a nd Syrian areas and, for that
matter, with the many sedentary dialects throughout the Arab world
that have a/'l or a Ikl that is but o ne remove fro m IqJ.
(c) The present-day distributio n of re flexes of OA/ql throughout
th e A rabic-speaking wo rld presents a striking dichotomy : most
sed e l~tary populations have a vo iceless reflex and all non-sedentary
PHONOLOGY 29
vo!ced :eflex. 54 111 considedng the historical development
pop~I Jat i o ns tI.
l ead l~ g to thiS Situat IOn, two question s must be kept distinct: ( I) the
quest ion as to the sedentary vs. nomadic d iffere ntiation , and , (2) the
question as to the quality of th e reflex of OA/ql in each gro upin g, i.e.
w l~ether sedentanes always had a vo iceless and nomads always a
vO iced reflex. From the eleventh century onward,55 Arab sources see m
to agree as to. t~ e existence or. a sedentary vs. nomad differentiation
a~ t.? pronunciatIOn of OA /q/. The earliest to me ntion it may be Ibn
SIna (d. I037! \~!1O says that the "Arabs" (i.e. Bedu ins) have a kcil' like
so u~d. fo r qaf In the fourteenth century this is made even more
e~p hclt by Ibn Xal.dOn ,57 who expounds at length on the social sig-
mfi c~ nce of the difference (th.e Bed uin pronu nciation has prestige
and ~ s used by ~a~y sedentanes in imitat ion of them), on its geog-
raphical spread (I t IS fo und everywhere, both in the east and in th e
west or the Arab~c. area) and o n its phonetic quality (i ndicating a
more rorw~ rd position for the Bed uin qnf). However, neither aut hor
says anything that ca n be interpreted as a vo iced-voiceless distinction.
In t~~ case or Ibn Sina, such an interpretation would seem to be
expliCitl y precluded, si nce he un equi vocally describes a voiced [g]
later .on 58 stating that it is found in Persian, that it is not ro und in
ArabiC, and stands in the sa me relation to ka! as zny docs to sill. If
we s u~ ~osc) as see ~ s likel ~, that the earliest description~ or OA/ q/
as ma)J~ur, e.g. by Slbawayl1l,59 mean that it was voiced, we may inrer
~hat thiS .o~der [G] underwent a number or changes. The earliest was
Its de-VO ICIng to [q] and too k place among th e descendants of the
first waves of Arab settlers, say in the eighth or ninth century; among
some of these sa me populations it then underwent ru rther changes
notably t o [']. Another change may have take n place around th e sa m~
time inSide Arabia, and was carried by later waves of migrants (whose
descendants are often still no madic), namely its fronting to [g]. In
stIil later waves, there was a further change of this [g] resulting in its
.a ffr~cat~ o n to U] In certain positions, and in the latest wave we have
affrIcatlOn to [dz]. No te th at this schema goes we ll with the devel-
opments noted for OA/ k/ : [0] de-voiced to [q], - no concom itant
change In OA/ k/,. wh ich is already voiceless; [0] fro n:ed to [g] -
concomita nt fron tIng of [k], wi th a ne w phoneme lei in some dia lects;
further frontII1 g and affri eatio n yielding iii for front allophones,
always With concom itant fef, and simil ar.1 y ror dental affrication to
[dz] and [cj. Th is may be a bstracted in the fo llowing table, with
 30 COMM UNAL DIALECTS I N BAGHDAD PHONOLOGY 31
"sedentary type" examples on the left , and nomadic type examples torical divergences in the treatment of OA vowels to be discussed
on the ri ght. below. In J, /iI and ful occur almost exc lusivel y in un stressed o pe n
syllab les whe reas leI IS VIrtuall y rest ric ted to closed or stressed ope n
OA [Ga'ad] [Gii' id] [kubr] [kabir] syllab les; lal has greater freedo m of occurrence. Much th e sa me
applies to C, except that IiI and luI are much rarer than in J, where
(I) de-vo icing: [qa'ad] [qii'ad] ( I ') fronting : [ga'ad] [gii'ad] they often result from a shortenin g of un stressed long vowe l th at
[kubr] [k a bir] [kubr] [k'abir] or [cabir] does not take place in C. In M, o nly /ii, which is qu ite rare, is restricted
(2) further changes: (2') fro ntin g: [ga'ad] [jii'ad] to unstressed open sylla bles, whereas luI, leI, a nd lal are not strongly
(a) ['a'ad] ['ii'ad] [kub r] [eabi r] restricted. For some M speakers, the contrast iii vs . leI may not
[kubr] [kabir] eXist, so that there may be speakers with on ly three short vowel
(3') fronting: [ga'ad] [dzii'ad] phonemes. In fact, in view of the distribution restricli o nsj ust outlined
(b) [ka'ad] [kii'ad] [kubr] [cabir] true minimal pairs contrasting Ii! and lei are hard to find even fa;
[cubr] [cbir] those s ~eakers for whom the distinction is clear and consistent (and
hence, 111 ou r terms, pho nemic): J/limal and J/lemal are sy non ymo us
3.3 VOWELS. 3. 31 Overal1 view. (a) As in the case of the conso- ('until ') b~t auditorily not interchan ged ; the morpheme I Ii/- as in
nants, the inventories o r vowe l phoncmes are very nearly the same e.g. MJC/lihassal ' until now', M/ligeddiim/, JC/liqeddiiml 'i n advance'
. for M, J, and C. However, there are great differences in distribution IS one of the few instances (o ther than reflexes of long vowels in
and in historical correspondence. As in other Arabic dialects, it unst ressed syllables) in which /iI does not seem to result from C lassical
~ nfluence. In other instances such influence seems evident: it is fl agrant
,. seems best to envisage the vowe ls as arranged into two sub-systems
o f short and long vowe ls respectively, thus: In ~he com~~n MJC/Ji 'an/ 'because', even more so in scmi-literary
van ants (/kltabl for Iktiibl ' book' and the li ke), and is probably
Short Vowels Long Vowels prese nt also in verbal nouns of Forms VII and VIlI, e.g. lextilMI
u u 'dIfference ', lentiqiil/ ' transfer'. The contrast luI vs. leI is more
e sohdl y estabhshed for M, with many pairs such as I~ebbl 'water j a r'
a vs. I ~ubbl 'love', Igull al 'tel1 (m. s.) him' vs. Igellal 'dearth ', t hough
there IS a good deal of neutra lization (cf. 3.32 a nd note 60); in C and J
(b) T he sy mbol leI was chosen to represent a phoneme with the contrast IS weaker, and / u/ occurs only in loans from M and
allophones clustering abou t a mid, central [a] and is used for conve- Classical (in C) and in such loans as well as in forms where it reflects an
nience only in the phonemic notation; a phonemic symbolj zatio n 101 older_long vowel in J: MJC/mudir/,director', MJC/mumken/' possible' ,
would admittedly have been preferable. At any rate the symbol leI J/dulabl 'l1Iche' (cf. MC/duliib/). Unstressed final /iI and luI, quite
should in no way be taken to imply that t his phoneme is the " short common 111 MJC, ca n contrast neither with IiI o r /UI nor with leI,
equivalent" of leI. Neither leI nor 161 have co rrespondingly short whIch do not occur in this position: MJc/jiiblil 'he brough t to me'
phonemic parall els, though they each have shorter a nd longer phonetic Ijibul ' bring (imptv. p l.)'. '
varia nts; the final unst ressed [E] of M is assigned to lal, the (rare) (d) Al1 op honic distribution in the short vowels is, unl ike what
final unstressed [0] of MJC is assigned to 161; for details and justi- has been said for the consonants, not exactl y the sa me for M, J and C.
fication , see below. In M, even for those speakers who have a contrast leI-IiI, the leI
(e) The short vowels exhibit striking differences in frequency and has allophones clustering about a higher, more forwa rd position
distribution, most noticeably as between M on the one hand and JC than the leI of JC, wh ic h tends towa rd s a lowe r more retrac ted
on the other; most of these differences result directly from the his- position and towards greater rounding, especially ' near emphatics.
 32 COMM UNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
Thus to my ears (and, judging from informant reaction, to some of
the speakers themselves) lC/el often so unds like M/ul and vice
versa: M/ i;lU\ull and lCj I;>e\ell ' bottle' a re both phonetically [I;>~\~ I],
and Ilbegdiidl 'Baghdad ' , for wh ich both M a nd C have Ibagdad/,
sounds like Ibegdiidl to C speakers but like Ibugdiidl to M speakers
and, frank ly, to me, though of course [ defer to the native 1 inter-
pretation in my phonemicization. 6 0 Another major difference in
allophone distribution is that obtaining fo r lal, where the differenti-
ation is between 1 on the one hand and MC on the other. All three dia-
lects have allophones spreading from mid front ttl through low front
[a], low central [a] and low back [A]. In l , allophone distribution is
quite similar to that found in most Arabic dialects, except perhaps
for the more frequent occurrence of [tl. and is as follows:
(i) near front consonants, ttl or [a] : [ji mt l], Ua mal] 'camei'
(ii) [a] or [A] near back consonants, [ax], ' brother' [aku] or [~ku]
'there is' (but [a,iiku] 'what is there ?', because of the [s])
(iii) [A] near emphatics a nd Iq/ : [WAqqA] ' leaf', [A!!A] ' God'.
,.
,. The difference between this distribution and that found in M and C
concerns the allophones of lal in final , unstressed syllables. In abso-
lute final position, MC have ttl or [a] even if immediately preceded
by an emphatic, though not if preceded by [h] or ['], in which case
there is [a]; the same holds in final closed sylla bles unless the c10sirig
consonant is an emphatic; thus :
1 C M 'courtyard', Ihusenl 'two courtyards'; for details, see 3.37b below.
[01.103] [ol.1 nt] [ahnt ]
[A!!A] [A!!E] [A!!E]
[i,lal.l!A] [ 1)a~\E] [h U~ \ E]
\ [I;>A~AI] [I;>A~iil] [ I;>u~a l]
[A 9YA(\] [A I;>YAQ] [A!;>YA(\]
[sa'a] [sii'a] [sii'a]
\ case of lal vs. lal discussed in (j) below, show no qua ntity contrast
In addi tion, the allophone of word-final lal preceded by Ihl de-
pends, for M and C, on whether the Ihl is preceded by lal or not ; if
preceded by lal, it may be either tt l or [aJ; if preceded by any other
vowel, only ttl, thus:
PHONOLOGY 33
1 C M
[waddaha] [wiiddaha] [waddaha]
or [wiiddiiht ] or [wiiddiih t ]
[waddiiha] [wiidd6ht] [wiidd6ht]
It should be noted that this MC[t ] in word-final position is essen-
tially a pausal phenomenon ; in close juncture with a following word ,
it behaves as in medial position, thus M[clnnaj 'we were', but
[elll nahnilkt] 'we we re there'. While the behavior of a ll 1 and M
informants is consistent with the allophonic distribution outlined
here, at least one of my C informants seems to fluctuate between
the above C distribution and one more li ke 1. It may be that my C
speakers showed M in fluence in this m a~er, and that more co nser-
vative C speakers would have a pattern more like that of l , which is
also that of Mosul , a dialect which C follows closely on many points.
(e) The long vowels are less varied a llophonica lly, but a charac-
teristic of 1 is that the vowels of unstressed sy ll ables are regu larly
shorter than the corresponding vowels of MC. Phonemicall y, this
results in the following:
(i) Unstressed lei and 161 either remain "the sa me" (though
phonetically shorter), or are replaced by Iii and lui : J/seme'l 'having
heard', Iseme'a I 'having heard her', but Ilbetl ' house', Ibit.nl 'two
houses' ; l/d6xanl ' he felt dizzy', Id6xa ntul 'I felt dizzy', but 1/1.16,
(ii) lla/, 11/, and lui are replaced by lal, Iii, and lui : I j'ayanl
' he saw', but j'ayantul 'I saw'; Iqqlbl 'near', pI. Iqqibln/; I/niimil
'lemons', nom. un . Inumiyyif. Thus MC/a/, III, and liil in unstressed
syllables usually correspond to J/a/, /ii, and lui unless other historical
changes have altered the corre~pondence even further: M/jiiriib/,
Iljurabl 'sock' ; M/mlzan/, C Imlzenl, Ilmizlnl ' scale'; MCjcakiicl
l leakiicl ' hammer'. Unstressed fin al vowels, except for the specia l
in M. J, or C, and are represented by the short vowel sym bols, except
. in the case of 16/, since our phonemic inventory includes no lof.
This 161 is quite rare in Ml, e.g. MICjrady61 'radio' , somewhat less
so in C, e. g. C/qar61 'they read', Iban61 'they built'; final unstressed
lei does not occur.
 34 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
(iii) Long [i] and [u] do, ho weve r, occur in unstressed syllables
in J as a result of certain historical and mor phophonemic processes to
be described below (3.33); these are equivalent to, a nd seem to vary
freely with , the sequences [iy] and [uw] respectively: Isayyabl ' he
abandoned', [siyyaba] or [siyaba] 'he aba ndoned her'; Imsayyebl
'having abandoned ', pI. [msibin], [msiybin]; /iawwazl ' he married',
[juwwaza] or [juwaza] 'he married her'; Imjawwazl 'married', pI.
[mjuzin], [mjuwzin]. In genera l, [i] and [iy] do not cont rast, nor do
[u] and [uw] (cf. J/hi yyil 'she', Ihuwwil 'he', MC/ hiyya/, Ihuwwal,
which could just as well be written with long vowels and a slDgle
semi-vowel) and a finalized phonemic notati on might retain only
liyl and luwl to the excl usion of Iii and lui ; at any rate this certainly
seems indicated for the above verba l a nd participial forms; cf. also
J/yhudl 'Jews', Ili yhud/, i.e. [Iihud], 'the Jews' ; J/wlanil 'first', Ilu wliin il
i. e. [lulani] ' the fi rst'. On non-contrast wi th [ay] and [awl, see
3.37b. All three dialects have the typically Baghdadi mid allophones
.[e] and [5] as norms for lei and lill and the norm for lal is, near
front conso nants, more central than fro nt ; M speakers often have
a back -variant in this position , whic h seems less true of J and C
~. speakers. All three a lso have the typical diphthongization of lei
•
after fro nt consonants, i.e. a composite SQund with [i]-like on-glide
that gives the effect now of a rising diphthong ri el, now of a falling
diphthong [ie]: MJC [zie n] Izenl 'good'; there is no on-glide after
back consonan ts or ernphatics. 6 1
(f) A phenomenon t hat is somewhat ma rginal but is of interest
because of its absence in ·the Arabic. dialects hItherto descnbed
is the contrast lal vs. liil in final unstressed position. This occurs
principally in M, is present in C, perhaps as a result of M influence
on my C informants, and seem,s abse nt fro m J. T his contrast arises
from the fact that c1assicisms (some of them extremely common)
are pronounced with a fina l (a] or ' [ft. ] irrespecti ve of environment,
which contrasts with the final [e] which, in M and C, occurs in almost
. any environment (cf. (d) above); the contrast seems to be essentially
one of quality rather tha n one of quantity, so that it is probably not
maintained after [ill, ['J a nd [ah], where the central or back vanetles
occur. Th us [iaA] or [Ia,, ] 'if', [JilmmA] or [Jii mmA] 'when', [ammA]
or [a mm A) 'but, as for', in "se mi-literary" style, and such classicisms
as [hunA] ' here' [uxrA ] 'other (f.)', contrast clearly with such items
as [Ije] 'he came', [ummel 'his mother', [h.ixre] 'another (f.); etc.
PHONOLOGY 35
One inf~ rm ant vol unteered the information that Ikallal 'sugarloaf'
(I. e. [ka lle]) IS one thlllg whereas Ikallal 'certainly not' (in semi-
literary or mock literary utterances), i.e. [k~ II Aj, is something else
~ga lfl ; In thiS case the distinction was made by a very clear lengthen-
IIlg of the final [Aj of the lalle r term as compared to the short front
[e] of the former, bllt the quality co ntrast seems the more stable
and quantity in this positio n does not seem to be distinctive pc;
se. Never theless, th e interpretatio n of the contrast as phonemically
lal vs. lal in such cases seems the most reaso nable both fro m the
point of view of notational simplicity and from the speakers' own
interpretation. This would thus represent a c1carcut case of phonemic
overlapping, with [A] assigned to / a/ in some environments and to
lal in others: Fo r the speakers, the final vowel of [HimmAj, for ex-
ample, IS qUIte explicitl y lhe "same" as lhat of [mal] a nd not the
same. as ~hat of [QAt]. A striking confirmation of this native speaker
rea~tlo n IS to be fou nd in Ru~a fi's descri ption of the co ll oq uial, in
whI ch he repeatedl y describes the so und at th e end of such word s
as M/semaj 'sky' as an 'alif which is "written but not pronou nced"
.. (/~~klab lVa-la /ulj{q) ,62 clearly reAecti ng the notion that if the 'alif
wer~ pronou.nced, viz., if the vowe l were long, one would gel a pho-
nemlca li y different pronunciation. Iraqi rad io announcers do so
"pro n o u~ce the 'alif" when reading literary Arab ic, and informants
e.ven deSignate the pronunciati on (an £J 'I' as wro ng for st rictl y clas-
SIcal usage because of "not pronouncing the 'a/if" the preferred
version being [anA), [anA).63 '
(g) The vowel systems of MJC taken either separately o r in their
interrelations are thus more comple x than the conso nant systems,
and more co uld be said abo ut them if our main aim were a complete
descripti on of the dialects. Havi ng elected to foc us attention on
historical and comparative matters, however, we may end overall
description here and proceed to examine the very divergent treatment
of OA vowels that are to be found in our dialects.
3.32 Refl exes of OAlil and luI. (0) All three dialects have as do
most other Arabic dialects, a zero reAex of the OA short high 'vowels
where lhey were in unst ressed" open syllab le: OA/fula nl 'such-and-
such·, M1 Cf fl an/ ; OA/biladl 'cou nt ry', M1 Cfbiadf. There is, however,
a considerable difference in the treatment of these vowels where
they we re in closed sylla ble or in open stressed syll able, as between M
on the one hand and .Ie on the ot her. TI~e i r treatment in JC (except
 PHONOLOGY 37
COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
36
emphatic, non-labial consonant on the other: I yakull vs. Imakell
for loanwords and special cases) is simple: both yield lei throughout lyaxu51 vs. Imaxe5/, Irukbal vs. Irekbat/ . If the other consonant is
a fact which explains in large measure the almost complete absence back, emphatic or labial, Ihe environment is no longer color-preserving
~f a lui phoneme in lC discussed in the precedll1g secllon) . But tn M but [uj-coloring (see below) which of course still preserves OAlul
the situation is considerably more complIcated: M has both lui and but not OA/e/.
lei in such cases, but these are not necessarily reflexes of OA/ul ~~~ (ii) The [eJ-coloring environments are best defined negatively,
Iii respectively. In some environments and tn some morpholog viz. as involving flanking consonants which are neither color-p re-
p;tterns, OA/ul is Mlel, in others it is M/u/ ; SIm ilarly, OAIII may serving nor [uj-coloring; in such cases we have Mlel for OAlul and
yield either Mlel or Mlul depending o n a number of factors. Here OA/i/: Isedqanl ~ friend s', Ibestanl 'garden', Iraje ll 'husband' , 10eleOI
are some examp les: 'third'.
J C (iii) The preponderance o f [ul-coloring environments is one
OA M of the salient features of M in contrast to J a nd C and , indeed, to
qebba qebbi
qubba 'dome' gu!;>!;>a 'room' qebab
most Arabic dialects. These fa ll into several categories. In the most
qebab
qubab 'domes' gu!;>a!;> 'rooms' xebez
general case, M will show lui for eit her OAlul or fiI or, in give n
xebz paradigms, fo r OA/a/, whenever the flankin g consonants a re a velar
xubz 'bread' xubuz
bestan besUin
bustan 'gard en' bestan or emphatic on one side and a labial on the other : Ihamul)1 'sou r',
bamel) I)amee;!
hamil) 'sour' bamul) sedeq
Iwagufl 'standin g', l?a!;>u!1 "officer' (cf. Ibamell 'ca rrying' l lawnl
sidq 'truthfulness' sudug sedeq 'necessary' etc.); Isudugl 'truth' (cf. Isejenl 'jail '); Imetxabbull 'going
gebe' rebe'
rub' 'quarter' rubu' crazy', (but Imet'alleml 'educated'); Il;lTa! ul]11 'thick lips', Idanabugl
OelO telet
aula 'a third' OeleO 'drums' (but 11:l\vajebl 'eyebrows'). There may be Irl instead of the
, yakel yakel
, ya'kul 'he eats' yakul
mokel mokel
ve lar or emphatic, but th is is [uJ·coloring in a more restricted fashion.
*makil '~ating' makel There is fluctuation after lal, e.g. Isarebl and Isarubl 'drinking',
I~arebl and I~a rub/' hitting', but there is only lui where Irl is preceded
(b) S'nce Mlel and Mlul are not only found as reflexes ofOAlil and or followed by la/ : Imetgarrubl 'having gone abroad', and is most
OA/ u/ 1 the ensui ng discussion necessarily antic ipates some details common in anaptyxis: Idarubl ' road', Igaburl 'grave" , Ibarubl 'war'
, f OA/a/' and of OA consonant clusters. Wherever (cf. Ibaredl 'cold', Isarejl 'saddle'). In addition to the environments
of the treat}llcnt a ' . ' eel a short
historical or morphological conslderahons lead us to exp . 1I "velar or emphatic plus labial" and '" /rl plus labial," the presence of
other than lall the choice between lei and lui IS usua Y an adjacent Iwl is usualry sufficient to cause [uj-coloring, except that
VOW el ( ' I ntal environment
redetermined by contextua l factors: t 1C co.~s~~a ., J I . " if Iwl precedes the vowel there is fluctuation between lui and lei,
P . ""[ J coloTing or [u -co OTing.
may be eit her "color-preservtng, C • . ' . Whereas if it follows lui seems stable : Iwu ledl and Iweledl 'children',
r OAI I Mlel for OAIII (or, tn given Iwusall and Iwesal/ 'he arrived', but Isuwal 'together', Id uwa/ ·remedy'.
The first will show M IuI or u, OA/'I OA/u/"
s for OA/a/)· ·the seco nd will sho w Mlel for I or I' h' . For two further cases of [uJ-coloring in anaptyxis, see 3.52 below.
case, ' I I r OAI I /iI o r in given cases, la , t e (e) The treatment of the short high OA vowels in J and C is largely
the third will show M u . or U" , '11"1 Iy be lei
ana t ctic vowel separating consonant clusters, WI Si mi ~r _ analogous to their treatment in all the other qelru·dialects exam ined,
PulYaccOrd ing to whether the environment IS [eJ-coloTing or [uJ i. c. Mosul, Mardin , 'Ana, and the Anatolian dia lec ts. However,
or I f II 'n 352 An exhausll ve
colaTin but this is discussed more u Y I .. the M preservation of lui in some environments and the Iii> lui
. g., f all oss ible envi ronments ca nn ot be given here,. ?ut shift in others is not wholly ana logo us to the ge/ef-dialects of the
~~~C~~~I~~v~n; shouid give an adequate idea of the sa li en t re~ulartlt~esh' countryside, which have more occurrences of lei for OAlul, i.e. fewer
. . . t . re notably tho se tn w lI C [u]·coloring and apparent ly no color-preserving environments:
(i) Color-pre servUlg envlronmen s (1 . , _
the vowe l is flanked by a velar o n one Side and a non-1Mck. non
38 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD PHONOLOGY 39

these dialects have e.g. Ikelll 'all', Iyakell 'he eats', unlik e M, which of lal, lei, and zero that give J verb and noun paradigms their apparent
has lui in these forms but, like M Ibarput:)1 'so ur', Irul;lU' I 'quarter'.6' intricacy, e.g. Ifatal)1 'he opened', Iftabul 'he opened it'; Ifatl)etl
The nomadic dialects of tbe area seem to go along with the rural gelel- 'she opened', Ifetl)etul 'she opened it'; Iftabil 'open! (f.s.)', Ifetbihal
dialects in this respect. 66 'open it!'; /jamalf 'camel', Ijmalul 'his camel', /jemlenl 'two ca mels',
3.33 Reflexes of OA/' /, (a) Whereas other different iating fea- and many more.
tures tend to group two of the dialects as against the third (most (ii) In C, the prese rvation of lal is nea rly as regular as its non-
commonly J and C as aga inst M), OAlal is treated in three different preservation in 1. Deviations are less rationally classifiable than in J,
ways in the three dialects. Generally speaking, it will be seen that (i) and include some common wo rd s with Iii : Ikbigl 'big', fjd idl 'new',
in J, OAlal is preserved as lal in stressed syllables, and in closed post- Iktil!.l 'much', where OA had lal between the first two co nsona nls ;
stress syllables, changed to lei in pre-stress closed syllables and informants give Ibmigl side by side with Ibamigl 'donkeys'. In such
zeroed-out in un stressed open syllables; (ii) in C, OAlal is preserved instances C goes along with 1, as it does also in adjectives which in
as lal in all positions; (iii) in M, the picture is far more complex: OA had the pattern qatltill: Ikeslanl ' lazy', /, e!Sfml 'thirsty', etc.,
lal is preserved in closed syllables (stressed or un stressed), but in though in other patterns with a similar syll ab ic structure, lal is
open sy llables the reflex may be lal, lei, lui, or ze ro , dependin g o n the preserved : Ixabbazl ' baker', Imaftllbl 'open', etc. as expected.
environment. The following are paradigmatic examples : (iii) In M, lal is preserved in OA closed syllables; its trea tm ent
in open syllables is complex and depends on several factors: whether
OA M J C stressed or unstressed, the quality of the following vowe l, and the
quality of the adjacent consonants. The simplest case is th a t of laK I
8aqiJ 'heavy' 8egiJ 8qiJ taqiJ in the following syllable: the rellex is zero except if the initial was j'j .
xafir xfir xafif Thus Iswarebl ' mustaches', Irmadl 'ashes', Iksalal 'lazy (pl.)', bUI
xaOf 'light'
lawademl 'peo ple', lasamil 'names': Even this "simple" case has
sawarib 'mustaches' swareb swigeb sawegeb
many exceptions, in part connected with morphology: many nouns
'knives' scacin skakjn sa kekin
sak.ki n of the qattil pattern prese rve the lal (fsalaml 'peace', Isa rabl 'wine',
jamal 'ca mel' jemal jamal jamal Ijamall 'beauty'), whereas most plural patterns regularly drop the la/.
jamalayn 'two came ls' jmalen jemlen jamalen A second case of zeroing-o ut is that of OA/al preceded by a stressed
'baker' xabbaz xebb5z xabbaz syllable: lad mil 'a man' , Ibarbawl 'they fou ght', Isalmawl 'they
xabbaz
greeted', Itwa nsawl 'they enjoyed themselves', Itfetbinl 'you (f. s.)
(6) On reflexes of OA/al before Iwl and /y/, cf. 3.37 below. A open'. However, in the case of the last three verba l pa rad igms M also
number of specia l cases and deviations from the genera l scheme has Isallemawl, Itwannesawl and Iteftal)in/, cf. 4.82 and 4.83; my in-
illustrated by the foregoing table will appear in the di sc ussion of formants seem to use both forms interchangeably. A third case is
specific morphological patterns or individual lexical items. Some that of OA/al followed by liKI o r lOKI in the next syllable; here the
additional facets of this threefo ld treatment of OA/al are the reflex is lal only if the preceding consonant was /,/, 11)/, /'I, Ixl or /i!,/ :
j'atigl 'old', la~iJl 'well-born', IbaJibl 'milk', Ixafifl ' light', Igasill
following.
(i) In J, th e ze ro and lei reflexes appear in their expected places 'wash', j'ajuzj 'old woman' , instances of /a/ in qatil nouns in other
with the greatest regularity and few deviations. Where OA fal was environments seem to be due to borrowing: I~adigl 'friend'. Ifaqirl
preceded by initial /'/. it is usually reta in ed even if unstressed: /abu na / 'poor', Iqalill 'little', Iqaribl ' near' (cf. the more ordina ry Ige ribl
'our father' , l axu nul 'his brother' l aka ltul ' I ate' , l aftahem l ' I under- ' near'). Whe n OAlal was not preceded by one of th e aforementioned
stand', and so on thro ughou t ; howe ver, r~iI / 'well born' is regu lar. consonants, it has been replaced by an lei which a lterna tes with
The J treatment of OA/a/ res ults in special morphonernic alternatio ns ze ro (and .ma y be co nsidered anaptyctiS): loebirl 'big', f be'idl 'far',
 40 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
Iseminl 'fat', Iyehudl 'Jews', /jenubl ' south', Ilewill 'long'. This lei is
present when the wo rd in question is preceded by silence or by a word
ending in a single consonant; if preceded by a closely joined word
ending in a vowel or certai n consonant clusters, the lei drops out:
Imudda lwilal 'a long period' , Ifadwebda jdidal 'a new one (f.)',
leanna ebirl 'he seems big'. Thi s elision of lei is, however, optional,
as is its retention after a pause whenever the resulting consonant cluster
is permissible: in isolation one may hear both Iseminl and Isminl
' fat', leebirl and Icbirl 'big',/refijl and Irfijl 'friend', etc. F inally, a
number of cases that seem historically related may be subsumed
under a fou rth heading, namely "the case of two successive la/,s."
Thi s matter will re-appear in the morph ology , but deserves a separate
paragrap h here.
(iv) In M, OAlal in a stressed open syllable changes to lei or lui
if it was immediately followed by anot her la/; if that second lal was
in an open sy llable, it has dropped out; if it was in a closed syllable,
it was retained . This phenomenon has thus had th e effect of consid-
°erably altering nouns on the pattern qalal, qa talT,67 and especially
the perfect of Form I ve rbs with their basic qalal pattern. If the
,.- enviro nment is of the [ul-coloring type, the new vowel is lui, other-
wise it is lei: Igu marl ' moon', l I:> u~a l l 'onions', Ikumasl 'he grasped',
. IkuI:>arl 'he glew up', IUI" arl 'he ordered', contrasting with Ijemall
'camel', Ijeball ' mountain', Isemacl ' fi sh', Icefanl 'shro ud', Igela'i
' he cut', Ireka!)1 'he ran', l(je bakl 'he laughed'. The same applies to
cases in wh ich the second / a/ is final , i.c. may once have been long but
was subsequently shortened: Isemal 'sky', Ibenal 'he built', Ige!)al
' he spent (time)', but Iduwal 'remedy', Isuwal 'together', Imu!)al
'he signed'~ Ibuqal 'he stayed'. With a second lal in open syllable
eli minated , we find e.g. Isemcal 'a fis h', Ixesbal 'a piece .of wood',
Isej ral ' a tiee', Irpu lratl 'it rained', Iqub(jawl 'they grasped', Isebhawl
they swam', Ige'datl 'she sat', ·as well as /, erbil 'a vi llager'
. (OAj'arabiy/), /,ejmil 'Persian'. Th is shift is most consistent in the
verb, where the only exceptions are the verbs / aka l/ 'he ate' and
/axao/' he took'; nouns are more problemat ic, with deviants includ in g,
aside from such loanwords as Isakarl 'sugar' and Iqanafal 'sofa',
also such items as l ~ alaI:>1 'wood', Ixa!?arl 'piece of news', /,asall
'honey', Ihawal 'wind', /, a~al 'stick', and a good man y others. Fu rther
complications are introduced · by fluctuation between lei and lui in
certain . cases (jwe~all a nd I wu~al l 'he arrived', Irugbal and Iregbal
PHONOLOGY 41
'neck', etc.) and by the behavior of the vowels when pronom inal
suffixes are added; details will be found in Chapter 4 68
(e) T~e treatment of OA/al in J is practically identical wit h that
of the 'Ana dialect, whereas that of C is ve ry nearly the same as that
of~os ul. The M treatment, while simi lar to that of the rura l gelel-
dialects, differs from them in several important respects, notabl y in
the different dist ribut ion of the lei and lui reflexes and in the absence
in M of the syllabic reshuffling that makes these rural dialects so
si milar to the no madic dialects of the area. Thus, from my informant
fro m Mu sayya b district (s imilar examples may be fou nd in Meiss ner,
1903b; Weissbach, 1908, 1930) I have Ixsebal 'piece of wood'
(M jxesba/), Igu~aI:>1 ' reeds' (M/ge~aI:>/),jg~ u I:>al 'a reed' (M/ge~!?a/),
Ighawal 'co ffee' (M/ga hwa/), /, rubi/ 'a vi ll ager' (M/,e rbij).
3.34 Reflexes of OA/il and lui. As a rul e, the OA high long vowe l ~
are represented by /i/ and lui, respecti vely, in all three dialects, though
J stands apart from the ot her two in th at it regularl y shortens th e m
to Iii and lui in unstressed position (see 3.31e above). There is, in
add iti o n, a difference in their treatment th at is peculiar to C, namely
their lowering respect ively to lei and 161 before Ib/, Iql and Ii!.! :
Imale~1 'nice', l~a ~ e ~1 'who le', Ige~al 'smell', l~ t6 ~1 'roofs', lag61.11
'I go' (and so throughout the im pf. and impt v. of th is ve rb), Is6ql
'market', I ma~g6ql ' burnt', Imaql6ql 'worried', Isand6ql ' box',
/~6ga/ 'picture'. However, this is not carried out wi th e ntire consist-
ency : lasuql '[ convey', cf. Is6ql 'market', labuql 'I steal', a nd examples
are not numerous eno ugh to a llow a conjecture as to the nature of
the variati on. Here again, C is similar to Mosul; which shows /e/
a nd 161 in similar cases. As to the J shorten ing of OA/il and lui,
(a phenomenon th at is com mon enough in the Egy pti an and Syrian
areas but rare in Iraq) there is a pract ica ll y id e ntical shor tening of
OA long vowels, includ ing la/, in 'Ana.
3.35 Reflexes of OA final la'i. In 3.36 the treatment of OA/al with
respect to 'imala will be discussed in detail. In this ·paragraph
attentio n is ca ll ed to anot her point of divergence among the three
dialects as to treatment of OA/a/: in the feminines of adjectives
denotin g colors and infirmities which had the OA pattern qat/a' , .
the /'I has dropped in MJC as in the ot her Arabic dia lects, but in M
the final vowe l is short and uns tressed , whe reas in JC it is lo ng and
stressed. Thus M/s6da/ , J/suda /, C/s6ditl 'black·: M/ tarsa/ . J/tegsa/,
C/lagSiI 'deaf'. a nd so on throug hout; On the other hand. M does
42 COMMUNA L DiALECTS IN BAGHOAD
PHONOLOGY
43
share with J and C a similar retention of length and stress in M/tliiOli/ Ibasatinj 'gardens', M/ bsatin/, J/ bsatin/ , C/ basetin/. Where 'imtila-
'Tuesday ' (l/t/aSa/, C/tIata/), and larba'al ' Wednesday' (l/agb'a/, prone lal was Immediately fo llowed by Iyl, C has laYI (w hich in this
Cjarba'a/); and all t hree have a final stressed lal as a reflex of older pOSI tion does not co ntrast with the regu lar ly expected Ie/) and J has
lah/: M/sefnil 'we sa w him', MJCjmdaral 'ca re', Imesl)al 's hove l', the reg ularly expected Ii/ whi ch in this pos ition varies free ly with
etc. In all other instances, OA final lal and la'i have been reduced Ily/ ; however, this does not ho ld for all J reflexes, nOla bl y of th e
to lal, unless 'im{ila has taken place. Mos ul shows the same retenti on plu ral pattern qartiyil (qat ti'il), where J has la/ :
of length and stress in the feminines o f the (OA) qallti' pattern and in
the words for T uesday and Wednesday as do J and C; ho wever /.1ikaya 'story' i)caya bkiyi bkayyi
'Ana goes with M in this respect, as do the rura l gelel-dialects, which 'adiy is 'brides' 'rayes 'gayes 'agayyes
do not have lill in the wo rd s for Tuesday and Wednesday.
3.36 The 'imiila. (a) One o f th e most striking features differ- There is, in bot h J, and .C~ at least one in stance of mo rpho log ica ll y
entiating J and C on the one hand from M on the other is the treat- defi na bl ~ pres~ rv~tlOn of / a/ where ';mdla might have been expec ted,
ment of DAlai ; in M, we reg ularl y have lal (fal in final position), namel y In adject ive plurals corresponding to the OA pattern qil (i1.
but in J and C there is o ften lei or /if. This phenomeno n is of co n- Thus JCj kbagl 'big', Imlal.ll ' nice', Is mflnl 'ra l', I!waif 'long', and so
sid erable co mparative and historical interest, an d it will be discussed ? n throughout. In all lik elihood , th ese do not form real exceptions,
in so me detai l. There are at least six cases that may be consid ered In . th~t they are pr? bably based o n an OA pattern qUId! even though
separately: (i) the case of DAlai near Iii or Iii in the noun ; (ii) the thiS IS unattes ted In Classical Arabic for thi s part icular word class
special case Qfthe ve rb ; (iii) the case of word final la/ ; (iv) the feminine (see p~r. (b) below),69 There are, howe ver, a goo d many unsys temati c
endin g; (v) the special case of the numerals; (vi) so me isolated cases. rete~ tl o ns of / a( in give n words , which are not the sa me in J as they
This breakdow n poi nts up t he fact (already illustrated by several of a re In C: J/I.1Slbl but C/hsabl 'account', C/awedeml 'people' bu t
the forego ing discussions of given sou nd shifts, notably in the short J/awftd?m / , Cl ktebl ' book' bUI J/ktffb/, th o ugh Iktibil 'a (piece of)
·vowels) that different mo rphological classes in volve different dia- wr~tln g,; and !Cjlazeml 'necessary', IUIjerl ' merchant ', Is are'l 'street',
chronic treatment o f the sa me sound ; th is "morphological differen- Iwadl l va lley, Ibladl 'cou ntry', and o lhers.
tia tion" or "morphologica l conditioning" of sound shifts is re- (ii) '1n th e ve rb, the JC treatment of DAlai is so mewhat dif-
markab ly extensive in J, seem's less commo n in C and is least frequent ferent. ~n the active parliciple of Form I verbs, C has th e expected
in M. reftex lei (fayl before Iy/), and J in this case follows .lhe C pattern
(i) In the general case, when DAlai was in proximity to Iii or rather than the expected Iii :
Iii in the affix less noun, it is represe nted by lei in C and by Iii in J:
OA M J C
OA M J C
,waqif 'standin g' waguf
kilftb 'dogs' clab klib kleb weqe f weqef
nayim 'sleeping' naye m n,lyyem
jami ' 'mosque' jame' jime' jeme' nayyem
6ibban 'flies' 6ebban oe bbin debben
mizan 'scale' mizan mi zi n mizen Thus while there is nothing unus ua l in C, there is in J a tre atme nt
I!awajib 'eyebrows' I.l\vajeb l)wijeb ba wejeb of ,pa,rti cip les that se ts th em apart fro m nouns o r adjec tives Corres-
~o ndlng to OA qiilil for ms, and yielding such doub lets as J/jeme'l
Ho weve r, J dev iates from this in the plural patte rn correspond in g ha Vin g ga th ered' vs. /j im e'/ 'mosqu e'.70 In other ve rba l paradigms
to OA gartilil, in that it has lal rather th an the expected Iii : OA where DAlai was nea r /ii, notably th e perfect, th e imperat ive, and
44 COMM UNA L DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD PHONOLOGY
45
the active participle of Form III and the acti ve participle of Form (iv) A discussion of the treatment of the feminine ending is So me-
VI, no 'imcila ta kes place at all in either J or C: what extraneous to the question of the reflexes of OA/a/, since the
OA femmme endmg seems to ha ve been , in th e pause lahl or lal
OA M J x C rather than i a/. It is mentioned here only beca use it w~s subject to
a very specl~c. kind o,r 'h~llila resulting in an allomorphic split, so
asami~ 'I forgive' asameil asameJ:! asamcl) that the. fe mmme endmg m J and C is now lal in so me instances
sam ib 'forgive !' samel) sa mel) sameD and /II m others. The fu ll de ta ils will ap pear in the mo rpho logy
musamii) 'fo rgiving' msa mcl) msamel) msa meJ:! but It may be stated here that in a very ge nera l way, C has lal neal:
emphatIcs and back consonants and Iii after other conso nants
(iii) Some nouns and particles correspo nding to OA forms whereas J has lal or /if depending not on the preceding co nso na nt '
with final lal o r la'i have Iii in both J and C. These are either words but on the phoneme preceding that consonant: IiI if that phonem~
which the Arabic script spells with 'alif maq$llra, or, in the case of was mOAN , III, or Iyl, lal if otherwise:
final WI, words with Iii in the pre-final syllable. However, the prese nt
JC /i/ does not appear in the reflexes of a ll such words; it does not
appear in verbs (e.g. JC/ banal 'he built', Isammal 'he named') or OA M J C
in elatives of roots with KJ -y or '" (e.g. JCja' lal ' higher', laqwal
'stronger'); it does appear reg ularl y in plural adjectives o n th e OA bayOa. 'egg' boO. boOi bed a
pattern qafdld, and its occu rrence or non-occurrence in other items zayna 'good (f.s.)' zena zeni lcni
does not lend itself to classification: kalba 'bitch' calba kalba kalbi
bazzuna 'cat' bazzuna bezzfma bazzuni
OA M J C

ka,saHi ' lazy (pl.)' ksala ksali kasali . (v) Both the cardinal and the ordinal numera ls are anoma lous
'a' rna 'blind' a'ma a'mi a'mi I~ severa l respects in sofar as the 'imdla is concerned. In J, the or-
bala 'yes' bali bali bali ?lIlal~ ha~e ,ro;ms w~th the expected Iii : ; Oinij 'seco nd ', IOHeOI
sita' 'wihter' seta se~i seti thlfd '. Iglbe I fo~rth, IXimcs/ 'fifth', etc" but the corresponding
~inna' 'henn a I)enna Denni I)enni te:ms _C show_ la: (as ~n M and OA) instead of the expected lei :
III
Itaml, Italetl, Irabe I, Ixa mes/, etc. The cardinal numerals o n the
In "the form j baJij the re is o ne of the rare in stan ces of 'imdla in M. ~the; hand, are normal in C, bilt abnor mal in J. For OA/ wiil)id/ ,
As to other instances of th e JC 'illlcil" o f final la/, J has l ilettil ' until , one , we have the norm ally expected Cjwel)ed/ , but J also has Iwe iledl
so that', but MCj i)atta/ ; for OA/mata/, 'w hen', J has lemtal, and rather than an expected */ wiiled/ ; the feminine JC/ wei)di/, M/ wel)da/ ,
M has jyemtaj, a form also give n by my C in forma nts. th oug h a probabl~ hark back to OAj'iildaj with a Iwl due to contamination
·form l e mtil seems to be attested fo r Basra C hristi ans." For OAr aliil wlt,h l~ail ld (a)/, and is th erefore no rmal in M, J, a nd C with respecl
' o n', MJC have ( a laj. The fi nal Iii of JCj hollil ' here' may hark to Imala. T~e num erals from 3 to 10 have, as in o ther dialects, each
back to some such fo rm as Iha wnal < Ihii hunii/, but th e deictic one form WIth and o ne form wit ho ut an ending that is e tymo logi-
words seem to mak e up a s pecial ca tegory a nd the hi story of their cally th e sa me as th e femin ine ending; in C, th e fo rm s wit h th a t
vocalic endi ng is problematic; a ll that ca n be said w ith certa int y endlll g show the normal C alternation of Iii and la/; in J, howeve r,
is that M has form s in lal whe re J and C ha ve fo rms in Iii : M/ hn ii kal these form s show an /t/-/al alternation that follows the C rather
'there'.. J/ wnik i/. Cjh6niki/ ; M/ha56lal 'these . J/ ha06li /. Cj had 6li j. than the J pattern (cf. par. (iv) above):
 COM MUNAL DIALECTS IN BA GHDAD PHONOLOGY 47
46
OA J C JC/ megzibl 'gutter' and on Millarbil/. J/gegbil/, C/garbell 'sieve',
for whic h late Classical and many dialects ha ve form s with lal in
'three tlaO i tlati the second syllabl e, see the disc uss io n in 6.5 .
Oa laOa
'four agb'a arba'a
'arba'a (b) Except for 'Ana, and Hit where it is totally lackin g, the
'five' xamsl xamsi
xamsa 'imdla is a characte ristic of the qellllMdia lects: Mosul , Tekrit , and
'six' setti setti
sitta th e Anatolian dialects all have lei (in Mosu l, also lill for OA/al
'seven' sab'a sa b'a
sab'a in conditions quite similar to those indica ted for J and C. The same
'eight' 9mini tmeni
eamaniya holds for the sede ntary dia lects of Northern Syria, notably
'nine' tes'a tes'a
lis'a Aleppo.
' ten 'asga 'asga
'asara
Beyond thi s, the Syrian area shows o nl y' imala of the feminin e e nd-
Taken individually, only the J numerals 'three' and 'five' deviate ing or of final lal but not of internal Ift/, except in so me Lebanese
from the J norm , which should ha ve yielded *IWiOal and "/xamsa/, dialects where it is large ly condi ti oned by the conso nanta l enviro n-
but the whole set taken together shows an altern~ti~n c,orresp.o~dlO~ ment and is thus of a wholly different type. In Upper Egypt th ere
to the C alternation. Moreover, the J numerals tlllTty and eighty is /i/ for fina l OA/al and for th e femin ine endin g und er cert ain con-
are similarly abnormal: ditions.72 The 'inlala found in C is closer to that of the Anatolian
d ialects than to that of Mosul in that Mosul has iii for OA/al in
'thirty' tliOin tiWn certain cases, whereas C has lei : Mosul Ibasitinl 'gard ens', C/ba-
OalaOin
'eighty' Gmin!n tmenin selin/ ; in addit ion both Mosul and some A natolian dia lects have
Oamatlin
..
~

Here the J forms show ' inllila to /iI (shortened fro m Iii in unstressed
sy lla ble) even though most nouns with a similar phonemic p_attern ,
. namely the plurals of the OA type qarali/, J has lal for OA/a/~ .
(vi) A number of cases in which J, C or even M show lei, N
or /iI where one would have expected lal o r lal m~st be dIScussed
separately. No conditio ning from an adjacent OAN IS ~resent m
C/nesl ' people' (OA and MJ/nas/), in J/keml 'how many (perhaps
not a case of 'inlala, cf. note 157), in JC/l)eblel 'pregnant' (M/1)cbla / :
OA/1)ubla/), which is taken up again in 6.5; in ?/'e~mel 'da:kness
(OA/, atma/, M/, etma/ , C/,etmi/) or in J/i)elmel . darkness (OA
Ii)alma/, M/i)elma/, c/cjalma/). As in many other dialects, meludmg
some where 'ima/a is o ~herwise unknown, the names of the letters
of the Arabic alphabet have lei in MJC, e.g. Ibe/, Itel, Il)el etc. A
few M words ma y have preserved an 'imiila which was once not
limited to the Jews and Christians of Baghdad, but chaqlle mol a
son histoire and the examples noted are problem atic in v~nous
ways: the history of M/hIcil 'thus' and M/anil ' I' is unc~rta!n; o~
MJC/balil 'yes', cf. 6.5; on an unusual M/jijl for M/dejajl he~s,
for .which J/jijl and C/jejl are no rmal; see note 106; on M/meznb/,
what may be called a "productive" 'ill/ala that is lack ing in both
C and J, i.e. lal in suffix less words changes to lei when certain suf-
fixes with iii are added: Mosu l Ibestanl 'garden', IbestenCiI 'gardener';
Ibagdadl ' Baghdad', Ibagdedlil 'a Baghdadi'. The ' imala of J is un-
usual (among the dialects that have thus far come to my attention)
in two respects: the prevalence and cond iti ons of occurrence of Iii
for OA/a/, 73 and th e co nditi ons of the alternati o n in the feminine
ending. In nonc of the dialects in which 'imalll of interna l OA/al
is conditioned by proximity of DA/i/ o r Iii do we find 'imdla in the
plura ls correspo ndin g to OA qild!. Take n togeth er with certain data
from other dialects (non-affrication of OA/kj or Iq/, e.g. M/ kbarl
'big (pl.), vs. loebirl 'big (s.)', rural Igriibl 'near (pl.)' vs. Ijeribl
'near (s.)' ; Egyptian forms s uch as Igud adl ' new (pl.)', Igum a ll
'beautiful (pl.)') this indicates that such fo rms may we ll be
based on a non-attested OA pattern qllldl for adjectival plu-
mls. " .
The following synoptic table is intended to summarize th e facts of
'imdla for th e Mesopotamian and North Syria n areas :
48 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN 8AGHDAD PHONOLOGY 49
C J Mosul Anatolia Aleppo any adjective plurals of the type qital which, as has been pointed
out, show no 'imdla in prescnt-day dialects. Some nouns in which
kleb klib kleb kleb kleb 'dogs' the conditions for 'il1l(i1a are present are said to reta in lal , including
jeme' jime' jeme' jeme' jemc' 'mosque' II.l imful 'ass' (cf. JCji)mag/) and others, in which the prox imity of
basetin bsatin basitln basetin basetin 'gardens' a back co nsonant is sometimes thought to have prcvcntcd the
a'mi a'mi a'mi a"ma a"ma ' blind' change,77
kalbi kalba ka lbi kalbc; kalb~ 'bitch' (ii) The 'imala prescribed by some for forms in which lal
ka l b~ implies a radical y and alternates with IV is, as has been noted,
be<ja be(\i bC(\a be(\a be<ja 'egg' unknown in our dialccts; this category included such forms as e.g.
{ab, 'be good' impf. ya{ib, ball a 'to build', impf. yabll;' Sibawayhi's
(c) From abundant passages in the Arabic grammatical literature 75
it emerges quite clearly that OAlal (or, more acc urately, what tra-
ditional spelling rep resents by fatha plus 'alif or plus 'alif maq~lira)
statement that active participles of Form I ver bs havc no 'im ola
(though other words of the same qatil pattern do) is contrad icted
by (later) usage. but may have so mething to do with the qetel- qitel
,
was rendered in Iraq, especiall y in Baghdad , wi th an "incl inati on" spli t in J. 7 8 No examples of 'imala in verbs of Forms III or VI have
('inlala) towards Iii . This inclination could be sligh t, medium, or co me to my attention, and none occur in our dialects. ,
j '
strong, viz. presumably varying from [a] to [e] to [I], though it is (i ii) Final lal does not appear to be listed as a separate cate-
rarely clear which degree is intended in every specific case cited. gory, and the significance of the received spellings with yd' deserves
Moreover, 'imala was both a hallmark of Baghdadi speech and in vestigation. There are many examples of 'inldla in this pos ition,
the refore a desideratum in vernacu lar poetry, alld prescribed , by some largely in words spelled with yo', some of which parallel present-
authorities at least, for correct dict ion and Qur'an reading; the two day instances. Besides the verbs in K J-y already mentioned, and
usages did not, however, e ntirely overlap, and it will be seen that the proll. suff. -nd and -ha, which have no parallels in our dialects,
it is on the whole the colloq uial rather than the prescribed 'imala we are told that particles do not undergo 'inuila. However, bald
which has come down to us in the qeltu-dialects and the related 'yes' and mota 'when' arc exceptiona l and are pronounced with
North Syrian varieties. In this as in other cases, it is J and C, then, 'inliila; l;Iariri (d. 11 22) reminds his readers that their pronouncing
and not M, which have preserved a feature that was more widespread of hat/a with 'imdla goes against the foregoing ru le about particles
in Abbasid Baghdad. The gelet-dialects, as .well as those qeltl/-dialects and !;lim uses hiini 'here'; 79 cf. the forms Ih6ni/, Ibalil, Ii)etli/ , lemtil
that are wi thout 'imala, have probably been influenced by diaiects discussed above. There is an interesting parallel to present JC usage
introduced into the arca. at latc r times, though of co urse they may in an eighth century source quoted by Fiick and connected with
,.
contin ue o lder loca l" nOI1-'il11(ila dialects. I give here, abstracted the treatment of 'aqtal forms with KrY: a dis tinction seems to have
from the sources consu lted, a cata logue under which 'imala, both been made between 'a'nla 'blind' a nd 'a'ma (mill) ' more blind (than)'
prescribed and collo'q uial, took place, It is noteworthy that words in that the former was pronounced with 'illldia (cf. JCja'mil 'blind ')
so pronounced tend to ar range themselves into categories not unlikc whereas the clative was not (cf. s uch clatives as JCja' lal 'higher').80
those listed in sub-paragraphs (i) to (I·i) above for the modern di- (iv) The 'imala of the feminine ending is briefly mentioned by
alects, Sibawayhi; he merely states that he has heard such a pronunciation,
(i) In the noun, the proximity of a kasra is th e main cause which he interprets as "li ke ning the feminine ending to an 'aft/"SI
of 'imdla ;76 the stock examples are words likc lisdn 'to ngue', njdl In later times, it was actually prescribed by some authorities; some
'man', cf. Cjlsen/, Ig jel /, J/lsin/, liljil/; l;Iilli has, in his Baghdadi forbade 'imala after back consona nts and emphatics, para lleling
poems, forms likeflrid, lI'irid, mirid, birid (Hoenerbach, 1956, p. 135) the usage of C, Mosul, Anatolia, and many Syrian dialects; while
I/rib (ibid., p. 154). None of the sources consulted seem to include others accepted it after such consona nts as well, paralleling the
50 COMMUNA L DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
treatment in J (where fro ntness or back ness of consonants is ir-
relevant for feminine endin g 'imiila), or the M treatment of all final
/a/,s except after pharyngeals. This latter type, viz. 'imala of the
fern . suff. after both front and back consonants, is even said to be
typical of the 11I11lVol/a{hill of Kufa and Basra B '
(v) While the so urces have nothing to say that wou ld elucidate
the special J treatment of the numerals they do mention a number
of special cases in which 'imdla takes place "irregularly"; man y
of these are parallel to present-day usage: the exceptional particles
a lready mentioned, e.g. bala, cf. MJC/bali/ (and also Pers. bOle,
Turk. beli), as well as the word lias (cf. C/nes/), the names of the
letters of the alphabet (cf. the M1C treatment)" and the word !lUbla
'pregna nt' (cf. the lC/hebl(\j)B 4
.3.37 Reflexes of OA/ayl and law/. (a) On the whole, the treat-
ment of the OA diphthongs in M1C is of a type familiar from many
Arabic dialects : lei and 161, respectively, except before Iyl and Iwl,
where we have layl and law/: M1C/betl 'house', Im6tl 'death',
lawwalf 'first', Imayyetl 'dead'. Diphthongs are a lso preserved in
certain morphological patterns: M1C/awsa'l ' broader', laybasl
'drier'. The contrasts lay/-/ el and law/-/61 are of very low functional
yield, but are sufficiently well-established : M1C/jaysi 'army', Ibesl
'how much', fjebl 'pocket', Mllbetal 'his house (M), her house (1)"
Imaytal 'dead (f.)'; C/gel).al 'smell', IgaYhal 'going (f.)'; M/zawjal
'wife', Im6jal ' wavele ngth', Ij6zal 'nut'; M/awsa'i ' broader', M /6~all
'I arri ve', M1C/aw/, 'or', /161 'or'. On the verba I. ending of the 3rd
pers. pI., M/n."1 alternating \vith 10/, lC/ul alternating with 101,
see 4.2 below."
(b) A feature that sets 1 apa rt fro m M and C is the treatment
of th ese OA diphthongs in unstressed syllable:" instead of lei and
16/, 1 has in such syllables Iii and lui and, in certain specific cases,
liYI and luw/. T h us M/bU)a/, C/ber).i/, but llbil)il 'white (f.)';
M/s6da/, C/sodal llsudil 'black (f.)'; M1C/betl 'house', but MC/betenl
vs. l l bitenl 'two houses'; M1C/y6m/, but MC/y6menl vs. J/yumenl
'two days'. T his al ternation between stressed lei or 161 and unstressed
Iii or lui also ta kes place in such loanwords as Ikekl 'cake' , Ipatetal
'potatoes', which yield J/ kikayi/ 'a piece of cake' and l l patitayil 'a
potato', In the J verb, it seems to have been extended to pronominal
endings in which an etymological diphthong would be unexpected:
Iqeltul ' I. said', but Iqelt61ul ' I said to him'; Iqalul 'th ey said', but
PHONOLOGY
51
Iqal6lu/ , 'they said to him' ; Iftah i/ 'o pen (f.)', but Ifetl)elul 'open
for hIm , etc.; for ?ctalls and so me etymological conjectures, see
4.2 below. As for Ilyl and luwl, we find th em in cases where the
prese nt-day st ressed alternants are still laYI and law/: llsayyabl
'he a bandoned ', IS,iyyabul ' he abandoned him' ; llsawwal ' he did'
(suwwanul :he did it'; J/ mka yyefl 'glad', pI. I mkiyfin/ ; J/mxa wweri
frr ghtenrng, pI. Imxuwfm/ . Howe ve r, luwl IS also found in passive
partlclpJes of K , -IV verbs: Imuwjudl 'present', Imuwzunl 'weighed' .
That these unstressed liYI an d luwl do not contrast with /i/ and lui,
respectively, has alread y been mentioned (3 .3I e) ; whether or not
they contrast wi th [oy] and [ow] is less clea r ; I doubt whether mini-
mal pairs can be found , and speaker reaction leaves me uncertain
as to whether [mowjud] is kept apa rt rrom [muj ud]. Morphopho- '.
nemlca ll y, of co urse, such a spell ing as Imewjud/ , paralleling Ime ktub/,
Imeftuh/, etc. wo uld be justifiable , as wo uld Isewwa nlll pa ralleling
Ixell.nul (fxallal 'he put, left') or Imkey fin/, / mxewfin/, etc. for
analogous ~easons . However, in s lIch cases it is prudent to "hug
the phonetiC ground closel y," and citation forms for such words
wi ll be written with fiy/ and juw/, which are to be interpreted as
[IY] - [i] and [uw] - [U]B. T his who le 1 alternatio n is, o r co 1Irse,
closely bound up with the red uctio n of OAlal to lei in unst ressed
closed syllable discussed in 3.33 above: just as Ika/b/ 'dog' yields
Ikelbenl 'two dogs', so */bayt/, when diphthongs were still diphthongs
must have -yielded */beytaynl then */ bi ytenl and finally the present
Ibitcn/ . Similarly for lawl > lewl > luwl > -Jul. No such alterna-
tion takes place in Form I acti ve participl es: jseme'/. 'hearing', pI.
Isem'in/ , Igayyebl 'going', pI. Igaybin/; no r in verbs on the pa tterns
qidal and qOla/ : Inesantul ' J aimed ', Id6xantul 'I rclt faint'.
(e) In the Mesopotamian area, OA/ayl a nd lawl are preserved as
phonetic diph thongs in so me places but not in others witho ut con-
nect io n to the qellll-gelel split. Mos ul has lei and /6/ like th e three
Baghdad dialects and so, apparently , ha ve the lower Iraqi cities as
a who le, as ha ve Urfa and Swerek- in Anatol ia ; however, Mardin ,
Qarabas, Carmuc, and 'Ana have preserved th e diphthongs, mostly
as fey] and [ow] ; so have so me o f th e nomadic Kelel-d ial ects, as
we ll us so me or th e rura l ones, including K huzistan and Kuwayt .
where th e situation clo se ly pa rallel s that of M. In 'Ana, whe re the
treatment of short / a/ in unstressed sy llabic c..::Joscly para llels th aL
of J, there is an equall y close parallel to Iht: J red uction of OA diph-
52 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
thongs In unstressed syll ab les : [beyt] ' ho use', duo [beteyn]; [yowm]
'day', duo [yo meyn], etc.
3.4 STRESS. There is little or no difference in the place of word
stress among the three dialects. As in many, perhaps all , other dia-
lects, that place is usually determined by the syllabic structure of
the isolated prefix less wo rd and, whe re this does not hold , by a
number of morphological consideratio ns. In the majo rity of cases,
stress is o n VKK or 'VK closest to the end of the word, and if neither
VKK no r 'VK occur, on the first V: MJCjjebnal 'we brought', Ijeb nakl
'we brought yo u' Jjjbul 'brin g (imptv. pl.)' Iwaladl 'boy'. In the
present notation , final lei, Iii, and lui are a lways stressed, final lal
and 161 a lmost always, so that o ne could add this to the rule and
refrain from marking stress on such fina l long vowe ls. e.g. Ml'ale/
.'o n him' , JCjl)eblel 'pregna nt', M/axul ' his brother', M/seftil 'you
(f.s.) saw him', (but Ise ft iJ 'you (f.s.) saw/) M/lliiOal 'Tuesday' ,
.J/suda/, C/s6diil 'blac k (f.)', M/saf61 ' they saw him ' ; in the case of
.fi nal lal and 16/, the few exceptions could easily be taken care of
in a sma ll list. Turning now to cases w here morphological co n-
siderati o ns alter this overa ll pattern , the follow ing types OCClIr:
(i) In J and C, certain nominal and ve rbal base types stress
the syllab le immediately preceding an object pron. suff. regardless
of the syll ab ic structure: JCjlebesl 'wearing', Ilebesul 'wearing it
(m.)' ; JCjkammal1 ' he co mpleted ', J/ kemma la/, Cj kamma lal 'he
completed it (f.)'; J/ hwijeb/, Cjl)awejebl 'eyebrows', J/ I)wijebi/,
Cjl)awejeb ij 'my eyebrows"; this naturally results in some near-
min imal pairs, e.g. C/ madrasil 'schoo l', Cjmal)bas il ' my ring';
J/ mjannenal 'crazed, maddened (f.s.)', Imjennenal '(he) maddened
her' . In M the patterns corresponding to the above JC exa mples
stress acco rding to the genera l YKK-YK rute, but some pattern s
do admit, optio nally, the shift of stress to the sy llab ic 'preceding
the object su ffix: M/ ketbatal and Iketbatal 'she wrote it (m. )';
M/ xanjaral and Ixa njiual ' his dagge r' (vs. Iqililda ral 's hoes' with
. only o ne poss ible stress) . .
(ii) In C, a rather stable dist inction is created by anaptyxis in
Ib"tabetl 'she wrote' vs. j katabet j 'you (m.s.) wrote' and so throughout
this pattern; with su ffixes, of co urse: / katabetu/ 'she wrote it', / katabtu/
'you wrote it'. In other cases in MJ as we ll as in C, a vowe l that is
historica ll y allaptyctic may, ir in stressable position accord ing to the
YKK-'VK rule, be stressed o r not more o r less opt iona ll y: MJC
PHONOLOGY
53
Ib~netnal or Ibenetna/, M/rajelhal or Irajelhal 'her husband' M
Igeletl ~1 or IgeJetla/, JCjqeletlul Or Iqeletlul 'yo u (m .s.) told h'il11 '
(III) In the Im perfect of Forms VII a nd VIII verbs M fl t .
bet " I " ' uc uates
~veen reg u ar stress a nd stressing the first sy llable of the base'
,~/afteheml a nd, lafteheml ' [ understand ' la nxubu~1 and ja nxubusi
get dIstracted ; J and C, on the other hand, always stress the fir~t
syllable of the base: J/afuihem/, Cjaftehem/ ; J/anxilbes/, Cja nxebes/.
A few other morphologically condItioned stress patterns will appea r
In the morphology (Chapt. 4). A feat ure that seems equally cha rac-
teristic of M, ~ , and C is the very rreq ucnt stressing or a nUlllber'or
preposed. partIcles, such as Ili/- , Ibj-, Imen/-, /'al/- a nd es pecially
the negatives Ima/- and Ila/- and the interrogative MC/s/- , J/a5/-;
when the p~rt lcle does not itself have a vowe l, it draws the stress
as ~ear tO , ltself as possible:. M/sdassawwil 'what are you doing ?'
Isk~tabetl \~hat did you write', / setridl 'what do yo u want ', MJ
Im.a,hel wa~ not pretty (f.s.)" MJCjlat naml 'don't sleep', MJC
(bel aJal1 qU ickl y', M/, algii'l 'on the grou nd ', MJCjmenbet Jibetl
fro m house, to house', M/ mnessugu!1 'from work', J/asakul 'what's
the matter?, lasesmakl 'what's yo ur na me T.
3.5 CONSONANT CLUSTERS AND ANAPTYX IS. 8 7 3.5 1 Overall view
(a) T he three dialects do not differ mar kedl y in the com binatio ns or
co n~o ~ant s that Occur as initial or medial clusters; they do differ in a
s tatl st l~a l sense, si nce such matters as the differential treatment of
OA/al In open unstressed syll ab les alters the distribution and fre-
quency of certain KK com bi nations as between M, J, and C. These
matters have been illuslrated in 3.33 and 3.24 above.' In a ll three
dIalects, a Consonant tends to be assi milated to the fo llowing conso-
nant, un less that conso nant is a sonorant or /'/ or /'/ ; all three dialects
show a m~rked. tendency toward assi milation or a stop to a fo llowing
homorga nic spirant ; Ibl plus Ifara s/ is usually Iffarasl 'with a ho rse'
It/ plus Isawwil is usually Issawwi! 'you do', etc. Simila rly, III tend;
~o ass l,?,late to a followin g In/: MJC/aka lj plus Inal is usua ll y laka nnal
~\fe ate. Wlt~ respect to voicing assimilation and emphasis assimila-
tIon, no detailed study was made, and the dialects do not see m in
these. respects, to be either different from the Arab ic dialects ;s a
whole or .differentiated from each other. There is, however. one
feat ure whIch sets C apart from M and J, namely the grealer voic ing
of consona nts preceding / bl- I nformants orten point out as "typ ica ll y
54 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD

Christian" such pronunciations as [zbu'), 'week' [ ~I;>A'tA'os)'seventeen ',

for which M and J usually have initial [s) or [s). This is corro borated
by my own (incomplete) observations, and though my partl y morpho-
I PHONO LOGY

different ways in each of the dialec ts, and it is to thi s that we now
turn.
55

3.52 Fi nal clusters. (0) In ge nera l, OA fina l clusters are sepa rated
by a vowel in M and C with very few exceptions, whereas in J an-
phonemic notation gives Ikbig /,big', pI. Ikbagl for both J and C,
aptyxis takes place on ly in certai n con sonantal environments. Thus:

r
there is no doubt that the only form s I have heard for Care [gbig) and
[gbag), whereas the J forms, as well as such words as M/ kl;>ar/, usually
OA M J C
have initial [k). Initial clusters thus comprise many combinations
of KK, but there are no occurrences of initial KKK with the excep- uxt 'sister' uxut ext exe t
tion of a few instances of initial Istgl in J (no others were noted): qalb 'heart' ga!u!;> qalb qaleb
Istgaltul 'I worked', Istgetul 'I bought'. Medially, there are similarly sa hr 'm onth ' sahar saheg sa heg
many (perhaps all, taking account of assi milation) combinations of mill) 'sa lt' meleil mel l) melel)
KK, and some of KKK: M/txarmsakl 'she'll scratch you', J/q6ndral katabt 'you (m. s.) ktabet ktabt kat.bet
'shoes'. No medial KKK clusters were noted in C, which is not wrote'
to say that no ne exist, but the historical differences in the treatment
of older lal and certain morphological differences yield , in the C One does find in MC so me final clusters of which the first element
parallels to the above examples, Iqondaral 'shoes', Itxarmesakl is a sono ra nt or semi- vowel : Ikartl 'a card', Imartl' Ma rch', Imaysl
.'she'll scratch you', without KKK clusters. . 'May' Imardl ' manly', but these seem to occur in relatively rece nt
(b) There are in M, but not in C or J, two dIfferent sorts of loanwords ; compare Imardl (Pers. mard 'man') with OA/ward/,
initial clusters with respect to anaptyxis. In JC, all initial KK clusters which is M/ wared/, J/wagdl and C/ wagedl ' flowers'. InC, the an-
are non-separable, and the extra vowel required by a preceding aptyctic vowel is lei but in so me words where M inserts lal, C has
third consomint or, optionally, by a preceding pause, must come lal also, appa rently as a result of borrowing: C/ laham/ 'meat', Ibaharl
. before the cluster: JCfkbii!'/ 'big', in pause optionally lekbig/, and 'sea', but Isahegl ' month', Iba'edl 'after' with the normal lei though
Igas ekbigl 'a big head'; similarly the plural Ikbag/, lekbag/, Igus the M forms have la/. [n M, the anaptyctic vowel may be lei, lal,
ekbag/. In M, however, clusters in such words as Icbirl (resulting or jul depending on the environment : 88
fro m loss of OA/a/) are "separable," so that in the pause there IS (i) If the vowel preced ing the first co nsonant is lei (irrespective
an alternative form Icebir/; and in sandhi one usually gets Iras of what it may have been in OA), the anaplyctic vowel is lei : Ice5ebl
rebir/, but sometimes Iras ecbir/; the cluster in Ikl;>arl and similar 'lie', ImeSel1 '[ike', Iheleml 'dream', Ise'erl 'poetry', etc.
words is, however, non-separable, hence always Irus ekl)ar/· (ii) [f the preceding vowel is lal, the vowel sepa rating the con-
(c) Geminate clusters are reduced to a single consonant when, sonants of older clusters is likewise lei provided these consonants
through historical or morphological processes, they are immediately do not constitute [u)-coloring or [a)-coloring environ ments: Icalebl
followed by another consonant: MJCfsalmul 'greet! (pl.)'. Word 'dog', Iwaketl 'time', Isabetl 'Saturday', Ibaredl'cold', Isarej/ 'saddle',
. final geminates are, in the pause, similarly reduced, so that JCfke11 Iktabetl 'you (m .s.) wrote' and all such ve rbal for ms, since the ItI
'eat!' and JCfkelll 'all' are homophonous; the distinction retained is neve r part of a [u)-coloring or [a)-coloring enviro nment, etc.
in the notation is morphophonemic, and reflects the fact that (iii) [f the environment is [a)-coloring, i.e. if the vowel precedi ng
gemination is restored not only with vowel-initial suffi xes Ukellul the fo rmer cluster is lal and the first of the two final consonants is
'all of it') but also when followed by a word with initial vowel, a Ihl, f'/. Igl, or Ihl, the anaptyctic vowel is la/ : Ilahami 'meat',
including anaptyctic vowels: JCf~el ental 'you eat', contrasting Isaharl 'month ', Ibaharl 'sea', Iba'adl 'after', Imaharl 'bride p rice',
with Ikell ahhadl 'everyone'. But while final geminates are treated Ira'adl 'thunde r', I baga!! 'mule', etc. I
alike in MJC, other final clusters are handled in considerably (iv) If the vowel preceding the former cluster is lal and the two 1
56 COMMUNAL DiALECTS IN BAGHDAD
final consonants are [ul-colori ng (cf. 3.32 above), the anaptyctic
vowel is lui : laru!)1 'gro und ', Iga!ul;>l 'heart', l'Darufl 'letter of alp ha-
bet', Ixamurl 'wine' , ;'al;>url 'patience', Iratu!?1 wet', etc.
(v) If the preceding vowel is lui in M (whatever it may have
been in OA), the anaptyctic vowel is lui : Ixubuzl 'bread', I~udugl
'truth', Isugu!1 'work', luxutl 'sister', Isukurl 'tha nks', etc.
(b) So far in this discuss ion of final clusters, we have taken the
diachronic point of view and spoken of preservation or splitting
up of older word final clusters, and regarded anaptyxis as a histo ri-
cal process. These word final clusters, however, also have a syn-
chronic existence in the present-day dialects, since under certain
condit ions the. anaptyctic vowel fall s out and the consonants are
again in contact. This occurs in sandhi with a following word begin-
ning with a vowel (or with two consonants, and hence preceded by
an anaptyctic vowel) and also when vowel-initial suffixes are added:
M/ la'Dam/, but Ila'Dm ejmiill 'camel meat', /Ial!makl 'your meat',
/ Iai)mayaj 'small piece of meat'. The. anaptyctic vowel is retained
if only a single consonant follows, whether in a suffix or a separate
word: Ilaham zenl 'good meat', Ilal!amha/ ' her meat'. The differential
treatment of final clusters jn J as against M and C is thus a matter
of pausal treatment only: the anaptyctic vowel appears in J as soon
as the word in question is fo llowed by a si ngle consonant: J/kalbl
'dog', but Ikaleb zenl 'a good dog', Ikalebkeml 'your (pl.) dog'.
Thus despite the fact that Icalebl does not conta in a phonetic or a
phonemic cluster whereas J/ kalbl does, both may be sa id to contain
a "morphophonemic cluster"-lb-which i~ actualized sometimes as
Ilbl and sometimes as Ilebf under statable cond itions. Such morpho-
phonemic clusters often correspond to OA phonemic clusters, but
not always: M/rajelj'husband' < OA/rajulj, behaves precisely like
/Caleb/: Irajlil 'my husband', Irajelhal 'her husband', l rajl ellaxl
'the other husband', IrajeJ laxl 'anot her husband'. We are thus jus-
tified in saying that Irajell contains a morphophonemic c1uster-
j1~and this will be one of th'e criteria whereby we will be able to
dist in guish such .a noun as / lal)am/ 'meat' from such others as
/ xa'r)ari 'piece of news': the first conta ins a morphophonemic cluster-
(un- and the second has no such cluster, its second /a/ being stable.
In the -morphology thi s will be put to use in such matters as classi-
fying words by "bases" and iil simplifying statements regarding
affixation.
4
MORPHOLOGY
4.1 PROCEDURE AND NOTAT ION. 4. 11 Basic morphophonemics.
(a) The terms "root" and "pattern " are here used in the traditional
manner for the familiar discontinuous units of Semitic morphology.
Thus MJCjbladl 'country' has a root bid, of which the first "radical"
or K" is b, the second (K,) is I and the third (K,) is d; the same wo rd
has the pattern K , K,aK, or, using the traditional symbols for the
•
rad icals~ the pattern qldl. In the classification of wo rd s by patterns,
we shall refer less to the pattern of the actual phonemic word than
to the pattern of an underly ing fo rm or ' base'; thus J/kalb/, 'dog',
Ik:llebnal 'our dog' , Ikelbenl 'two dogs' all contain a base kolb-,
with or without modification of the base pattern in the uninflected
and inflected forms.
(b) Many roots , patterns, and bases have more than one phonemic
sha pe as they go through va ri ous derivational and inflectional pro-
cesses. We therefore represent them by a morphophonemic notation ,
using symbols th at are , by and large , the same as phonemic symbols
and that suggest th e phonemic shape of th e norm. Various rules
then make it possible to arrive at the remaini ng phonemic shapes.
The morphophonemic symbolization is in ita lics and unenclosed,
the phonemic notation being enclosed in the customary slashes.
Thus Je/axxasl 'dumb', fern. J/xegsa/, Cjxagsal contain a root xgs
or which K, is always Ixl and K, always lsi, but K, is a g wh ich is
now Igl and now Ixl according to statable conditions. The elements
of the patterns also show morphophonemic alternat ion: the mas-
culine forms contain a pattern aqla/, of which a is always /a/. but Ii
is generally lal, but becomes Iii when the patlern is grafted on a root
withK,- y:" JCja' mi/ ' bl ind', fern. J/,emytt/, Cj'a mya/. roo t '/I/y. As
to the patterns conta in ed in the feminine forms, we could say tha t
the J forms have a pattern qellii and the C form s a patter n qat/ci,
but I have preferred wherever possible to keep the notation inter-
5)
58 COMMUNAL D IALECTS IN BAG HDAD
dialectal, as in the present case; we th erefore say that both the J
and C feminines have a pattern qalla, tho ugh the pattern element
a subsumes different alternants for C and for J. Finally, observe
the more complex but highlY regular alternations th at take place
if one of the radicals is IV o r y: fro m the roo t ·sIVd we get JC/aswadl
' black' ; the phonemic symbols are the same as the m o rphopho~e~lc
ones, and we say there is "no modification ." Ho wever the femtnme~
are J/sud!i, Cjs6da/ ; we say that in J the pattern element a of 'lalla
com bines wit h the rad ical \I' of slI'd in an unstressed syllable to Yield
lui ; and that in C the same combinatio n yields 16/.
(c) The phonem ic value of most of th ~ m o rphophoneme~ used
in representing roots, patterns, and bases Will be specified pan passll
wi th the discuss io n throughout ,his chapter. A number of the more
common o nes are give n here . A radical' is 1'/ internall y, initially
zero be fo re V and I'r before K. A radical y is Iyl when initial, when
followed by another Iyl or when the pattern requires gemination,
when followed by a vowel a nd, when final, if preceded by a long
vowel: MJ Cjyabbasl ' he dried' (ybs), Isayyabl 'he abandoned' (syb),
lazyadl 'more' (zyd). MCjI)effaYI 'barefoot (pl.)' (lify)· It IS zero If
fina l and preceded by a pattern element a (JCjbanal 'he built', root
bllY, pattern qalal) and Iii when final and preceded by any o th er
pattern element (J CjI)aki/, ilky, pattern qall-). When preceded by
a vowe l pattern element and followed by a consonan~al a ll:: It, or-
dinarily merges wi th the vowel into lei or Iii, sometimes lal (111 J
also the equiva lent short vowels when unstressed), a~co rding to rules
that are b·est deta iled when dealing with the indiVidual patterns. A
rad ical IV merges into 16/, lui o r lal in the positio ns just mentioned;
in other positions it behaves a nalogously to y, but it yields Iyl rather
than Iwl in some patterns. As to symbols fo r pattern elements, no te
especia ll y a, which in J nearly always yields lei in unstressed closed
syllable, zero in unstressed open syllable, lal otherWise, except when
merging with a following y or '" as o utlined. Note also e. wl11ch
nearl y always yields zero in unstressed open syllable III MJC, othe r~
wise lei in JC , lei or lui in M depending o n the fl ankIn_g conso nants.
M/kateb/ , Iwag ufl (pa ttern qalel), fern. Ikatba/, Iwagfal (pattern
qatel + a); JCjketeb/, fe rn. Iketbi/, Iweqfi/. Pattern elements Written
as lo ng vowe ls yield sho rt vowel pho nemes ill final unstressed po-
sition in M1C, in all unstressed positions in J. . . . 2m.s.
(d) Other terms and sy mbols. Short morphemes In which It
MOR PHOLOGY 59
wo uld be useless to ,speak of roots and patterns a re, when necessa ry,
designated by a simple formula, identica l with the phonemic symbol-
ization of its most common a llo mo rph o r of its und erl yi ng form
(i.e. th at from which the others can be prod uced by fa milia r rul es).
Thus the pron. suff. -lla and -Ita a re represented morph opho nemically
with lo ng vo wels,' · subsuming the stressed forms -/na/-and-/ha/-
as well as the unstressed -/nal and -/ha/, the quantity change with
shift of stress being automatic. The symbo l T to subsume all the allo-
morphs of the fe rn. suff. is, on the ot her hand , pu rely ad Itoe, as are
a number of others, e.g. L for the morpheme 'to' a nd L ' for the
relative pronoun (q . v.). The use of the plus-sign in in flectional or
deri vati o nal fo rmulas (cf. examples in precedi ng paragraph) is self-
expla natory. As for the grammatica l categori es and the cl assification •I
of the parts of speech, I ha ve more or less stuck to the trad itional •,
terminology , which seemed adequ ate fo r the purpose.
4.12 Overall vie w. There is little or no differentiatio n as between
M, J, a nd C as to the overall structure of the respective morpholo-
gies . There is, however, considerable differentiatio n as to phonemic
shape of mo rph emes, res ulting o nl y in par t fro m th e reg ula r phonetic
corresponde nces d iscussed in the previous c hapte r; and there is also
considerable differenti atio n as to deg ree and kind of morph opho nemic
alternation. The greatest differentiation is perhaps that fou nd in
the inventory and behavio r of the prono minal affixes (4.2) and in
the allo mor.phs of the feminine suffix (4.3) . The d ive rge nt morpho-
pho nemics of the noun, particip le, numera ls, and ve rbs are, by and
la rge, predictable from considerat io ns a lready outlined in Chapter
3, but a rather fu ller analys is wi ll be fou nd in the present chapter.
Not unnatura ll y. a good many point s di scussed here are lexical
rat he r th an mor phological in any st rict sense.
4.2 THE PRONOUN. 4.21 Subject pronouns. (a) The free subject
pronou ns, th o ugh lexical items with little or no role in the morphol-
ogy, may first be . disc ussed here. Differentiation is, here again,
more twofold (JC vs. M) than threefold:
M J C
Is. ani ana ana
cnla cnla cnla
2f.s. en ti enti enli
60 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD MORPHOLOGY 61
M J C M J C

3m.s. huwwa huwwi huwwa Is. -ItI -/tul -/tu

3f.s. hiyya hiyyi hiyya 2m.s. -ItI -ItI -ItI
Ipl. e~na nei)na nei:lna 2f.s. ':"-/til - /til
3m.s.
-Itil
2pl. entu entem entem zero zero zero
3pl. humma hernmi humma 3r.s. -'.i/atl - /etl
I pI.
-/etl
-/nal - /nal -/nal
The 3pl. C form is suspect because of the l ui , and may be a loan 2pl. - /tul - /teml -/teml
from M ; Mosul has the rather unusual form I hiyeml , and some 3pl. - /aw/"4 -lui -lui , - 101
such form may have existed in C a nd later been suppressed. One C
informant cited (but does not use) the form Ihemm il, as in J. Some- These affixes call forth the following remarks:
thi ng similar may be said of C/huwwa/, cf. the unusual Mosul form (i) The affixation of -ItI to most ver bal bases creates a mor-
. Ihinu/ 9 0 (th ough Mosu l informants also use Ihuwwal). In the 2nd phophonemIC fina l cluster that behaves as outlined in 3.52: sal/am + I
plur., JC go along with the qellu-dialects as a who le and M with :-'. J/sellamt/, MC/sallametl 'you (m.s.) greeted'. Other consonant
the gelel-diale"ts, as is true also of the 1st sing., though some gelel- IIllttal suffixes have similarly predictable effects, largely as to posi-
dialects have Ifmal, a form wh ich may be the precursor of the present han hof stress.
. . Vowel-initial
. . suffi"es create open syllables , zeromg-
.
lani I, with the fiI resulting from 'imdla or, more likely, from ana- out t e precedlllg a (WIth vanous predictable side effects) in J, option-
logy w'th the pron.suff. A similar form is also found in the !;loran ally III M, but not at all in C: sal/am + el ..... l lsalmetl C/sallamet!'
and a good many Beduin and other dialects; 'Ana, though havi ng sal/am+al ..... M/salmatl or Isall amatl 'she greeted'. ' ,
a qeltu-dialect, "Beduinizes" in this instance as in many others and . (II) Bas~s 'end ing in - y undergo a number of further changes
has lani/. For the 1st plur. JC also have a (rarer?) varia nt lehna/ ; wIth the vanous suffixes, but these will be discussed in 4. 8 when
form s with initial Inl are common throughout Ihe Arab world and de~lmg wIth the verb. In C, the 3 pI. suff. -lui has an alternant
are attested for Iraq as early as the twelfth century.9l As for the -/01lIl"such ve rbs : C/qarol 'they read' (root qry).
masculine-feminine distinction in the 2pl. and 3pl. which is a hall- (III) Suffixes ending in a vowel have stressed a lternants with
mark of Beduin dialects!' the rural gelel-dialects have forms like a conco mitant change of quantity (in given cases also of quality)
lentul a nd Ihummal for the masculine vs. such forms as lenta nl and the same holds for M -law/. These stressed a lternants occur
and Ihennal for the feminine ; my M informants have heard such when further suffixes are added, and have largely predictable effects
feminines , but do not use them and characterize them as provincia1. 93 on the base. The table shows the shape of all subject pronoun suf-
Finally, there are traces of shorter forms of the 3m.s. and 3r.s. fixes when add itional suffixes are add ed; items in parentheses are
pronouns, apparently on ly as enclitics attached to a few particles: those III whIch the shape is the same as when no add itional suffixes
M/ liihi .. walahi ..1 'she is neither ... nor .. .'; M/yiihu/ , fern. are present; when two forms are given in 1, the second is that oc-
Iyahil pI. Iyahuml 'which ?' ; J/wen i/ 'where is she ?', though Iwenul curring before - lid, the first before all other suffixes .
can be interpreted as Iwenl plus the ordinary suffix, as in Iwe nakl
'where are you ?'. M J C
(b) The bound subject pronouns attached to the perfect base of
verbs are listed below; the allomorphs appea rin g in the table are Is. UtI) Ito/, /tu/ llUl
those that occur whe n no further suffixes are added: for alternants, 2m .s. Utf) (/t/) (ft/)
2f.s. l lil Itil l lil
see below.
•
 MORPHOLOGY 63
62 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
is attested to not only by the evidence of Classical Arabic, but also
M J C by data on older .v ernacu lar Arabic. In the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, in fac! ,!. this final /u/ of the 1st pers. si ng. of the perfect
3m.s. (zero) (zero) (ze ro) was sti ll (as it must have been earlier) one of the hallmarks of Baghdadi
3f.s. (fat!) (fet/) (fet/) speech and of Iraq i colloquial in general"' This retention of -/tu/ in
Ipl. /na/ /na/ / na/ the 1st sing. goes .together with a similar retention in -/tem/ for the
2pl. /lU/ (ftem!) (ftem/) 2nd plur., whereas its replacement by -ttl often goes together with
3pl. /0/ /o/ , /u/ / iJ/ - /tu/ in the 2nd plur. , as in M. Once more, M lacks the masc.- fem.
distinction in the 2pl. and 3pl. found in the rural and Beduin dia-
The 3pl. alternant - /0/ in C (with K,-y verbs) remains unchanged. lects. The M 3pl. suff. -/aw/ is typical of the gelel-dialects as a whole
Some examples: JC/jebtu/ 'J brought', J/jebtonu/ C/jeblUnu/ 'J and found in Beduin dia lects elsew here, e.g. that of the Negev semi-
brought him', J/jeblUha/, C/jebtuwa/ 'I brought her' (on J and C al- nomads.
lomorphs of - I/{i, see 4.22a below); MJc/jebti! 'you (f.s.) brought', (e) The subject pronoun affixes attached to the imperfect base
/jebtlna/ 'you brought us', /jebtiln a/ 'you brought to us'; Mfjabaw/ are listed in the following table. In the C col umn, where two forms
'they brought', M/jaboni/ 'they brought me'; Jc/jabu/ 'they brought', are given, the second is that occurring with K J- y verbs, the first
J/jaboni/, c/jabuni/ ' they brought me', J/jabUha/ , c/jabuwa/ ' they that occurring with all others. On the optional M alternant -/ha/
brought her'. for -that , see 3.31 and note 99 below.
(iv) The alternation /0/ ~ / u/ in J makes one wonder whether
the stressed form is not older, having yielded /u/ when /0/ , perhaps M J C
harking back to /inv/ , was no longer admissible in unstressed syl-
Is. /a/- /a/- /a/-
lable (cf. 3.37) . Thus '/jabawni/ > /jaboni /, and '/jabaw/ > ' /jab6/
2m .s. /t/- /t/"- /t/-
> /jabu/ . Simi larly, the / 0/ ~ /u/ and the /e/ ~ fiI altern ation 2f.s. /t ... in/ , / t .. ·en/
/t .. ·in/ /t .. ·en/
found in base fi nal syllables, e.g. in the imperative (g. v. in 4.8 below):
in stressed syllables, as in K J-y verbs of Form I, we get /xbi/, /xbe/,
3m.s. /y/- /y/- IY/-
/xM/ 'hide (m .s., f.s. , pl.)', /xbinu/, /xbenu/, /xbon u/ 'hide him'; in
3f.s. /t/- /t/- /t/-
I pI. /n/- / n/ - / n/-
unstressed final syllable, e.g . K,-y verbs of Form II, we get /sawwi /
2pl. /t .. ·un/ /t .. 6n/ /t .. ·un/ , /t .. ·on/
' do ·(m .s. and f.s.)' and /sawwu/ 'do (pl.)', but with suffixes (and
hence stress) /suwwinu/ , /suwwenu/ , /suwwonu/ 'do it (m.s., f. s.,
3pl. ,.
fy .. . un/ fy .. ·on/ /Y"'iJ n/, /y ... on/
and pl.)'. This suggests the possibility that whereas ihe masc. sing. These affixes call "forth the following remarks:
form /sawwi/ may be from */sawwi/, the fern. sing. may be from (i) The in itial morphophonemic cl usters created by the pre-
*/sawwe/ < */sawway/ , a nd so on. This leaves a good many ques- posed consonant a~e resolved in conformity with rules outlined in
tions unanswered, e.g. as to the /0/ ~ /u/ alternation in the 1st pers. 3.52, viz. KK clusters are unseparated, KKK clusters yield / KeKK/,
. sing. suff. and as to the special alternants before - hii. whereas KKKK duste rs yield / KKeKK / in MJ but / KeKKeK/ in
(v) The 1st pers . sing. suff. - /tu/ is, of course, one of the dis- C: I+ndm .. MJC/tnam/ 'she sleeps'; I+kleb .. MJC/tekteb/ 'she
tinguishing features of the geltu-dialects, not only in contrast to writes' and since the e of the base is zeroed-alit when the post posed
the gelel-dialects, but as agai nst the Arabic dialects as a whole, vowel changes the syllable structure (4. l le), we get I+kleb + iill,
since all but t hese have lost the final /u/. It is retained in JC, Mosul, whence M/tketbiin/, J/tketbon/ , bllt C/te ktebunf. On initial /yK/
'A na, and the Anatolian dialects, but not in Hit, where its loss clusters, cf. 3.22e. The proposed /a/-, though a lways unstressed ,
may be one of many gelel-influences. That the gellu-dialects have, is never altered in J.
here again, preserved a form which was once more widespread
64 COMMUNAL DIALEC TS IN BAG HDAD
(ii) The Inl of the post posed elements is elided when additional
suffixes are added" a nd the rema ining lo ng vowels undergo, in J,
modificatio ns before - I1a parallel to those outlined above: M/tketbiin/,
J/tketbon/, Cftektebiinl 'you (pl.) write', but M/ tketbiila/ , J/tektbolu/,
Cftektebu lul 'you (pl.) write to him '; M/tketbiiha/, J/tketbiiha/,
Cftektebuwal 'you wri te it (f.)'; cf. also J/tketbenl but Itketbihal
vs. Itketbelu/.
(iii) T here is considerab ly less differentiation in this set of pro-
no minal affixes than in th ose occurring with the perfect. All three
dialects have the retention of fina l -/nl th at is typical of the Meso-
potamian area and is found also in the Beduin, Peninsular, and
Centra l Asian dialects. Jts retention in Mesopota mia , as opposed to
its earl y disappearance in oth e" areas, is attested in "Middle Arabic"
tex ts and recognized as a ha llm ark of the Iraqi vernacular by four-
tee nth centu ry so urces 9 ' Like so me of the other qe/Ill-dialects, C has
diffe rent postposed elements for K,-y verbs, viz. -/enl and -/onl
vs. -/inl a nd -/iinl for all o th ers; both M a nd J ha ve a single set, but
.I is the o nl y di alect so far no ted that seems to have generalized end-
ings pr oper to K ,-y verbs;" a fact tha t is perhaps connected to
MORPHOLOGY 65
Here a re some details on these pro nouns:
(i) In the I ~t · pers. sing. th e alternant --/nil occurs after ve rbal
bases, but also, a~ in other dialects, after a small number of particle
bases: MJCfjabnil ' he bro ught me', M/ba'adni/, J/ba"ad nif 'I
still .. ·', J/lenil ' I have', J/llenil 'to me'.
(ii) In C, the ,.3r.s. has the s hape - /hal a nd the 3pl. has -/heml
o nl y if preceded by - /a/ : Cfjebn ahal 'we brought her', Ijebnaheml
'we brought them'" Ixall ahal 'he let her', Ixallaheml 'he let them'.
Otherwise there is -/a/, -/em/, respectively, e.g. Ijabal 'he brought
her', Ijabeml 'he brought them' ; this is true also after vowels other
tha n lal, except tha,t in such cases the re is an a~tomatic glide Iyl o r
Iwl depending on the base-final vowel : hi + "Ii ~ Ibiyal ' in her';
abu+hd ~ labiiwa/. ' her father '; similarly Ibiyeml, labiiwem/. In J,
on the other hand , the Ih/-Iess forms occur o nl y after K , viz. JJjaba/,
Ijabem/, but labuha/, labiihe m/ , Ibihal, Ibjhem/, etc. Note aga in ~,
J/jl before -Ita where lei occurs before other object suffixes: J/, Ienal
'on us', vs. /, Hha/<, o n her', cf. such forms as Itketbjhal and Ijabuhal
(vs. Ijabona/) cited abo ve .
(iii) In M a nd C, there is a single form for 2r.s. whethe r ·the C'

the J a ltern atio n lei - Iii a nd 101 - lu/. Here again M lacks the base ends in V or K, viz. M/el a nd Cfkif, while J has Ikl for bases
masc.-fem. contrast in the 2pl. and 3pl. fou nd in the rura l a nd Beduin ending in K and Ikif for bases endi'ng in V, with predictable anaptyxis
dialects, though some M speakers seem to have it. and/or loss o f gemination in morphophonemic clusters; using -k i
4.22 Object pronouns. The pron. suffixes postposed to particles as an interdialectical symbol for the 2f.s. morpheme, we get :
and no minal bases and to ve rba l bases enlarged wit h subject pro-
nouns are listed in the following table. Where two forms appear, M J C
the first is the one occurrin g after base-fina l V, the second that oc- abiHki abue abuk i abuki 'your (f.s.) fathe r
curring after base-final K ; however, o n the forms with or without biil + k i betee betek betki 'your (f.s.) house'
Ihl in C, see (ii) below. 'amm +ki 'ammee 'ammek 'amki 'your (r.s.) uncle'
lIa/s+ki nafsee nafsek nafeski 'yoursel f (r.s.)'
M J C
Similar considerations obtain in bases terminati ng in the fe minine
Is. - ya, - ) -yl, - i -yi, - ) mo rpheme T, though for details, see 4.33 below. The behavior of
2m.s. - k, - ak - k, - ak - k, - ak M/kuml and JCfkeml is analogous to that of C/ki f.
2f.s. -e - ki, -k - ki (iv) In the 3m.s., the alterna nt written 1'1 in the table for M
,
3m.s. - , -a - nu, -u - nu, - u simply means that the 3m.s. object suffix afler bases ending in V
3r.s. - ha - ha, - a (- ha), - a or Vy takes, in M , the shape of a zero that has the effect of a con-
Ipl. - na - na - na sona nt add ed to the base, so that the word ends in t he appropriate
2pl. - kum - kern - kern stressed long vowel.: using H as the generalized symbol fo r the 3m.s.
3pl. - hum - hem , - em' - hem, - em object pronoun , we get:
66 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
M J C I (
abt'+H abu abunu abunu
b;+ H bi binu binu
'omm + H 'am ma 'ammu 'ammu
(v) It can be seen that J a nd C are, as rega rds object pronouns,
much more similar to each other than either is to M. Apart from
the treatment of Ih/-Iess alternants of the 3f.s. a nd 3pt., the only
difference between 1 a nd C is the in varia nt - /kil of C as agamst
Ikl - Ikil in 1. In this respec t, C goes with Mosu l, M ardin , and the
Anatol ian dialects, as well as th~ Central ASla~8 dialects, suc.h an
inva riant - j kij is altogether rare;: In other areas. The q~/(u-d l alect
of 'Ana also has an in va ri ant 2f.s. suffix, but it is lei as m M: and
is one of the several gelet feat ures o f this dialect; a,nather one IS the
ze ro alte rnant o f the 3m.s. suffi x as in M , viz. labu!, though the al-
terna~t after K is lui as in JC a nd all o th er qelru-dialects.'" All th~
qeltu-dialects, including 'A na, also show Ih/-Iess a ltern ants of -"a,
so me more like 1 a nd others more like C . Th,s IS true also of the
Central Asia n di a lects; fo r the 3m.s. some o f the latter ha ve lui,
othe rs la/. The m.S. alterna nt after V is !nul in Mosul, some Central
Asian dialects, as in lC, but Ihul in the Anatolran dIalects. The
geier-d ialects go along wi th M, exce pt that the rural and Bedum
dialects · have a ' masc.-fem. distinc ti on in th e 2pt. and 3pt.; some
Beduin dia lects have -l ui for the 3m.s ., but most geier-d Ialects have
- /al as in M. The retention of Ihl in -lui is a hallmark of BeduIn
and Beduinized dia lects. . liiible':l and th e d ifferent position of th e a nap tyc ti c lei ; Ijiibelhiyii hal
4.23 Indirect and doubl e object prono uns. (a) The three dIa-
lects are not d ifferen tiated as to the marking of th e Ind,rect pro-
nom inal object. All three postpose to th e verbal base the morp~eme L
followed by object su ffi xes: MJCfjiiblil 'he bro ught to me. The
allomo rp h of L in suc h cases is, in all three dial ects, always 11/, W~h
anaptyx is whe re app rop nate and optrona l reph:e men~ of /II y .
Inl before - lid: jab + L+ ltd yields M/jabel ha/ , JC/J ablal he brought
to her'; jdb+L+ lld yield s MJCfjii belnal o r Ij ii benn al .'he brought
to us' . The non-enclitic allom orphs of L are, however, dlfferen~Iated .
MCfel/- vs. lll1e/- ; for detail s, see 4.93a below. The a ffixatIon of
L ca uses no particular modificatio ns in verbal bases except In t~~t
of th e verb 'to say', q. v. in 4.82/ below. J has a spec ial non-enclrttc
I,
MOR PHOLOGY
I 67
form denoting possession I le/- rat her than Ille/-, and we may be
dealing with an entirely d ifferen t morpheme; see 4.93 below.
(b) With a direct and an ind irect object pronoun, the d ialects
have two procedures', One is to affix the usual direct object pronoun
to the verbal base, fQllowed by the non-enclitic a llo mo rph of L plus
pron. suff.: M/jiiba eli/, C/jiibu eli/, J/jiibu lIen i/ 'he brough t it to
me'. This seems to ·be the more infrequent of the two construct ions,
and may OCcur onl y when some special emphasis is placed on the
indi rect object. The second procedure is 10 affix the enclitic allo-
mo rph of L plus pron. suff. to the verba l base, fo ll owed by a reflex
of OA /'iyyii/- plus the pro n. suff. referr ing to the di rect object. Some
such co nstructi on is employed in all three dialects, yet they differ
marked ly from one another in the detai ls.
(i) In C, th e indirect o bject is affixed to the ver b in the usual
fashion , a nd th e d irec t obj ect follows in th e gu ise of Iyiil plus pro n.
s uff.: Cfjiibli yii nul ' he brough t it (m.) to me' ; Ijiiblak yahal 'he
bro ught it (f.) to yo u (m.s.)" Ijiibl u yii hem/ 'he brought th em to ..
him', etc. In this way C, unlike M and J, makes all the ordinary num-
I
ber, gender, and person distinctio ns in both objects.
(ii) 1n M , L is attached as in C but th e pron. suff. a ttac hed to , i
;:
it exh ibit so me spet:ial a ll omorphs a nd a re fol lowed d irec tl y (i.e.
witho ut any sembla nce of word boundary) by liya/- plus the pron.
suff. referrin g to th e direct object : M/jiibl iyal 'he bro ught it (01.)
to me', jjiibelkiyiihuml ' he brought them to you (m.s.)' wi th Ilkl
instead of flak/ ; Ijiibel':iyiihal ' he brought it (f.) to you (f.s.)" cf.
'he brought it (f.) to ' him' o r 'to her', with I lh/ instead of Iial and
in stead of Ilha/. TIA,; th ere is a pa rtial blurring of th e gender d is-
tincti o n in the direct object because of this infixed -/lh/-: in the mas-
cu line, th is fhl may be a remnant of an older pron. suff. - /ah/ of
the 3m.s. , st ill to be hea rd in some dialects.
(i ii) In J, there' is an unusua l res huffling that results in an
infi xed -/yii/- preceded by L without pron. su ff. an d followed by
the pron . suff. referrIng to the ind irect object, with no prall. 5uff.
referrin g to th e direct object: J/jabelyii kl 'he brought him, her, or
th em to you (m.s.)', II.l kitulYii nul ' I to ld it (th em) to him', Ihkitul-
yahal ' 1 told it (the m) to her', Istgitulyiiheml ' I bo ugh t it (the m)
for them'. Th lls th e indirect object is specified in the normal way
as to ge nder, person , n umber, but the d irect object completely un-
68 COMMUNAL DI ALECTS IN BAGH DAD MORPHOLOGY
69
specified. Side by side with these very com mo nly used forms, I have Note that besides t,hese voca lic a llomorphs, all three dialects have
more rarel y heard a form reminiscent of the M constructi o n (albeit a zero allomorph that acts lI ke a consonant, i.e. preserves the len th
in persons who do not otherwise show M influence), viz. / kemmeliyll/ ~nd stress of the base vowels: MJC/meshll/ 'shovel' MC ~;\
'he fu lfilled it for him' /ake mmelki yi/ ' I shall fu lfill it fo r yo u (m .s.)', prayer', J/$!fi/ 'synagogue'; MCfmda ril/ , J/";darAI 'care.'. and ~':' I
instead of / kemmelyii nu/ and /akem melyak/ . Note the normal vowel others; that these w~rds end in T is decided by the fact th~t the Pi;';:
changes wroug ht by the stressed -/ya/- upon the ver bal form s in- of the zero allomorph IS taken by -/t/- in sandhi, J/ , Ifi t lekbigi/ 'th
vo lved, the respective suffi xless for ms being Ija b/, / \:1ketu/ , /stgetu/, Great Synagogue' . "On / bibi/ 'grandmother', /'abal 'ma ntle' se:
/ kammal/, /aka mmelf. 4.33b ~elow. As for the vocalic a llomorphs, the a lternation la/-/i/
(e) My data on pa ra llel constructions in the other Mesopolamian IS, In ,controlled ' by the following factors:
dialec ts are insufficient for a fu ll-fledged compa riso n. The C con- (I) A base final emphatic or back consonant Ukl and any thin
g
struct ion is co mmon throughou t the Syrian area and seems to be forward of It are front consona nts) except lei a lways require -/a/
found in 'Ana; Mosul , however, has so me special features of its Iwesxal
.' ,
'dIrty' Ida
,"
I ' , - - .
~qa, narrow, jmalei)aj 'l1lee', jga fi 'aj 'thin',
.
ow n: /ta'Wuw",a/ 'you (m.s.) gave it (m.s.) to him (her)" /ta'etIi yya/ l
I!ab_ha fron t , Ihaya/ orga niza ti o n', /qe"a/ 'story' / henta/ 'wheat'
'you (m.s.) gave it (f) to him (her)'. The J construction is, so far as I / agl(;Jaj 'broad '. --: , '. ,
know. unique ; the sa me may be true of so me features of M though b f (ii) Base final /r/ , th ough rare, seems to req uire -Iii if preceded
one would expect the gelet-dialec ts to show so me si mila ri ties to it. y ront vowels, -/a/ If not : I mudiri/ 'directo r (f.)' vs. Isayyaral 'car"
slmIiarly Ig'l th t . fl· f '
. , a IS a re ex 0 OA Irl requires -/il o r -/al according
4.3 THE FEM ININE SUFFIX. 4.31 Overall view. One of the fea- to fro~t vs. non-front enviro nment: Ikbigil 'big', Izgaygi/ 'smal/'
tures that most clearly distingu ishes the dialects from each other /ebgl/ need le'. but Imagal 'woman', 1,6gal 'picture'; the few exam ple;
is the treat ment of the mor pheme T, viz. the refl ex of OA - aCt), usua l- of b~se_ fin,~1 /g/ that IS not a re fl ex of Irl aU have -/a/ : lrargal 'empty'
ly ca lled the feminine suffix. The three dia lects diffe r but little in /qa50gal spoon'. · ,
the use made of th is suffix in inflection a nd derivation (though cr. (iii) . With no?-back, non-emphatic base fi na l consonants
4.34); they do differ co nsiderably in two ways: in the phonemic there IS ~/I/ : Iqebbll roo m', 15effil 'lip', Idsut i/ 'pots', Iba'idi/ 'distant,'
shape of the a llomorph of T in the isolated word and in the phonem ic 1"_aJsll Impure', Izelzil 'naughty', Idesdfisil ' loose overgarment,'
shape of the a ll omorph occu rrin g in sandhi . On the special case !JeJII ~h:n ', Isamakil 'fish', Isallil ' basket', Isani/ 'year', I kelmir 'word,'
of the nume ra ls, see 4.6 below. Il;elwll pretty', Imiyyil ' hund red'. '
4.32 Allomo rphs in the iso lated noun. (a) In the isolated feminine is (iv) In a good ma ny wo rds whe re o ne wou ld expect -IiI, there
nou n ending in T, M words always have _/aj99 whereas J and C -/a/ (but appa~ently never the reverse); some cases are clearly d ue
have either -/i/ or -/a/, dependi ng o n the structure of the base, th o ugh to _borr~wm~ : Ilopa! '~al/', Iferca/ 'brush', I kleca/ ' ki~d of pastry',
the conditioni ng factors are very ditferent in the two dialects . Here Ihay5al cow, /Iagwal trouble'; there is -/al also in so me ki nShip
are some illustrative examples, to be fo llowed by a detailed discussion: terms where -N wo uld be expected: Ixalal 'maternal aunt' /' amma/
'paternal aun t', Ijed?al 'grandl]'lOther'IOO '
M J C (v) Fmally, there is hesitation after base final 1\:1 / preceded by
'bitch' calba kalba kalbi front v~wels: one Ihform ant says /ge\:1i/ 'smell' where the others
'egg' , bei,la bei,l i beQa have /ge\:1a/ , but one of the latter reports his mother says /geh i/,
'trifl ing' (r.s.) i;la,ila i;la,ili 9a~ita SImIlarl y, Igayl;l/ arid /gayl)al 'going (r.s.)'; the fo rms with ~jij'
'big (f.s.)' cebira kbigi kbigi perhaps the older o.n~", are closer to the J pattern. As for the facto r;
'snake' I)ayya I)ayyi ~ayy i condltlonmg the /I7-/al altern ati on in J, they are as follows:
'brolhers exwa exwa ex W I ( I) After av y base fina l consonant except Iw/, there is -IiI
70 COMMUNA L DI ALECTS IN BAG HDAD
if the base final syllable contai ns IY/, Iii or Ie/: Imiyyil ' hundred',
Inaymil 'sleeping', Igayl)iI 'going', i¢ayqil ' narrow', Icerpayi/ 'bed-
stead', Izgaygil 'small', Igil) i! 'smell', Iwsi'il ' broad', Ikbig il 'big',
/'i!,i¢il 'wide', I!wilil 'long', Ifa qitil ' poor', Ijijil ' hen', Ijimdil 'frozen',
Imigq il 'rotten (egg)', Isminil 'fat', Izenil ' nice', Ibe¢i/ 'egg', Imedil
'table set for the Sabbath', Ilebsil 'wearing', Ise m'il 'hearing'.
(2) The same applies if the base final syllable contains e
that may be zeroed-out through suffixation (this holds fo r some of
the above exa mpJes as weJl): / zalziJ 'naughty' (base zalez-), Iwe~x i/
'd irty' (base lI'e~ex-) and especially all the forms of the acti ve parti-
ciple: not only Ilebsi/, Isem'i/, etc. as a bove, but a lso Imkamlil ' having
completed' (base mkCllllmel-), Imtal'il ' having take n out' (base
lI1!olle'-), Imsflml)il ' having forgi ven' (base II1sam eb-), and so through-
out (see 4.7 below); other cases of e in the base final syllable must
be viewed diachronically: leb!!,il 'needle' but Isejgal 'tree' where
o'A/, ibral vs. Isaja ral explain the different treatmen!.lol
(3) A slight ly specia l case that is actually in keeping with
the stateme nt in (i) a bove is that of nouns on the patterns qiitel a nd
qitel with K,-y; thi: corresp onding feminin es still end in - Iii as
ex pected, but slo not differ phonemically fro m the masculine form s:
Imesil 'walking (m.s. and f.s .)" Ibeni/ ' building' , Il)ifil ' bare-foot',
/'i lil ' high' for both the m.s. and the f.s.
(4) In a ll other cases, i.e. when the base final syllable is
other than outlined a bove, the allo morph is -/a/ : Iqebbal ' roo m',
Igekbal 'k nee', Imotal 'a death', /iem'al 'Friday', Iwaqqal 'leaf',
Ids"tal 'pots', Isanal 'year', Isall al ' basket', Ihasal 'cow', Ileqmal
' morsel', II)agal 'hot' , Iweccal 'page' a nd of co urse all passive par-
ticiples except those with K ,-y : Imkamlal 'completed' (base
II1kommol-) , Imta!'al 'taken out' (base m!alla'-land so on ; base
fina l ", seems to require the -/al allomorph no matte r what the pre-
ceding vowel: Ilabwal ' lioness/', I balwal 'genius', Ilagwal 'fuss',
I I)elwal 'pretty', but also l illewal 'pretty', lexwal 'brothers' , Imiwal
'frui t', Idewal 'fema le demon'.
(5) There a re a few insta nces with -/al whe re one might
have expected -Iii (t hough, as in C, apparently no examples of the
reverse): Ibental 'wheat' « ' /l)unta/ ?), /, aylal ' famil y',1 sarikal 'com-
pany' (probably loans), Iswayyal 'a little' and Imlil)a/, m. Imlil)1
'nice'; I 02 cf. a lso plu ra ls on the pattern of Ibgaddal 'Baghdad is',
despite the /iI of Cl. Ar. Ibagad ida/ , and the discussion in 4.53 below.
,. MORPHOLOGY 71
(b) The inva ria nt fem . suff. -/al found in M is also fo und in all
the other gelel-dialects that have so far come to my attention, as
well as in 'Ana and ,Hit, the only qellu-dialects that have no 'imala
whatever, and in the Centra l Asian dialects. As already mentioned
in 3.36, all other ,qf/lu-dia lects as well as most Syrian sedentary
dialects, have a n alternation resembl ing that of C. The Mosul dialect
differs from C in at )east one respect, namely in th at there seems to
be always -/al aften Ig/, even when it is a refiex of OAfr/ ; thus
Ikabigal ' big', Ikeigal 'abundant', vs. C/ kbigi/, Iktigif. The J alter-
nation, which depends essentiall y on the vocal ic co loring of the
base final syllable regard less of the quality of the base fi nal co nso nan t,
seems unique" It may not be irrelevant to point out that in ot her
dialects which haye this allomorphic split there is often a J-Iike
conditioning in bases ending in r (now phonemically often split
into Irl and /r/). Thus North Pa lestinian Ikbiril ' big', lfatril 'luke-
warm', vs. Ibyaral 'well s', Imaksural ' broken'. This suggests that
the present-day J a lternatio n may owe its origin to the Irl > Igi
shift. Assuming the alternation was once conditioned, as in most
dialects, by the quality of the fi nal consonant except in the case ·of
Ir/, a problem arises when e.g. Ikbirl beco mes I kbii!,/ and so ends in
a velar, like say, /,tlq / , which presumably had " fem in ine ·/'tiqaf.
One solution is for this new h i to behave like all other velars, and
this was ada pted \>y Mosul (fkabiga/, like /,atlqa/); a second solu-
tion is for Ii!.! to ·go on as formerl y, viz. to behave like non-velars,
and this is what occurred in C (fkbigi/, like l~awHi/ but unlike /'atiqa/);
a third solution is that surmised for J, viz. Igl goes on behaving li ke
a non-velar, and other vela rs follow suit (fkhigi/, so now also /, tiqi).
Th is explanation per se clearly cannot account fo r all the fact s of
the J alternation, and will eventuall y have to be either supplemented
or discarded .
4.33 Allomorphs in sandhi. (a) The three dialects differ as to the
aJ\omorphs of T that occur in external a nd internal sandhi, i.e. in
annexation and suffixation but this time with J and C practically
identical while M remains apart:
M J C
'room' gul?l?a qebba qebbi
'my room" gubti qebbeti qebbeti
'our room" gul?l?atna qebbetna qebbetn"
, ,
 72 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
MORPHOLOGY 73
M l . C is the formation ' of unit nouns out of nouns denoting aggregates:
'two rooms' gubte n qebten
M/semac/, l CfsafQakl 'fish', M jsemcaj, Jjsamk~j, Cfsamakil 'a fish'.
qebten
'a bedroom' But while this procedure is the rule for M , it is the exception in JC,
gu\>\>at nom qebbet nom qebbet nom
'the bedroom' gubt ennom where unit nouns are ordinarily formed by affixing -/ayij i.e. a sort
qebt ennom qebt en nom
of enlarged fern. s~tT. ay + T; thus:

In lC there is -/et/- and in M -/at/- with the respective vowels yielding M 1 C

phonemic zero when morphophoncmically in unstressed open syllable,
and with the concomitant anaptyxis and/or reduction of gemination 'piece of bre~d' xubza xebzayi, xebzayi
as usual; the main ditTerence is that the -/et/- of JC is always stressed 'piece of meat' lai)ma lei)mayi lai)milyi
with pronomina l suffixes. The zeroing-out of unstressed open syllab le '3 fly'
, " 5ebbiina 5ebbinayi debbenayi
takes place even across word boundaries but in such cases a looser 'a hailstone,', ~ i)aliJba i)alubqy.i i)alUbiiyi
juncture opti o nally restitutes Ihe vowel: Igu\>\>at ennom/ , Iqebbet 'a star' naJma nejma~ i nej mayi
ennom /. In cases where this zeroing-out leads to word-internal
clusters, anaptyx is takes place as outlined in 3.52: rukb + al + i The last instance is formed on the aggregate MJCjnajem/, but in J ,
yields M/nikubtil 'my knee'; this cannot occur in JC, cf. JCfgekbeti/ .
With base-final y or IV, the phonetic result is unchanged in lC
there is also jnjumayil formed on the plura l jnjOmj. In the last ,."I
example but one, the aggregate is MCfi)iilUbj, l li)a lObl 'hail'. A suffix
(exlV + el + i --+ lCfexwetil 'my brothers'), but in M we get exlV + - jayaj is also founo in M, either with diminutive con notation (infor-
al + i --+ lexiJtil ' my brothers', and leby + al + i --+ Ilei)itil 'my mants say jxubzayal and jlai)milyal are smaller pieces than jxubzaj
beard', with stress fluctuating between the first and second and / lai)ma/) or when the aggregate nou n already has the feminine
syllable. Similarly, with the dual suffix : M/ karwal 'fare', IkariJtenl 'two ending, e.g. j kubbaj, a dish consisting of meatballs each of which is
fares', Ilei)itenl 'two beards', whereas lC have such forms as llmaswal a Ikubbayaj ; both uses of this suffix are illustrated in the proverb:
. 'way of walking', j meswetenj 'two ways of walking' for which C has Ii)abbaya ysawwOh'a kubbayal ' making a mountain out of a molehill'
Imasyetenj or Imasiten/. The shift of stress away from the base has (lit. 'a Ikubbaj ball out of a small grain'). Nole also M1Cfhefj 'hot
the usua l etTect on J base vowels: Jj kalbal 'bitch' but Ikelbetil 'my wind', J/ hifiiyij, . Cfhefayi j 'gust of hot wind' (M equivalent not
bitch' ; l jxalal ' maternal aunt' but j xaletij 'my maternal a unt'; J/doga noted). ..
'turn', but jdugetnaj 'our turn', etc. (b) Here again' J and C go along with Mosul and the Anatolian
(b) A small number of words exh ibit slightly deviant behavior. dialects, as well as with some of the Syrian sedentary dialects; even
While M/maraj, Cfmagaj ' wife' are norma l, J/magal has a base Cairo makes frequen t use of this - /ilyaj suffix. On the other hand
mgal- wit h suffixes: j mgatij ' my wife', Imgatul 'his wife', etc. There the qeltu-dialects of 'Ana and Hit, as well as the gelel-dialects
a re regu la r sandhi a llomo rph s with irregular isolated forms in M/bibil examined , are c1o~er to M usage.
'grandmother', i.e. Ibibitij 'my grandmother' Ibibiyathuml 'their
gra ndmother' . Both M/, abaj and /, abaya/ 'mantle' give /' abatecl 4.4 SOME OTHER·SOFFIXES. 4.4 1 The sound plural suffixes. All
'your (f. s.) mantle', /,abataj 'his mantle', etc . three dialects have the sound plural suffixes -/inl and -/iltl and do 1
(c) The qellu area as a who le has the same -/etj as JC which, not ditTer from ea~h other or from the Arabic dialects as a whole as
without tbe same stress pattern, is common throughout the Arab to their use, degre~ of productivity, and so forth . T hey share a morpho- I
world. The -jatj of M is found in the other gelel-dia lects and in the logical feature which is not 'shared by most d ialects, namely the
peninsular area, and is rarc elsewhere. dropping of th~ jnj of -jinj before suffixes : M jsam'inj, lCfsem'in
4.34 Unit nouns. (a) One of the functions of the feminine morpheme 'having 'heard (pl.)', M/sam'iha/ , J/sem'ihaj, Cfsem'iyal 'having heard

74 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
it (f.)'; M/jayik/ , Ic/jayyikl '(we are) coming to yo u', M/~ayl)ilal '(they)
have called him', etc. Cf. the dropping of the Inl of the imperfect
subject pron . affixes.
4.42 Relational a nd agent suffixes. All three dialects make use
of the lIisba suffix -Iii, sometimes - / awi/ , ' in a manner that differs
little from fa miliar Arabic practice: /, anil 'from 'Ana' , M C/J1la~!awi/,
III11e~ ! awil 'fro m Mosul'. All three occasionally use the suffix -/li/,
MJC/kerkOklil 'from Kirkuk'. A very common agent suffix is - /eil
for all sorts of professions, h abitual activities and the like: Ikababeil
'meat ve ndor', Iballameil ' boat man' (Jbliiml 'flat river boa t')
M/J1l!ayyereij, IC/J1l!ayyegeil 'bird raiser', I~axlaeil ' wily individual'.
These suffi xes in -fil can be considered mo rphophonemically as
terminating in - Iy to simplify statements of morphological processes :
'araballclY+T -> M/,arabaneiya/ , JC/'a rabaneiyil 'coachmen'; a sim-
ilar notation is indicated for many other nouns ending in - Iii,
cf. , for example, nouns on the pattern qatll, in 4.53 below.
4.43 H ypocoristic suffixes. The three dialects have occasional in-
stances of a diminuti ve - /Onl suffix, e.g. M/zgayrOnl from Izgayyerl
'little' and I q ~ay ronl from Iq~ayyerl 'short'; cf. also M/darbOna/,
J/dagbOnal 'alley' a nd note the unusual retention of lal in J. 103
In certain terms of address referring to kinship, there is, aga in in
all th ree dialects, a hypoco ristic - /u/ :MIC/,a mmu/, M/xa!ul IC/xalu/ ;
many 'Syrian dia lects have a similar lui or 10/.
4.5 THE NOUN. 4.5 1 Overall view. All three dialects use roughly
the same no minal base patterns , though in a few cases phonemic
differentiation has resulted in some degree of morphological di-
verge nce, cf. e.g. the pattern qtll- in 1 as opposed to its equivalents
in M and C. The greatest differentiation is in the realm of morpho-
phonemics. In what foll ows no attempt is made at exhaustiveness,
though most of the nomina l base patterns will be listed. The cate-
gory " noun" includes all words susceptible of taking the a~ticle,
and this in turn subsumes at least two sub-categories, substantives
and adjectives. Participl es will be dealt wi th separately (4.7), as will
numerals (4.6) . It may be worth pointing out again that in the dis-
cussion of roots and patterns, such terms as "biconsonantal" and
"trico nsonantal" refer not to phonemes, but to morphophonemes
represented by consona ntal symbols.
.,
MORPHOLOGY 75
4.52 Irregular patterns. As in other areas, many OA biconson-
antal nouns have becume trico nsonantal in MIC a nd fit more or
less smoothly into the regular nominal patterns: MI C/damml
' blood', lidl 'hand' (pattern qell- wi th K I -' and K, -y, (see 4.54a
~low!, laxxl ' brother" Vabbl 'father' ; this is true alsQ of Iisen/, Isenij
thIDg, less so of M/si/, C/se/. The three dialects show greater ir-
regularity in patterning and fluctuation betwee n biconsonantalism
and triconsonantalism in other cases: M/uxut/, 1/ext/, C/exetl 'sister',
plur._ MC/xaway,. Ilxwat/ ; MJC/eseml 'name', plur. M/asiim i/,
C/ase ml/ , MIl lsa ml/ ; MIC/ebenl 'son' is largely confined to use in
sandhi lebnil 'my so n', (Jebn eHanl 'so-and-so's son'), plur. Ilbninl
(MC pI. not noted). As for MC/benet/ , Ilbentl 'girl , daughter', plur.
MC/ banat/ , J/bniit/, there is in M a more regular (and preferred)
form Ibnayya/, for wh ich J has Ibnetij; I 04 Mlisanal 'year' and
l C/magal 'woman' are truly biconsonantal, as is M/mara/, thou gh the
latter has a preferred form Imrayyaf. Note also MIC/laxl 'another',
fern . M/lux/, IC/lex/, also with longer forms M/luxra/, lC/lexxi/.
4.53 Regular patterns. (a) Reflexes of OA patterns q VII, q Viii,
q Villi. From the discussion of short vowels and a naptyxis in Chapter
3, the di.fferences in the treatments of such pattern~ should already
be famllt ar; the essen!ial facts may be summed up as follows:
(i) With sound roots, M has a base pattern "ell- where the
e is lei or lui depending al most entirely on the consonantal environ-
ment, JC have p actica lly only leI, a nd the pattern serves mostly
for singular substanti ves; hOlVever, M/weledl or Iwuledl 'children',
M/kutub/, l CJketebl 'books', a nd the plurals of color adjectives,
e.g. M/~umur/, IC/~emegl ' red'. The difference in the treatment of
final c1us!;rs in 1 as opposed to MC res ults in a different classifica-
tion of base patterns : MC/wesexl 'd irty', C/najesl 'unclean', are
on the same pattern as Isekell or /~a!el/, i.e. "ell- and qall-, respec-
tlvely ; whereas the homonymous forms in 1 belong to bases of t he
pattern qelel- a nd qalel-, respecti vely. Cf. J/ malek! ' king' (pattern '
qalel-) vs. J/ ~ a lq l 'mouth' (paitern "all-), vs. M/malek/, I ~aleg/,
Cjmalek/, I ~ a l eqj ; the leI of MC is only anaptyctic, the lei of 1 is
not. Furthermore, the -e- in such J bases as those of Inajes/ , Iza lezl
explains the feminine in - Iii (Jnajsil, Izalzi/, IlVesxij) whereas qall-
nouns have feminines in - /aj : l l kalba/ , ' bitch', Igamzal 'hint', Igafsal
'kick'. Some examples of "ell- qall- a nd in 1 also qhe!- and "alel-
nouns (last two of list):
76 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD MORPHOLOGY 77

M J C been increased b~cause most OA qalafT-nouns have dropped the

second lal and are now represented by qatlT- and qetlT-nouns so
'foot' rejel gejel gejel
that M/ rukba/ 'knee' (OA/rukbaf) and M/rugbal 'neck' (OA/raqaba/)
'lock' quful qefel qefel
n.ow show the Same pattern, as do the JC equivalents I/gekbal and
'heart' galub qalb qaleb
Igeqba/, Cjgekbll and Igeqbi/ ; see par. (b) below.
'month' ~ahar ,aheg ~aheg
(b) Reflexes of .OA pattern qatal. There are a good many such
'cold' bared bagd baged
reflexes wIthout, tllough very few with, the femin ine ending. In M
' king' malek malek malek
most are on a ~attern qelal-, in Ie on a pattern qatal- ; the fate of
'impure' nages najes najes
the first vowel In M has been dealt with in 3.33; in some cases M
has qatal- as well: ,
(ii) Nouns like MICjtiitl 'mulberries', IsOdl 'black (pl.)' and
ltinl 'figs', Ibi51 ' white (pl.)', can easily be viewed as containing
KrY or w, respectively, and a pattern qel/~,
where e merges with
'onions'
.,M J C
y to IiI and with IV to 101; similarly, words like MJC/betl 'house' I:>u~al I:>a~al I:>a~al
and Ijozl 'nuts' can .be viewed as having K,-y and IV and a pattern 'camel' jemal jamal jamal
qall-, where a merges with y into Ie/ and with IV into 101; the existence 'boy' walad walad walad
of a very few "unmerged" words such as Ijay~1 'army', the proper
noun Iqays/, M/zawjl 'husband' and Izawjal 'wife' need not deter In some, cas~s, M has qetl- where JC have qatal-; M/ henec/ ,
us and may simply be listed as special cases. Words like MJC/jaml JCjhanakl chm . As In all bases ending in VK, JC stress the syllable
'glass' . are slightly ·more problematic, but if we wish to consider Immedla.tely ~recedl~g pron. suff., M does so optionally; M/jemal~1
them as having a pattern qall-, we may consider K2 in such cases to or / lemalal h,s camel', Iljmalu/,. C/jamalu/. Feminine nouns for
be a ' with which the pattern element a merges into la/. At any rate, whIch OA (at least as attested in CI. Ar.) had the pattern qatala(t)
qetl- and qat/-words with K,-y or IV show nothing special, except have, m the three dialects, generally not a pattern qatalr but qatfT
of course lack of anaptyxis in MC and the normal behavior of long or qetlT; the zeroing-out of the lal in unstressed open syllable is
vowels in 1. However, in the "unmerged" forms with phonemic normal for J and to f ame extent for M, but not for C; and the change
Iyl and Iw/, note that /jaysl undergoes no change when suffixes are of the first vowel is normal for M but not for IC, yet in this case
added, whereas Izawjl and Izawjal behave as with any other K, : the three dialects have somehow converged:
lzawejhal 'her husband', Izawejtil 'my wife'.
(iii) With K,-y or IV, the suffix less word ends in /i/ or luI, M J C
respectively, but has Iyl or Iwl with suffixes: from the bases MJC 'ten' 'a§ra 'asga 'asga
/lellV- and M/lacy-, IC /wky- , we get MIC Ihelu/, M/haci/, IC/hakil 'tree' sejra sejga sejga
and: 'neck' r,ugba geqba geqbi
, C 'fish' S,e mca samka
M J samaki
' pretty (f. s.), helwa helwa helwi Nouns corresponding to OA pattern qataiT- are particularly prone
' his talk' I)acya hakyu hakyu
to all sorts of reshufflmgs m other dialects, cf. Mosul Igaqqabil
and the many Syrian dialects that have e.g. Iraqabal but Iraqbatl
(iv) There are, of course, a good many qetfT- and qal/T-nouns wIth suffixes. The M forms are more or less what one would expect
(i.e. with fern. suff.) in all three dialects; indeed, their number has (I.e. conform to a more general M treatment of) a/, cf. 3.33), the
\

I I
78 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
MORPHOLOGY 79
J forms are not always what we would expect (whence the lei of
Isejga/, Igeqba/ ?; however, note that an expected */gaqbal would One C informant gives for the las t two the alte'rna nt forms Ijedadl
have yielded Igeqbet·1 in suffixation) and the C forms apparently and /'etaq/.
reftect, as do other C features, a mixture of J·like features and Mosul· (e) Nouns having a qlal patte rn in all three dialects ha rk back
like ones. to OA pattern qlllal and aqlal, rarely also to qital; as a rule, nouns
There are a few qatal· and qetal·nouns with medial lV, though harkIng back to qilti! have qlti! in M onl y, but have been altered
they hark back to different OA patterns. T have noted on ly the fol· through 'ima!a in J, and C a nd are discussed in (f) below. No uns
lowing, which also have K ,-y; the middle radical yields Iw/, the har~lllg back to qaltil have qtti! in 1, usually a lso in M, but usua ll y
final radical yields zero: qala! 111 C. The s lI1gle la rges t category in which a ll three have qtti!
IS tha; of .adJectlve plurals; on the reasons for positing a n OA pat.
M J C tern quta! for such patterns, see 3.36 above. These include:
' light' (Suwa Qawa <;Iawa M J C
'remedy' duwa dawa dawa
'fat' sman sman sman
'big' kbar kbag kbag
Nat urall y, the M qeral·forms a re undistinguishable from the qetal·
'small' zgar zgag zgag
fo rms com mon to MJC and reflecting OA qilal or qlltal.
'long' Ilval twiil
(c) Reflexes of OA qilal and qutal patterns. These yield MJC tWa I
'clean' n(\iif n(\af
qetal-bases, except for o nc or two cases of qtal- in M, and are most n<;laf
'broad' ' ral) 'ga(\ 'gii<;l
commonly plurals of nouns qetl· and qatlT·; for the singular MJC
'nice' mlii~
Ij anla/, M also /j untal 'bag', and the singular M/ebra/, JC/ebgi/,
'sho rt'
, mliil)
g~ar
M/gu!;>!;>a/, J/qebba/ , C/qebbil ' room' we get:
'strong' ,CJ,Wiiy
qsiig
qway
qsag
qway
•
,
M J C I
. There is no M cognate for JC/mla~/, nor for the corresponding ~.

'bags'
'neecpes'
'roo ms'
junat
ebar
gu!;>a!;>
jenat
ebag
qebab
jenat
ebag
qebab
sll1gular ; a ll sll1gulars are reflexes of OAqalEi except for the adjectives
'small' and 'short', ~hich have patterns qlayy!. in the three Baghdadi
(as In many other) dJalects. As for substanti ves in which JC as well
.~,
as M have qlti!, they include:
T he singular J/gekba/, C/gekbi/, M/rukbal ' knee' gives JC/gekab/,
but M/ rkabf. O n c/jedadl and /'etaq/, see (d) below. M J C
(d) There are a few singular substantives and a few plural adjec· 'teeth' snan snan soan
tives that have a pattern qettal· in MJC; those listed are the only 'children' (weled) wliid wiad
o nes noted: 'small fry' frax frax frax
'sleeve' rd an rdan rdan
M J C 'so-and-so' flan fla n fliin
'rice' 'crow' grab grab
temman temman temman grab
'ladder' sellam sellam sellam ' rope for
' new (pl.)' jed dad jeddad jeddad headdress' 'gal 'gal 'gal
'old (pl.)' 'ettag 'ettaq 'ettaq 'donkey' ~l!1ar 1)1!lag I)mag
'country' blad blad bliid
80 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD MORPHOLOGY 81
The first three are instances of plurals· harking back to (or contami- 'candles' sma' smi ' f . sme'
nated by) OA 'aqlol form s, and Ird,ml seems to rest on an old plural 'baskets' sial slil slel
a lso, the new plural being MJC/redenj. The others hark back to 'ropes' I,tbal l)bil l)bel
older qUlol, or, exceptionally for JC, to older qilol nouns which for 'mountains' jba l jbil jbel
some reason have not undergone the expected 'imola ; /, gall is clearly
The forms C/l)sabj' and J/ ktabl do not conform to the regular corres-
a borrowing from M or another gelel-dialect, while the word for
pondence, but cf. .J/ ktibil 'a writing'. With K ,-y and the feminine
'donkey' may rest on an older, albeit unattested,lOS Ibumar/. Note
ending, M has the '.regular Il)caya/, J/ l)kiyyi/ or better Il)kiyi/, and
also M/zyara/, JC/zyagal 'pilgrimage' , MJC/zma l/, another term for
c/l)kayyil with the expected layl for lei before Iy/- As for M/dejajal
' donkey' . F inally, in J practically all OA qOlol nouns now have this
' hen, chicken', it has the same pa ttern qlol with an automatically
qlol pattern, while M preserves the lal in some and C in most such
anaptyctic lei, but 't he JC equivalents J/jijil and Cfjeji/ now show
nou ns:
different patterns, though clearly harking back to a n OA form
Idijaja/ 106 Note also M/bhaml (apparently also used in C) and
M J C
J/bhim/ 'thumb' , harking back not to a qild! noun but to OA/,ibham/ ,
'wine' srab 'gab sagab with the J 'imola of course still regular. The J word is now homo-
' North' samal smal samal phonous with J/bhiml 'beast of burden, donkey', and in general
'cloak' 'abaya 'bayi 'abayi the J nouns in qlil listed above are indistinguishable from those
'three' tlaOa tla8i tlati harking back to older qalll, e.g. Inxi!1 ' palm trees', Ihlibl 'milk',
'day' nhar nhag nhag which M and C keep apart; this renders at least one or two ety-
'illicit' Qaram !)gam bagam mologies uncertain, e.g. J/zwijl 'marriage', neither ' /zawijl nor
'licit' balal I)lal I)alal */ziwajl being attested; the MC form is Izawaj/.
(g) The OA pattern qatil is represented in MJC by a pattern
For J/ l)wasl 'clothes', MC have no cognate, only IhdGm j. qiflll, in which if is shorthand for lal alternating with unsta ble /eI
(f) . Nouns harking back to OA qilol have, as a rule, qltil in in M, lal (and occasionally zero) in C and zero (and occasionally
M but qli!! in C a nd qlil in J. They include many high freq uency la/) in J. On the fate of OA lal in unstressed open syllable, cf. 3.33.
singular and es pecially plural substa ntives, and the threefold cor- The pattern is found in ma ny common singular adjectives, a nd
respondence is almost, but not quite, complete: some singular and some plural substantives. They include:

M J C M J C

tongue' Isan lsin lsen 'heavy' Gegi! 8qi! laqil

'quilt' ll,taf l!)if Il,tef 'light' xaftf xftf xafif
'belt' i:tz3ffi I)zim l)zem 'long' tewil !wi! !awi!
'underpants' Ibas Ibis Ibes !broad' '\ ariQ 'giil 'agi<:!
'book' ktab (ktab) kteb 'big' ~ebir kbig kbig
'account' I,tsiib I,tsib (I)sab) 'poor' faqir faqir faqir
'men' rjal gjil gjel 'milk' balib I) lib I)alib
'dogs' " lab klib kleb 'friend' ~adiq ~(a)diq ~adiq
'camels' jmal jmil jmel 'donkeys' I)amir I)mig I)(a)mig
'lions' sba' sbi' sbe' 'jar' brig bgiq bgiq
 82 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BA GHDAD MORPHOLOGY 83
The last instance harks back to OA/,ibriq/, not to a qalll noun. 'orph ans' yt.a ma ytiimi yatami
Forms in which C has /e/ before / t)/ may be considered as ha ving 'pregnant' t)biila I)bali I)abali
the same pattern e.g. C/malet)/ ' nice', h ahet)/ 'whole'. With K ,-y ,
there is e. g. M'/C/qawi/ 'strong' ( M also /guwi/) with diver ge nt For the last example C informa nts also give / I)abeli/, as though a
phonemic shape (penult-stress, truncated second syllable) In_the p atte rn qaretel with' K ,-y, cf. /zaweli/ from /zuliyi/ 'rug', and cf.
masculine but the pattern is normal in the feminine, M/qaWlya/ , the JC singular / I)eblej. All three dialects have only / najara/ 'Christ-
J/qwiyi/, i.e. base qmvEy in which y yields zero in the suffixless ia ns'. Also note in J'( MC eq ui va lents not noted): / i)zani/ 'sad' (sing.
form , wi th concom itant stress and length sh ifts, but /y/ with suffixes ; / I)zin/), /myati/ 'dead' (si ng. / mayyet/), /!yabi/ 'alive' (sing. / layyeb/).
cf. also the plural /qwayj. . . Some of the above ex~ mples a lso have plura ls in -/in/ , e.g. M/kaslanin/ ,
(II) The pattern qflil, especially wi th the feminine ending, IS fre- M/ sak ra nin/, Mj'a!!iinin/ .
quent in the three dialects for plurals of qVtl nouns : (j) Reflexes of nouns on the OA pattern qalil are numerous
and va riegated. Many have a pattern qalel in all three dialects, while
M J C all Form I participles have a regular correspondence M-qalel vs.
. 'houses' biyut biyiit biyiit JC-qetel, whereas still others show the correspondence M-qatel vs.
'roofs' ~ !ut) ~!ui) Hot) J-q!lel and C-qiitel. Participles are discussed separately in 4.7; for
'hearts' glOb qlub qlub the ordinal numerals, see 4.6. In a ll cases, the e of the base pattern
'tables' myiiza myuza myuzi is elided in the feminine, in M also with suffixes, while in JC it
'bastards' ngu!a ngula ngOli is retained and stressed with pron. suif. (cf. 3.4 above). Cases where
'bottles' !;itO!a i?lu!a i?luli a ll three have qatel include: MJC/ kateb/ 'clerk' /tajer/ 'merchant'
/ Iazem/ ' necessary', /wadi/ 'valley', M/ l)al)1u(\/, J/ l)al)1e9/ , C/ i)iil)1e\f/
This pattern does not seem to occur wi~h K,-y . On: C informant 'sour', M/ ~ 9ul/, J ~a gel/, Cf ~ i?e17, 'officer', MJC/wali/ ' provincial
gives the unusual form /I)~uyen/ 'horses, pl._ of / I)~an/, wh.ch has governor', etc. With 'ima/a in Je but excluding participles and
an aggregate MJC/xel/ and a plural MJ/ I) ~ una/ ; my other _C in- ordinal numerals, we have for example:
forma nts recognized / I) ~uyen/, state they themselves use /xe,l! or
/I)~uni/ a nd thought the unusual form to b: "from the North. On M J C
'mosque' jame' jime'
C/o/ for /u/ before /1)/, / q/ a nd /g/ , cf. / malel)/ In (g) above and 3.34. jeme'
'child' jiihel jihel
(i) All three dia lects have, to a greater extent than most vane~te-' jehel
'frozen' ja med jimed
of A rabic, preserved plurals harking back to the OA ~att~rn qalala, i,omed
'cold ' bared biged
with 'im ala of the final vowel (spelled with 'alif maq~lIra In CI. Ar.) belied
'corrupt' fased fised fesed
in J a nd C' most but not all corresponding singulars are adject.ves
, ' 1y qla-If 'barefo ot' haft hili
on the pattern qatlall: the patterns are respective a or M , i)efi
'high' ,iili 'iii 'eli
qliill for J, and qatali for C; such plurals Include:
'warm' diifi difi defi
'dry' yabes yibes
M J C yebes
' health ' 'iifya 'jfi
'lazy' ksala ksali kasali (not noted)
'rim ' I) ii ~ya i)iSi
'drunk' skara skagi sakagi (not noted)
'tired' ('aba t'abi ta'abi
'ca refree' i?lara i?lagi i?alagi With K,.y, masculines (i n J a lso feminines) end in / i/ , in M there
'thirsty' -liisa 'Iasi 'atasi is /yl before suffixes, Qut in C informa nts hesitate between two types
 ,
84 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD .,, MORPHOLOGY 85
of feminines, /I)efy il and II)efiyi/. For M/nasi/ 'low' there is the Some nouns occur in short phrases with a descriptive complement
regu larly expected C form Inesi/, but J has Inassi/. e.g. MC/ fattab fall; J/fettab falf 'fortune teller', J/qellii' edgubl 'high-
wayman'. The pattern occurs also in some names of household
(k) In OA , or rather in Classical Arabic, one could. distinguish utensils, e.g. with fem. suff., J/qerrayil 'Sabbath lamp'. A pattern
two '0'1101 patterns, homophonous in this shape but qUIte dIfferent qalltili in MJC (without the lal > l ei shift in J) OCCurs in a few spe-
in syntactic behavior: one '0'1101 pattern for elatives with many cial inva riant forms that seem to be used only predicati vely, of wh ich
special syntactic features a nd (some) feminine .equiva lents w Ith a [ have noted the following : M/ga"iidi I, JCfqa"iidil 'in a sitting po-
pattern qllllti, and another ' oqlal for colors and mfirmltles wIth less sition', M/waggafi/ , JCfwaqqafil 'in a stand ing 'position', Ilayyaril
syntactic peculiarities and reg ular femin ines in qallti'. The two pat- 'on the wing, in flight" 07 a nd Cfbaddawil 'in the language Of the
terns are still quite di stinct in MJC, th ough to the syntactic differences Baghdad Muslims', which apparentl y has no MJ equiva lents' o• In
we must now add a morphophonemic one operating in Je, where J, there is no phonemic difference between this pattern and the o ne
the two patterns behave differen tl y wi th K ,-y. There is a pattern harking back to OA qlllltil, for which MJC have qelltil, with the
aqllil for co lor, a nd infirmiti~s (with Ii merging with K,-y into lif) usual values for e; this pattern is mostly found in plurals of nOllns
and a n elative pattern aqlal with unchangi ng pattern elements: ha ving qVlel in the singular:
JCfa'mil 'blind ' but la' ial 'higher' , cf. JC/algasl 'deaf', lalwall
'longer' . In M, the two patterns are identical: M/a'ma/ , la'la/, r al ras/ , M J C
lalwal/. Elatives a re invariant as to ge nder and number, and often 'oldsters' siyyab siyyab siyyab
come before the noun wit h which they enter mto the same sort of 'clerks' kuttab kettab kettab
annexation as the ordinals: MJC/a\wal yoml 'the longest day'. 'inhabitants' sekkan sekkan sekkiin
Colo;s and infirmities have a fe minine pattern qallti, with the final 'barefoot'· beffay (Min) beffay
ti stressed in JC but unstressed (and hence short) in M; on the final 'high' 'ellay ('ilin) 'ellay
vowel, cf. 3.5; on morphophonemics, cf. 4. lb: M/ bamra/, J/bemga/,
Cfl)amgal ' red (f.s.)': M/soda/, Jjsuda/, C/sodal 'b!ack (f.s.),; The last two exa mples, for which J seems to have only plurals in
M / be~a/, J /bi~a/, Cfbedal 'white (f.s.)'; M/larsa/, J/legsa/, Cflagsal -/in/, show " regular" behavior in MC in roots with K-,y. Among
'deaf (f.s.)' . Elatives derived from geminate roots (K, and K, Iden- singular nouns on this pattern, cf. MJC/xe ssiifl 'bat', Isekkiinl
tical) show both the unmodified pattern (MJCfaxfaf) 'lighter' root 'rudder'. No uns har~ing back to an older qilllil are differentiated
x.lf ) and a classical-li ke modification aK ,aK, K" MJCfaqa1l1 'less, by the expected 'ill1tila in JC, so that we have the patterns M-qelltil,
least' , root qll. Note also J/aqqabl ' nearer', cf. J/qqibl ' near', but J-qell il, C-qelliil ; syn chronically we may include here M/oebban/ ,
Cfaqgabl , Iqagib/. J/oebbin/, Cfdebben/" 'flies' , though historically the pattern was
qitlall . 109
(I) Reflexes of patterns qOlllil, qilllil, qllll lil. The three dialects
ha ve the regularly expected equivalents for the common Arab~c (m) Reflexes of OA patterns qalltin , qlllilill, and qilloll. The lhre.e
pattern den oting habitual or professional activity, MC-qaltal,
dia lec ts have nouns in qV/Wn denoting personal properties or states
of mind or body; in M the pattern is qalltill, in J qelltill as expected,
J-qeltli/:
but in C there is usually qelltill rather than the expected preservation
C of OA/al that is otherwise typical of the dialect.
M J
'bake r' xabbaz xebbaz xabbaz
M J C
'tailor' xayyal xiyyal xa yyal
'lazy' kasliin kes liin keslan
'carpenter' najjar nejjag najjag
'carefree' \>a\ra n i;>elgan i;>elgan
'cobbler ragga' geqqa' gaqqa'
86 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD MORPHOLOGY 87
'thirsty' 'atsan '~lsa n 'etsftn 'bird , sparrow'; cf. also Jjxeggufj 'sheep', though Mjxarufj on a di f-
'h ungry' jo'an ju'an j o'an ferent patte rn ; ef. a lso MJC/za'lulj 'small boy'. A special use of
'drunk' sakrii n sekgan sekgan this pattern, with added -jij is fou nd in the hypoeoristie form s of
'glad' farl)an feg l)an fegl)an certain given name~ : jbar humij (from j brahim/), jl)ammud ij (from
jahmadj, jmahmOd/, etc.), j'abbOdij (fro m any name beginning with
j'abd - j), etc.
All three dialects have qerltin in a number of substanti ve plurals, ,
usually with no 'imtila in JC, so that they may hark back to OA (0) Reflexes of OA patterns qartilil, maqtilil, etc. These patterns
qlllitill plurals even when the classical forms a re on the pattern qilltill: are, in general , to ~e fo und in plurals of disyllabic singulars of wh ich
MJC/sedqanj 'friends', j l)ezmanj ' belts', jsebya nj 'boys' , j neswa nj the first syllable is long (i.e, ends in V or VK). The patterns have
'women', Jj begqanj 'jars'. However Jjjegdinj 'mice' (MC equiv- undergone the exp~cted 'imtila ·in JC, viz. are ' qrilel (mqllel) and
alenis not noted) with the expected 'in/{ila (cf, OAjjirMnj), a nd qarelel (//laqel el), respecti vely, though some forms with jilj a lso
simila rl y the term for ' flies' referred to at the end of the preceding occu r. That the JC 'imdla is "in the pattern" and not in the indi vi-
paragraph. The pattern qelltin'also serves, at least in J, to form ve rbal dual words is sho\yn by the app lication of these patterns to plurals
nouns for some Form 1 K 3-y verbs and some verbs with geminate of relatively recent borrowings. Some examples:
roots, though in the latter case K , is, in this pattern, replaced by
jyj : Jjkefyanj in j kefya n sa ggj 'avoidance of evil', (i . e, payment of
..
a bribe in return for safety, etc.), root kfy; Jjsemyanj 'smelling' M J C
(smm), Jjmedyii nj ' stretching' (mdd).
'mosques' jwamc' jwimc' jawe me'
(II)Patterns qVttVI a nd qVrlVI. In addition to patterns 'lVI/til 'eyebrows' hwajeb hwijeb hawejeb
which have been treated separately above, the re are a number of 'handkerchiefs' crali kfili kafefi .,
trieo nsonantal a nd q uadrieonsonantal patterns of simil ar syllabic 'tents' cwader twider caweder j

structure and other com mon features; these are considered briefly 'pistols' wrawer wgiweg (not noted) ••"n
here. 'drums' danabeg dnibek danebek :j,
(i) Reflexes of OA patterns qirltil a nd miqltil include: Mjgarbilj,
'rings'
'schools'
mhabes
madares
mhi bes
mdares
mal)ebes
made res,
-
Jjgegbil j 'sieve' (see a lso this item in the lexicon, Chap. 6); with madares
K ,-IV merging with the first pattern element into jij, jij : Mjmiza nj, 'snakes' (nOl noted) hayeyi
hyiyi
J/ mizinj, C/mizenj 'scale' (root IVzn) ; note MC/miliidj, Jlmiladj 'persons' awfldem awadem awedem
'bi rth day' (root wid) with out ' imtila , but C/miledj in j'id elmiledj 'lands' arai)i agai)i ageQi
'Ch ristmas'. On the unusual features of Mjmezribj, JC/megzib j
'gutter', cf. Cl. Ar . mizrdb , see this item in the lex icon.
In the last insta nce, the singu lar is Mjarui)j, JjaMj, CjageQj but the
(ii) Reflexes of OA patterns qillif and miqlif include Mjseccinj, plural is fo rmed on! a root with K,-y, which, as in other cases (cf.
JC/sekki nj 'knife', MC/\;>a\li xj, Jj \lelPxj ' melo n', MJC/meskinj ' poor 'handkerchiefs', 'sria kes') merges with the e of the pattern into
soul', MJC/me' milj 'customer, dealer'. On raqlll, see ('I) below. jij. The M pattern is qrdrel, but occasionall y qardlel. The C form s
(iii) Reflexes of patterns 'loll iii and qarliil (on maqllil, see 4.7 show a greater regularity than in J with res pect to 'imtila; this is
below) include several names of a nimals, e.g. Mj bazz un(a)j, Jjbezzu n(a) true also of refl exes , of patterns qaldyil (CI. Ar. qalt'i'i1), which are
Cjbazzun(i)j, 'cat', Jj'aqruqaj, Cj'aqroqaj 'frog'; Mj'asfUrj, Jj'esfUgj usuall y plurals of ilOuns havi ng patterns of the type K(V)KYK;
88 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD MORPHOLOGY 89
in such cases C often has the ex pected layl < lal before IYI (cf. ., M J " C
3.36a), whereas J, like M, has la/ : 'bakers' ,.xbiibiz xbabil xabebil
'tailors' xyayi! xyayi! xayeyi!
'cats' bZ3zin bzazin bazezin
M J C
'coats' qpiipi! qpapi! qapepi!
'wardrobes' d,wiilib dwalib dawelib
'brides' 'araye~ 'gaye~ 'agayyes
'old women' 'ajayel 'jayel 'ajayyel
'shops' ,
dkiikin dkakin dakekin
'socks' jwarib jwarib Uawegeb)
'taxes' i)ariiyeb (\arayeb dariiyeb
Slightly irregular, are M/l)wiiwin/, J/l)wawin/ , Cjl)awewi n/, and
Note a lso J/lmiiyel/, Ibhayeml 'donkeys', (M /lmiiyel/), Cj'tayyeql
M/d(a)niinir/ , J/daQanir/ , Cjdanenir/, from si ngulars with K,-y
'old things'. The C plural Ijawegebl 'socks' is regular for the singular
(M //:Ii wiinl 'animal', Idiniirl 'd inar'). For 'brooms', M/ meknasal has
Cjj6gabi/ , but the MJ cognates ha ve the long vowe l in the second
the regular plural Imkiinis/, cf. the JC forms in the preceding para-
syllable of the singular (M/jiiriib/, J/juriibj) and regular plurals be-
graph. The pattern is also found in plurals of some words with only
longing to a different pattern (see following paragraph). The J plural
one long syllable, e.g. M/mfiilisl ' broke' sing. Imeflesl Cja,ebi'l
. Imkinesl 'brooms' is reg ular for the si ng. J/mekensil but C speakers 'fingers', sing. le,'ya'i and I,'yii'a/, C/adefigj ' nails', sing. ledfeg!; this
hesitate between the expected Imakenesl (sing. C/ maknasi/) and includes nouns of geminate roots having in the singular the pattern
Imakenis/, cf. the M form in the following paragraph . As to the OA maqta! thus for MJ/mxaddal 'pillow', Cjmxaddil MJ/ m/:lallal 'quar-
pattern qarcililT, with the fem inine end ing, it is used, as in Classical ter', Cjmal)allij (b ut not MJC/mal)alll 'place, store' which has a
Arabic a nd in many dialects, for aggregates denoting inhabitants
plural in - /iit/), M/mga"l, JC/mqa,,1 'scissors' we have:
of a town or co untry. In the few examples noted for MJC, however,
it appears that the I ii of the OA pattern has left none of its usual
M J C
traces: no 'into/a, and in J the feminine allomorph is fat, even whe re
'pillows' rnxiidid mxadid maxedid
the ge neral rules (see 4.32) would lead one to expect /i/ : 'quarters' .m/:liilil m/:lalil mal!elil
'scissors' mga,i, mqa ~i~ maqe~i~
M J C l

(q) Reflexes of. OA patterns taqtil and taqattll!. In the three dia-
'Baghdad is' bgiidda bgadda bagiiddi lects, verbs of Forms II and V have regularly corresponding verbal
'people of mwa~ !a m ~a lwa ma\Va~1i nouns with MJC patterns taqtil and tqette!; the latter is used for
Mos ul' m ~a !wa quadriliteral verbs also. A feature of the taqtil pattern is th at it keeps
'people of b~arwa b~agwa (not noted) its lal in 1: MJC(tasli ml 'handing over' from Isallam/ ; Itax\Vifj
Basra' from Ixawwafl 'to frighten' or Itxawwafl 'to be frightened'; j.ta'liml
, Egyptians' m~arwa m~arwa (not noted) from j'allaml 'to teach' or It'allaml 'to learn'; M/tkeffer/, C/tkeffegl
from Ikaffar/, Ikaffagl 'to curse'; J/tmeddedl from Itmaddadl 'to
(1') Reflexes of OA patterns Iqarutil/, Imaqatil/ , etc. These in- stretch out', J/tyebbesl from Iyabbasl 'to dry' and Ityabbas/ 'to dry
clude, by and large, plurals of disyllabic singulars of which both (intr.)'; J/ txellil from Ixallal ' to put'; M/ddebbecl from Idabbacl
syllables are long, though in J the first may be a phonemically short 'to stamp one's foot'; M/tme(jyegl from Itmai)yag/, 'be bored, an-
vowel. As has been seen, (3.36a) there is the expected 'imcila in C, noyed' and Ima(\yagl 'to bore, annoy'; and in absolute construction,
but J has lal rather than an expecled Ii/. Some examples: Imtalfal)a tteffe/:ll 'round as an apple (cheek)' , Imkal)l)ala tke/:ll)ell
90 COMMUNAL DIA LECTS IN BAGHDAD MORPHOLOGY 91
'black with Ikul)ull (eye)'. With K, -y verbs y is usually phonemically sett setta sett setti sett setti
ze ro in taqtil, e.g. Ita 'qif)1 from l'qayyaf)1 'to whiten'. In J/tbitl ' food sabe' sab'a sab' sab'a sabe l sab'a
kept warm from Friday through Saturday', we have a development Sman Smiinya Oman Omini 1man tmeni
from "/tabitl ve rbal noun of Ibayyatl 'to keep overnight'; the Mosul tese' tesla tes' tes'a tese' tes'a
and Anatolian Jews still call this Sabbath food Ita bit/. laser 'asra 'aseg 'asga 'aSeg 'asga
(r) The above list of nominal patterns is far from being exhaustive, tlattiyam tlattiyiim tlattiyam
but does include most of the common, productive patterns as well arf?a'tiyam agi;>a'tiyiim arf?a 'tiyam
as some less common o nes that were deemed of interest. Some no- xamstiyam xamsti y~m xamstiyam
minal forms that occur only in conjunction with certain numerals settiyam ... settiyam ·settiyam
are discussed in the following section. sabe'tiyam sabe'tiyiim sabe'tiyam
9mentiyam " Smentiyam tmentiyam
4.6 T HE NUMERALS . 4 .61 The cardinal numbers. (a) The tese'tiyam tese'tiyam tese 'tiyam
numbers 'one' to 'ten' exhibit' in MJC a morphology that is char- 'asertiyam , 'asegtiyiim ,'asegtiyam
acteristic of Eastern Arabic as a whole. While the numerals 'one'
and 'two' are essentially adjectives inflected for gender, the numerals As can be seen, shape C consists essentially of shape A with an
from 'three' to 'ten' have, in each dialect, three shapes each, one added Itl, except that no third ItI appears in Isettl and that there are
when preceding the numbered noun (shape A below) a second when slight modifications in 'three' and 'eight'. As in many other dialects,
not preceding the numbered noun (shape B), and a third bound shape C is thus not based on shape B by replacing the final lal or
to one of a limited set of plural nouns (shape C) . The numerals /if with ItI (as would oeeur in the ordinary fern. suff.), but results
'one' and 'two' are: from a complex historical reshuffling. The dissimilarity of this alter-
nation from that of the fern. suff. ·T is enhanced by the irregu larity
M J C of the li/-/al alternation in J, which here exactly parallels that of C
'one (m .)' waQed weQed wel)ed and is conditioned by factors that do not usually operate in J (ef.
' one (f.)' weMa wel)di wel)di 3.36a above). In the shape C combinations, the complex might be
'two (m ,), Onen Onen tnen considered either as one or two words, but note that disjuncture,
' two (f.)' Benten Oenten tenten when it occurs, usually detaches the ItI from its etymological place
and joins it to the noun: Ixams tiyamf. 110 Moreover, the nom inal
On reflexes of OA/fardl and their use, see 4.9 below. Many nouns forms occurring in these combinations often show special features
admit both the dua l and the use of 'two' with the plural, e.g. M/betenl and have different shapes when isolated : JC/xamstesegl 'five months',
or IOnen ebyOtl or IbyOt eOnenl 'two houses'; details and differences Isette~egl 'six months' and so on with -/teseg/, but'months' in iso-
in usage remain to be investigated. The numera ls fro m 'three' to lation is lesheg/ ; M see ms to have both Ixamsteshurl and Ixamstesur/,'
' ten' are listed below; in each column, shape A is on the left, shape and the separate form is lashurf. Shape-A numerals with a pattern
B on the right, and shape C is listed separately after them, attached qat! and qeli behave normally as to anaptyx is ; MJC/xams ebyOtl
to MJC/iyiiml 'days' . 'five houses', MJC/xames daqayeql 'five minutes'.
(b) The numerals from 'elevell' to 'nineteen' have, in MJC,
M J C only one shape each, and that without any final Ir/ ; this is true of
tlaO tliiOa tlaO tliiOi tlat tHiti all Mesopotamian dialects examined so far, so that these contrast
art;>a' arQa'a agba' agb'a arba' arba'a with the Syrian area (two shapes, one with Irl before nouns and
xames xamsa xams xamsi xames xamsi one without Irl else,where) and the Egyptian area (a single shape,
92 COMM UNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD MORPHOLOGY 93
with Irl throughout). The differences between M. 1, and C are largely 'thousand' 'alef alf alef
but not wholly due to regular phonetic correspondences, cf. es- 'two thousand' alfen elfen alfen
peciall y 'eleven', 'fourteen', 'seventeen', 'nineteen' ,Ill 'three thousand' , ' t1attalaf tlattalaf tlattaliif

Before a numbered noun, M/miya(, JC/miyi(, and compounds end-

M 1 C ing in them have the alternant MJC/mit / : 1mit felsl 'a hundred fels ',
da' as ida's ida'es Ixamesmit felsl 'five hundred fe ls'. ' Hundreds' beyond two are formed
Ona'as Ona 's tna'es with numerals of shape A, 'thousands' beyond two with numerals
\laqa'as \!etta's t! ana'es of shape C attached to MC/tiilar/, Iltalar/.
ar!;>at;\'as ag !;>ata', ar!;>ata'es 4.62 The ordinals. The ordinals from 'second ' to ' tenth' are on
xr!1u ~ \a' as xrpe~ta' s xal]1e!(a'es the pattern qatel in M, qftel in J and qatel in C, in the last case with-
!e\\a'as ~ ena 's !eqa'es out the expected 'im·ala. They are:
!!;>a'Was ~!;>ata'$ !!;>a(')!A'es
8f11Cnpl'as Ol]1enta's (l]1an(a'es M J C
! ~ a ' ta' as t~a!a's t!a(')\a'e,
Oani mni Lani
(c) The tens from 'twenty' to 'ninety' also have a single shape OaleO 9i1e9 talet
each and exhibit mostly reg ular correspondences : rabe' gibe' . rabe'
xames ximes xames
M J sades sides sades
• C
sabe" sibe' sabe'
'esrin 'esgin 'esgin 9amen 9imen tarnen
tHiSin t1i9in tlOtin lise' i
tase' tase' .1.
arba'in geb'in arba'in
~
'aser 'iSeg 'aseg
xamsiri
setOn
xemsin
settin
xamsin ,
scttin These function. either as adjectives, i.e. follow the substantive .~

sab'in seb'ln sab'in and inflect for gender, number, and determination, or they function
Omanin 9m.inin tamenin as elatives, i.e. precede the substantive and remain invariable: in the
les' in tes'in les'in latter case the article is never present: (9a le8 yoml 'the third day' ,
19a1e9 lelal 'the third night'. As for 'first', MJ C/awwall is used in
These call for no special comment beyond the J form for 'forty' this latter constructiQD; it may also occur in the adjective construc-
which can easily ha ve developed from ' /agb'inl > ' /ageb'inl > tion , though in that case there is the more common variant Me
Igeb'inl , and the J 'imiila in 'thirty' and 'eighty' is discussed in 3.36a. lawwalani/, 1lwlani/, with regular f~minine and sound plural. There
Beyond these, the 'hundreds' and 'thousands' have the following are, as in other dialects, no special ordinal form s after 'tenth', the
form s: cardinal numbers being used in that function.
M J C
4.7 THE PARTICIPLE. 4.71 Form I participles. (a) Probably all
' one hundred' miya miyi miyi
Arabic dialects exhibit some formal features distinguishing participles
'two hundred' milen miten milen
from nouns having similar patterns; 112 an additional differentiation
'three hundred' tla9miya tla9miyi t1atmiyi
 94 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD MORPHOLOGY 95
connected with ' illlliia a nd hence a lready mentioned in 3.36 obtains to say that all verbs admit of both, cf. 4.73 below) but the phonemic
in the Form I active participle of J, to a lesser extent of C, but not distinction is retained fully in the three forms (m.s., f.s ., and pl.)
in that of M . That participle a lways bas in M the pattern qate/, only by C; in J and M, it is to some extent blurrecj. The details follow.
which is shared by many nouns; in C it has the pattern qetel; and (i) For Form II, from the verb ' to hand, over', perfect base
in J qiite/ is, to all intents and purposes, exclusively reserved for MJC-sallam, imperfect base MJC-sallem, we have in M:
Form I active participles, so that with a very few exceptions J nouns
harking back to OA qatil have either qItel or qalel. The various m. S. f.s. pI.
degrees of contrast and non-contrast are illustrated by the following: AP . msallem msalma msalmin
PP !./ msallam msalma or msalmin or
M J C msallama msallamin
'a clerk' kateb kateb kateb
'having written' kateb keteb keteb Thus the distinction between active and passive is optionally re-
'a mosque' jame' jime' jeme' tained in the fern .: sing. and in the plural. In J, on the other hand,
' having gathered' jame' jeme' jeme' we get:
'it's possible' 11 3 qabel qiibel qabel
m.s. f.s. pI.
'having agreed' qabel qebel qebel
AP msallem msalmi mselmin
With hollow roots (KI-y or IV) the second radical yields /y/ in MJC PP msallam msalma mselmin
but while the a of M-qatel is unchanged, the e of JC-qetel yie lds
/ay/ : M/ sfiyel/ , JC/sayyel / ' transferring' (Syf), M/dayer/, JC/ dayyeg/ Thus the distinction is lost in the plural, but retained in the fern .
'going around' (dIVr, dIVg) . With geminate roots (K2 and K, identical) sing. because of the different allomorphs of the fern. suff., depend-
the JC patterns are unmodified, but the masc. sing. of M exhibits a ing on whether the base ends in -eK or in -eK (cf. 4.32 above). In C
"
the distinction is retained throughout: I
.collapsing of K2 and K, into a single phoneme: from /zbb we get ••
-~
M /I:tiib/; fern. Il)abba/ , but JCfl)ebeb/ fern. / l)ebbi/ . This M form 114
m.s. f.s. pI.
is typical of gelet and Beduin dialects, and I have noted it also among
the Negev semi-nomads, while the JC forms are the ones found AP msallem msalmi msalmln
throughout the qe/tu area and in the sedentary dialects as a whole. PP msallam msallami msallamin
(b) Form I passive participles have the pattern maqliil in MC
and meqtiil in J and exhibit no differentiation beyond the regular Form III participles behave enti rely analogously: ' fro m the verb
phonetic ones in MJC; no modifications occur in geminate or hol- 'to forgive' , perfect base MJC-sdma/z, imperfect base MJC-sdme/z,
low roots (MC/mahbub/, J/mel)bub/ 'beloved', MCfmabyu'/, J we get the masc. sing. AP MJCfmsameh/ , the masc. sing. PP MJC
/ mebyu'/'sold') or with KI-IV roots, MC/ mawzun/ 'weighed', though / msiimal:t/ and fem. and plur. forms exactl y anj'logous to the ones
on J/muwzun/ see • 3.37b and note 86. With K,-y the pattern is maqtil listed above.
e.g. MJCfmaswi/ 'fried', fern. M/maswiya/, J/meswiyi/ , Cfmaswiyi/. (ii) There are no modifications for hollow or geminate roqts; 115
4.72 Participles of Forms II and III. These have, in MJC, the with K 3-y roots, the last radical merges with the last pattern element
regularly expected patterns involvi ng a preformative /m/- bound to so as to yield /i/ in the AP and /a/ in the PP masc. sing.: MJC/mxalli/
the base of the imperfect fo r the active participle and to the base of 'putting', /rnxalla/ 'having been put' (xly). The fern. sing. of J in
the perfect for the passive participle. A ll three dialects distinguish such cases obliterates the gender distinction in the AP (fmxalli/ is
the active participle pattern from ' the passive pattern (which is not also f.s.) but retains it in the PP (J/ mxelliiyi/ is the f.s.) and rein-

96 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
troduces it in the PP plural Imxellayin/,. Again, Form III is entirely
analogous: J/m'afil 'giving health' (m.s. and f.s.) for the AP, (root
'fy), with the PP J/m'Mal (m .s.), and Im'afayil (f.s.), Im'afayin/ (pl.).
The corresponding MC forms were not noted.
4.73' Other participles. (a) Verbs of Forms IV-X do not yield
pa rticiples as freely as Forms I-III. Many do not seem to have parti-
ciples at all , and most seem to have lost the active-passive contrast,
having a single participle which , in different verbs, may be formed
o n the perfect base in - aK or on the imperfect base in - eK ; this
seems to apply equally to M, J, and C, but because of the detailed
treatment of the J verb in K ohen already referred to several times,
data on J are more abundant and will therefore be somewhat dis-
proportionately detailed in what follows.
(b) There are no Form IV verbs to speak of in M and especially
in JC (see 4.84); the only participial form noted is M/l)len!i/, pI.
/l)len!in/, from M/en!a/ 'to give', for which JC ha ve /!a'a/.
(e ) Forms V a nd VI seem to have lost the active-passive distinc-
ti on and to have participles formed on the imperfect base only,
patterns MJC-melqatte/ and melqiilei, respectively: MJC/met'allem/
'having learned, studied', MCfmet'ahed , /J/ met' ahed / 'having made a
contract' . With K ,-y, J shows the expected fiI in the masc. sing. (as
do MC), but the fern . and plur. have the -/ay/- infix noted for Forms
. I1 and III passive participles: J/ metgaddi/ ' having eaten I unch', fern .
/ metgeddiiyi/, plur. /metgeddayin/ ; J/ meWiqi/ 'having met with', fern.
/ metiaqayi/, plur. /metlaqayin/'
(d) Form VU participles are rare, a fact which is no doubt con-
nected with the funct ion of Form VII as passive of Form I, so that
Form I passive participles can usually be used instead: MJCfnjara!)/
'to be wounded', / majril!)/ '(having been) · wounded'. However, in
Kohen's work I find such forms as J/ men!itfi/ (m.s. and f. s.) '(having
been) extinguished', (mensaqq/, fem. / menseqqayi/ '(having been)
torn', and /mengad/, fern. /mengiida/ and /mengadayi/ ' necessary',
which is perhaps not a true participle; the verb itself is more or less
fossilized as JCfye ngad/ M/ye nrad / 'it is necessary'.
(e) Form VII I participles are somewhat more common: M
/ menteQer/ 'waiting, having waited ', MCfmejteme'/, J/ mejtiime'/
' gathering, having gathered' . They show no active-passive distinc-
tio n, but while most are formed on the imperfect base, J/ mettitham/,
fern. / mettahma/ ' (having been) accused' shows' the perfect base.
.,
MORPHOLOGY 97
With K , -y, J/mestitgi/, fern. /mestgiyi/ is both 'having bought' and
'having been bought'; with geminate root, J/mestamm/ 'ha ving
breathed' or 'smelled' has the fern. /mestemmayi/ and plur. /m.s-
temmayin/.
(f) Form IX verbs have a single base for the perfect and the
imperfect, hence a ~ingle participial form ; in Kohen's wo rk I find
J/mel)magg/ ' having become red' , / meswadd/ ' having become black',
etc. which, like Form VIII geminate roots, have a fern. /me!)meggayi/
and a plur. / mel)meggayin/.
(g) Some Form X verbs seem to have retained the active-passive
distinction: MJC/Iflesta'jel/ ' hurrying, havi ng hurried' /mesta'jal/
' rushed ' (perhaps ao adj. rather than a part.) ; (or geminate roots ,
Kohen lists /mest'edd/, fern. /mest'eddayi/, plur. /mest'eddayin,
' (having been) prepared', and for K ,-y /mestenqi/ 'ha ving selected'
and /mestenqa/ ' having been seletced' .
4.8 THE VERB. 4. 81 Overall view. The usual ten "stems" or
derivational types, with their tradi tional designations of "Form I"
to " Form X" are retained here. As in other dialects, the dual active-
passive pattern oC the base that is found in Classical Arabic for each
of the stems except Form IX, is absent, and present base patterns
are reflexes of the OA active voice. Each of the ten derivational form s
has its characteristic base patterns, one for the perfect and one for
the imperfect and imperative ; the former will be called the "perfec t
base," the latter the "imperfect base." Once the base pattern is given,
the shape of the inflected forms can be deduced by referring to the
lists of subject and object pronominal affixes and applying the various
morphophonemic rules already discussed (see esp. 4.2). In what
foll ows, full model paradigms for the sound root will nevertheless
be listed, and the modifications occurring in the base patterns with
va rious types of weak radicals wi ll be outlined.
4.82 Form I. (a) In Classical Arabic, ve rbs of Form I h.ave a
perfect base either on the pattern qala/ (fkatab/ 'he wrote') or qati/
(flabis/ 'he wore') or qalll/ (fkabur/ ' he grew'). Many Eastern dia-
lects, e.g. almost all Syrian and Egyptian varieties, have preserved
a two-way qalal-qili/ contrast, with qiti! usually representing older
qali! and qalll/ (fkata b/, / Iibis/, /kibirf) . In the Mesopotamian area,
such a two-way contrast is found in some of the qe/Ill-dialects (A na-
tolia, Mosul, and G) whereas other qe/III-dialects CA na , J) and all
98 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD MORPHOLOGY 99
gelel-dialects so far examined have lost it. Thus both M and J have lakall and laxa51 q.v. below: Iserabl 'to drink', Ikesarl 'to break',
a single Form I perfect base pattern and C a dual one; however, IketalJ 'to kill', Isema'i 'to hear' , Ige'adl 'to sit', Ise'all 'to be lit',
it will be recalled (cf. 3.33) that M has introduced an innovation Ige!a'i 'to cut', /,erafl 'to know', I<!ehak/ 'to laugh', Ilezaml 'to hold',
with respect to OAlal where it was in an open syllable and followed Ile'abl 'to play', Ide'fa'i 'to push', Itefalf 'to spit'., I'e~a rl 'to squeeze,
by another lal in the next syllable, the M reflex being lei or lui de- press', Ihesabl 'to : reckon', fi!,esalJ 'to wash', 15ekarl 'to mention',
pendi ng on the flanking consonants. Returning to the three verbs r egadl 'to tie', ani:! many more. As for the two perfect base patterns
just cited, we get the following picture in M1C: in C, they may be illustrated by the inflection of I katabl 'he wrote'
and Ilebesl 'he wore', as follows:
M 1 C
'he wrote' ketab katab katab
'he wore' lebas labas lebes Is. katabtu Ibestu
'he grew' kul;>ar kabag kebeg 2m .s. katabet Ibeset
I 2f.s. katabti Ibesti
The M perfect base. pattern is qelal (where e is lei or lui depending I 3m.s. katab lebes
on the flanking co nso nants), the 1 perfect base pattern is qalal, and 3f.s. katabet lebset
the two C perfect base patterns are qalal and qelel. The following 1pi. katabna Ibesna
table illustrates the M and 1 single base pattern; on the optional 2pi. katabtem Ibestem
zeroing-out of M-e in unstressed open syllable indicated by the 3pi. katabu lebsu
parentheses, see 3.5; on the obligatory zeroing-out of 1-0 in similar
position, cf. 3.33. A noteworthy feature of this duaL pattern in C is its instability: my
M 1 C informants report that one can also say Ilabasl, as well as Ilebesl ,
Isama'i as well as Iseme'l , Ikabagj as well as Ikebeg/ , etc. .
,I
Is. k(e)tabet k(u) 1;>aret ktabtu !

~
2m.s. k(e)tabet k(u) 1;>aret ktabt
2f.s. k(e)tabti k(u)1;>arti ktabti (b) The imperfect base has a pattern MlC-qIE/, in which E yields
3m.s. ketab ku1;>ar katab lei or lal in lC, but lal , lei, or lui in M. The phonemic shape of E . .'-.. I

3f.s. ketbat ku1;>rat katbet is not predictable from the nature of the radicals involved, except
Ipi.
2pi.
3pi.
k(e)tabna
k(e)tabtu
ketbaw
k(u)1;>arna
k(u)l;>artu
ku1;>raw
ktabna
ktabtem
katbu
that if K, is /1 or ' it .seems to be always lal in the three dialects. What-
ever its phonemic shape, it is stable in C, zeroed-out in open unstressed
syllable in l , but in M it is zeroed-out if lelor lui ana optionally retained
ifit is la/. The addi ti on of object pronouns always results, in lC, inth,;
I
In l, Ikabagl and Ilabasl have inflections exactly like that of Ikatab/. stressing (and hencel non-elision) of the base final syllable: M/te'ruf/ ,
Like Iku1;>ar/, i.e. with lui in the first syllable, are all those M verbs l Cjte'gefl 'she knows', M/te'urfa/ , lCjte'gefu/, 'she knows him',
with [ul-coloring K, and K" e.g. I!ufarl 'to jump', l!uQaxl 'to cook', Morphophonemic clusters resulting -from the various inflectional
Igumazl 'to leap', Ikufarl 'to disbelieve', I~u I;>arl 'to be patientl , affixes are split in ways already described (3.5, 4.2). The anaptyctic
Imu!ratl 'it rained', IquQa<!1 'to get paid', Ikumasl 'to grasp', Ifurakl vowel preceding K, is lei, though there is some tendency among
'to rub'; on verbs wi th Kj-w, see below; with Krr, there seems to M speakers to replace it by lui when E is lui : M/te'rufl or Itu'ruf
be some hesitation: I have noted only Iburadl 'to be cold', but both 'she knows', Iteknusl or Ituknusl 'she sweeps'. Inflecti on of the
I<!erabl and l<!urab/ ;"6 like Iketabl and Ilebasl , all others except base MlC-ftab 'to open' is as follows:
I
100 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD MORPHOLOGY 101
M J C M J C
m .S. ekteb kteb ekteb
Is. aflab aftab aflab f.s. e[(etbi or kteb i ktebi
2m.s. teflal) teftab teflab ketbi
2f.s. teflal)in or tfc tb en teftabin pJ. eketbu or ktebu klebu
tfet l)in .' ketbu
3m.s. yeftab yeflal1 yefta b
3r.s. teftal:J teftal) teftal) With base vowel ,(ul in M, the forms are analogous to the above
IpJ. neftal) nefta b neftal) except that there is a prefixed lui instead of lei. With base vowel lal,
2pJ. teftabu n or tfetl)o n teftai)un the JC forms are exactly analogous to the above, but M again shows
tfell)un the co-existence of two systems, o ne eliding lal in unstressed open
3pJ. yeflal)On or yfetbon yfetbun syllable (yielding fO~j11s analogous to the above) and one retaining it:
yfetbun {
m.s. eftab
When E is lei (e.g. MJC-kteb 'to write') or, in M, lui, (e.g. M-'ruf f. s. ertabi or ereti)i or feti)i
'to know ', for wh ich JC-'geJ), we have: pJ. eftai)u or efetbu or fetbu

M J C When object suffixes are added to the imperative, there are largely
predictable modifications th at 'may be summari zed as follows :
Is. akteb a'rur akteb akteb (i) In the mase. sing., no modification in J, stress shift with
2m. s. tekteb tc'ruf tekteb tek teb option'al loss of prefixed lei in C, varyi ng position of anaptyctic vowel
2r.s. tketbin t'urrin tketben tektebin in M depending on syllable stru cture:
3m.s. yekteb ye'ruf yekteb yekteb
3f.s. tekteb tc'ruf tekteb tekteb M J C
IpJ. nekteb ne' rur nekteb nekteb ' write it (m .)' eketba ktebu (e)ktebu
2p J. tkelbOn t'urron tketbon tektebOn 'write it (f.)' ektebha kteba (e)kteba
3pJ. yketbun y'urfUn yketbon yektebOn
(ii) In the fern. and plur. , th e fi nal vowel is lengthened and
The imperfect base is also used to form the imperative. [n J, the stressed, and in J there are the quality changes that have already
base is unmodified and the s uffixes !if for the fem. and lui for the been noted (cf. 4.2) :
plu ra l are added 10 it directly. [n C, the fern. and plur. are as in J,
but th e masc. sing. has a prefixed Ie/. In M, this prefixed element is M J C
~
found in all three forms, but since it is stressed the base vowel, being
in unstressed open syllabic in the rem. and plur., is zeroed-out, re~ f.s. + 3m.s. (e)ketbi ketbenu ketbinu
suiting in a KKK cluster and anaptyxis. However, M has variants f.s. + 3r.s. (e)ketbiha ketbiha ketbiya
for th e fe m. and plur. wit hout prefixed lei but lVith retention of what pI. + 3m.s. (e)ketbO ketbonu ketbunu
must have been the anaptyct ic vowel, no doubt because of the tendency pI. + 3r.s. (e)ketbuha ketbOha ketbuwa
in M to stress that vowel when in stressable position: M/ketbij <
*/eketbil < leketbil < */ektbi/. The negative.imperative is formed in the same way in M, J, and C,

,
; ;
102 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD MORPHOLOGY
f .
103
•
viz. by prefixing Iial (often stressed) to the im perfect: MJC/latektebl M J C
'don't (m .s.) write', etc.
Is. abni a,bga abni abqa abni abga
(e) Modifications of the above patterns in Form I ver bs with
2m .s. tebni l tebga tebni tebqa tebni tebga
KrY roots are illustrated in the following table, taking the roots
2f.s. tebnin tebqin tebnen tebqen tebnen tebqen
bny 'to build' and bqy 'to remain'; both are exactly identical in JC .~ "
3m.s. yebni yebga yebni yebqa yebni yebqa
and in M the sole difference is the [u)-coloring nature of the firs;
3f.s. tebni teega tebn i tebga tebni tebga
two radicals of bqy:
I pI. nebni nebga nebni nebqa nebni nebqa
2pl. tebniin tebqiin tebno n tebgon , tebnon tebqon
M J C 3pl. yebni n yebgiin yeb non yebgon yebnon yebqon
, i
Is. b(e)net b(u)qet bnetu banetu
2m.s. b(e)net b(u)qet bnet banet The imperatives of such verbs are best described as formed on
2f.s. b(e)neti b(u)geti bneti the corresponding imperfect fo rms (3m.s., 2f. s., and 3pl.) by dropping
baneti
3m.s. bena buga bana the preformative ana (where there is one) the -/nl of the suffix. They
bana
3f.s. benat bugat banet banet thus reveal the historical process more clearly than the sound root
I pI. b(e)nena b(u)qena bnena im peratives, whose formatio n has been synchro nically described in
banena
2pl. b(e)netu b(u)getu bnetem banetem somewhat different terms in (b) above. In M and in the masc. sing.
3pl. benaw bugaw banu of C there is here again the prefixed le/- :
banD

Thus the perfect base patte rn M-qelal, JC-galal, is unmodified in ~ J C

the 3m.s., though K J is, in that case, zero; in the 3f.s. and 3pl. both m.s. ebni ebga bni bga ebni ebqa
the second pattern vowe l and th e third rad ical are zero, and in the C f.s. ebni ebqi bne bge bne bqe
3pl. the pron. suff. is 101 rather than lui. In the other persons there pI. ebou ebgu bno bgo bno bgo
is the eXpected merger of the pattern element a with the radical y
into Ie/. As in tbe sound roo t, C has a number of Kry verbs on the
pattern "elel, though here again it appears that they have optiona l
Because of the different syll able structure, M has no optional al- ,
te rnan ts without the'prefixed le/- . In J, the final vowels, being stressed, .''''
aiternants in qalal. Thus fro m msy ' to walk' there is C/mesi/, but have retained their older quality (cf. 4.21 b(iv)) : there is the usual
also Imasa/ ; in the qelel paradigm we get: Imsitu/, ImSit/, Imsiti/, alternation before - fla: J/bninul 'build (m.s.) it (m.s.)', Ibnenul
Imesil, Imesyet/, Imsina/, ImSitem/, ' /meSyul (3pl. not actually noted). ' build (f.s.) it (m:s.)" but Ibnihal 'bu ild (m.s. and f.s.) it (m .s.)';
The second pattern element e thus merges wit h y into /if (Iii in un- Ibnonul 'build (pl.) it (m.s.)', but Ibniihal ' build (pl.) it (f.S.),."7 .
stressed final position in the 3m.s.) and is zeroed-o ut (with Iyl for (d) Verbs witl" K,-y and K,-w exhibit no modifications in the
the third rad ical) in the 3f.s. and (p resumably) in the 3pl. As for perfect, except that with K ,-,v M fiuctuates between Iwe/- and
the imperfect base pattern qlE/, it yields two phonemic shapes that Iwu/- ; M/wuga'i and Iwega'i 'he fell', JCfwaqa 'l ; M/yebas/, JC
are not predictable: one in which E merges with y into Iii, and both Iyabasl ' he dried (intr.)'. There are, however, a number of modifica-
are zeroed-out befo re the VII suffixes; and a seco nd in which E is tions in the imperfect, all connected with the combination of the
fat, in final position, zero before th e - VI1 suffixes, and y is zero consonantal preformatives with the initial y or IV of the base; in
throughout; that C has -/enl and -Ionl in K J-y verbs has already JC, the preformative la/- causes no modification. In M and C the
been mentioned (4.2). Using t he same two roots bny and bqy to combination K + IV yields MI Kol and C/ Kiil throughout, whereas
illustrate, we get: in J pho nemic IWh occurs througho ut and the resulting clusters
104 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD MORPHOLOGY 105
KIVKV and KIVKK are split regularly into IKewKVI and IKweKK I IC/amagl 'to order' . Besides the fact that the first radical yields
throughout. II B phonemic zero initially, the first two verbs exhibit a number of special
M I C
features, while the third behaves more like sou nd root verbs. In the
perfect, the C inflection shows no modification except for the auto-
Is. aga' awqa' awqa'
matic assimi lation of the Idl of laxadl to a following ItI ; the I inflection
2m.s. toga' tewqa' tiiqa' shows a similar assimilation (/ot/ > Itt/) and, in addition, has a stable
2f.s. Hig'jn tweq'en tiiqa'In
initial lal even in unstressed syllable ; in M, the verbs 'to eat' and 'to
3m.s. yoga' yewqa' yiiqa' take' have a perfect base qatal rather than the normal qelal, though I
3f. s. toga' tewqa' tiiqa' am told that one can occasionally hear lekall and lexa51 as well;
IpI. noga' newqa' nuqa'
the verb 'to order' has the normally expected qelal, with e yielding
2pJ. tag' un tweq'on tOqa'un
lui before 11111. Thus M/akitlet/, ICfakaJtul 'r ate', M/nklat/, I Cfakletl
3pJ. yog'iin yweq'on yiiqa'iin 'she ate', etc. M/ur[laret/, IC/amagtul 'r ordered', M/Ur[lrat/, IC/a mgetl
Imperatives h~ve been noted only for M and I: ( 'she ordered'. As for the imperfect, the first two of the three verbs
have, as in most dialects not a base qlEI but a base aqlE/, with the a of
the pattern and the ' of the root merging into lii/, and the E yielding
M I
lui in M and lei in JC:
m.S. oga' wqe'
f.s. og'i wqe'i M I C
pI. og'u wqe'u
Is. akul akel akel
While there are several such verbs with K,-IV <M/wu~all, Ilwa~all 2m.s. lakul takel takel
'he arrived', M/ wugaf/, Ilwaqafl ' he stood up', and perhaps half
a dozen morel only M/yebas/, Ilyabasl has been noted for K,-y.
2f.s.
3m.s.
taklin
yakul
taklon
yakel
takJjn
yakel .,'i
The imperfect is, in M, analogous to that of K,-IV, i.e., has lel-
and in I there is an irregularity whereby KyKV yields not */ KeyK VI,
3f.s.
I pI.
takul
nakul
takel
nakel
takel
nakel ~,
but I KeKV/ ; the C imperfect has not been noted: 2pJ. tiikliin taklon tiikliin
3pl. yakliin yaklon yakJfm
M I
Is. oybas aybas The imperative has the following forms:
2m.s. tebas tebas
2f.s. tobsjn tyebson M I C
3m.s. yobas yebas
3r.s. tobas tebas m. s. ukul
, kel kel
IpJ. nebas nebas f.s. ukli keli keli
2pJ. tobsiin tyebson pI. uklu kelu kelu '
3pJ. yobsiin yyebson'
As for the third verb, its imperfect has a regular base '1IEI, with
<el Verbs with roots K,-' seem to include, in Form I, only three Eyielding lui in M and lei in IC: M /tu'r[lur/, JC/te'meg/, Ilt'emgon/,
verbs, MJC/akal1 'to eat', MJ/axao/, Cfaxadl 'to take', and M/ ur[lar/, Cfte'megiinf. However, in the 1st sing. I has lamegj; imperatives seem
106 COMMUNA L DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD MORPHOLOGY 107
to be regular, M/u'l11Ur/, Jl'megj, however, J also has a form lamegl • M 1 C
side by side with I' meg/, and M has the variant l af[lur/. Is. o det jitu jitu
(f) Verbs with hollow roots show less differentiation iQ the three 2m.s. jet jit j it
dialects. There is the fami liar monosyllabic perfect base with lal in 2f.s. ' jeti jiti jiti
the 3rd person forms, and an invariant lei (with, in M, some traces 3m.s. eja or ja ja jii
of the lei ~ lui alternation"') in the other persons: MJCjnaml 3f.s. ejat or jatti jet jet
' he slept', M/nemetl, JCjnemtul 'I slept' . The imperfect has the I pI. jena jina jina
equally familiar base with lal or lui with K,-IV and Iii with K,-y, e.g. 2pl. jetu jitem jitem
MJCjynaml ' he sleeps', Inuml 'he fasts', Iyjibl 'he brings'. A feature 3pl. ejaw or jawwi jo jo
characteristic of M and occurring to a lesser degree in JC is the
zeroing-o ut of the imperfect base vowel in the forms with the -/inl The M forms /iawwij and /ialtij are unusual, and may have developed
and -/unl suffixes. This seems to occur only in a few high-frequency from sandhi forms , e.g. */jawelyom/ > */jawwelyoml > Ijawwilyoml
verbs and side by side with the full forms: M/tgulinl and Iteglinl 'they came today'; with suffixes, the anomalies of the M 3rd pers.
'you (f.s.) say', Itgulunl and Iteglunl 'you (pl.) say'; Iygulunl and disappear: Ijakl 'he came to you', Ijatakl 'she came to yo u', /iokl
lyegliJnl 'they say'; M/tridinl and Iterdinl 'you (f.s.) want' , Itridunl
alid Iterdunl 'you (pl.) want', Iyridunl and Iyerdunl 'they want'. My
( 'they came to you. 120 The imperfect conjugates as follows:
'!
C and J informants state such forms do not occur in their dialects, M 1 C
but I have heard them use them occasionally, perhaps as a result of M
influence. The verb 'to say', M/gal/, JCjqalj, exhibits some peculi-
arities when the morpheme L plus pron. suff. are added. Whenever a
long vowel occurs in the base, it becomes shortened (fal to la/, lui to
lui in M, lui to lei in JC) and the I of the root is, in such cases, ge-
I 1s.
2m .s.
2f.s .
3m.s ..
3f.s.
,aji
teji
tejin
yeJ I
teji
aJI
teji
tejen
yeJI
teji
aji
teji
tejen
yeJI
teji .,
I
minated when intervocalic: Ipl. neji ne]1 neji J,
2pl. tejun tejon tejon "
M J C 3pl. yjun yjon yjon ~
.~
'he told me' galli qalli qall i -.
'she told me' gallatli qelletli qalletli As in other varieties of Eastern Arabic, the imperative is formed
'they told me' galloli qell oli qalluli on a wholly different root: MCjta'al/, Ita'ali/, lta'alu/, but Iltal/,
'you tell me' tgulli tqelli tqelli Ita iii , Italul with: unusual loss of the pharyngeal.
'tell (m.s.) me' gulli qelli qelli (h) With geminate roots, the three dialects exhibit little differen-
'tell (f.s.) me' gullili qelleli qellili tiation. The perfect base has the pattern qatl (qalt) and there is in-
'tell (pl.) me' gull uli qelloli qelluli sertion of le/ between the base and the pron. sulf. other than those
of the 3rd pers. F ~om sdd 'to shut', we get:
,
Other forms of the imperfect and forms with the other object pron.
suff. behave analogously. One can occasionally hear such fuller M 1 C
forms as M/gulilij. Is. >addet seddetu saddotu
(g) The verb 'to come' must, as elsewhere, be treated separately. 2m.s. saddot seddot saddet
The perfect has a monosyllabic base in lC, but both monosyllabic 2f.s. saddeti seddeti saddeti
and disyllabic variants in M in the 3rd pers. forms: 3m.s. sadd sadd sadd

.
,
lOS COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD MORPHOLOGY 109
3f.s. saddat saddet saddet 2f.s. kammalti kemma lti kammalti
I pI. saddena seddena saddena 3m.s. kammal kammal kammal
2pl. sadd;;tu seddetem saddetem 3f.s. kammelat or kamlet kammalet
3pl. saddaw saddu saddu kamlat
I pI. kammalna kemmalmi ka~'malna
The imperfect base behaves much as in the sound root, except for 2pl. kammaltu kem maltem ka mmaltem
the fact that K2 and K3 are never separated (the pattern is qEII in- 3pl. kamrnelaw or kamlu kammalu
stead of ql EI) and that the base vowel, which may be lal, lei, and in kamlaw
M also lui is not necessaril y lal when K2K3 arc pharyngeals (e.g.
M/ygul,ll,l/, l Cjyqel,ll,l1 'he coughs'). As for the imperfect, taking the root kllli aga in and for [ul-coloring,
in M also the r7?t 'mr ' to build', we get:
M 1 C
Is. . asedd asedd asedd M 1 C
2m.s.
2f.s.
tsedd
t'eddin
tsedd
tsedden
tsedd
tseddin
( Is.
2m.s.
akammel
tkammel
a'ammur
t'ammur
akammel
tkammel
akammel
tkammel
3m.s. ysedd ysedd ysedd I 2f.s. tkamlin t'amrin tkemlen tkamlin
3f.s tsedd tsedd tsedd 3m.s. ykammel y'ammur ykammel ykammel
Ipl. nsedd nsedd nsedd 3f.s. tkammel t'ammur tkammel tkam mel
2pl. tseddun tseddon tseddun I pI. nkammel n'ammur nkammel nka mmel
3pl. yseddun yseddon yseddun 2pl. . tkamlun t'amrun tkemlon tka mlun
• 3pl. ykamliin y'amrun ykem lon ykamlun
The imperative is as in the sound root: M1Cjsedd/, Iseddil , Iseddu/.
(i) T here seems to be only one verb with K 2 -' in co mmon use ,
na mely M/se'all ' to ask' which behaves entirely like a sound root:
Ise'lati 'she asked', Ise'lawl ' they asked', Is(e)'altil 'you (r.s.) asked',
, The imperatives are formed as expected : M1Cjkammel/, Ikamlil,
Ikaml uj. However, a salient difference between M on the one hand
and lC on the other is that the e of the imperfect base is stressed
Itse'lun/ 'yo u (pi.)' ask', etc. The lC equivalent is Isayal/ , a regular
Form III verb.
4.S3 Forms II, I ll , V, and VI, and quadriconso nanta l verbs.
I with all obj . suff. in lC, but is zeroed-out when in unstressed open
syllable in M, so that we get:

(a) Verbs belonging to one of these four categories show little dif- M 1 C
ferentiation in M1C and few modifications result ing from the pres- 'he'll finish it' ykamla ykemmelu yka mmelu
ence of special rad icals. Form II verbs have a perfect base pattern 'he' ll fini sh them' yka mmelhum ykemmelem ykammelem
MJC-qallal, imperfect base qallel; the behavior of a when unstressed 'finish (m.s.) it' kamla kemmelu kammelu
is regular, and the e of the M imperfect base yields either lei or lui
depending on the flanking co nsonants. Thus from kml 'to complete' With K ,-y roots, the perfect shows the same modifications as in
I
we get the perfect: 121 Form I, and the imperfect shows the same modifications as Form I
imperfects of the type Iyebnij. Thus from xly 'to put' we get M1C

Is.
M
kamlllalet
1 C \ Ixallal ' he put', M/xallaw/, llx.allu/, C/xallol 'they put', M/xallet/,
llxelletu/, Cjxa!letiil 'I put'; and in the imperfect, M1 Cjyxallii 'he '
kemmaltu kammaltu
2m.s. kamma let kemmalt ka llllllalet I puts', M/yxallun!, llyxellon/, Cjyxallon/, a nd the regular imperatives
 JIO COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
MJCfxall if (m.s. a nd f.s.) f xalluf . However, note that the masculine-
feminine contrast reappears in the J imperative when obf pron. suff.
are added : Jf xelilnuf ' put him', vs. Jf xellenuf 'put (f.s.) him' ; as has
been seen, f ef does not occur in final unstressed syllables and the
unstressed forms with f if or f uf (cf. fxalluf but f xellonuf 'put (pl.)
him' may represent older forms in f ef or f of. No modifications take
place in verbs having roots with Kt-y or w, with K 2 -yor w, K 1-'
or having geminate roots : MJC:fwassal{ 'to escort', fy abbasf 'to
. dry (trans.)', fxawwaff 'to frighten', f nayyamf 'to put to sleep',
f ajjarf 'to rent', fjannanf 'to madden', (see note 115) conjugate like
MJCfkammal{.
(b) Quadriconsonantal roots have conjugations ak in to Form II
in all respects, except for tho automatic modifications resulting
from the presence of the extra consonant: perfect base qarlal, im-
perfect base qarlel: MJCfda'balf ' he rolled', f yda'belf ' he rolls'. Verbs
such as MJCf nesanf 'to betroth', fdoxanf 'to feel dizzy' can be con-
sidered as having roots with K 2 -y and K 2 -w, respectively, with the
familiar merger of a + y into f ef and a + IV into fof ; such verbs
have the normally expected conjugatio ns, except that in J fef and
f of remain stable when unstressed: f nesimtuf , f doximtuf.
(e) Form III verbs have a perfect base pattern M JC-qiilal and
an imperfect base pattern MJC-qiilel, with a behavior differing from
Form II only in ways that are entirely predictable from the presence
of the long vowel in place of the ilK sequence in the base. Thus
fsamabf 'he forgave', Mfsam!)atf, JCfsam!)etf 'she forgave', Mfsa-
mabetf, Jf sama!)tuf , Cf sama!)tuf 'I forgave', etc. In the imperfect M
again has either f ef or f uf for e depending on the flanking consonants,
MJCfysame!)f 'he forgives', Mfyjawubf, JCf yjawebf 'he answers';
MCf yjawbOnf , Jf yjawbonf "they answer', etc. Modifications with
K ,-y are as for Form II, and other radical combinations require
no special modifications,I2l
(d) Verbs of Forms V and VI bear a formal and usually also a
semantic relation to verbs of Forms II and III , respectively, in that
they use the same perfect base with a prefixed 1- and are usually the
ret1e'xive, passive, o r intransitive equivalents of the forms without 1- .
The perfect and imperfect bases are identical: MJCftkammalf 'was
completed', fyetkammalf 'will be completed'; ftsama!)! 'was forgiven',
fyetsama!)f 'will be forgiven'. Quadriconsonantals have similar equi-
valents with prefixed 1- : fdda'bal{ 'he rolled (intr.)', f tnManf 'be-
, I MORPHOLOGY III
came betrothed'. With K,-y, modifications are as in Form II, except
that since the imp~rfect base vowel is a, it remains f af in the imperfect
and imperative fonns without suffixes, is zeroed-out before suffixes,
and y is zero throughout: from gdy 'to eat lunch ', MJCfatgaddaf
' I eat lunch', MftetgaddOnf,
, Jf tetgeddonf , Cftetgaddonf 'you (pl.)
eat lunch', etc. , .
4.84 Form IV .. : As in most dialects, Form I'V verbs have left
I practically no trace ,.in MJC and where they have, can be recognized
only by the perfect and the participle (cf. 4.73): M fenletf ' I gave',
fenlaf 'he gave' fanlif 'I give', f yenlif 'he gives', fmen!i! 'having given',
fen (.if, fenluf 'give', etc. The perfect fenlaf, 'he gave', f enletf 'I gave',
etc. has, moreover, the alternant form fnelaf, f n(e)!etf , etc. in the
paradigm of Form I, evidently reSUlting from the interpretation of
( the unstressed f e( of fenletf , etc. as anaptyctic. The. analogy is, of
course, with K,-y Form J verbs: f nesetf and fnsetf 'I forgot' , hence
also f(e)nletf and f neletf 'I gave', and f ne!af like f nesaf 'he forgot'.
Rusafi (1928, p. 422) does not even mention fen!af as a Form IV
verb, and mentions only two partially fossilized ones, i.e. with only
some remnants of a paradigm: f aS9al!f ' he became' and fagba!!
'he came forward ', to which we m.ay add fawda'f 'he took leave of'.
Even these few forms seem absent from J and C; the JC ve rb 'to
give' is f la'af .
4.85 Form VII. (a) Verbs of Form VII relate to Form J verbs
in shape and often. also in meaning. They are often passive or intran-
sitive equivalents 'Of Form 1 verbs of the same root, and have a
perfect base patter.n consisting essentially of the Form I perfect base
plus a prefixed 11- ; the imperfect base pattern does not relate directly
to the Form I imperfect. The M perfect base pattern is thus IIqelal
with the usual twin values for e, yet without its elision in unstressed
open syllable, the 11+ K, sequence always yielding unseparable
I clusters; the JC perfect base pattern is IIqalal, with the expected be-
havior of a for these dialects. This means principally that a yields
zero in J in unstr6ssed open syllable, with resulting clusters and
J anaptyxis as predictable. From jrb and, for [uJ-coloring in M, also
from x9~ we get the following paradigms of the verbs 'to be wounded'
and 'to become distracted':
M J C
Is. njer a~et nejral!tu njara!)tu
 .,
1
I
112 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD MORPHOLOGY 113
2m .s. njeritl)et nxul;>aset nejra!)t njara!)et with prefixed n-) MJC/dazz/ 'he sent' , /ndaz'z/ 'h e was sent' ; how-
2f.s. njera!)ti nxul;>asti nejral:I!i njara!)ti ever, the imperfect base is identical with the perfect base: MJC
3m.s. njera!) nxul;>as njara!) njara!) /yendazz/ 'he will be sent', MCjyendazziin/ , J/yendezzon/ 'they will
3f.s. njerl)at nxul;>sat njar!)et njara!)et be sent'. !

IpJ. njera~ na nx ut.>a~na nejral)na njara!)na (d) With hollow roots, the perfect base is rdated to that of Form
2pJ. njera!)tu nxul;>ast u nejra!)tem nja ral)tem I: M/dar/ 'he turned (tra ns.), /ndfu/ 'he tu fn'ed (intr.)'; however,
3pJ. njer!)aw nxuf;>$aw njar!)u njara1)u the /a/ is extended to the 1st and 2nd pers. a's well (> /a/ when un-
stressed in J), and the subject pron. suffixes are preceded by /e/ in
The im perfect base pattern is nqalef in J, but nqelef in Me. The a the perfec t as in KrY and gem inate roots;
of J behaves normall y for tha t dialect, the e's of J and C are always
lei, those of M yield /e/ or / u/ depending on the flanking consonants; .., M J C
the initial cluster n+ K, is always unseparable, all vocalic elements Is. ndaret ndagetu ndogetu
yield zero in unstressed open syll able. In J and C the vowel preceding 2m .s. ndaret ndaget ndaget
the initia l cluster is never stressed, th e stress be ing on the first pattern
element unless the -VII suffix is present, in which case stress is o n 17,
2f.s .
3m.s.
nd areti
ndar
ndageti
ndag
ndagoti
ndag
,
i.e. J/a nha zem/, Cjanhezem/ '[ flee', J/tenhezmon/ , C/tenhezmin / 3f.s. ndara t ndaget ndaget
'yo u (f. s.) flee' . In M there is hesitation betwee n this pattern and I pI. ndarena ndagena ndagena
stressing the vowel preceding the /n/ : M/ anhezem/ and /anhezemj. 2pJ. ndaretu ndagetem ndagetem
Taking up our paradigmatic examples, we ha ve in the imperfect 3pJ. ndaraw ndagu ndag u
(leaving the flu ctuatin g stress in M unmarked): ,
I
The same base pattern is used in the imperfect : M/a ndar/ , JCjandag!,
M J C M/yendariin/ , J/yendagon/ , C/yendagiinj.
•
Is. a njerel) anxu9u$ anjare!) a njere!) 4.86 Form VIII. (a) This form is in many respects similar to
2m.s. tenjere!) tenxu I;>us tenjare!) tenjereh the preceding: the perfect base pattern is based on Form I, fro m
2f.s. tenjerl)in tenxul?~in tenjer!)en tenjer!)in which it differs merel y by the insertion of t- between K, and K,; .
3m.s. yenjere!) yenxuQus yenj are!) yenjere!) however, it bears no regular semantic relation to Form I verbs of
3f.s. tenjere!) tenxuQus tenjarel) tenjere!) the same root. The perfect base is thus M-qtetaf, JC-qtatal. The pattern
IpJ. nenjerel). nenxul;m$ nenjare!) nenjere!) elements behave regularly, whic h means illle,. alia that there is in J
2pJ. tenjerl)un tenxu t;>$un tenjer!)on tenjer!)iin an initial morphophonemic KKK cluster due to the elision of the

l
3pJ. ye njer!)iin yenX1I 9 $U n yenjer!)on yenjerl)iin first a; this cluster splits in the regular fashion into /KeKKf. Thus
(for [uJ-coloring in M, e.g. fHuQar/ , cf. Malai ka, 1963, p. 59.) from
film, the paradigm of the verb 'to understand ' is as follows:
(b) With K ,-y, modifications are as in Form I verbs of the type
/ bana/ (fbena/l /yebni/ : M/n'ema/, JCjn'ama/ ' he was blinded',
M J C
M/ n'emet/ , J/ ne'metu/ , C/ n'ametu/ 'I was bl inded'; M/an'emi/ ,
J/an'a mi/, Cja n'emi/ ' I shall be blinded'. There are no special modi- Is. ftehamet fet ham tu ftahamtu
fications with the few instances noted with K,-' and K,-IV, viz. 2m .s. ftehamet fethamt ft.hamet
J/ n'akal/ 'was eaten', J/ nwalad/ 'was born'.'23 2f.s. fteha mti fetha mti ftahamti
(e) With geminate roots, the perfect base is again that of Form I 3m.s. fteham ftaham ftaham
 , .
114 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN DAGHDAD MORPHOLOGY 115
'.
3f.s. ftehmat ftahmet ftahamet the 1st and 2nd pers, subject pron. suff. : from .fr (.fg) M /~fa rr/,
I pI. ftehamna fethamna ftahamna JCMaggl 'he grew pale', MMarret/, Jhfeggetu/, C/~faggetul '1 grew
2pl. ftehamtu fethamtem ftahamtem pale'; M /ye~farr/, JC/ye~failgl 'he grows pale', etc,; similarly M/lra55/,
3pl. ftehmaw ftahmu ftahamu JCJlgassl 'he became deaf' , No roots with weak KI or K, and no
geminate roots hav~ been noted, and there are no modifications with
The imperfect base pattern is again similar to Form VII, i.e. qtete/ hollow roots: MJC/swadd/, /yeswaddl 'to become black' (root swd),
in MC and qtatei in J, with the same stress variations as in the Form 4,88 Form X, , Only a few verbs of Form X have been noted,
VII imperfect. The second e of M is, in this pattern, subject to [u]- and little can be said about them beyond the fact that they show
coloring, which in turn also modifies the first e to luI (cf. 3.52a); a perfect base pattern MJC-staqta/ and an imperfect base . pattern
in JC sg/ behaves exactly as does film: MJC-staqte/: MJCfsta'jall ' he hurried', Iyesta'jell ' he hurries'. With
K,-y, note J/stanqa/ ' he se lected', Iyestanqil ' he selects' (root nqy).
With geminate anel hollow roots, modifications, are similar to those

Is. aftehem
M
astugu!
J
aft ahem
C
aftehem
( of Forms VII and VIII , except that the element a of sta- is now in
unstressed open syllable and so is zeroed-out in J : MCfsta'add/,
J/st'addl 'he got ready', MCfyesta'edd/, J/yest'eddl ' he gets ready';
2m.s. teftehem testugu! teftahem teftehem M/starah/, J/stgah/, 'he rested', J/ yestgah/ ' he rests', There is thus in
2f.s.
3m.s.
teftehmln te,tug!in
yeftehem yestugu !
teftehmen
yeftahem
teftehmln
yeftehem i J an unusual initial KKK cluster /stK/ which seems unseparable,
though there is something sim ilar in Form VIII verbs, e,g. J/stgaltu/
3r.s.
Ipl.
2pl.
3pl.
teftehem . testugu!
neftehem nestugu!
teftehmun testug!un
yeftehmun yestug!iin
teftahem
neftahem
teftehmon
yeftahmon
teftehem
neftehem
teftehmiin
yeftehmun
I
•
' I worked', /stgetu/ ' [ bought', VS, /fethamtu/ ' I understood'.
4.89 Verb modifiers. (a) Present markers. The , morphology of the
verb would be incomplete without some reference to the preposed
markers that may. accompany the imperfect, imperative, and perfect,
especially since there are some differences among M, J, and C in
(b) Modifications in roots with K,-y, in geminate roots and in this respect. Perhaps the most co mmon of these modifiers are what
hollow ro"ts are as outlined for Form VIl above. Thus from ! ry, we may call the " present markers," i.e. the morpbemes J-qad, C-qa,
. sgy, we have M/stera/, JCfstagal 'he bought', M/yesteri/, J/yestagi/, M-da, and gd'ed: Some details on their morphophonemics and
Cfyestegi/, 'he buys', etc.; from smm, weget MJC/stamml 'he smelled', function follow .
M/stammet/, J/stemmetu/, C/stammetu/, '[ smelled', MJC/yestamml (i) [n J and C, the imperfect may be preceded by the mor-
'he smells', etc. From 'IVZ, we get MJC/,tazl 'he needed', M/' tazet/, pbemes J-qad and C-qa to specify, roughly speaking, present time
J/, tazHu/, C/' tazetul '[ needed', MJC/ye'tazl 'he needs', etc. No verbs and non-contingency, [n J the allomorphs are /qad/ before the /a/-
with K,-y or K t -' have been noted; in the few instances of Kt-w,
the IV yields ItI as in CI. Ar., resulting in a Itt/ cluster which is never
separated , and in other respects the conjugation is regular: from
wfq we get M/ttefaq/, JC/ttafaql 'he agreed', M/yettefeq/, J/yettafeq/,
C/yettefeq/ ' he agrees', etc.
, of the 1st sing., /qa/ with gemination of a following t or II before
KV, /qa/ in other cases;12' in C tbere is /qa/ througbout with op-
tional /'I in the 1st sing, : J/qadamsi/, C/qa{,)amsijl" 'I'm walking',
J/qattemsi/, C/qatemsi/ 'she's walking', J/qayemsi/, C/qayem ~i/ ' he's
walking'; JC/qatgid/ 'she wants', /qayqul/ 'he says'. This morpheme
4.87 Form [X. This form is entirely connected with names of seems always absent when an imperfect is syntactically d'ependent
colors and infirmities. It has a single base pattern qtall for the perfect on a preceding verb, JC/qaygld yemsi/ 'he wants to walk',
and imperfect, and inserts leI in the perfect between the base and (ii) In M, there is a (relatively infrequent?) marker /ga' ed/
preceding the imperfect with a function similar to that of the JC
116 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
morphemes just mentioned, and a more common Ida/- with more
~omplex functions .. Thus M/,endak fass! zen enta maga'ed tetqaddaral
yo u have somethmg good that you don 't appreciate'; this could
a lso be rendered with Imadatetq addara/ , and Ida/- (with optional
merger with the lal of the 1st pers.) is quite common where we would
expect to find the present markers in IC: Idam si! or jda'amsi/, 'I'm
wa lking', Idayemsil 'he's walkin g', etc. However, I have the im-
pression that the M im perfect occurs more commonly without Idal
In contexts ImplYing present time than do parallel constructions in
I and C; thus J/asqatgid/, C/sqatgidl seem the preferred constructions
for 'what do yo u wa nt 7', whereas M seems to prefer Isetridl without
idaf. Even more striking is the fact that M/dal serves a number of
other funCti ons, some of which are filled by a IC morpheme Ida/,
on which see (b) below.
(iii) Other Mesopotamian sedentary dialects so far investigated
have a present mar ker of some sort, as seems to be the case with
sedentary dialects throughout all or most of the Arabic area: Mosul
has a Iqal appare ntl y identical wi th that of J and thus similar to
that of'.C, I=6 but in Anatolia there is Ikwa/- (Qarabas) or Iwal (Urfa,
Swerek), 'Ana has Ijayl and Hit has Iqa'ad/. Rural Lower Iraq has
Idal a nd /ia'ed/ , in Qal'at $iile!) Ihalj- or Ida/- with gemination of
the following consonant. l27 The Beduin dia lects inves tigated by
Cantlncau do not have any sort of present marker, and its presence
or a bsence correlates fai rly well with the dichotomy Beduin vs.
sedentary;I28 va riou s interm ed iate dialec ts, either "Bed uinized" or
"sedentarized," natura l1y may be expected to present intermediate
features, as seems to be the case in M.
(b) In J and C, there is a pre posed jda/- with the 1st pers. of the
imperfect that has optative function: JC/daqO lj, Ida'aqiIiI ' let me say',
IdanqOl1 ' let's say'. In M, there is a simi lar use of Ida/-, so that
M/dangOlj corresponds to both JC/danq Ol1 'let's say' and Iqanqo l/
'we say'; the tl istinction is, however, maintained in M in at least
one direction, in that M/xal/- can precede Ida/- and make it un-
ambiguously optative: IxaldangOI/- 'let's say', Ixalda'a l.lcil 'let me
speak'; cf. the other form s of xal/(i) in (e) below. In addition, M/da/-
is also used to lin k an imperfect with a preceding verb in construction s
referring to purpose or intention: M/ ral) daysOfhuml 'he went to
see them', side by side with /ra~ ysOfh uml perhaps with a shade of
sema ntic difference; cf. a lso / dek tebli asCI-lwa~e l da'arubJl 29 'now
MORPHOLOGY 117
why don't you wri(e me the receipt so I can go' ; I~!abru yam'awdin!
dogfu dafahhemkum/ i30 'wait, please, stop so I can explain'. From
one C informant I have similar uses of Ida/, perhaps under M in-
fluence: Ijitu da'is~fakl or /jitu asiifakl or /iitu !)attanasOfakl ' I came
to see you'; and l~aketOlak hale~kayyi date'gef sejjaweb/, or I ~at­
tante'gefl ' I told you this story so you know what to answer'. My
other C informants use I ~attal, I ~attan/, or II.lattani/, a nd in J only
II)ettil seems to' He' used, with Idal restricted to the optative use just
referred to. Of co urse th e contrast between o ptative and purposive
may not be clearly marked, cf. Idafahhemkuml :above, and the need
for more investigation is obvious.
(e) There is a n additional optative morpheme MIC-xal/{i) pre-
posed to the 1st 'and 3rd persons of the imperfect with allomorph s
as illustrated by the following: MJ C/xa llinaml ~ I et him slee p',
Ixalletnaml 'let her sleep', MC/xallinamOn/, J/xallinamonl 'let them
sleep',. MJC/xalli'anaml ' let n;e sleep', Ixallennam/, Iet us sleep'. In
the first person this may precede Ida/- as indicated above: Ixaldanaml
'let me sleep', Ixaldannaml 'let us sleep'. The reduction of gemi na-
tion is normal and automatic before KY: MJC/xaltektebl 'let her
write' . The fully inflected imperative of MJC/xallal is used in a sim-
ilar sense, though only when addressing, and making a request of,
a specific person: Ixallini a naml '(you there) let me sleep'. ,
I
(d) All three dialects have a preposed Imal with the 2nd person
of the imperfect used in directives th at seem somewhat more ener-
getic than the plain imperative : MJC/matektebl '(come on and)
write'. This is phonemically not the same as the negation of the
imperfect, which usually stressed the Ima/, MJC Imatektebl 'you
don't write'.
(e) The imperative is often accompanied, in MJC, by a preposed
de, with allomori'hs Idl before Y, Idel otherwise: MJC/deniiml
'sleep', M/duklu/, JC/dekelul 'eat (pl.)'. Such imperatives wiih de
are perhaps a shade more energetic than the plain imperative and
1 a shade less energetic than the imperfect plus Imaf.
...
(f) Preposed to the imperfect, M/ra!)l, J/ga ~/, C/gal)1 denotes
futurity; this is either in va riable for the various persons and numbers.
or admits of a plural M/ray ~in/, J C/gay ~in/ : M/ra~anam/, J/gal)anam/ ,
C/gahanaml 'I'll sleep'. In addition, J also uses Isal and Issa/ :
J/ssa'anam/; /sa 'anam/'l'lI sleep', as well as the full Ihassal from which
118 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
the shorter forms are no doubt derived. Malaika, 1963, p. 62, gives
for M the future markers / ral)/ , Ilal)l and {hassa/.
(g) It has been seen that / Ial plus the 2nd person of the imperfect
serves as negation of the imperative: Ilatnami 'don't sleep'. There
are a number of additional uses of {Ia/ with the imperfect, notably
in expressions implying apprehension or doubt: M{ma'arldak etsafer
batta laY?lr 'alek sil 'I don' t want you to leave lest something happen
to you'. The foregoing could also occur without Il)atta/, apparently
with the same meaning; cf. also M/abu ?aber, layedrukna Iwaket/
'A. S., (I'm afraid) time may run out on us'; J/wha5a Ixellag laykOn
yestal)i/ 'and that guest may feel shy'. Another use of Ila{ is to under-
score the apodosis of a tern poral or conditional sentence: {madam
za'imna I'amln belwujOd, lay~lr e!'eraq janna men jannat 'adanl 'as
long as our trusted leader is alive, Iraq will be a garden of Eden'.
This may be limited' to higher styles and is, at any rate, not a true
verbal prefix: Iwda'tak lal'eraq Y?lr jannat 'adanl 'you can be sure'31
Iraq ,,,ill become a Garden of Eden'.
(iI) In C, there is a preposed Iken/ accompanying the perfect
which does not seem to result in a meaning contrasting with that
of the plain perfect : /sme'tu kenqalu hekkil '[ heard that they said
so', apparently same as /sme'tu qalu hekki{. At any rate this sets
C apart from M and J, and again marks the similarity of C with
the Mosul and Anatolian dialect '32
4.9 OTHER MORPHEME CLASSES. 4.91 Determination markers.
(a) All three dialects have, in slightly different shapes, the characteris-
tically Mesopotamian 'indetermination marker', M/fared/, J/fagad/,
C/fagedl and MJC{fadd{. Its presence contrasts fairly clearly with
that of the article III or other determination marks, but the degree
to which it contrasts wi th absence of any mark is yet to be deter-
mined. It occurs before singular nouns (M/jani fadxabarl and /jani
xaba rl ' [ got word') but also before dual and plural nouns and be-
fore numerals : M/fadyomen tlaSal 'a couple or three days', J/ kanu
fagad eSnen ?edqan/ 'there were two friend s', M/fared-weld eSnen
ezgarl 'two little boys', M/fared-cam I)aja/ 'a couple of things'. Its
presence seems most common and most stable in expressions such
as M/faredwal)edl 'someone', J/fagadwel)ed/, Cjfagedwel)ed/ 'some-
one', M/ faredsi/, / fad s!/, IfaSS//, J/fagad sen/, Cjfagedsel ' something',
M/fadmarra/ 'once', / fadyom{ 'one day' (both in beginnings of
MORPHOLOGY I' 119
anecdotes), etc. However, note M/fadmarra/ (usually contrasting in
stress with Ifadm"Fal 'once') in the sense of ' al\ at once, completely' .
Details of usage are obviously complex; here are some more or less
random examples: M/,endi fadbetl 'I have a house' (in answer to
question 'what ha,ve you got ?') but /'endi bet/, 'I have a house' (in
answer to question ' who has a place we can meet at ?'); M/esma'
menni fareds! arid' agOla elakl 'listen to something [ want to tell you'
and from the same speaker, same text: Ibass SI wiil)ed arid agOlal
'but there is on~ thing I want to say' ; note the following dialogue :
A: Itfai)i)al jlgiiral ' Have a cigarette'
B: /Ia' , a5kurakl 'No, thank you'
A: Ifadgahwa?1 'A cup of coffee?'
1
Note also M/gawwiiden ffadbfllad maY~lr{ 'you can't have two
pimps in one town'; and the J proverb (also found in M and C with
appropriate changes) her wseti ffad?a!1)1 'summer and winter on one
roof' . In negative sentences, {faddl and its variants are usua lly re-
placed by M/kull/, JCjkell{: M/kull 51 maku bihal 'there's nothing
the matter with her' or Imaku biha (kull) 51/. The negative parallel
to M/faredwiil)edl and the JC equivalents is Ikullal)l)adl JCjkellal)l)ad/, .
or simple lal)l)adl plus negation.
(b) This indeterminacy marker is found in other parts of the
Mesopotamian area, in dialects both of the gelet and the qeltu type,
and in Central Asia, where it has the shape fat . My Siirt informant
gives the form [fAll as the sale one in use, and my Swerek informants ,
.' .
seem to use only a form [faqad) in a few restricted expressions such
as [faqad yowm) 'one day'. Taken together with the form Ifagad/,
these suggest a possible merger of two etymologically different forms :
MJCjfadd/, M/ fared /, Cjfagedl from OA/fard/, which normally
should have yielded J/fagdl and some such form a~ Ifaqa\1 ' only',
which seems to occur also as / faqad/. Mosul and 'Ana have Ifadd l
and / faredl (lfagod/) . It is worth noting that, though a somewhat
d ifferent "indefinite article" occurs in other Arabic dialects, notably
in North Africa, ' the other languages of the Mesopotamian area have
particles that ~have quite similarly, Turk. bir, Pers. ye(k), Neo-
Aramaic xa.
(c) All three. dialects have the usual "determination marker" or .
"definite article" that has the allomorph III before vowels, sem}-
vowels, labia Is, and back consonants, and the allomorph 'gemination

120
! , ,
COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
of following consonant' elsewhere: / Ibet/ 'the house', /ssex/ 'the
shaykh'. Before vowels a /'/ may optionally intervene : /Iadmi/ or
/ I'admi/ 'the person'; anaptyctic vowels are inserted in the usual
fashion: / Ieblad/ 'the country'. In IC, /g/ behaves "synchronically" i.e.
;eqUlres /II no matter what its etymology: / Igas/ 'the head', / Igem/
the clouds' , vs. M/rras/ and / Igem/. A detail of its use in which C
di.ffers from M and J wi ll be given in Chapter 5. It tends to merge
wIth the /1/ of a preceding / mall : MIC/ mal el'eraq/ is usually MC
/mal'eraq/, l / mal'eraq/, 'of Iraq'.
4.92 The relative L ' . The three dialects ha ve, in addition to /elli/,
a relative pronoun L ' which behaves exactly like the article, i.e. has
the allomorphs /1/ and gemi~at i on in precisely the same cond itions:
M/lbena/, JC/lbana/ '(he) who bUilt', MJC/(e)nniim/ '(he) who slept'.
It is sometimes difficult to decide whether we have this L' morpheme
that IS replaceable by /elli/ Or whether we are faced with the article:
M/ lwalad Imuzen/ 'the bad boy' or ' the boy who is not good'.
4.93 Reflexes of OA/ li/ and / 'ila/. (a) The enclitic alternants of
the ~lOrpheme L 'to, for' have been discussed in 4.23a above. The
non-enclitic alternants have a base el in MC and I/e in J with suffixes'
when preposed to nouns and particles, however, aU three dialecl~
have the sa me two allomorphs as the article and the relative L '
namely /1/ and gem ination of following consonant: MJC/lbetna/ 't~
Our house', /~.adiqna/ 'to our friend' , / Iebladna/ 'to Our country';
before vowels I have not noted any intervening /,/, viz. only / Ia\lmad/
'to A.'. ' The forms with pron. suff. are regu lar, the J base req uiring
the post- vocalic alternants with the exception of the 2nd pers. fem.
sing., which is / llek/ rathe r than an expected ' / lleki/ and thus the
same as the 2nd pers. rn ase. sing.:
' ..
MORPHOLOGY 121
,
difference betw en J on the one hand and MC on the other is the
existence of a special 1 alternant, or mor", probably a different 1
morpheme use4 in expressions of belongi,!g and sometimes inter-
changeable wif~ the particle /,end/. In MC, the same morpheme L
is used in such ;cases; in J, there is instead ta morpheme which dif-
fers from L only in the non-enclitic allomorph with pron. suff., which
is /Ie/ rather i han /lle/ ; M/ela \laqq/, C/el'!,.I)aqq/ vs. l / lenu I)aqq/
'he has the right, is right'. With the negation / ma/ : M/ ma'eli xu!ug/,
l / maleni xelq/, C/ma'eli xeleq/ 'I don't fel well', and ' so on.
, , dialects have a morpheme /Ii/, for some speakers
(b) The three
/Ii/, that contra~ts with the preceding but occurs only in some limited
environments, namely only before K V; it usually conveys such
notions as 'u~tii, up to, right up to' , but the meaning contrast with L
is not always very evident: / menbet libet/ ' from house to house',
but also / menbet elbet/ ; however, /Iwen/ 'where to', liwen/ 'up to
where, how far '; in some combinations it seems fixed: MIC/lihassa/
'up to now, hitherto' ; M/ Iigeddam/, JCjliqeddam/ 'in advance'. Be-
fore KK onl y L occurs and any contrast is neutralized: M/mnessugu!
lelbet/ 'from work to the house'. In MIC there is also a for"m / ila/,
(for some speakers only /ela/) used instead of L or flit in mildly
formal or semi:literary style, and in some fixed expressions that also
belong to the )Jigher style ranges, e.g. M/ilamata/ 'until when, how
long' (plain colloquial M/leswaket/), and it is regular and ve ry
common in the special higher style used by 1 speakers in written
or oral Bible translations and the like. 'J3 The use of / Ii/ with pron.
suff. (base form flit) seems rare: J/liha/, / lina/ ' to her, to us'.
4.94 Some prepositions. (a) The three dialects have a morpheme
B that has a\lomorphs / bi/ before pron. suff.,. otherwise /b/ with

M full assimilatioI;l before /f/ and /p/ and regular behavior in consonant
1 C
Is. eli clusters; before V, no intervening /'/ seems to occur: / bbetna/, 'in
lIeni el i
2m .s. elak our house', / bebladna/ 'in our country', / bnafsi/ 'by myself.., / ppara/
lIek elak
2f.s. e1ec 'worth one /para/" /ffels/ 'worth one /fels/" / badmi/ 'with or in a
lick elki
3m.s. ela person'. Add'ilion of suffixes to /bI! poses no special problems:
lIenu elu
3r. s. elha M/biya/, l /biyi/ ' in me', MIC/bik/ 'in you (m .s.)', M/ bic/, l Cjbiki/
lIeha ela
Ipl. elna
' in you (f.s.)" M/ bi/, lC/ binu/ 'in him', Ml/ biha/, C/biya/ 'in her',
lIena e1na
2pl. elkum etc. This morpheme is used in most but not all the Mesopotamian
Ilekem elkem
3pl. elhum area to the exclusion of any reflex of OA/fi/, though MJCjfi/ occurs
lIehem elem in semi-literary styles and in some fixed expressions; the Central
On the use of L for marking the direct o bject, see 5.4. An added Asian dialects,' on the other hand, do have Ii.
122 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD MORPHOLOGY 123
(6) The three dialects have a morpheme 'alay with allomorphs Note JC/sob/ and M/yamm/ 'toward, near' which partly overlap
/,ala/ without suffixes, varying freely with j'a/ before the article, with /'end/ in the sense of 'to or at someone's place'.
and with - ay- yielding /ay/ , /e/ and in J also /i/ as shown in the (e) All three dialects have a morpheme lI'iyd 'with', to the ex-
following table: clusion of any reftex of OA/ma'/ except in some fixed expressions;
it has the expected allomorphs /wiya/ with suffixes and enclitics and
M J C /wiya/ in other cases : MJCjwiyani/ 'with me', M/wiyiiman/, J/wiya
Is. 'alayya 'Iayyi 'alayyi mani/ 'with whom'. Some of the Mesopotamian dialects e.g. Mosul,
2m.s. 'alek 'Iek 'alek do have / ma'/, but other dialects, both qelill and gelel have this \Viya
2f.s. 'a le~ 'Ieki 'aleki morpheme; Central Asian has the related lVey.
3m.s. 'ah~ 'lenu 'alenu (f) The morpheme MJCfjawwa/ serves both for 'inside' and for
3f.s. 'aleha 'liha 'alayya 'under' ; for the latter M/tal)at/ occurs in some proverbs, J/tal)t/ in
Ipl. 'alena 'lena 'alena "Judeo-literary." For 'over' M/fog/ and JCjfoq / behave normally,
2pl. 'alekum 'Iekem 'alekem but there is a related fixed form with inserted /a/ in M/fogaha/ , ,•
3pl. 'a.lehum 'Iehem 'alayyem J/fuqaha/, CffOqiiha/ 'in addition, on top of all that', contrasting <
with M/fogha/, JCjfOqa/ 'over her'.
The form /,a/ occurs before the article, e.g. /,alga'/ 'on the ground', t
i. q. /,alalga'/ , but also in the fixed formula /,a bal/ as in e.g. MJC
/,abali/ 'it seems or seemed to me', /,abalak/ 'you (one) would think',
/,abal axiik/ 'your brother thinks', etc.
(e) The morpheme men has the allomorphs / men/ before KV
and / mn/ before V or KK with, in the latter case, regular anaptyxis:
MICjmenbetna/ 'from our house', / mnelbet/ 'from the house'; be- •I
fore V there is / men/ with intervening /'/ : /men'al)mad/ 'fro m A.' . --
With suffixes, M and C have the allomorph /menn/ (with automatic
loss of geminatio n before KV) whereas J, as with L, has a fo rm
~I
with initial gemination: MC/ menni/, J/ mmenni/ 'from me' M/men-
kum/ l / mmenkem/, C/ menkem/ 'from you (pl.)'. Note the composite
forms MJCjmnen/ 'from where', M/menni/ (and / menna/, offering
an instance of the rare /a/-/a/ contrast in final position, cf. / menna/
'from him') JCjmnoni/ 'from here, this way'. In MJC, / men/ also
occurs before verbs: M/ mensafna gal/ 'when he saw us, he said .. .';
M/~a rla hwaya mensafna/ 'it's a long time since he's seen us', and
analogously in JC.
(d) The three dialects have a morpheme 'elld which has the allo-
morphs /'end/ before V and, in M, also /,ed/ before KV: MJC/'endi/
l
' chez moi', M/,edna/, JC/,endna/ 'chez nous'; forms without / n/
may also, more rarely, be heard in JC, and forms with /dd/ before V
occasionally occur in M (e.g. /,eddif) though my informants con-
sider them provincial; cf. also M/,edman/, J/,endmani/ 'chez qui'.

;
I,

5
SOME SYNTACTIC FEATURES
5. 1 INTRODUCTORY. The inquiries on which this work is based
were far more extensive in matters of phonology , morphology,
and lexicon than in matters of syntax. Accordingly, while I did gain
the impression that the three Baghdadi dialects do not differ con-
siderably from each other in this respect, the evidence is not abundant
and the claim may eventually have to be modified. Tn what follows,
I have singled out a number of phenomena differentiating M, J,
.and C from each other; so me are uniquely characteristic of one or
two .of the dialects, while others are matters of relative rather than
abso lute differentiation (i.e. are "more common" in one dialect and
"less common" in another). These features are : the use of a post·
posed copula in C (5.2), the use of the article in some noun-plus-
. attribute constructions (5.3), and the use of the anticipatory pron.
suif. plus L to mark the definite direct object (5.4).
5.2 THE POST POSITIONAL ·COPULA. 5.21 The nominal sentence in
J and M calfs for no particular remarks as compared with Arabic
usage in general. On the other hand, the nominal sentence is, in C,
subject to the optional use of a copula placed alter the predicate
and consisting of the element Iyal plus pron. suff.: /,alakell!) iil enta
eda sefet maye'jebak ennadi, ta!;>'an. hada seglak ya nul 'anyway, if
you feel yo u don't like the club, then of course it's your business';
I te'gef betna Win kelles jaml! yanul 'you know how very beautiful
our house is' ; j kalebna kelles zen yanul 'our dog is very nice'; I!)elwi
yahal 'she's pretty'; Iwladem ham !)elwin yaheml 'their children are
good-looki ng too'. In my rather limited stock of connected utterances
from C informants, the majority of nominal sentences are without
this copula. Informants state this usage is old-fashioned and ob-
solescent, and seem not to find any semantic difference between ab-
sence and presence of the copula. It was, incidentally, the youngest
124
SOME SYNTACTIC FEATURES 125
of my C informants (male, born 1940) who spontaneously produced
most of the above examples in a free conversation.
5.22 This copula is not only lacking in J and M, but also, by
present evidence, in the Mosul dialect, i.e. the one that is most similar
to C. I have, however, some fragmentary evidence of similar copulas
in the Anatolian dialects: my Swerek a nd QarabiiS informants (the
former Jewish, the latter Christian) have a postposed copula based
not on Iya/ , but on a truncated form of the free personal pronoun,
namely lwei or Iyej (jiyej):
jha(\a mesli-wel 'this is my comb'
Ihaye o<,let nawm-iyej 'this is a bedroom'
Imene-wel 'who is it?'
jnayyem-wel 'he's asleep'; Inayme-yej 'she's asleep'
jakid-wej 'it is certain'
There is a construct ion teminiscent of this in the Central Asian
di~lects, namely a post posed element in plus pron. suff., e.g. 1I0XUS-
inni ' I'm not well', lIoxus-inki 'you (f.s.) are not well'.134 Similar
postpos~d copulas are, of "course, found in Turkic and Iranian, b~t
also in Syriac and Neo-Arama ic ; what accounts fbr its presence In
C is, at present, impossible to conjecture .
5.3 ABSENCE OF ARTICLE. 5.31 Constructions with Imal/. In M
and J we find such roughly equivalent pairs as jbetil a nd jlbet malil
' my house', Ibet abuhal and Ilbet mal abuhal ' her father's house';
in the jmalj construction, the noun preceding Imalj has the article.
Constructions where the article is absent occur, albeit infrequently,
but in M and J they contrast in meaning with the above: jbet malij
'a house of mine', Ibet mal abuhaj 'one of her father's houses' or
the li ke. In C, on the other hand , this contrast seems to be completely
absent, ~nd the normal Imal j constructions equivalent to noun-plus-
pronoun-suffix or to noun-plus-noun annexations is without the
article:
jhiida kaleb malna ger lagwa belbetl 'that dog of ours is nothing
but trouble in the house'
jasu-jii Ifallai:l dabb mes!):! maletu we nhazamj 'so the gardener threw
away his spade and ran off'

126 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
Ixa<)ar malna qayzid yom waga yoml 'our vegetables are increasing
from day to day'
Ihada mudir mal pasportat l3 ' sawwali fadlagwal 'the man in charge
of passports gave me trouble'
I!ariq mal !ayyara maloti ja ila braksell 'my plane went by way of
Brussels' ' Ibent lekbigil 'the older daughter' . It may not be accidental that in
fj a Mmi malu wqallul ' his manservant came and said".'
My C informants agree that in such examples, the governing noun
can also take the arllcle, w ithout any semantic distinction; they
~eem to prefer the form without article. This usage has, so far as
• know, practICally no parallel in other dialects."·
5.32 Noun plus q~aliHer. (a) On the whole, the prevalent pattern
that reqUires the adjecti ve to agree in determination with the noun
It q~alIfies applie~ in,MJC : Iwalad zenl or Ifadwa lad zenl , ' a good
boy, Ilwalad ezzenl the good boy'. Now and again, however, one
meets equivalent constructions without the article on the governing
noun, more especially III J , but also in C, and apparently only in
more or less fixed combinations in M, My M informants balk at
!;valad eZ,~en/ , though agreeing (not without hesitation) that it is
possible, . whereas C a nd J informants have been heard to use it
(or ItS equivalents J/walad lemlil)/ , C/walad elmalel)1l side by side
with the form Wlt~ the article. This has the effect of assi milating
the noun-pius-qualIfier sequence to a noun-plus-noun anne xation or
"construct phrase," as can ~ seen from the behavior of nouns
ending in the feminine morpheme T; some details fo llow.
(i) In M, this construction is common in such fixed phrases
as, ~Iace, names: 1Mb essarjil 'the East Gate (quarte r)" Imal)allat
~I atlgal ,the Old Quarter', cf. such contrasting phrases as Ibab essexl
the Sex s Gate' and Imahallat enna~aral ' the Christian quarter';
these names of quarters are used in Je as well. The construction is
also common in expressions of time, e.g. Isahr ejjayl 'next month',
I~ant ellux/ 'next year' /,am elmaQi/ 'last year', Imart elluxl ' next
lime, once more'. With Ilux/, Ilaxl 'other' it seems somewhat more
productive, e.g. Inawesni hay junu!! elluxl ' hand me that other
~alise, perhaps bec~,use the membership of Ilu x/ in the category
qualIfYlllg adject ive IS moot; the form lejjun!a lIuxl does, however,
occur. Sim Ilarly, lid elyemna/, lid elyesral 'the right (left) hand'·131
note also ,l'id eccebirl 'the Great Feast (Feast of the Sacrifice)', ~nd
III proverbs, e.g. Isabb 'enab laswadl 'he cursed the black grapes'l38
SOME SYNTACTIC FEATURES 127
.. (ii) . This construction has been noted in C in expressions
similar to those listed above for M, wi th perhaps a shade greater
frequency and freedom: lid elyemnal and lelyesral 'the right (left)
hand' j'id lekbigl 'the Great Feast (Easter)' Isant ellexxil ' next
year' Iqondart ellexxil 'the other shoe' I~l?ii'a lekbigil 'the big finger
(the thumb)' (note Iqondart/- but I~ba'al definitely not I~~ba' a/),
all these article-less constructions the qualifiers have something in
common, namely contrastive meaning: 'the other', 'the older' as,
opposed to the younger, 'the big' as opposed to the smaller or lesser
'the right' as opposed to the left, etc.
(iii) In J lye again find the 'equivalents of the 'right hand';
'next year', etc., lid elyemna/, Isant ellex(xi)1 but freer constructions ,•
are not uncommon, though again often with qualifiers suggesting
contrastive meaning: Ibab leqqibl 'the near(er) gate', Iwalad luwlanil ,
'the first boy', Isuwal eemnil 'the second question'. It is common in
more or less congealed expressions, e.g. I~ ! at lekbigil ' the Great
·•
Synagogue', I~!at lejdidil 'the New Synagogue', (specific places in
Baghdad), Isahg en naqe~1 'the incomplete month (22 days after death)"
•
Isahg ettmaml the complete month (full month after death)' ; 139 it
••
is extremely common in J proverbs: Idrater el'ettaq/" 'the old note-
books', l xall elkaskin/ ' strong vi negar' , lid elmaq~(i~al 'the amputated
hand', Ileqmet lekbigil 'the big morsel' .I4O
(b) A closely related but more problematic construction is that
involving a noun plus relative clause. As in most varieties of Arabic,
the prev¥iling MJC construction is to mark determination on both
the noun and the relative clause (using presence or absence of article
on the former, presence or absence of L ' on the latter): Iblad sefnahal
'a country which we saw' vs. Ileblad essefnahal 'the country which
we saw' . There is some tendency, apparently more widesp read in J
than in M or C, to leave off the article, viz. to say Ibliid e$Sefnaha /.
The similarity with the noun-plus-qualifier construction is rendered
even more striking by the near-identity of the phonemic shapes of
the allomorphs of L ' with those of the article ; the identity is not
complete only because L ' has an a lternant lelli/, in some cases also
Illailil (cf. 4.92 above) ;I41 the equivalence to construct phrases is here
again sometimes shown by the allomorphs of the feminine T: JC/sa nt
ejjinal 'the year we came'. In C and M such constructions may be
restricted to fixed expressions, especially of rime (M /yom essafarl
 128 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
:the day he left'), whereas in J there is not only / waqt elkent bejjays/
the tl1~e ~~u were In. the army', but also /sen lagidu/ 'the thing that
I want, /se~ essuwwetu/ 'the thing that you did', / ~al)iir elliiai qa-
yezzawwa]/ t~e young ~an \~ho is getting married'. In J proverbs,
cf. /s~hg e!ma endak bInu I)slb/ 'a month in which you have no ac-
count, / I)Jaga elmateg(\iiha/ 'a stone you don't like .. .' (or / l)jiigt/).142
As shown by some of the examples, it is not always certain whether
the antecedent IS determinate or indeterminate, and the contrast
may be neutralized; cf. / mayniim bemkiin elyebgadlu/' he doesn't
sleep III a place where he'll be cold ', i.e. 'he knows how to get along'.
(e) Absence of the article in such cases as have just been discussed.
and the merger or near merger of noun-plus-qualifier phrases with
construct phrases are attested in older stages of Arabic and in a
number of present-day dialects. 143 Such constructions seem nowhere
to have replaced the dominant pattern, and in present-day dialects
they occur predominantly in more or less lixed phrases. If, as would
appear, J and to some extent C have here again preserved more traces
of an older usage than M, the differentiation may be due to greater
mfluence of Cl. Ar. and to greater dialect levelling among my M
mformants.
5.4 ANTICIPATORY PRONOUN SUFFIX PLUS L. 5.41 Object of verb.
(a) Another phenomenon that occurs in all three dialects, but with
va rymg degrees of frequency, is the formal marking of the delinite
dIrect object of a verb. This consists in affixing to the verb an anti-
cIpatory pron. suff. (= AP) referring to the object and preposing the
morpheme L to the object: thus MJCfbii' elbet/ 'he sold the house'
has the equivalent M/ba'a lelbel/, JC/ ba'u lelbetf. Where the object
ha_s the a rhcle, the L IS sometimes missing, e.g. M/ bii'a lbet/ , JC/ba'u
Ibet/ ; that thIS IS probably due to haplology is indicated by the fact
that nouns without the article always 'have L: JCfbe'niinu Ibetna/
' we. sold our house'. When the direct object is indelinite (i.e. marked
neIther by the artIcle, apron. suff., membership in the class of proper
nouns, etc.) the verb object relationship is unmarked: / be'na bet/
or /fadbet/, 'we sold a house'. There are some differences, largely
of frequency, III M, J, and C usage; some details follow.
(6) [n M, this procedure seems rarer by far than the unmarked
construction. Among examples noted : /sedha lbab/ 'close the door'
(noted once; noted many times /sedd elbab/), /fukka "ebbao/ 'open
SOME SYNTACTIC FEATURES 129
the window', /kallafta laxiiya/ '1 entrusted my brother', / mate' urfa
Ifa(\el/,don't you know F.?'; with the interrogative 'whom' the L is
necessary, though there is no pron. suff.: /elman sefet/ 'whom did
you see?'. With intonation conveying special emphasis (high on verb,
low on object): /xallensiifhum lejjamii'a/ 'l et's see them, those boys!',
and / dansiifa bennadi Igayliin ramez/ 'we see him at the club, that
G.R.'; in extraposition: /arjiik lhalmaw(\ii' sedda/ 'please close that
subject of discussion'. Though in the last examples it is the special
intonation or word order that lend emphasis to the utterance, it may
be that the comparative rarity of the marked construction in M
mak;es ,it .especiall y suitable for use in special cases; the construction
per se does not, 'however, seem to carry any extra emphasis as com-
pared to the unmarked construction. •
(e) In C, this usage is much less marginal than in M ; among ••
examples noted:
/sama'ta laxbar malriyaQa/ 'did yo u hear the sports news?'
/ma'gef slon gal)idabbega Il)aletu bamrika/ ' I don't know how he
is going to take care of himself in America'
/ye<.\gebu ddelu 'bweona/ 'he wags his tail in our face' •
•
/seftiinu jjeddi/ ' I saw my grandfather'. ••
/slon I)agaqtiya 1gejleki/ 'how did you burn your (f.s.) feet?' ,
/ nel)na nensanu Jada/ 'we'll forget about that one' (liada/ = / Ihada/) I
"
(d) In J, this construction is so common that it gives one the "
:jj
impression of being the normal one. However, in an actual count of ~
occurrences of definite direct objects in recorded texts by two in-
formants totalling about forty-five minutes, I find the number of
objects so marked to exceed unmarked objects only slightly: 21
marked vs. 19 unmarked. A few out of the very many examples
noted:
/asisemmiiha layi/ 'what do they call that?' (flayi/ = /Ihayi/ )
/ hezzu Igiisak/ 'shake your head'
/yjibonu Ima8al/ 'they quote the proverb'
/ qla'a le!!rumbat mahpayy kelleta/ 'he cut off all the water pipes'
l1aq yeb ni ba'd wkemmela lqebba/ 'he was able to go on uuilding
and complete the room'
/Imaga testagel' wtesgelu Imexxa/ 'the woman works and uses her
brain'
 130 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
/ mabezmana i)ebbeta lkenneta/ 'she never liked her daughter-in-law'
/ebna qayi)ebba lemgatu/ 'her son loves his wife'
/kef eti)ebba wtekraha lkenneta/ 'because she loves her daughter and
hates her daughter-in-law'
/qamu ybi'iiha besmakan legragem/ 'they started selling their things
for whatever they could get'
/qayfeti)iiha jjenal/ 'they 're opening up the suitcases'
jQiyya'u lbabiic i)alqu/ 'he lost the slipper of his mouth' i.e. 'the cat's
got his tongue'
With the interrogative /mani/, L seems mandatory, the pronoun
(no longer anticipatory, but rii cklVeiselld) optional: /lmani mrejjei)u/
or /nrajjei)/ 'whom shall we prefer?'. In extraposition, the pron. suff.
is apparently mandatory, whereas L mayor may not be present, with
. no doubt some difference of connotation: /hMa ~~aleg ktabu li)axam
belwaqqa/ 'that line, the rabbi wrote it down on a piece of paper' ;
/wlab'an elbenta tl,ebba azyad menkenneta/ 'and of course she
loves her daughter more than her daughter-in-law'. Note that without
the L the last example would be ambiguous. With epexegetic repe-
tition of the pronoun, either free or appended to L: /safni anal or
/siifni lleni/ 'he caught sight of me'.
(e) This sort of marking of the definite direct object is quite
common in the Mosul dialect, though it is for some reason absent
from Socin's texts. In the Central Asian dialects, both definite and
indefinite direct object seem to be marked by apron. suff. (which is
however not usually anticipatory, since the object generally pre-
cedes the ve rb) and a frequent equivalent of our morpheme L, namely
i, with suffixes i/a_. 144 A more strictly analogous construction is
found in Lebanon \4S and both the use of L and that of the antici-
patory pron. suff.' as direct object markers occur in older Arabic
and in other dialects, at least sporadically!46 The occurrence of the
construction in the Syrian and Mesopotamian areas has naturally
- ·and unanimously - been attributed to the Aramaic sub-
stratum. l47 Though it seems more common in J and (to a lesser ex-
tent) in C than in M, Ganima (see note 147) implies that it is general
Baghdadi usage; he is, however, himself a C speaker. The use of L
as a direct object marker is specifically though briefly reported as
Baghdadi usage by an eleventh century source, so that J and C seem
again to have preserved older features to a greater degree than M.14S
SOME SYNTACTIC FEATURES 131
5.42 Object of preposition and noun . (a) Noted in J only so far
are instances of the construction preposition AP + L + noun as
equivalent to preposition + noun, i.e. /,endu lax uk/ i.q. /,end axuk/
'at your brother's'. Moreover, I have noted this construction only
with t end/ and /b/ :
/gai)u 'endu Hiaa/ 'they went over to that fellow's house'
/as'endu biha layi/ 'what's there in it for him?'
/thayyag biha layi/ 'he was perplexed by it'
I lazem aku biha lei)kiyyi fad ion/ 'there must be something in the story'
Ibala mabahjad ye'gef biha lei)kiyyij 'without B.'s knowing anything
about the matter'
Similarly, indirect objects of verbs, i.e. objects of the preposition L, ,
which thus appe,ars twice: •
Iqalla lemgatul 'he said to his wife'
Iwoi)ed yqellu llaxl 'one tells the other'
Iybiyyenla lkell wei)di ~e!!etal 'he explains to each what her sphere
of authority is'
As some of the examples clearly indicate (esp. the type Ibiha layil
'in it') it might be preferable to speak of object pronoun plus epexegetic
object introduced by L, and not of "anticipation" of the objectl49
(b) l(we view the governed noun of construct phrases and their
equivalents as "object of a noun," we may say such objects are oc-
casionally also marked by this AP + L construction: J/abiinu
ssalmanl 'S.'s father', roughly the same as labu salman/, though the
latter can also serve as a fixed kUllya or teknonym while the former
canD:0t. 150 Indeed, the construction seems particularly common with
kinship terms and the like in which annexation via / mall seems un-
common; Imagt, 'amma Ibenti/ 'my daughter's mother-in-law (or
paternal aunt)'; ,/ mgatu ssalim/ 'S.'s wife' ; Isdiqu lelmudirl 'the
director's friend'; however, note /kella Iba~gal 'all Basra'. Analogous
examples occur in MC again largely with kinship terms though note
M/wda'ta lmai)mud/, cf. note 131.
(e) Constructions of the latter type, i.e. /,ammu leflan/, are com-
mon enough in Mosul and throughout the Syrian area, especially
with kinship terms; they have, again, been attributed to Aramaic
influence. lSI The Central Asian dialects have a parallel construction,
132 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD

though in reverse order (viz. i/olon 'ommu), which seems to be the

prevalent form of annexation. l52 As for constructions of the first
type, viz. /,endu lefHin!, I have no direct parallels III the other dialects
though repetitions of L (/qallu leflan!) are common.
6

SOME LEXICAL FEATURES

6.1 INTRODUCTORY. In this chapter an atte mpt is made to

tnalacterize the lexical relationships bctwcen the three dialects by (a)
•
,,••
assessing the degree to which they differ in "basic vocabulary,"
(b) examining terms of non-Arabic origin, notably the Hebrew vo-
cabulary of J, and (c) listing and discussing a number of terms of
special historical and comparative interest. A problem that cou ld
not be resolved quite satisfacto rily is that of asymmetrical usage ;
by this is meant the fact that, for example, the normal term for
'good' in M is !zen!, in J !mli~!, in C !male~ !, but J and C speakers
know and sometimes use !zenr as well, whe reas M speakers use no
cognate of the JC forms. In such cases it is not al\~ays possible to
determine when we have a borrowing -from the other dialect, more
or less well integrated, or a native synonym. Another problem is that
it was not always possible to obtain exactly equivalent terms in the
three dialects, or to ascertain whether a term heard in one of them
also occurs in the others. For these reasons, the formulas used for .~

word citations throughout this work, e.g. J!kalb! 'dog' , mean pri-
marily that this f9rm and meaning combination occurs in J, and only
secondarily, depending on other evidence, that it occurs in J only,
or that it is the sale nOfm for J, and the like.

6.2 BASIC VOCABULARY. 6.21 The major differentiation we have

observed in phonology and morphology leads us to expect con-
siderable divergencies in cognate words. Indeed, it is precisely to
these divergencies that most of Chapters 3 and 4 have been devoted.
We have constantly been dealing wi th such triads as M!clabec,
J!klibek!, C/klebki! 'your (f.s.) dogs' and investigating the phono-
logical and morphological differences they present. This major dif-
ferentiation does, not however, necessarily imply similarly divergent
vocabularies. In fact, we would rather expect the basic vocabu lary
133
 , "
134 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD SOME LEXICAL PEA TURES 135
(however defined) to be made up largely of cognates, and such is cognates is that there are a number of what might be called "distant
indeed the case. If we examine the "basic word list" made up by cognates." By t)lis is meant words for which the ultimate etymon
M. Swadesh for his lexicostatistics, 153 which contains 200 common is the same or fqr which part of the etymon is the same, but in which
words denoting parts of the body, basic kinship terms, cardinal divergent develqpments have produced unusual or irregular altera-
colors, the numerals one to five, etc., we obtain the following results. tions, so that kins hip is recognizable to the investigator but may be
(i) Out of 200 words, 192 or 96 per cent are cognates, the eight moot for the speakers. Such distant cognates are e.g. the items
triads of non-cognate terms are: 'here', M/hnii/, JC/ hon(i)/ ; 'to kill' M/ketal/, JC/qatal/ ; ' near',
M/gerlb/ and /qarlb/, J/ qqlb/, C/qaglb/ ; 'root' M/,ereg/ J/,eqq/
M J C C/,egeqj. Other irregular cognates are some of the personal pronouns
'bad' muzen duni mu ma le~ (cf. 4.2) some of the ordinal numerals (cf. 4.6) and some of the
'fire ' naf (laww nag demonstratives and interrogatives (cf. 6.3).
'to give' neta ta'a 1a'a 6.22 Turning now to a list of some 280 items compiled speci-
•
'husband' rajel zoj zoj fically for lexical comparison between Moroccan, Syrian, Egyptian, ,•
'many' hwaya kelg ktlg and Iraqi Arabic 154 and founded not on considerations of basic c
'nose' xasem enf xasem vocabulary but on high frequency and maximum differentiation in
•
'to see' saf 'ayan saf the four dialects, we find substantially similar results. There are only
'to, throw' oabb farr dabb 7 non-cognate items, 4 instances of asymmetrical cognates and
some 20 irregular cognates.
In five of the eight cases J stands alone as against M and C, whereas (i) The non-cognates include the items 'bad', 'to give', 'nose'
in three cases J and C go together and M stands alone: in no case and 'much' already obtained in :'1e previously considered list and
is there a 1M combinatio n as against C. in addition:
(ii) This bald statement of 192 cognates vs. 8 non-cognates
does not, however, tell the whole story. In the first place, there are,
'to -look'
M
bawa'
J C
bawa'
.,•,.,
even in the above list, some asymmetries. Thus some C speakers seem safan
to use the M verb for 'to give' 'side by side with the C form, at least 'tomorrow' bacer gada gada ~l
?,
in the imperative. Further, while M/rajel/ ,is the common pariance 'beside' yamm sob , ~ob
term for ' husband', M/zawj/, a cognate of JC/zoj/, is used by M
speakers in " mildly formal" style. To the last non-cognate triad, 'to As in the case of the terms for 'to see', terms fo r 'to look' are only
see' , (ve must add that J has, in addition to /,ayan/: a verb /saf/ identi- partly equivalent in function. Moreover, Cjbawa'/ may be a loan
cal with the MC verb, though the contrast /,ayan/ 'he saw' vs. /sM/ from M. One of my C informants used /bacer/ for ' tomorrow', a
'he caught sight of, found' (durative vs. ingressive) occurs in J only patent M borrowing.
and thus sets the J form apar.! (cf. also note 173). Among the 192 (ii) Asymmetrical cognates include the item 'cup', for which
cognate words (a complete list of which is omitted here) we find MJC have several common terms, e.g. /fenjan/, but for which there
further cases requiring qualification. As already indicated in 6.1 , it is also the special C/pyala/ and M/ kub/. For 'grandmother', there
is a toss-up whether the term for 'good' should be listed under cognates is MJCjjedda/, but M also uses /blbi/. For 'to close' there is MJC/sadd/
(MJC/zen/, MJCjxosf) or under non-cognates (M/zen/, J/mlii)/, but J also uses-/taras/, /tagas/, which also means 'to fill' as do the
M/maleh/). The item 'mouth' yields the three cognates M/i)aleg/, MC cognates. For 'to open', there are the cognates JCjfatai)/, M
J/ i)alq/, Cji)aleq/, but J a lso has the synonym /eemm/ . Ifetai)/, but M also uses / fakk/, which also means 'to loosen' as does
(iii) .Another qualification that must be added to the 192 the cognate JCjfakkj.
 136 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD SOME LEXICAL FEATURES 137
(iii) As for irregular cognates, they include the demonstratives nominal sentence of which the predicate (which may either follow
and interrogatives already yielded by the first list as well as the fol- or precede it) is grammatically determinate: M/ha5a senu/, Ilha5a
lowing items:
",kiin/, Cjhada senul 'what's that?" M/senu le!:>caya/, J/ askiin le!:>kiyi/,
Cjsenu le!:>kayyil 'what's the story?'.
M J C (ii) The preposed form occurs otherwise (except as indicated
'yesterday' Ibar!:>a (I)b6!:>i mbe!:>a below): MCjsesmak/, J/ases makl 'what's your name ?', M/~~ar/ ,
'thing' si sen(i) se l /assag/ , Cjssagl 'what happened?' (with assimilation to following
'in order to' !:>atta !:>etti !:>attan(i) lsi or /!f) . The l?reposed form also occurs in a number of compound
'socks' jwarib jwarib jawegeb interrogatives: MC/ Slon/ , l /aslonl 'howT, M/sgad/, l lasqad/, Cjsqad/
(s . jiirab) (s. jurab) (s. jogabi) '!low-much l' M/swaket/ , C/ swaqet/ 'when?' cf. also /skam/ side by
'spoon' xasiiga qaSiiga qasoga side with MC/karn/, M/cam/, J/ kem/ 'how manyT. It also occurs in
qasiiga xasuga a number of fixed expressions with rbetorical question tinge, e.g.
'to ask' se'aI sayaI sayaJ MCjsda'wa/, l /asda'wa/, roughly 'how come l' (surprise and indigna-
'broom' muknasa 154a mokensi maknasi tion, esp. at an overly high price and the like); MC/s'aza/, l las'azal ,•
. 'children' weled wIad wI ad in e.g. M/ma'ruf s'aza/, l lma'gef as' azal 'und was weiss ich noch';
'fruit' mewa miwa mewa M/s!:>ala/, lit. 'what is his condition l' is also used , apparently without ·
miwa interrogative tinge, as an expression of commiseration, roughly
'poor fellow'. Before Ima/ in tbe sense of 'whatever', M /smatrid/,
6.3 INTERROGATIVES AND DEMONSTRATIVES. 6.31 Probably any l lasmatgid/ , Cjsmatgid/ 'whatever you want', in M also /skulmatrid/.
pair of Arabic dialects yield, when compared, differences and asym- (iii) As for the third form , it is most commonly postposed to
metries in the inventories of interrogative demotlstrative particies, 1 55 prepositions, with which it mostly forms inseparable and fixed for-
This is tbe case in MJC as well: most of the forms listed below will mulas: MJCjbes/ 'in what' and 'bow much?' e.g. / bes essa'a/ 'what I
be seen to be wholly or partially cognate, yet irregular in their cor-
.'"g
time is it?' or 'wbat does the watch cost?'; MICjles/ 'why?', M/xa!res/, I
respondence. In the demonstratives, J and C group together as against J/xa!gasl and /x'd!as/, C/x'd!ges/ 'why, wbat for?' , M/elwes/ for what
M, but in the interrogatives, M and C group together as against J purpose, reason?'; M/'alawes/, IC/,ala(')es/ 'on what, about wbat 1';
nearly throughout. MIC/ men(')es 'from what?', MJ/megeI(,)es/, C/meteI(,)es/ 'like whatT
"

6.32 Interrogatives. (0) Terms for 'what' have, in MJC as in In all the forms with optional intervening /'I there may be two se-
many other dialects, an element lsi, presumably from OA/say'/ parate stresses, i.e. two separate words; tbis is regularly the case in
'thing', formerly preceded by an interrogative that is now lost or such construct phrases as e.g. MJ/ maw(jii' esl 'what subject ?' .
blended with it. Each of the three dialects exhibits, though in varying (iv) The preposed form of I, though for once not of C, is
degrees, an alternation among a free, a ' preposed, and a postposed identical with that of the Mosul and Anatolian dialects, which have
variant, that have the following shapes : /as/ though 'Ana has /s/ as MC and the gelel-dialects. However,
'Ana and Hit hilVe the free form /skiin/ reminiscent of J, while Mosul
M J C has /assiin/. The postposed les/ seems common to the whole Meso-
free : senu askiin senu potamian area. The Central Asian dialects have iis and sim ilar
preposed: s as s foim s"· as do many other dialects; note 'Ana /Ils/ 'why', also found
postposed: es, wes es, as es in some rural gelel-dialects.
(b) Terms for 'who' show a single form for I , a double one in M;
(i) T he free form occurs either in isolation or as subject of a data for C are insufficient. The free form (in I also the sale form)
 138 COMMU NAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD SOME LEXICAL FEATURES 139
is M/menu/, J/mani/, Cfmenu/ ; in addition , there is a postposed 'that' (m.) (ha)6iik ha5iik hadiik
this time truly enclitic, form M/manf. Thus M/elman/, l / lmani/ 'to 'that' (f.) (ha)51" ha5lk hadlk
whom' ; M/,edman/, l /,end mani! 'chez qui ?', M/,aleman/, J/,ala mani/ 'those' (ha)Mlak haMlak hadolak
'on or about whom ?', M/ wiyiiman/ , J/wiya mani! 'with whom?' 'here' hnii(na) hon(i) hOn(i)
Mosul, like MC, has jmenu/ , the Anatolian dialects / menu/ and 'there' hnak(a) wniki honlki
/menej, 'Ana and Hlt have / man/ , the rural gelel-dia lects / menhu/ ' thus' hlci heke5 hekki
and / menhif. 'now' hassa hassa, ssa 'a hassa
(e) As for 'which (of several, either persons or things)' there is
M/yaj, J/ hayyi/, Cfhayyu/ . The JC forms are used both adjecti vally The invariant jh'al/- (with assimilation of j l/ to following consonants
and pronominally, the M form is adjectival only, the pronominal form under the same conditions as the article) is common in a number
being jyahu/ either invariable, or masc. sing. with fem . sing. /yflhi/ and of more or less congealed expressions, e.g. / hal yo m/ (i.q. /Iyom/)
a plur. /yiihum/ . Thus M/yii ktab/ , J/ hayyi ktiib/ , Cfhayyu kteb/ 'which 'today', Ml/hassana/, Cfhassanij 'this year', Mjhalgad/, l Cfhalqad/ 'so
•
book?', but M/yiihu lakbar/, J/hayy i lakbag/ , Cfha yyu lakbag/ 'which
one is the oldest 7', with optional variation for number and ge nder in
much'; in the last item of the list it is at least etymological, / hassa/ <
jhassa'a/. Its productive use is extremely common, and the degree
,,•,
. M as indicated. and manner in which jhahvaladj contrasts with jhii5a Iwalad/ 'this
(d) For 'where ?', MJC have /wenj, and /mnenj 'whence ?'. For boy' remain to be investigated. In JC, the initial /hj tends to be
' how many', Mjcamj and the "mildly formal" /kam/, Cfkam/, elided when immediately preceded by a short closely bound mor-
l /ke'm/ ' :' For ' when?', the cognates MCjyamtaj,/yemta/, J/emta/ l58 pheme, e.g. L or IV: M/lhiiyj, JCfliiyi/ ' to that one' ' to this (f.) one',
are "asymmetrical" in that J/emta/ is the normal term, whereas M M/wha5aj, 1/ wii5a/, Cfwiidaj 'and this (m.)'; though M usually re-
prefers /swaket/, C prefers /swaqetj. Again, qellll and gelel-dialects tains j hj , it does have jmenna/ 'from here, this way' as sole combina-
align themselves in no discernible pattern: Mosul has /wen/ like MJC, tion of / men/ + / hniij. This /hl-dropping tendency is probably a lso
bu~ also jesab/, (not esob as in Socin, 1882, p.II). Mardin has / an[/ responsible for the J form / wnik ij.1 59 The most salient difference
(ibid., p. 260) Carmiic /aynij, 'Ana and the gelel-dialects, /wenf. In between the M forms on the one hand and the JC ones on the other
Central Asia there is hln, hen (apparently from OA/ayn!) but also is the greater retention of a reflex in the latter of the OA element
_,db and variants (Fischer, 1961 , p. 260). As for 'when ?', Mosul j haj-, j hiij-; Mjhniij < OA/hunii/ , but lCfhon(i)/ < OA/ hflhunii/ ,
has /emati/ , 'Ana · /wemta/ , Kweres has jswaket/ as in M according and cf. all the forms in which M has an optional but Je; an obligatory
to Meissner, 1903b, p. xxx iii, to which Weissbach, 1904, p. 939, adds / ha/-. The fern. sing. /(ha)5annij is optional, M/(ha)Mla/ serving for
jyemethaj and / wemethaf. In Centra l Asia, there is mala and Imil both genders as well, but appare ntly more in use among urban M
(Fischer, 1961, p. 260). speakers than other fem. pI. pronominal forms (cf. 4.2).
6.33 The demonstratives. (al I have lumped together here de-
monstratives belonging to several fonn classes that share some (b) The differences exhibited by M vs. JC recur, but only roughly,
semantic and some formal features; here is a comparati ve table: in the overall gelel vs. qeltu split. The qellu-dialects as a rule only
have forms in /0/ (or the equivalent diphthong) for 'here' and 'there',
M J C whereas the gelel-di alects usua ll y have forms only in / hnj- : Mosul
'this' (m.) hiiila ha5a hiida jhon(i)j, 'Ana [hown], Anatolia [hawne] and [hawni], and Syrian
'this' (f.) hiiy hiiyi hiiyi sedentaries have analogous forms; For ' there', Mosul has jhonekj
'these' h(a)Mla haMli hadoli (m y Christian and Jewish informants and Socin's texts) but also
'these' (f.) (ha)5anni jhniikaj (my Muslim informants), whereas 'Ana has jhniik/. While
'this, these.' hal- hal- hal- the gelel-dialects of the countryside go a long with M, the Beduin
140 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
dialects studied by Cantineau (1936, p. 110) have form s such as Ihanl
and Ihanl with long vowels. A form Ihawnal is attested for eleventh
century Iraqi vernacular and Ihunil for fourteenth century Baghdad,l60
no doubt the ancestors of the various sedentary form s reported
above. Terms for 'thus' have initial Ihl everywhere except in Anatolia
(Qarabas I k~5i/), with J/hekeill (also / hekelf) a ligning itself with
Mosul Ihakeil/, while Cfhekkil is, so far, isolated; Mlhicil recurs in
the gelef-dialects, but lines up also with 'Ana Ihie/ , Hit Ihikf. !6! For
' now', forms like MJCfhassal are fairly widespread throughout the
area, with Mosul lhassal, Ihassa'l, the latter also in Hit and the gelef
dialects; 'Ana has [alhaz], wh ich lines up with scvcral of thc area's
Beduin dialects (Cantineau, 1936, p. 110: hal!uizz, al!ll;zz in seve ral
tribes, others haying hassa'). Finally, note that the ending Mlal,
JCfil which is optionally added in some demonstratives, fixed in
others, has its counterparts in other dialects, but does not, despite
first sight appearances, behave like reflexes of the feminine SUffiX. 162
6.4 . ELEMENTS OF NON-ARABIC ORIGIN. 6.41 Words of Turkish and
especially of Persian origin are strikingly common in MJC and in
other Meso potamian dialects. From my data and from the long list
of Persian words published by Calabi, 1960, I infer tentatively that
the three Baghdadi dialects do not differ from each other markedly
in this respect. Individual lexical items do occur in one or two of the
dialects only, others are treated so mewhat differently in one or the
other dialect; these will be mentioned in 6.5, but they seem to in-
dicate no particular trend . Much the same , may be said of Aramaic
loans (studied by Ganima, 1926) except for the Judea-Aramaic to
be discussed below: one would cY.pect C speake rs to use Syriac terms,
especially in the sphere of rel igion, not found in' M and J, but the
relatively few religious terms gathered so far in C are of Arabic
origin. I take it this is due to the non-systematic character of this
aspect of the investigation. 163 The one non-Arabic set of lexical
items by which one of the three dialects is clearly marked off from
the other two is, as in other Judea-Arabic dialects, the Hebrew a nd
Judea-Aramaic element in J, to which we turn below.
6.42 (a) The list appearing in (d) belo w, gives an idea of the sort
of Hebraic vocabulary in use among the generality of J speakers as
an integral part of their Arabic dialect. A good many of these have
direct and in direct reference to religious matters, and though ttte
SOME LEXICAL FEATURES 141
specifically religious and ritualistic vocabulary has nct been examined
in detail , such an examination would, no doubt, reveal many more
Hebrew terms, as would the speech of rabbis and other tradition-
oriented speakers. On the whole, it may be said that Hebrew terms
in common, everyday use are not very numerous; many have Arabic
equivalents, though the use of the Hebrew terms usually carries a
special tone or stylistic value of its own. Before listing the items
themselves, some remarks about the phonetic treatment of H ebrew
words ' are in ortler .
(b) As in other Jewis h vernaculars, one must distinguish between
"whole Hebrew" and "merged Hebrew."!64 Whole Hebrew (hence-
forth WH) IS Hebrew as pronounced in wholly Hebrew utterances
either in the reading of Scripture, in prayer, or in qu oting; on th~
other hand, merged Hebrew (henceforth MH) refers to Hebrew
items used as an integral part of the vernacular. In WH , pronuncia-
tion is guided by Masoretic spelling and a set of spelling-pronuncia-
tion rules; in MH, there is fairly systematic deviation therefrom in
the direction of greater similarity with the Arabic dialect, notably
10 the generalIZIng of penultimate stress and the reduction of un-
stressed vowels. No phonemes ·alien to the dialect seem to occur in
WH or, a forfiori, in MH, though frequency and distribution are
naturally somewhat differenL I6 5 Consonantal equivalences are the i
I
expected ones; ~hose requiring no special comment are . h IV Z h ( f,
Y 1m II S' $ q s; the others are discussed below.
~
. .
Of the six consonant symbols that may be differentiated by the
~
presence or absence of ddus lene, only four show twin values in the
Baghdadi pronunciation: g is Igl and fgf; k is Ikl and Ix/; p is Ip/
and IfI ; t is ItI and /9/ . There is only /bl for b, and only /dl for d,
except that two words spelled with lenis d are pronounced with the
emphatic spirant /i)/ ; these are lai)anaYI 'the Lord' wherever it oc-
curs, and in the word Iehai)l only at the end of the phrase lai)anay
elohenu ai)anay el).i)1 'the Lord our God the Lord is one'. There is
a tendency toward fafxim , though' in precisely what cases remains
to be investigated , so that Hebrew words often ha ve I ~/ , 1f[1/, l'v/,
And M' IOstead of IZ/, Iml, Ibl, and lsi indicated by the spelling pro-
nunciation rules. Hebrew r is always Irl, never Igl, except in the
proper names Igahell and /i!,ahmin/, cf, WH/ ral)el/, Irahamim/.
Vowel eqUivalences are somewhat more complex and some details
remain unclear ; mobile SIVa, as well as $~r~ and segol are lei in all
142 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
positions in WH, but in MH mobile sIVa is zero, final unstressed lei
is replaced by fiI and unstressed leKI is replaced by leK/ : thus
WH/menassel (pr. n.) MH (with shift of stress) Imnassi/ ; WH/seferl
'scroll', MH/sHer/. Much the same holds for boltim, always 161 in
WH, reduced in MH: WH/sel6m61 (pr. n.), but with shift of stress
in MH/s16mu/· As for pallab and qamr$, they do not seem to contrast,
both being rendered lal in certain positions a nd lal in others; at any
rate, in MH there is a reduction of lal to lal and lal to lei similar
to that described for the dialect: with shift of stress to penultimate
position, final Iftl > lal (MH/ braxal for WH/ beraxal 'blessing') un-
stressed lal before KK becomes lei, e.g. MH/sekkanal for WH
Isakkaniil 'danger'. As for !,ireq, it is rendered lei, Iii, and /l/, while
qllbbll$ and SlIrllq are both rendered lui and 101; here again, the
varia nt renditions seem to depend on position.
'(e) As to morphology, some Hebrew nouns take Hebrew plu rals
Ul!a ber! pI. l\.Iaberiinl 'friend(s)') but some take the Arabic broken
plurals (fseddOrl 'prayer book' pI. Isdadir/). The word h lal 'syna-
go'g ue', though not of Hebrew origin, takes the Heb. plur. IslawoO/.
The fern. ending without pron. suff. is always unstressed lal (in
WH stressed Ift/), but with suffixes it behaves like the dialectal
morpheme T, e.g. Insamal 'soul' (WH/ nesamllf), Insametul 'his soul',
etc. In general, the morphophonemics of the pron. suff. is that of
the dialect. The same holds for verbal inflection: the root morpheme
is Hebrew, but the patterns are dialectal.
(d) The following is a list of words gleaned from J speakers,
some in free utterances, some through elic;:itation. Only a dozen or
so can actually be heard in common, everyday utterances, as will
appear from t~e accompanying comments. They are listed in the
order of the Arabic alphabet, with all vowel initial words listed
under 'alif; Ipl follows Ibl, Igl follows Ikl, 17,1 follows Izl, etc. All
forms are MH, unless otherwise stated "; the Hebrew etyma are given
in a transliteration of the Masoretic spelling.
/a/)el/ . a term of general disapproval and disgust, 'terrible, awful',
'someone or something terrible or awful'; cf. Heb. 'aPrl 'in
mourning, a mourner'. Thus / meOel al;>el/ 'like a fool, like an
idiot'; /a/)el e'lek/,go to hell ; a plague on you'; la/)el wheffel/ '··
and /a/)ol la/)el/ 'very bad, very terrible', e.g. / kan 'asabi aswad ,
ya'ni a/)el la/)el/ 'he was awfully nervous, something terrible'.
SOME LEXICAL FEATURES 143
This term is very frequent, and one of the few Jewish terms
well-known to M and C speakers, who use it as a mock J word
and pronounce it lubbel/.
lasOrl 'forbidden, unlawful' , Heb. 'aSlIl', same meaning; fairly common
as a sentence word meaning 'don't do it' or 'that isn't done', i.q.
M/\.laram/, C/\.lagam/. Cf. also lessOrl, Heb. 'isslIl' 'a prohibi-
tion', esp. in tbe1c$$urJ, 'in an unlawfu l manner'
lafe llul 'nevertheless, still', Heb. 'afillu 'even', e.g. lasma suwwit61u
mli\.lat, afellu lala' mamegla(lil ' no matter how many favors [
did him, still he was dissatisfied'
11;>arbennan/ 'God forbid ', Jud.-Aram. bar-mi/lllan 'exclud ing our-
selves'; used when mentioni"ng something unpleasant or un-
lucky
Ibraxal pI. Ibrax601 'blessing, benediction', Heb. b"axa, e.g. Isawwa
braxal 'he made a (ritual) blessi ng'. T he verb 'to bless' is / begak/ ,
/ybegek/, in ' which the root is Arabic, judging from the /g/ and
the / k/ , but the pattern qelal instead of the expected qalal (cf.
OA/ b'rak/) may be due to the Heb. verb b~rax
/ l;>ahOr/ 'young man', Heb. bdbur, same meaning
/ peOahayyim/ 'cemetery', Heb. bre ha!lOyyim 'cemetery' (lit. 'house of
the living') ; for IP/ < /bl in loanwords, cf. 3.21b above; whether
this is reinterpreted as Heb. peeab bayyim 'opening of life' is
doubtful '
/ paSOq/ 'verse, a 'line of writing', Heb. pasuq 'verse' ; this word ha s the
Arabic plural /ppasiq/ ; on /pp/ (viz. [ppJ) for / pw/ , cf. 3.21f
Ip6qar/ , Iypoqer/ 'to deprave, render irreligious', apparently from
Heb. epiqoros 'a freethinker'
/\.Iabor/, 'a friend' , pI. /\.laberim/, Heb. bap~r, same meaning
Ihax.m/ 'rabbi', pI. /haxa mim/, Heb. bdxam 'wise man' ; / \.laxa m
basil 'chief rabbi'
/I)eremj ' ban, ritual exclusion, excommunication' , Heb. b{!l'em, same
meaning, e.g. /slehu bhereml 'pay no atte ntion to him , forget
about him'
Idasexl 'repelli ng, disgusting'; 1 have no reason to doubt the ety-
mology given by informants, namely the initials d-$-k given in
. the Passover Haggadah as part of the mnemonic device for the
Ten Plagues. These three initials refer to the first three of the
plagues, namely dam ' blood', $"rard~a' 'frogs' and kinnim ' lice',
with regular change of /k/ to /XI in · word-final position, as

144 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
normal in wo rds made up of initials as well. The word has the
sa~e pattern as such J adjectives as Idanes! 'impure', and phonic
Simi Ian ty wlth/we~exl 'dirty'
I ~~~~nl '~n old man, an elder', Heb. zdq~n, same meaning
Iressanal New Year's day', Heb. ros hasSlina
IseddOrl 'a prayer book', Heb. siddur; the plural is on the Arabic
pattern, Isdadirl
Isekkal in f'id essekkal 'the Feast of Tabernacles', called in Heb.
sukkof! , pI. of sukkd 'a tabernacle'; however, J/sukkal 'a taber-
nacle (built for that feast)'
Isekkfinal 'danger', Heb. salckdna
Isammem,nveOI said of bad taste in food and the like Heb. sam
hamllllilVe(} 'poison of death': Ihayi Ifelfeldara l)idda meOel
sammemaweOI 'this pepper is as hot as all hell'
IsebbaOI 'Saturday, the Sabbath', Heb. sabbdf!
Isettax.a! ' t?e :a~s~ver ceremony', from the Judeo-Aramaic phrase
. hasatta haxa tillS year we are here' which, followed by 'next
year m Jerusalem', is one of the central passages of that cere-
mony; ·the term Iseder/, Heb. s~l>er, is also in use. Note the verb
isattaxl 'to celebrate the Passover', e.g. Iwen qatsattex hassanal
__ wh~re are rou celebratmg the Passover this year?'
Isol)adl to bnbe , Heb. solwg, 'a bribe'; the pattern qOla! seems due
to the pattern of the Heb. noun
Iso!il 'a fool, a madman', Heb. sole, same meaning
he~Idl 'prayer shawl', Heb. ~i~if! 'fringes (of the prayer shawl)" with
unusual Idl for f!; i.q. l!emO/, Heb. 'Iallif! 'prayer shawl'
I~a'ar/ 'sorrow, 'grief', Heb. $Q'ar, same meaning ; hence the verb
I!!a"arl 'to be grieved'
/,arelil 'a C~ristian', pI. j'arellm/, Heb. 'dr~! 'u~circumcised'-; syn.
of Ine!ram/, pI. Ina!ara/, the Hebrew term being the more pejo-
rative
/qeddusj 'consecration', Heb. qiddus, same meaning; contamination
of the Arabic and Hebrew roots, with the Hebrew pattern
Iqayyaml 'to ca rry out, fulfill (a religious commandment)" Heb.
qiyy~m, same meaning; the verb has the Hebrew root and the
Arabic pattern
jkuww.ana/ 'religious concentration" Heb. kalVwand , same meaning.
with the regular shift of unstressed lal to lui before Iww/, e.g.
SOME LEXICAL FEATURES 145
Isawwa kuwwana qabel lebraxal 'he concentrated before making
the blessing'
IkabOdI 'honor, glory', Heb. ktipod, same meaning
IgelgOl1 'reincarnation', Heb. gilgul, same meaning; severe pain or grief
. is called I~a 'ar malgelgulf ; on the same root, Itgalgalj'was reincar-
nated', e.g. Itgalglet ensametul 'his sou l was reincarnated'
/gennab/ 'a thief', Heb. ganndp, with convergence of the Hebrew
and Arabic nominal patterns, cf. J/keooabl 'a liar' ; hence also
" the 'terb Igannab/, fyga nneb/, 'to steal'
Igoyl 'a Gentile', esp. 'Muslim', pI. IgoyIm/, Heb. goy 'a Gentile'
flax/, Iyllxl ' to run away' : if from Heb. italax, 'to go (away)', imptv.
l~x, this would be the sole term widely used in M and C
having a Hebrew etymology, hence borrowed from J: fro m a C
speaker, f<;lagabu facjcjageb wliix fadlexal ' he hit him once and
beat it'. Needless to say, the etymology is far from certain;
Ganima (1926, p. 584) includes it among words of presumed
Aramaic origin, but his etymology is even less convincing.
l!]labOII 'flo od, deluge', Heb. mabbul, same meaning; unusual loss
of gemination
Imezzall 'luck', Heb. mazztil, same meaning. A frequent curse is
l\Vaqa' mezzalak! ' may your luck fail'; the term is in frequent
use, and is ~nown to some Me speakers
l!]lasall 'an example', Heb. maMl, same meaning
I me~wal ' commandment, a good deed', Heb. mi$IVG, same meaning "i,
Imgellal 'the Scroll (i.e. the Book of Esther)" Heb. m'gilla 'scroll ,
esp. the Book of Esther'
l!]la!]lzerl 'a bastard', i.q. Inagel/ ; Heb. mamz~r, same meaning
Insamal 'soul', Heb. n.sdma, same meaning: Iwe~ed 'ensametu
bellaxl 'they are very close friends'
/naggaf/ 'to die', in a pejorative sense, cf. Fr. crever, Germ. krepieren;
apparently from Heb. niggaf 'he was struck down by God'
InlHal 'ritual washing of hands', Heb. n'lila, i.e. 1I.{ilaf! yaoayim,
same meaning
Iharagl 'to beat', Heb . hdrag, 'to kill'
6.5 SELECTED LEXICAL ITEMS. Below is a list of MJC words
selected for their historical or comparative interest; some are com-
 146 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
mon to MJC and typical of the Iraqi area, others are peculiar to
one of the dialects involved. They are listed in the order of the Arabic
alphabet with Ipi following Ib/, Icl following /j/, and Ig/ following
/k/. Unless otherwise specified, Aleppo forms are from Barthelemy's
Dictionary, Palestinian and Egyptian forms from my own informants,
Central Asian forms from Vinnikov, 1949, Glossary, and Kweres
forms from Meissner, 1903b, Glossar. I was unable to make fu ll use
of Vinnikov 1962, which I received while this work was being printed.
MJC/abu/ in construct phrases, besides the usual meanings and the
"automatic kunya" (see note 150), also denotes owner or agent :
MJC/abu Ibet/ 'the landlord', tabu Ixiin/ 'the innkeeper', tab u
ttaksi/ 'the taxi driver', etc.; fern. M/ umm/, IC/emm/
MJC/iidmil 'man, a human being', pI. MJ/awiidem/, C/awedem/,
contrasting with MI/niis/, C/nes/ as enumerative vs. aggregate.
Common to the Mesopotamian area as a whole, both gelet and
qeltll, and is the normal term in Central Asia as well. In other
. areas , e.g. Syr.-Pal., only as adjective, 'affable'. This latter
usage occurs at least in C, Ines awedem/ 'nice people'
MJC/asfi/, /asu/- ; here are some illustrations of its use, all from M,
JC usage being quite similar: /asu-jet/ 'so, you did come', viz.
'ah , here you are'; /asu-majet/ 'so you didn't come, as it turns
out'; /aso. aso.! lalSiI enta kull si !/ 'now, now, don't you pick up
anything! (let me carry the valises), Iha ' ad nan, asu-max l;>u~ ,
sbik?1 'hey, 'Adniin, you seem preoccupied; what's the matter?';
/as u-trid et'arek wiya/ 'it looks as tho.ugh you want to pick a
fight with him'; /asu-gumet; sbik? matug'ud!1 'you got up;
what's the matter? sit down! ' Some speakers connect this par-
ticle with /asuf/ 'I see', not an implausible etymology; though
cf. las hii(wa)/ 'what is it'? Malaika, 1963, p. 37 and passim,
writes lassul
MJ CfakuI 'there is', occurs throughout the Mesopotamian area
oexcept in Anatolia, including Mardin, where there are such
forms as /fihul , l fiyu/. The MJC negative /miiku/, Imiiku/ is
not quite co-terminous with it: 'Ana has /maku/, some of the
rural dialects of Lower Iraq have Imiimes/. A variant of /aku/ heard
from M speakers is /akusf. A general inquiry upon meeting
acquaintances is Isaku smiiku/ 'how are things in general', cf.
Turk.. ne var, lie yok. Barthelemy (Diel ., p. 776) writes akll and
SOME LEXICAL FEATURES 147
gives the etymology hak-hu, an ingenious conjecture. Malaika,
1963, p. 58, adds a C form /akun/
M/ames/ 'yesterday', less common synonym of /Ibiirl)a/ ; the contrast
occurring in some Beduin dialects,16 7 whereby the former is
-'yesterday' and the latter ' last night', seems absent from M.
In J only /b6l)i/, in C/mbel)a/, as in Mosul ; in Anatolia / mberl)a/
and /ams/
J/enf/ 'nose', for which MC/xasem/, the latter being the typical Meso-
potamian term, found both in gelet and the qeltu-dialects; Aleppo
has /enf/, and my Swerek and Carmuc informants use /efen/,
with metathesis, though they know /xasem/ as well. In Central
Asia, 'nose' is un/, whi le xasim is 'mouth' as in Egypt; the forms
cited suggest an unattested OA ' /unfl rather than Cl. Ar. /'anf/
as the ancestor
MC/englizi/, J/englezi/ 'English'; I have no explanation for the
difference
M/ahad/, J/ahd/ 'contract', MJ/t'iihadl 'to make a contract'; (C form
not noted) cf. OAr ahad/ ; the shift seems isolated, but occurs in
the same root in Aleppo, cf. Barthelemy Diet. , who cites a similar
phenomenon in Western Syriac
C/baddiiwil '(in) the language of the Baghdad Muslims', a term un-
known to my MJ informants, who have no special designation
for any of the communal dialects; see note 108 .'
M/l;>arii;um/ ' thick lips', cf. M/ml;>ar;um/ 'pouting'; in 'Ana I l;>rii;em/
is the ordinary word for 'lips' , which is MJC/sefaf/, sing. M/seffa/, ~
'"
JC/seffi/
M/bazzun(a)/, I/ bezzuna/, C/bazzuni/ 'a cat'; in M the form / bazzun/
seems preferred as a generic term, in which case it is neverthe-
less feminine: M/etrek elbazzu n latxarmsak/ 'leave the cat alone
or it'll scratch you'; the same holds for 'Ana [b~zzunl, whereas
in JC and Mosul the form with T is generic. This is the term used
throughout most of the Mesopotamian area and in Central
Asia (bazllna); in Anatolia the term is [~'nnorl, reHecting the
name of the cat in older Iraqi vernacular literature (cf. Flick,
1955, p. 168; -:ra1iqani, no. 174, sillnawr, no. 263, sinnawra, but
a'lso no. 110., hirra)
M/ biicer/ see /gadal
MJC/balil 'yes'; on 'inllila of CI. Ar. bola, cf. 3.36e(iii) The IiI in
the M form suggests the word may have been re-borrowed from
148 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
Turk. beli, Pers. bale. Its use as a plain affirmative rather than
a counte r affirmative to a negation (Fr. si) is dec ried as an
error by J:lariri (d. 1122) pp. 119- 20; in MJC it is used more or
less synonymously with / na'am/ and IiI, as it is over most of the
area. Meissner reports it for Kweres but Weissbach (1904, p.
938) adds for the same dialect the term mbala with th e meaning
of Germ. doch, Fr. si as in man y Syr.-Pal. varieties
MJC/ bab/, 'door, gate', is fern. in ordinary usage in M (despite /bab
e55arji/ 'the East Gate (qua rter),) but masc. in lC. M/ lbab
tasa' jemal /, the door is wide enough for a ca mel' (hint to a vis itor
to depart)
M/ bibi/ term for addressing the grandmother, MJCjjedda/ ; in Central
Asia, ' lady, mistress', Pers. bibi ' matron, grandmother'
C/ bi'a/ 'a chu rch', the normal term in C, for which M/ kanisa/ J/ knisi/
M/ta ra/, JCjtaga/ a "fi ller" particle with little semantic content of its
own, usually occurring immediately before the subject of an im-
perfect or of a no minal sentence; if the subject is a pron. affix,
it' comes before the ver b. Some examples from M (JC usage is
analogous) : / tara da 'ag ullakj'I'm telling you'; / bass elmuhemm,
tara da'awa~~ik menhassa/ 'now the main thing, I'm making
my request as of now'; /web na tara sgad matu' mur ba(\rin/ 'as
for us, whatever amount you request, we're at your service';
/tara hfIwa dayman yel,awwar nafsa, ya'ni , sayeg mal 6ahab/
' he always imagines he is, well , a goldsmith'
MJCjtufga/ 'rifle, rifle shot', pI. /tufag/ ; the mock J form /tefqayi/
showing the regularly expected M-J equiva lences (ju/- /e/, /g/- /q/,
/a/-/ayij) occurs in a Muslim jibe imitati ng the Jewish dialect:
/1,1esqel , asqal qalbak mentaqqet ettefqayi ?/ '/ besqel/, what did
your heart say when the rifle went off?' The J-like effect is achieved
by piling up /qj's; the name jbesqelj 'Ezekiel' is one of the most
common among Baghdadi Jews. The jibe has beyond it an
anecdote purporting to show the pusillanimity of Jews, especially
when faced with firearms,168 Pees. lofiing from wh ich also Kweres
Ifugga, Aleppo Ifang
MJCjtemmanj 'rice' so called when uncooked ; an Iraqi wo rd , of
unknown etymology. When prepared for serving, it is called by
various other names, including jplawj, (Pers. paloII', T urk. pilav)
and , in some dishes, by the common Arabic name Mjrezzj,
JCjgezzj, e.g. the dish called Jjgezz beblibj 'rice with milk'
SOME LEXICAL FEATURES 149
MJCjjamj 'glass (the material)', Pers. jam, Turk. cam
MJjederj see jgeder/
Mjjrectij, JCJjgedi/ 'a mouse, a rat', pI. MJjerdan/, Jjjegdinj C not
noted ; on j d/ for etymological j6j, see 3.22
MJCJjigara/, Jjjigara/ 'a cigarette', pI. MJCjjegayerj. Com mon to
most of the area, including Anatolia. T urk. cigara in more modern
usage sigara; the initial affricate is probably a result of the
.Turkisl;> treatment of [ts], as in Greek tsigaro ' 6 '
MJCjjaj '(also M/ejaf) j yejij ' to come'; for parad igm, see 4.8 . Mjja
leddenyaj, JCjja leddeni/ is the ordi nary expression for 'to be
born', though M also has / nwelad/, JCjnwaladj
MJCfjabj, jyjibj 'to bring' as in practically all Arabic dialects, also
in the sense of 'to bear (a child)'; in the latter sense, the ve rbal
noun is MjjebUbaj, Jfj ibfIba/ , CjjebfIbij
Mjjiirabj, I jjurabj, Cjjagabij 'a sock , a stocking', pI. Mfjwaribj,
Jjjwa ribj, Cfjawegebj . Mosu l has the same form as C, 'Ana has
(jariiba], pI. (jwarib] . Various other forms are fo und in the near-
by areas, e.g. Pal. jjra9j,Aleppo fj rabj, Cairo jsura9j and jsara9j .
Cf. Turk. ~orab . CI. Ar. jalVrab, Pers. gorab
MJCj~araj, IC also j~agaj, 'remedy', especially in j maku caraj
'there's n"thing to be done'. Pers. care, Turk. ~are, 'remedy'
Mjcarakj, JCjcagakj 'a quarter', i.q. Mjrubu'/, JCjgebe'/. Pers.
tarok
Mjcarpayaj, JCjcarpayij 'bedstead', Pers. carpaye 'stool; bedstead'
MJCjcardaxj 'hut, cabin' (esp. for bathing on the Tigris), cf. Pers.
cartaq
J/cereg/ (MC not noted) ' fl imsy, no good' (cloth, merchandise, piece
of work) ; cf. Aleppo j corok j , 'damaged', Eg. j surukj ' unfit (for
m.ilitary service), defective' ; from Turk. riiriik, wh ich covers all
these meanings
MJjcaqlabj 'to tumble, fall over', and Jjceqelbayij 'a tumble, a fa ll ';
perhaps from *jtsaqlabj ; cf. Barthelemy, Dict. , s. v. saq/ab
MJCjecaliabj, JC also /eallabj, 'to hang on to, cling to', Mjmenjatti
'. bibiti ~e nna neecallab biha, tebcinna bcayaj 'when my grand-
mother came, we (child ren) would cling to her until she told
us a story'. If from Mjcaleb/ 'dog', it is a borrowing from M in
JC; but cf. Mosul jtkalbacj, same meaning, cf. MJC jkalepcaj
'handcuffs'
Mjcenga!j, JCjcengalj 'a hook' in JC also 'a fork', for which M
 150 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
I SOME LEXICAL FEATURES
speakers prefer /eata!!; for 'fork' also J/~ekkiixa/. Pers. tangal,
Turk. rengel, ratal
M/J:tebla/, JC/i)eble/ 'pregnant' ; for 'imtila in older forms of this
word, see 3.36e(v). Mosul has the same form as JC, and the
stress and length may be connected with the fact that these
three dialects have fern. adjectives of infirmity and color with
a final stressed long vowel, J!~emM!, C and Mosui /i)amga/.
Other dialects have ' imtila in this word, e.g. Aleppo and Damascus
/i)Qble/ but Jerus. Ii)Qbla/ ; in these dialects color adjectives end
in lal and ' imtila of final /a/ is rare except in the fern. ending;
cf. Cantineau, 1946, p. 152, who finds this word "avec une
legere 'imtila, difficile it expliquer" in a region of the Horan
where there is otherwise no 'imtila of final /a/ . addressing Christian men . Cf. Pers. X(IV)aje and the article
M/i)un(a/,.JCji)en(a/ 'wheat'; so throughout the Mesopotamian area,
whereas Syria, Egypt, and dialects further west usually have
a reflex of OA/qami)/. Such a distribution is hinted at as early
as the ninth century by Jal)i? (ed. 1948, p. 17) who says that
iiin{a is used in Lower Iraq (Iuga kuflya) whereas qamb is used
in Syria (/uga stimlya)
JC/I)wiis/ 'clothes' M/hdiim/, both plural; Mosul has /i)was/, 'Ana
/hdiim/, Qarabii~ / bawis/, the rural gelet dialects / hdiim/
M/oxu1;>a~/, JC/oxa1;>a~/ 'to be distracted, preoccupied, have some·
thing on one's mind': M/hay ujrat elmu'ayana Jigeddam axiif
tuoxu 1;>u~ bacer/ 'here is the fee for the consultation in advance,
in case you have other th ings on your mind tomorrow';
M/defukkila 1Mb 'iid, le~ eoxu I?a~ti?/ 'go on and open the door,
what are you dreaming about?' MCjmax\;>ii~/ J/mexQii~/ 'pre-
occupied, having something on his mind' .
M/xetal/, /yextel/ 'to hide (intrans.)', for which J/x taba/; the game
of hide-and-seek is /xettela/ in M, / mexta Qoya/ in J
M/xa~em/ 'nose'; see /e nf/
J/xliyi/ 'a sin', commonly a sentence-word used to deplore regrettable
acts; /jiinu x!iyi 'alaI 'he felt sorry for' (cf. ex. s. v. /garag/ be-
low). Aleppo /xlayyel has much the same sense, as has M /xa!iya/
MJCjxo/, /xob/, particle used at the head of phrases to imply the
speaker's hope or conviction; M/xo mlmeset?/, 'you didn't for-
get, did you?'; J/xo mat'eMet?/ 'I hope you didn't hurt your-
self?'; C/xo magei)tem?/ 'you didn't go, did you 1'170 C/xo
ana ~'alayyi?/ 'what do 1 care?; C/xob kan jit honi bwai)dak/
151
'you should have come here by yourself'; C/xo ma'aji bwal)di/
'[ don't (like to) come by myself'. Cf. Pers. xl/h, older XDb 'good,
well', and Meissner, 1903b, Glossar, 'ho(u)b' 'natiirlich , doch'
MJC/xoja/ is used for addressi ng a Jew;- some informants also
know the literal meaning 'merchant', and it occurs, at least in
stories and proverbs, as a traditional honorific Muslim title, e.g.
/xoja 'ali, mulla 'ali/, used proverbially in the sense of six of
one and half.a dozen of the other, where /xojal is the equivalent
of /mulla/ (!:Ianafi, 1962, p. 169, no. 757); Meissner's stories
have the doublet /xawaja/ as an honorific title (e.g. 1903b, p. 57),
and one C informant tells me that in Baghdad /xawaja/ follow-
ed by the given name is, as in other regions, sometimes used for
/xawiija/ in Barthelemy's Diet.
MJC/xM/ 'good', invariable, precedes the substantive: /xos walad/
'a good boy', /xos bent/ 'a good girl', /xos nasi 'good people';
with article, /Ixos walad/ ' the good boy'; often stressed , esp. in
fixed expressions: M/x611ebi/ 'a jolly good fellow'; Cf. Pers.
xos, though the special positioning is more reminiscent of
Turkish! 71
MJCjdazz/, /ydezz/ 'to send', cf. Barthelemy, Diet.
MJCjdiid/, term , for add ressing one's brother
M/dumbug/, pI. /danabug/, JC/dembek/, pI. J/dnibek/, Cjdanebek/,
'a sort of drum', cf. Pal. /durbakke/, Aleppo /d.rbakke/, Eg. "
/darabukka/. The Pers. diinbiik seems to be at the root of all ::1
of these, though the JC forms are the closest. Cf.. Barthelemy'S '"
Diet., S.Y. drhk '72
MJCjdoxan/ 'to feel faint, dizzy', perhaps related to MJCjdax/ ' to
faint'
M/oabb/ C/dabb/ 'to throw down, throwaway', for which J/farr/'
Cf. Barthelemy, Diet., p. 229, top
M/rawa/, /yrawi/, J/gawa/, /yegwi/ 'to show' for wh ich C seems to
have only the common MJCjsawwaf/, same meaning
MJC/zaqnabiit/ ' poisoned food, anything detestable', used in speak-
ing of food (and, by extension, anything else) disapprovingly
'or derisively
J/zalez/, Cjzelez/ 'naughty (child)'
M/se'al/, /yes'al/, JC/s"yal/, /ysayel/ 'to ask'; the /'I of the M form
suggests this may be a loan from CI. Ar. , cf. also M/su'al/,
152 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGH DAD
M1C/suwal/ 'a question'. The two roots vie with each other in
other areas as well, cf. Pal. /sa'al/ (Jerusalem, Galilee) and
/sayal/ (Central Pal. village) ; cf. Barthelemy, Diel. s.v. sa'al III
M1C/sangin/ 'strong (of tea)' ; Pers. siingin 'strong, hard, heavy'
from sang 'stone'
M/si!, l /sen/, /seni/, C/se/ 'a thing, something'; M1C/si 'ala si/ 'all
in a ll, all things considered'
M1C/meswar/ 'soon, in a little while', e.g. /yeji meswar/ 'he'll be
right along'. This word, which in the Syr.-Pal. and Eg. areas is
a noun with meanin gs centering about 'a trip', has, to my know~
ledge, received no satisfactory historica l or comparative treat-
ment; cf. Barthelemy, Diet.
M1C/saf/ , /ysilf/ 'to see', though usage is not precisely the same in
the three dialects, cf. 6.2 abo ve. In M and C, this contrasts with
/ bawa'/ 'to look', also /dal)l)aq/, 'to look'; in 1 it has the mean-
ing 'to catch sight of' and contrasts with /,ayan/ 'to see' and
/~afan/ 'to look'. Mosul has /qese'/ and /gese'/ 'to see', /dal)l)aq/
'tq look'; 'Ana has / saf/ 'to see', /dal)l)aq/ 'to look'; Qarabas
has [ara] 'he saw' [areytu] 'I saw'. On qr, cf. also Barthelemy,
Diet. Central Asia has both 'ayyan and sal, used more or less
interchangeably! 73
M/~udug/, lC/~edeq / 'true, right' commonly as a sentence word 'it's
true; that's right'
M1C/~al)iJ:>/ 'true, right, correct'; as in other areas, this seems to be
a classicism, the natural dialect forms being the doublets mean-
ing 'whole," healthy', l/~l)il)/, C/~al)et)/. (M not noted); cf. Bar-
thelemy /~l)il)/ 'entier' vs. /~al)il)/ 'vrai', and in Eg. /~el)il)j vs.
hal)il)/
M1C/~affal/ 'to put away (shelf, pocket, etc.), arrange in its .place';
M /~affal leHus ebjeba/ 'he put the money away in his pocket';
also l h affal lemwa'in/ 'to do the dishes'
MC/~a ! a/ 'prayer', l/~ !a/ 'synagogue', M/kanis/'
MjC/~ u c/ 'fault', e.g. M/e~~u6 mu 'alek/ 'it's not your fault', /hay
~Ocna/ 'it's our fault'; Turk. sur, same meaning
Mj~ aya/ especially in j !;>~iiyat a!!a/ 'by God's protection, thank God' ;
Turk. saye, Pers. saye, 'shade, protection'
M1C/~al)/, j~il)/ 'to caU, name' : M/axuya da~il)la dadj 'my brother,
I call bim /diidJ'; MlC/~ayyal)/ ' to shout'· . In Central Asia,
,aYYlI!:z has the meaning 'to call, name, cry'
SOME LEX ICAL FEATURES 153
M/<>aQlQlj, /y<>UQlQlj 'to hide (trans.), for which l /xaba/, jyexbi/, C
not noted . Central Asia has zamma (regular reHex of OANamm!)
for 'to hide (trans.),
l /<>aww/ 'fire', for which M/nar/, C/nagj, In Syr.-Pal. /<>aww/, /<>ayy/
is common for 'light', but for 'fire' I find only the Central Asian
form zalV, glossed niir in Tsereteli, 1956, p. 12
MNuwa/, lNawa/, C/c)awa/ 'light'
M1C/\araf/ 'neighborhood', smaller and less official than M/mal)allaj,
•. l jml)>llla/, C/mal)alli/ 'quarter of town'
lC/la'a/, jyel'iJ 'to give', for which Mjenlaj (jnelaj) /yen!i/. The lC
form is also that of Mosul and apparently more typical of qellll
dialects, the !vi form is found in the other gelet-dialects and in
Central Asia. Forms similar to the latter are common in many
localities of Syr.-Pal. (e.g. Galilean and l;Ioran /an!a/), and
Barthelemy lists it for ' Ia langue des nomades" ; I have noted
/la'aj among the Negev Beduins
l jnlagaq/ 'to get scared'; /lagqaj 'fright'
M1C/lawli/ 'backgammon'; the same term recurs throughout the
Syr.-Pal. and Eg. areas as /lawla/ or /lawle/, and the origin of
the ji/ is puzzling: if from Turk. lavla, It. lavold, the ja/ might
have been reinterpreted as a fern. suff. , with the allomorph fiJ
quite plausible in this environment for C, nearly as plausible
for 1, but in M explainable onl y as a loan from 1 or C (cf. 4. 3) . ,.
The Greek name of the game is lavli; could it have passed into "
Iraq, perhaps t hrough an unattested Turk. *lavli?!74 :1
l /laq/,lY!iq/ 'to be able', i. q. lC/qadag/, jyeqdeg/, M/gedar/, /yegderj
MC/'erbi/ and I' urbi/, 1l'rubi/ 'a village Arab ; a provincial' also as
adj. 'provincial'. The collective Ml'ara!;>/, lC/'aga!;>/ is used to
denote the village population as a whole, to the exclusion of
the full nomads (MJC/ badu!) in contrast to other parts of the
Arab world, where terms derived from the root 'rb refer to
Beduins, whether nomadic or semi-nomadic. No doubt the
Beduinized character of the sedentary rural popUlation has
something to do with this! 7'
M/,a ru~j, l/,gu~/, Cj'ag6~/ 'bride', pI. M /, araye~/, J/,gaye~j , C/,agayye~/
M/,ari~j and !,arri~j l/,eggi~/, C/, agj~/ 'bridegroom', pI. M
/,erarj~/, l/, gagi~/, C/,agayye~j
M/,ag urba/ and /,agraba/, l /,eqquba/, C/'aqgabi/, 'scorpion', pI.
M/'agarub/, l /,qagib/, Cj'aqegeb/ ; on /qqj < /qgj, cf. 3.24e
154 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
M/,agrugga/, J/,eqruqa/, 'frog' , pI. M/,agrugg/, J/,qariq/, C not noted ;
cf. Aleppo 'qarqa, call. 'qarroq, and Syriac 'aqruqa (Barthelemy,
Diet.); Kweres has 'agriig
MJC/,alamOdl 'for the sake of, because of'; Mj'alamOd hay ma'ejawl
'that's why they didn't come'; Ijet 'alamOdakl 'I came for your
sake'; /,am elrpa(\i cent ad fa' mit dalar beSsahar 'alamOd gurfa
we!)dal 'last year I paid a hundred dollars a month for one
room'
JCfgada/, for wh ich M has Ibaeerl 'tomorrow'; the gelet-dialects
have Ibacer/, the qeltu-dialects are split: Mosul Igada/, Ana-
tolia [gade], 'Ana [1;>ACor], Hit [bakor]
M/garbil/, J/gegbil/, Cfgarbell 'sieve', pI. M/grabil/, J/gegabil/,
Cfgarebil/ ; an OA Igirbal/, cf. late Classical girhiil, could ac-
count for the J form, for Mosul Igubel/, (cf. 3.24d), Aleppo
Igorbel/, Pal. and Eg. /f!,irbal/, but C and M pose a problem ;
Central Asian galhir CTsereteli, 1954, p. 256) in a dialect with-
out 'imala, taken together with the M and C forms, implies
alternative OA forms such as */garbill or the like; on possible
etymologies, cf. Dozy (Lat. harpelus?) and Fraenkel, 1886, p. 91
MJCfffadl 'heart, entrails'; Iwaj' effadl 'stomach ache, indigestion';
JCfgas effad/, i.q. Iffad / ; for Mardin, Socin 1882, p. 240, writes
fUIVIid, flVlid ; in Central Asia, fod 'heart' (Vinnikov, 1957, p.
429). On Iffl < IfwI, cf. 3.21f
J/qebba/, Cfqebbi/, M/gu1;>1;>al 'room', pI. JCfqebab/, M/gu1;>a1;>/ ; in
somewhat formal speech, M/gurfa/, Igerfal may be used; Mosul
has Iqebbi/,' but Anatolia has reflexes of Turk. oda, as in Syr.-
Pal.' and Eg.; Iqobbel occurs in Aleppo for some kinds of rooms
J/qerrayil 'oil lamp lit on Sabbath eve', apparently unknown to MC
speakers; note Irr/, though qgy 'to read'
JCfqemag/, M/gemarl 'cream, esp. clotted cream', Mosul Iqemag/,
Aleppo Iqaymaql from Turk. kaymak, same meaning; the M
form seems to be derived via the JC or Mosul form, reinter-
preting the Iql and Igi as equivalent to those of such words as
JCfqamag/, ' moon', M/gumar/. A doublet is MJCfqaymag/, in
Idonderma qaymag/, a sort of ice cream; cf. also Pers. qeymaq,
from the above Turkish form
MJCfkefl in MC/slon kefak/, J/aslan kHaki 'how are you?', but
never used for 'how?' except in semi-literary style; MJC/,ala
kHakI 'take it easy' ; used for ' because', at least in J, but now-
SOME LEXICAL FEATURES 155
adays less common than the literary loan IIi'ann/ : J/maysig
wniki yedxel walad sabb, kH lem'elmat kelletem sefUrl 'a young
man is not supposed to go in there, because the women teachers
are all unveiled' ; in thi s sense M has lee fl (Malai ka, 1963, p. 37)
J/gederl 'pot', pI. Igdura/ ; the Igl and Irl would suggest a loanword
from M, but for the fact that M has {jeder/, pI. Ijdura/, which
in turn suggests th at M borrowed this from a rural dialect (cf.
3.26) e.g. Kweres gid(ii)r. Possibly M once had Igi in this word ,
whence the J form. Central Asia has gidir. This term (qidr, pI.
qlld!lr) is given by Ja!)i, (10th century) as a cha racteristic Iraqi
term (ed. 1948, p. 18)
JC/garag/, roughly i.q. MJCflazeml in the sense of 'probably'; my
M informants say they never heard this word. Ex.: J/garag
mallelwal 'probably she's not pretty'; J/ ne!)kilak e!)kiyetna,
wenta garag yejik exliyi 'Ienal 'we'll tell you our story and yo u
surely will have pity on us'; Cfgarag I)assa l ektigl 'he must have
made a lot of money' ; Cfgarag kensiifal 'surely he's seen her' .
Turk. gerek 'necessary'
J/ganal 'a duck', call. Igan! MC not noted ; in most dialects, l 1;>al\(a)1
MJC/gaddal 'to beg for alms', Imgaddil 'a beggar', Igedyal ' beggary';
M also has {jad da/, Imjaddi/, Ijedya/ ; Barthelemy Diet. has
Imgaddi/, considered as a Mesopotamian loan, for Aleppo, and
cf. Central Asian gidday 'beggar'.I76 This old borrowing from
Pers. gedye appears in older Arabic Sources spelled with k (e.g.
Taliqani, nos. 444, 460, and cf. the dictionaries, e.g. Freytag,
quoting the Qamiis; and MUl1jid, Dozy, etc.) or with q (Dozy, '"
one source, from Spain) both probably intended for IgI
MJC/g!asl 'a glass for drinking', Eng. glass
J/genzl 'a treasure' (MC not noted), cf. Pers. giillj which, no doubt
in some other form ending in IzI has passed into late Classical
as kallz and into other dialects as Ikinz/, with the Ikl reflecting
the Arabic spelling
MJCf laket/, Ibalaket/, variants of Ilakenl ' but'. Note the absence of
'imala in the JC form s, despite the fact that o'ider 'imala is at-
tested in this wo rd (Blau, 1961 b, p. 19, from a tenth century
lraqi source) and in Pers. valiken, whence modern vali
J/lemmall 'ants', IJemmalayil 'an ant' (MC not noted) ; most dialects
have regular reflexes of OA /nam l/, but cf. Mosul Inem mall
'ant s'
 156 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
MJC/161 'or', e.g. M/tamam 16 la?1 ' right, or not?'
MJC/lax/, Iylixl 'to run away', cf. 6.43
MJC/lekk/, pI. Ilkiikl 'a large quantity, specified by some as ten
thousand, by others as a hundred thousand ' . lhaila yemlek
elkiikl 'he's tremendously rich'; cf. also Ilaklaki 'to get rich',
e.g. J/mal)l)ad laklak mneleqmagj ' no one ever got rich from
gambling'. Cf. Barthelemy, Diet., s.v. lakk (2) a nd the Indian
term rendered in English and French as lac, lakh, 'one hundred
thousand'
MJC/mal/, particle denoting possession, connection, etc., one of the
most uniformly characteristic features of the Mesopotamian
area, common to all qeltu and gelel-dialects examined so far,
•" including Anatolia, Khuzistan, and all points within Iraq ; it is
found even in modern Persian (ma/~e soma 'of yours, belonging
to you'; mal-e koja, 'from where') but apparently not in Central
Asia. With suffixes, it can occur indifferently with or without
the fern. T, e.g. Innad i malnal or Innadi malatnal 'our club'.
Some examples of its manifold uses (all in M, JC being ana-
logous): Isayeg malilahabl 'a goldsmith', Imez malxasabl 'a
wooden table', Imudir malmadrasal 'a school principal', Il)amui)-
I)elu maleblad / 'imported sweets' Ubladl = 'abroad')
MJC/l11ardil 'pole for pushing a boat' ; M/dfa'ha bgusl;>a wala tedfa' ha
I;> l11ardil 'push it with a reed (now) and don't push it with a
pole (later)', i.e . 'do it while the doi ng is good;' Idaf'at l11ardi
w'asat kurdil 'a shove by a pole and a blow from a Kurd' used
in describing a prompt departure or expulsion
M/mezrib/, JC/megzibl 'gutter, waterspout off roof', pI. M/ mzarib/ ,
J/mgazib/, C/magezib/ . Cf. Aleppo Imnreb/, and in non-'imdla
dialects Imezrabl (No . Pal.) or Imezrabl (l:Ioran, Cairo). These
Syr.-Pal. and Eg. forms, are regular reflexes of OAimizrab/ ;
the J form offers no particular difficulty, especially since OA
Imirzabl is also attested (Freytag, citing the QamOs); in fact ,
Imirzabl may be primary and the form Imizrab/, more co mmonly
represented today, a metathesis (Fraenkel , 1886, pp. 24-25). The
difficulty is in the /i/ of C instead of th e expected lei, and espe-
cially in the Iii of M instead of the expected la/. Either M a nd C
have in this wo rd preserved the same ancient 'imiila as J, or
the three forms har k back directly to the Aramaic ancestor of
th~ OA form ; the most likely form of that ancestor is, according
SOME LEXICAL FEATURES 157
to Fraenkel, ibid., marzlpii and cf. Mishnaic Heb. marzeP. Cf.
Pers. me,zab, probably from the Arabic
MJC/mesl):l1 'shovel', common throughout Iraq; Jal)i ~ (ed . 1948,
p. 19) says that the people of Kufa (in contrast, by implication ,
to those of Basra) replace this word by bdl, cf. Pers. bil, older
bet, a word of which I find no trace in Arabic today, except for
Central Asian bll
MJC/me'mill 'one with whom one habitually trades, i.e. either a
steady customer or one's regular merchant'
MJC/magazal 'a large store with varied articles, larger than a
Imaxzan/, itself larger than a Idekkanl or Itekkan/, ; Pers. miiqaze
'store', from Fr. magasill, itself ultimately from Af. maxazill ,
pI. of maxza" 'store'
M/munxul/, l lmuxell 'fine sieve, strainer', pI. M/ mnaxel/, J/ mwixel/
(C not noted), cf. CI. Ar. mUllxul, with regular reflexes in M,
in Pal. Imunxul/ , Aleppo Imonxol/, but in some Central Pa l.
villages, Imiixell as in J (Bauer, Wort. , s.v. Sieb). The forms in
10/ no doubt stem from an intermediate -[muxuIJ, nasaliza tion
of vowels preceding Inl plus velar being ve ry co.mmon in J and
other dialects: Jldanqii lj -' let's say', lenxill 'palm trees' are
normally· [diiqul, ;;xil]
MJC/mawil 'bl~e', partly synonymous with M/azrag/, JC/azgaq/ ,
which covers other shades as well; from MJCjl11ay/, Il11ayyl
'water'; cf. Pefs. abi 'blue', from ab 'water', and Turk. ma vi
J/medil 'table set for the Sabbath , Passover, or other festive meal',
apparently no MC equivalent. The J usage thus antedates the
remarks of !;Iariri (d. 1122) who criticizes his Baghdadi audience
for using md'ida and mayda for any table , rather than for a
table on which a meal is set, as correct usage requires (l:Iariri,
ed. 1299 A. H., p. 10)
MJC/mezl 'a table', pI. MJ /myuza/, C/myOzij. From Pers. miz, older
mez. Used throughout the Mesopotamian area and in the Eastern
Neo-Aramaic dialects (Zakho meza); even in l:fariri's time, the
word he suggested for a plain table (cf. preceding item) was
·Persian, namely x(lV)an, in later CI. Ar. xilrall or XlI\ral1. The
Persian term miz, mez no doubt reflects Portu guese mesa, just
as other dialects reflect other Mediterra nea n lan guages ( Lat.
tabliia and its descendants, etc .). Oussani, 1901, p. 110, gives
 158 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
'dinner table' for mez, and lists {Gwle as 'table'; the latter is un·
known to my informants; see /!fnvli/ above
M/ mewa/, JC/ miwa/, though C also /mewa/ 'fruit'; Pers. mive,
older meve
M/nages/, JCjnajes/ 'dirty, unclean, filthy' and M/naggas/, JCjnajjas/
'to render unclean'; I have no other instance of M/g/ for OA/j/,
nor any explanation for this one
M /na~i/, Cjne~i/, for which J/na~~i/ 'low', pI. MC/ne~~ay/, J in-
variable. Meissner, 1903b, Glossar: na$ls 'niedrig'; !;fanafl, 1962,
p . 143 /n~ayye~/ 'low'
M/ nagalJ, JC/nagel/ 'bastard', pI. M/ngu!a/, J/ngula/, C/nguli/ ; cf.
the J proverbial expression /essa!! mani l)fagu wennagel mani
bzagu/ 'who dug the Tigris and who begat the bastard?', said
of or to an inquisitive person (CI. Ar. nag!)
MC/ niSan/, J/nisan/ 'betrothal, engagement'; MJC/ nesan/ 'to be-
trothe', ftoe-san/ 'to become engaged'. Pees. nisan 'token, sign',
perhaps via / mal)bas niSan/ 'engagement ring', at first 'token
ring'
MJCjhalhalj'to produce a trilling noise with the tongue', that sound
itself being called MJC/ halhula/, pI. M/halahil/, J/ hlahil/,
C/halehU/ ; this noise, usually produced on joyful occasions, is
the same as that referred to in other dialects by the roots zgrd,
zgrt, zgll, and other variants; the root hIhi occurs in other parts
of the M~sopota mian area (Mosul , Anatolia) with the same
meaning ; for a different meaning in Lebanon, cf. Barthelemy,
Diet.
MJCjham/ 'also', with variants MJCjhammen/, / hammena/, J/ ham-
zed/, /hamzedif. Pers. ham, whence also Turk. hem, an old
loan into Arabic (Jawaliqi, p. 146, Bariri, pp. 113, 233) .today
appa rently restricted to the Mesopotamian area and Central
Asia, even more widespread in tiD latter, where it also serves
other functions (cf. Fischer, 1961 , p. 261); however, Barthelemy,
Diet. , lists it without localization, hence presumably used in
Aleppo, but only as /ham ... ham/ 'both .. and'
M/hwaya/, i.q. J/keig/, C/ktlgj 'much, many' invariable: / hwaya
nasi or Inas ehwayal 'many people', /f1us ehwaya/ ' much money' ;
jhwiiya yesta'emluha/ 'they use it a lot' ; occurs in other gelet-
dialects, though to the south (Basra, Kuwayt) /wajed/, / wiiyed/
occur instead. Etymology unclear; Malaika, 1963, p. 35, suggests
SOME LEXICAL FEATURES 159
OAjhawiiya/' mein Wunsch', but cf. Pal. jhwiiyej 'a blow', and
Fr. beaucollp
M/hiiysa/, JC/hasa/, pI. MJjhwiiyes/ and jh05j (C not noted) ; Kweres
has the M form, but my own informant from the same region
has / hasaj ; Weissbach, 1930, p. 330, adds for Kweres the more
familiar jbgaraj ; 'Ana has [bagra]; a Muslim from Amara has
jhaysa/, and for Qal'at Salel), Van Wagoner, 1944, gives jbaqaraj
'head of cattle' (p. 107) and jhiiysal 'cow' (p. III). Barthelemy,
Diet., cites the M form for Iraq. In late Classical Arabic
hall'a'i! occurs in the sense of 'cattle, large animals' (Dozy)
MjCjhi~j 'nothing'; M/saku bidak? hie, kulSi miikul 'what's that in
your hand? - nothing, there's nothing'; Jjhiiyi Imaswa hie,
segbet rnayj 'this hike is nothing, a child's play (lit. a drink of
water),. Pers. hie.
Mjwuje(h)/, jwuccj, MJCjwecej 'face'; the last form recurs in the
qeltll-dialects, the first in the gelet-dialects; Central Asia has
lie; Barthelemy, s. v. IVaee, points out that Jawiiliqi (p. 149)
condemned IVII}h for IVa}" as vulgar, and that all modern dia-
lects have forms harking back to an OA form with lui
MJCjyezil ' that's enough', rarer than Ibassl also occurs in Kweres
(Meissner, 1903b, p. xlix). Meissner's surmise that this comes
from OA/yajzi j is supported by form s such as yadzi, yazzi found
with the same meaning in some North African dialects (Mar"ais,
1956, p. 112 ; Cantineau, 1960, p. 60, where the same etymology
is proposed)

7 OA/al yields M/ul or lei , JC/a/ : OA/qamar/, M/gumar/, JCfqamagl
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
7. 1 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS. 7. 11 Muslims vs. non-Muslims.
(0) T he Muslims, Jews, and Christians of Baghdad (and, so. far as
I can tell, of the other cities of Lower Iraq) speak lhree different
dialects each fully correlated with community affiliation. The majo r
diehoto'my divides the Muslim majority fro m the two minority
groups: the majo rity di alect (M) is of the ge/et type, the two minority
diale~ts (J and C) are of the qe/tu type (on the terms ge/et and qe/tu
see 1.31 and 1.32). Although our knowledge of the Mesopotamian
dialect area is still quite li mited, it seems a fair guess that dialects
of the qe/tu type are spoken by old sedentary populations o nly (Mus-
lims and non-Muslims in Upper Iraq and Anatolia, only non-Mushms
in Lower Iraq), whereas ge/et-dialects are spoken by semi-sedentary
and recently sedentarized populatio ns, and by Muslim sedentanes
in Lower Iraq ; fully nomadic populations speak dialects closely
akin to the 'ge/ef type. Muslims and non-Muslims alike speak dia-
lects that for a ll the differences they exhibit, all belong to the Meso-
potamia; area; there is thus no prima facie basis fo r an explanation
of these differences by immigration from outside the area. To what
extent migrations within the area may be considered will be discussed
below. . room'. Unit nouns are usually formed by appending the suffix -/ayil
(b) The features that set apart M from JC are summarized below.
The reader is warned that this summarization is schematic and leaves
out details, qualifications, and reservations, for which he is referred
to the body of the work. . 'let's say', vs. M/dangiill 'we say' and 'let's say'.
(i) Phonology . In M , OA/II is often N , in JC usually fIf:
M/xa!/, JC/xal1 'mother's brother'. In M, OA/ql IS often Ig/, hI JC
a lmost always Iq/ : M/gaJ/, JCjqii 11 ' he said'. In M, OA/kl has been
affricated to I~I in given instances, whereas JC have preserved Ik/ :
M/can/, JC/kan j'he was'. In M, OA/rl is apical Ir/, while in JC it has,
in many instances, become a velar spirant Igj: M/ras/, JC/gasl ' head'.
160
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 161
As for the vowel system, OA/ul and Iii are both represented by
JCfe/, whereas M has both lei and lui depending on a variety of
factors: OA/kull/, M/kull/, JCfke1l1 'all' ; OA/sidq/, M/~u dug/,
JC/~edeq/ ; OA/sitt/, MJC/settl 'six'. In given syllabic sequences,
' moon'; dAtjamal/, M/jemalf, JCfjamal1 'camel'. Final, stressed lal
is preserved to a greater degree in JC tha~ in M: J/suda/, Cfsodi/ ,
M/sodal 'black (f.s.)'. The 'imti/o of OA/a/, which already made it-
self felt in Abbasid Baghdad, is very common in given cases in JC,
totally absent from M; thus M/wiihed/, JCfwehedl 'one'; M/~eta/ ,
JCf~etil 'winter'. In matters of word stress, there are some diffcrcnccs
that are more strictly of a morphophonemic character: MJC/ ~ahebl
'friend', M/sahbil vs. J/sahebi/, Cfsahebil 'my friend'.
(ii) Morphology. Subject pron01l1inal suffixes attached to
perfect verbal stems differ in phonemic shape and in some olher
respects : M/geletl ' I said' and 'you (m.s.) said', JC/qeltul 'I said'
vs. J/qelt/, C/qeletl 'you (m .s.) said'; M/galat/, JCfqaletl 'she said' ;
M/geltul , JC /qelteml 'you (pl.) said'; M/galaw/, JCfqalul ' they said' .
Object pronominal suffixes differ as to the morpJlOphonemics of
suffixation (cf. e.g. the last item in the preceding paragraph) and ill
phonemic shape: M/abuya/, JCfabuyil 'my father'; M/abiJ./, JC
labunul 'his father' ; M/uljlIpa/, JC/emmul 'h is mother' ; M/umha/,
JC/emmal ' her mother' ; M/umhum/, JCfemmeml 'their mother' ;
The feminine suffix T has, in the isolated word, the allomorphs lal
and Iii in JC, to which corresponds a single allomorph lal in M:
M/maftuJ:!a/, J/mefluhai , Cfmaftiihal 'open (f.s.), but M/cebira/,
JC/kbigil ' big (f.s.)'; the allomorphs of T in sandhi are also different:
M/gubti/, JC/qebbetil ' my room' ; M/gu\J\Jatna/, JCfqebbetn al ' our
in JC, the suffix T in M: MI l;> us!a/, J/bes!iiyi/, Cfba!aJayil 'an onion' .
Morphemes preposed to the imperfect are similar in· shape and func-
tion in JC and differ from M usage: JCfqanqiil1 'we say', Idanqii ll
(iii) Syntax. Few points were investigated ;' determinate noun-
plus-adjective phrases more often lack the initial article in JC Uwalad
lekbigf) than in M (flwalad eecebir/, ' the big boy'); determinate direct
objects are marked by an anticipatory pro nominal suffi J( plus the
morpheme L more often in JC than in M: JC/hazzu 19asul 'he shook
his head', M/hazz rasa/.
162 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
(iv) Lexicon. Basic vocabulary is almost entirely cognate, but
a number of common terms are not; many but not all non-cognates
oppose JC to M: JC/gada/ , M/ bacer/ 'tomorrow'; J/kSig/ , C/ktig/,
vs. M/hwaya/ 'much' ; this holds for most personal pronouns (JC/ana/,
M/ ani/ 'I'; JC/entem/, M/entu/ 'you (pl.)" (and cf. the pron. suff.
in (ii) above) and demonstratives (JC/hOni/, M/hna/ 'here') which
illustrate instances of "imperfect cognates."
7.12 Jews vs. Christians. Despite the fact that J and C belong
together in the same qeffll group and share many features as against
M, the two dialects exhibit many differences from each other. On
the whole, C is closer to Mosul a nd, to a lesser degree, the Anatolian
dialects. The differences between J and C are summarized below.
(i) Phonology. The / r/ > /g/ shift does not quite cover the
same ground: J/ qaga/, Cfqaral 'to read'; J/jurab/, Cfjogabil 'a sock'.
The interdentals have been preserved in J, as in most of the Meso-
potamian area, but replaced by the corresponding stops in C, as in
some of the Anatolian dialects and in the Syrian urban dialects as
a whole. In the vowels, C goes along with Mosul in the retention of
most l a/, s in unstressed open syllables, whereas J goes along with
'Ana in their zeroing-out in open syllable and in their shift to /el in
closed pre-stress syllable, with M standing somewhere in the middle:
J/8qil/, Cftaqilj, Mj8egilj 'heavy'; Jjkelbenj, Cjkalbenj, Mjcalbiinj
'two dogs'. Related to this is the treatment of OAjawj and jayj in
unstressed syllable, which are reduced to j uj and j ij in ], while C has
joj and j ej: Jjbitenj, Cjbetenj 'two houses'; Jjyumenj, Cfyomenj 'two
days'. For OAj u/ and /i/ C has j ol and jej in given environments:
Cfsoq/, ] /suq/ 'market', C/male1,J.j, ] j rrili1,J.j 'good'; here again C goes
with Mosul. There are many points of difference in the degree and
detail. of ' imiifa : in given cases, J has ji j for Cfej: Jjklibj, Cjklebj
'dogs'; in others, ] has /a/ : ] I skakinj , Cfsakekinj 'knives'. In C,
long vowels retain their phonemic length in unstressed syllables (as
in M and Mosul), whereas] has, SO to speak, no long vowels in un-
stressed syllables (as 'Ana): Jjdulabj, Cfdfiliib/ 'wardrobe'; Jj1,J.alfibj,
C/1,J.alfJbj 'hail'; Jjmizinj, Cjmizen/ 'scale'. Final consonant clusters
are, on the whole, maintained in J, separated in C: Jjdagbj, Cfdagebj
' road'; Jjktabt/, Cfkatabetj 'you (m.s.) wrote'.
(ii) Morphology. In the subject pronominal suffixes attached
to the perfect base, J and C differ iii morphophonemic details: JC
jqeltul 'I said', but Jjqeltoluj vs. Cfqeltuluj 'I said to him'; JCfqaluj
SUMMARY AN D CONCLUSION 163
'they said' but JjqalOluj vs. Cjqiiluluj 'they said to him'. Other differ-
ences are due to the fact that C treats K ,-y verbs unlike others,
while J does not : J/qaguj 'they read' (like Jjkatbu/ ' they wrote'),
but Cfqaroj vs. jkatabu/ ; Jjteqqenj 'you (f.s.) read' (like jtketbenj
'you (f.s.). write'), but Cfteqrenj vs. jtektebin/ ; Jjteqqonj 'you (pl.)
read' (like jtketbonj 'you (pl.) write'), but Cjteqronj vs. jtektebunj .
As for object pronominal suffixes, C has the invariant -jki/ for the
2f.s., as Mosul and Anatolia, whereas J has j k j ~ j kij : Cjabukij
'your (f.s.) father', jemki/ 'ydur (f.s.) mother', Jjabukij, jemmekj.
The morl?hophonemics of the suffixes - hii and - hem differ: JCjemmaj
'her mother', ]jabuhaj, Cjabuwaj ' her father'; JCjjabaj 'he brought
her' but ]Jjabuhaj (cf. Ijjabonuj 'they brought him') vs. Cfjabuwaj
'they brought her' ; lCfemmemj 'their mother', but Ijabuhemj, .
Cfabuwemj 'their father'; JCjjebnahaj 'we brought her', jjebnahem/
'we brought them'; C again goes along with Mosul. Though both
1 and C have jaj and j i j allomorphs of the fem. suff., their distribu-
tion follows entirely different principles: ]j1)elwaj, Cf1)elwij 'pretty
(f.s.)'; l/ l;>a~ilij , Cjl;>a~ilaj 'trifling (f.s.)'. In Form I verbs, Chas pre-
served the two conjugations qalaf vs. qatif, like Mosul and Anatolia
whereas J has a single qalaf conjugation, like 'Ana (and like M, which
has a single qelaf where e is j ej ~ j uj depending on the flanking
consonants) : Cfkatabj 'he wrote', jlebesj 'he wore', Ijkatabj, jlabasj.
The imperfects of Forms VII and VIII show differences beyond the
regular phonemic ones and place C somewhat closer to M : Ijaftahemj,
Cfaftehemj 'I understand' ; Jjanhazemj, Cjanhezemj 'I flee'. The
imperative of the verb 'to come' is peculiar to J, C going along with
most Eastern dialects. The morpheme L 'to' has the presuffixal allo-
morphs Cjelj- (as in M) vs. I j llej- ; double pronominal objects have
a special form in J, a more common one in C: Ijjabelyakj 'he brought
it (him, her, them) to you', Cjjablak yfmuj 'he brought him to you'.
Preverbal morphemes differ : l /qadaqulj, Cjqaaqulj 'I say'; Ijssa'aqulj
Cfga1,J.aqulj 'I will say', and especially Cjkenqeltuj 'I said', as in Mosul
and Anatolia, with no parallel in J.
(iii) Syntax. The optional use of a copula in C sets it apart
from J (and ' M) and links it with the Anatolian area. The absence
of the article in the first term of jmalj constructions is peculiar to C.
The marking of the determinate direct object by an anticipatory
pronoun plus L is less common than in J.
(iv) Lexicon. The Hebraic element in J sets it apart from
164 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
C, M, and other dialects., In the free personal pronouns and demon-
stratives, there are a few differences between J and C (e.g. J/ hekeo/,
Cfhekkil 'thus') but in interrogative particles C is closer to M than J:
C/S/, Isenul 'what', M/as/, liISkunl 'what'; a number of non-cognate
nouns and verbs set C together with M apart from J: MCfxaseml
'nose', J/enf/; MC/sMI 'to see', J!'ayan/, etc.
7.13 Christians vs. Mosul. (a) The dialects of Mosui" and of tbe
Mosul area are too imperfectly known to permit a categorical answer
to the question as to wbether C is purely and simply a dialect of
immigrants from that area. Similarities with Mosul are many, but
tbere are enough differences to consider C a related but separate
dialect. Inasmuch.as data point to fairly recent and fairly considerable
immigration of Christians from the north to Baghdad, and because
of some suggestive similarities between C and tbe Anatolian dialects
we may surmise until all the evidence is in that C has at least bee~
influenced by dialects from the northern regions.
(b) One set of differences between C and Mosul is of a special
nature: they consist of pairs in which Mosul has unusual features
peculiar to itself whereas C has, as its equivalent, an exact or approx-
imate replica of ,the M form. These arouse the suspicion that pe-
culiar Mosul-like features bave been suppressed in favor of something
more acceptable. The suspicion is reinforced by the fact that tbese
are essentially lexical items, in which this sort of substitution is
notoriously easier than in phonology or grammar ; in the following,
C has the same item as M:
Mosul C and JC/baqa/, is absent from C. Mosul/ta'iil zel 'come here now',
'four' oba'a arba'a
(and the related terms 'fourteen', 'forty', 'Wednesday')
'he' hlnu huwa
'they' hiyem humma
'to see' qese' sM
'what' as, assun 5, senu
'where' wen
e!ab
In the following cases, C has a form similar to that of M, Mosul
an unusual or special form:
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 165
'three' SaSi tlati
'when' emati swaqet
'twenty: ~ 'essin 'esgin
'sieve' \1 ' giibel garbel
(c)
,j I·,
However, some differences between MosJI and C do not
. C'.nearer to M; tbey are either peculiar to C or common to C
brmg
and sOl1]e Anatolian dialects; tbey are, summarized below.
(i) .Phonology. The interdentals are preserved in Mosul, re-
placed by stops in C. Tbe 'imiila of Mosul is different in several
respects from that of C: Mosul Isakikin/, C/sakekinl ' knives', Mosul
Ibestenci/, C/bestiin6i! 'gardener'.
(ii) Morphology. Pronominal affixes are remarkably similar in
shape and behavior, the sole difference noted being the double object
suffixes : C/la'etlu yanul 'you gave it (m.s .) to him', Mosul/la'etlilwa/.
The allomorpbs IiI and lal o( the fern. suff. do not have quite the
same distribution: Mosul Ikabiga/, C/kbigif. The vocative suffix leI
of Mosul is absent from C: Mosul !,amme/, Ixalel (terms for addres-
sing paternal and maternal aunt). ,
(iii) Syntax. Mosul has no copula like tbat of C , nor is the C
article dropped in Imatl constructions.
(iv) Lexicon. A number of lexical differences, have been
mentioned in (b) above. Others include: Mosul/hnilkal and Ihonekl
'there', C/boniki/; Mosul Ihakeol 'thus', C/hekki/; Mosul/mbor/ ,
MJC!'alamildl 'because of, for tbe sake of' ; Mosul/gaqqabi/, C/geqbil
'neck'; the Mosul particle Ize/, roughly in the function of MJC/asul
C/ta'al baqaf.
7.14 Muslim vs. tbe countryside. '(a) While M is closely akin
to ,the urban and rural gelel-dialects of Lower Iraq, it differs ' from
them 'in 'many respects. It is closest to 'the urban dialects on Wi,ich
some data are available (Basra, Qal'at Salel» so tbat one dimly fore- '
sees a possible classification of urban vs. rural ' gelel-dialects, as yet
not solidly established.
(b) It appears useful to summarize the differences separating M
from the rural gelelCdialects tbat are closest to it: for this purpose
we shall make use of the detailed data available on Kweres and tbose
from my own informant from a nearby point in the same Musayyab
district; this combination of data shall be designated by the symbol R.
 166 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
(i) Phonology. OA/};./ is more often affricated in R: M/akel/,
R/a~ell 'food' . There is greater retention of OA Iql in M, and re-
latively few instances of a Ijl reflex, whereas R has regular affrication
to Iii in some positions, coupled with morphophonemic alternation
with Ig/: M/ge'adl 'he sat', /ga'edl 'sitting', R/ge'ad/, Ija'ed/. A /pi
phoneme is well established in M, not so in R. In R there is the
typical Beduin syllabic reshuffling and alternation absent from M:
M/gahwa/, R/ghawal 'coffee'; M/ge~aQ/, 'reeds', Igu~Qal 'a reed',
R/gu~aQ/ , Ig~uQaf. The distribution of Ie/ and lui differs in M and
R : M/kull/, R/ kell/, 'all'; M/ge~aQ/, R/gu~al:i/ 'reeds' .
(ii) Morphology. In subject and object pronominal affixes, R
has a masculine-feminine distinction in the 2nd and 3rd person
.. ,
'1 plural which is only marginal in M. Addition of suffixes to certain
nominal bases yields completely different morphophonemics in R
than in M because of the syllable reshuffling mentioned in (i) above.
Similar differences occur in Form I conjugations: M/ketbatl 'she
wrote', R/ktebat/; M/,erfawl 'they knew', R/,rufaw/. Form II per-
fects show vocalic alternations in R, none in M: M/sallam/'he greeted',
l~addagJ 'he believed', /xallaf/'he begat', Rlsallem/,/~addagJ, Ixalluf/.
The verbal systems' exhibit many other differences of detail.
(iii) Lexicon. A check through Meissner, 1903b, Glossar, re-
veals little lexical differentiation between M and R; where M differs
from J and/or .C, R has the same or very nearly the same forms as
M; instances of slight deviations can be seen in R/~enhul 'what',
M/~enu/; R/ menhu/ 'who', M/menu/. . '
7.15 Uniqueness of J. Within the qellLl group, there IS no dialect
so far investigated that bears a particularly close relationship to J.
Some salient features ('imlila, II!.I < It/) link it with C and Mosul,
others ('imlila, some lexical items) with Anatolia, and two features
(shortening of unstressed long vowel, treatment of OA/a/) are shared
witn 'Ana. All these in addition to features shared by all or most
qeIILl-dialects. The Jews of the other cities of Lower Iraq speak dia-
lects that are virtually indistinguishable from J.
7.2 . CHARACTERIZATION OF THE DIALECTS. 7.21 Conservatism in
JC. (a) If we combine the findings summarized above with comparative
data from other dialects and with whatever is known of medieval
Iraqi vernaculars, we conclude that J and C are direct descendants
of dialects spoken by the urban population (both Muslim and non-
Muslim) of Abbasid Iraq. More precisely, J and C, no less than the
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 167
other qeIILl-dialects, have preserved or continued several basic phono-
logical and morphological features of the older vernaculars,. It is
problematic whether J and C actually' continue older dialects of
Baghdad' itself or whether their characteristic features have been. im-
ported f,om the north, the present home of most of the qellll-dialects.
With respect to C, the likelihood of northern influences is reinforced
by the immigration of Christians from the north.l 77 With respect to
J, on the other hand, I have no linguistic or historical evidence sug-
gesting immigration fro,m the north or elsewhere; if, as seems pos-
sible, the Jewish community in Baghdad has had a continuous exis-
tence in or around that city from its foundation to the present,178
features that are at present peculiar to J may hark back to the ver-
nacular of medieval Baghdad.
(b) The Jews and Christians of Iraq spoke Aramaic until they
were completely Arabized,l79 yet most of the main features difl'er-
entiating JC from M are not related to the Aramaic substratum.
We may assume that, by' the time Arabizalion was completed, there
were some minor communal differences in speech, such as the use
of some Hebraic elements in J, but I find no evidence of early major
differentiation. I so It is as yet impossible to say with certainty when
and how the present major differentiation arose; there is, however,
linguistic evidence pointing to Beduinization in M as a crucial factor
in that differentiation, and some historical evidence suggesting rough
answers as to "when" and "how." These points are taken up in the
following two sections.
7.22 Beduinization in M. (a) While M shares with J and C a
number of features, especially lexical, that evidently continue older
urban Iraqi forms, its phonology and. morphology are permeated
with elements similar to and, in all likelihood, imported from, the '
rural dialects of Lower iraq. Together with other urban gelel-dialects,
however it differs from the rural dialects in a few crucial respects,
and in ;hese very respects it resembles the dialects of sedentaries
on the other side of the Syrian desert (Transjordan, !:loran). in
general, the gelet-diale~ts and their congeners are,- outside Arabia,
spoken by Beduin and Beduinized populations. These include fully
nomadic camel herders, semi-nomadic sheep and goat herders,
recently sedentarized nomads and semi-nomads, and groups in various
intermediate stages of sedentarization. Some dialect characteristics
correlate fairly well with the various stages of nomadism and seden-
168 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
tarization. In the Syrian .desert and its fringes, which include the
Mesopotamian area, some features (e. g. affrication of OA/ql to
Idzl and OA/kl to Its/) belong to full nomads, others (e. g. affrica-
tion of OA/ql to iii and OA/kl to lei) to semi-nomads and the Lower
Iraq village population, whose sedentarization is of recent vintage,
or who have at least been strongly influenced by recently sedentarized
and semi-sedentary groups;!81 and others (e.g. non-affrication of
OA/q/ > Ig/, less frequent affrication of OA/kl to lei) are shared
by groups that arc fully sedentary, but that have, in centuries past,
absorbed non-sedentary influences. It is to the last that the present
Muslim dialect of Baghdad belongs ..
(b) It must be pointed out that there is an alternative possibility:
the gelet influences in M might be due to sedentary immigrants from
Arabia . Dialects of the gelet type are Beduin or Beduinized dialects
only outside of Arabia; in Northern and Eastern Arabia, rather
similar dialects are spoken by sedentaries as well. Such townsmen
could have migrated to the Lower Iraqi towns and brought their
dialects with them. 182 For Baghdad, however, immigration from the
surrounding countryside seems both linguistically and historically
more likely and the fact that Muslim townsmen, in given times and
circumstances, should absorb Beduin or semi~Beduin elements from
the countryside is neither surprising nor unprecedente?183 A similar
process is going on in present-day Baghdad: a part of the population
is readily identifiable as of rural origin, both by its speech and by its
personal history, and though largely belonging to the lower classes,
some influences from their dialects have been absorbed into M. The
assumption is that something similar occurred in previous centuries,
at a time when the social and linguistic prestige of the Muslim popu-
lation of Baghdad , and hen~e its resistance to rural infiuences~ was
at its lowest.
(e) While most features of M are shared by all M speakers, some
show greater Beduinization than others (greater use of Ij/, for OA/q/,
retention of the fem.-masc . distinction in the plural of verbs and
pronouns, etc.) . There is also some evidence, as yet fragmentary,
that some older urban features, now found in JC only, may have
bee n preserved in some remote corners of the M community and , in
some spec ial usages . ISJa .
7.23 A glance at Iraqi hiStory. (a) A detailed inquiry into Iraq!
history, wllile obviously desirable, is beyond the scope of the present
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 169
1
monograph. Still, a cursqry glance at the available sources!84 tends
to corroborate some of the hypotheses outlined above, and may
suggest questions and directions for their further elucidation. I find
very little on the history and composition ,of the Baghdad popUlation
itself, but from the history of Lower Iraq as a whole, it does seem
permissible to draw two conclusions: (I) that Lower Iraq was, from
the thirteeflth or fourteenth century onwards, subjected to a pro.cess
of de-urbanization and re-tribalization which has only recently been
reversed, ~nd has left deep marks on its population; (2) that the pop-
ulation of both villages and towns has continually (but especially
since the downfall of the Abbasid state) been replenished by waves
of Beduin ·immigration from Northern Arabia via ·the Syrian desert.
These processes can be outlined as follows:
(i) From the seventh century, when Arabization bega n as a
result of the Muslim conquest, until the tenth century, when central-
ized government began to decline, Arabization and urbanization went '
hand in hand. Cities were founded, became populated, and pros-
pered. The non-Muslims adopted the Arabic speech of the Muslim
townsmen. ~
(ii) From the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries, centralized
power was on the decline. The ruling groups were increasingly dom-
inated by ' Persian and Turkic speakers. Urban centers were still
large and populous, but Beduin nomads and semi-nomads increased
their raids and migrations into the cultivated area. 185
(iii) \ The decline of the caliphate and of urban life was brought
to a clil)lax by the Mongol sack of Baghdad in 1258, by the sub-
sequent devastation and anarchy, and by ·the second sack of Bagqdad
in 1400. The irrigation system, and the agricultural life dependent
on it, were',ruined, 1 86 and the effects of that ruin are. felt to this day.
Baghdad was greatly reduced in population, the countryside sub-
jected to further Beduin inroads, and Iraq became "a country of
few and small towns .. . while around and between them lay tracts
grazed and dominated by the tribes alone."!87 Until well into the eight-
eenth century, Iraq was a zone of constant strife between alternating
Turkic-speaking and Persian-speaking conquerors.
(iv) The establishment of Ottoman control in the seventeenth
to eighteenth centuries marked the beginning of a gradual and slow
 170 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 171
return of centralized authority, though that authority now had to and do not seem to have been subjected to the same depopulation
contend with solidly established Beduin tribes and tribal confedera- and repopulation seesaw as those of Lower Iraq. For another, the
tions. Many of these were sedentarized in Lower Iraq, but still trib- topography of Upper Iraq seems more conducive to polarization
ally organized l88 In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, new between sedentary and non-sedentary life.' The steppe is suitable for
towns were built and old ones gradually repopulated. 180 The process grazing only, the narrow banks of the river courses (which are here
of re-urbanization and de-tribalization has, with various tribulations fixed, not variable as in Lower Iraq) are suited for permanent se-
and backslidings, been going on ever since, and has probably been dentarism. In contrast,lOO the lowlands of the center and south, for
accelerated in the present period of independence. centuries deprived of flood control and regulated irrigation, more
(b) It seems a fair inference that these populations shifts are easily invite a type of semi-sedentary population which, according
intimately connected with the dialectal development outlined in 7.21 to our conjecture, served as a reservoir of Muslims for the repopu-
and 7.22. In the fourteenth century, the Baghdad Muslims were still lation of its towns. 191
., speaking a qeJtu type dialect and were, presumably, undifferentiated
" from the non-Muslims, at least not in the way they are today. Some
time after the re-establishment of a relatively stable regime under
the Ottomans, i.e. from the seventeenth century onwards, Baghdad
underwent a repopulation process which must have drawn heavily
on the village and tribal population; other towns underwent the same
process, some were entirely Dew creations. This new urban popula-
tion was Muslim and presumably spoke a gelet type dialect, indeed
the ancestor of present-day Muslim Baghdadi. The non-Muslims ob-
vio usly could not come from the tribal population ; the Christians
came, at least in part, from the north (see note 177) and the Jews
seem to have received no massive accretion from outside Baghdad
·(see note 178). That the Jews and Christians did not adopt the speech
of the new Muslim population is probably due to two factors: on
the one hand, the minorities were socially isolated, and on the other
hand, Muslim speech was neither the language of the governing
circles, nor that of their social or cultural elite. Since 1918 social
I and economic power has been returning to the Baghdadi Muslims,
and with the growth of the new Arab culture, the majority dialect
is acq uiring prestige (cf. 1.42).
(c) What has been said of Baghdad seems to hold for the other
cities of Lower Iraq, at least grosso modo. We have seen that matters
are different in Upper Iraq: there 'is no qeltu-gelet split correlating
with community affiliation, and urban dialects are all of the qeltu
type. Why this should be so is a m~tter .for separate investigation, \.
but several factors come to mind. For one thing, the small towns of
Upper Iraq seem to have had a more continuous urban population
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, I
NOTES
I. In this work, the term "Iraq" designates the present political entity, with
"Lower Iraq" and "Upper Iraq" separated from each other by a line ruiming
roughly between al-FaJlilja on the Euphrates to Samarra on the Tigris. The term
"Mesopotamia" is used here more or less in its literal geographical sense, i.e. to
cover all the Tigris and Euphrates valleys and the a reas between them , from their
sources on the 'Anatolian plateau down to the Persian Gulf.
2. The med ieval sources consulted are silent on the existence of dialectal
differences among the socio~religious communities. Scattered data begin to emerge
in the travel and descriptive literature of the nineteenth century. Oppert, 1863,
and Jeannier , 1888, indiscriminately cited forms be longing to the dialects of 'the
several communities merely as "Baghdadi," with a noteworthy preponderance of
Christian or Jewish forms, unidentified as such. Oppert says nothing whatever of
communal differences; Jeannier explicitly (and mistakenly) attributes two Muslim
features to the Christians, showing at least a dim awareness of the existence of
communal diffe-rences. In 1900, Oppenheim makes a brief but accurate characteri-
zation of the Muslim dialect (p. 266): "Die Aussprache, namentlich der Muham-
medanischen Bev61kerung [of BaghdadJ, kommt der Beduinischen im , Vergleich
zue Syrischen .und Agyptischen weit naher." In 1901, Meissner noted correctly
that the Jews·~nd Christians of Baghdad speak a dialect different from that of the
Muslims (p. 137, rn. 1), that the Christian dialect is close to that of Mosul (ibid.) ,
and that the rural sedentary dialect he_was investigating was closer to the Beduin
dialects than to the uroan Muslim dialects of Baghdad or al-l:lilla (pp. 138- 139).
The earliest article on Baghdadi Arabic as such (Oussani, 1901) presents largely"
Christian data, a wholly Christian text, but aside from the observation that non-
Muslims often have 1f!.1 where Muslims have Irl, a fact also noted by Anastase,
1903,p.592,and a few, vaguer statements, the data and text are not communally
identified. Yahuda, 1906, whose proverbs are explicitly couched iri Jew ish Baghdadi,
indicates briefly (p. 400, and fn. 1) that there are dialect differences among the three
communities, that the Christian dialect isc10se to that of Mesul , and lets the lI1at-
~er rest there. Iq the same year, Ganima, in a collection of Christian proverbs from
Baghdad, supplies many valuable and accurate comments on Christian Baghdadi and
its differences from Muslim Baghdadi. In his description o fthe province of Baghdad,
Chiha, 1908, p. 101 , notes "une assez grande difference entre Ie dialecte parle par
les Musulmans et celui [sic] des Chretiens et des Israelites." in 1914, the problem
of dialectal differences within Baghdad was recognized but not too successfully
treated in Massignon's " Notes." Based on some notions acquired during his
residence in Baghdad in 1906-1907, they give a bewildering account that speaks of
no less than seven different dialects (three Sunni, two Shiite, and a Christian and
a Jewish dialect) within Baghdad; except for a list of half a dozen features contrast-
lSI
182 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
ing Christian and Muslim (which dialect 1) usage, and some vague statement
about the Jewish dialect, the sevenfold subdivision is unburdened by substans-
tiatmg data. Many of the features he lists as common Baghda~i are Christian,
some Muslim. It remained for P. Anastase Marie de St. Elie to publish in his
Llljal al-'Arab large excerpts of Ma'riif al-Ru~fi's excellent description of Muslim
Baghdadi (first written in 1919, published in installments in 1926,1927, and 1928)
as well as a number of other articles on the Iraqi coUoquials (Ganima, 1926;
JawAd, 1930; etc.) and to stale unequivocally in a comment on Ru~fi. 1926,
p.141 , Cn. 2: uA peculiarity of the people of al-'Iraq is that every community
('umma) has a dialect of its own, so that no sooner does a single word cross the
speaker's lips than he can be recognized as a Muslim, a Christian or a jew."
Beyond this, the literature on the Iraqi colloquials (see note 3 below) consists of
descriptions of Muslim Baghdadi so identified or not, of nondescript mingling
of dialects, and some description of the Jewish dialect correctly identified but
with little or no comparative comment. To non-linguists writing on contemporary
Iraq, the situation is well known and deemed worthy of brief comment, thus
Coke, 19~7, p. 20: "Her [Baghdad's] ill-fated history, too, accounts largely for the
strange way in which her little communities have gone on from century to century
leading their own little lives in their own little ways ... [They] have all gone on living,
so to speak, in watertight compartments, each with their own system of law,
their own way of working, their own preferences in family living , even their own
peculiar oddities of dialect ." Cf. also Stephens, 1931, p. xxiii: "]n Baghdad, the
Christians, Jews and Muslims all pronounce their words differently, and employ
their own corruptions of speech." Duri,"describing 19th century Baghdad (1960,
p. 908) is tersely accurate: "Though people of the three religions spoke Arabic,
their dialects differed." The late Cantineau, though he did not deal with the Iraqi
dialects directly, made a few brief but penetrating remarks aptly characterizing
the position of the Muslim dialect: "lis {the nomads] ont fait de !'uaq une Algerie
dans laquelle les parlers de sedentaires De sont que des Hots entoures de tous
cotes par les pariers de nomades, et Ie parler des musulmans d'une grande ville
comme Baghdad, de meme que celui d'Alger, est tout penetre de mots et de formes
empruntes aux nomades ." (1937a, p. 226; cf. also 19~3, p. 148).
3. For a list and d iscussion of most of the relevant literature, see Blanc, 1962.
To the works on Muslim Baghdadi and similar dialects (Ru~afi 1926-1928; Jawad,
1930; Van Wagoner, 1949, 1958; Malick, 1956/7; AI-Toma, 1957) several items
can now be added: Sarbatov; 1960 (main characteristics and brief text with trans-
lation); J:lanafi, 1·962 (proverbs in fully vocalized Arabic script, with many accurate
and valuable linguistic comments); Farman, 1959 (short stories in modern classical
Arabic but with dialogues in the vernacular, though unvocalized). l;Ianafi, 1963
(first volume ofa dictionary, letter 'ali/only, but very detailed and useful); Malaika
1963 '(brief but valuable sketch of phonetics and grammar). The last tW?, both
by native speakers, were received aftetthe present monograph had been set In trve;
because of their importance, ] have tried to make as much use of them as possLble,
chiefly in the notes, but this could not be done exhaustively. There is much less
published material on Jewish Baghdadi: to Yahuda, 1906, we C3I! now ~dd t~e
dozen Jewish proverbs included in l;Ianafi, 1962, and the score of Items listed m
l:Ianafi, 1963, all correctly identified and rather well transcribed and interpreted;
NOTES 183
Kohen, n. d., and Schramm, 1954, are unpubli; hed. There are only fragmentary
notes on Christian Baghdadi (Oussani, 1901; Ganima, 1906). A rural dialect of
al-J:lilla province has been fairly well covered (Meissner, 1901 - 1904; Weissbach,
1904, 1908,' 1930), and the dialect of Qal'at Salel:t in the Amara region was the
object of Van Wagoner's unpublished dissertation (1944; J am grateful to W. Cowan
for calling it to my attention). Data on the Mosul dialect may be found in Socin,
1882; Calabi, 1935; and Dabbag, 1956: and on Mardin , in Socin, 1882.
4. On the phonemic value of leI, retained from a typescript where it had to
be used instead of /,a/, see 3.21 below. All gelel-dialects actually use the . form
1ge1et/, but one dialect that otherwise belongs to the qe.11ll group seems to lack
the final luI of the 1st pers. sing. (see 4.2) and another has Ikelt4/, viz. exhibits a
Ikl vs. I~I contrast in place of the IqJ vs. Ikl contrast of the other qeltu-diaJects
(see 3.26).
5. The term "non-Mus lim" is here equivalent t o "Christians and Jews." .
The Mandaeans seem to speak the dialect of the surrounding Muslim population.
6. Cantineau, 1956. The oases in question are QariH~n, Sukhne, and Palmyra.
7. Data on Kuwayt are from my recordings and from Kuwait Oil Company,
1952. On the Persian Gulf area, cf. the various handbooks publish"ed by the
Arabian American Oil Company, in the 1950's, and Smeaton,.1958.
7a. Such a relationstJ-ip is hinted at by Tsereteli (1941, p. 147}'and was the
subject of a paper, as yet unavailable to me, by Wolfdietrich Fischer at the
25th Congress of Orientalists held in Moscow in 1960. On Central Asian Arabic,
cr. Fischer, 1961, and bibliography listed there, p. 232.
8. Throughout this work, the abbreviation OA ("Old Arabic") has been
used to designate the putative ancestor of the present colloquials; it is a non-
committal, blanket term, does not refer t o any single, concrete dialect and does not
purport to so lve questions of reconstruction (see Ferguson, 1959; BJau, 1961a:
Cohen, 1962). A symbolization such as "OA/q/" shou ld be construed merely as
"the ancestor of the"initial consonant of present:.day Iqall or Ikilll in the. various
dialects." What OA/ql might have sounded like or whether i.t was uniform
throughou t OA is quite another matter; see 3.25.
9. rite Iraq Statistical Abslracl-1959 (Baghdad, 1960) ·gives, on t he basis
of the 1957 census, a total of 784,763. On the immigration from country to city,
see Kohen, 1953/54.
10. Coke, 1927, p. 299.
II. Duri, 1960, p. 906, Coke, 1927, pp. 286, 299. In 1953/54 Kohen (p. 13)
stiJlestimates the Jewish population at 17 percent in the years immediately preced-
ing the exod,us.
12. The handbooks of Iraqi Arabic published for the benefit of the British
184 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
troops during World War I (Thompson, 1915; Cole, 1917; Kelly 1917; Van Ess,
1917) all show an admixture of many features st rongly resembling Christian
Baghdadi, but all are based on data suppl ied by Christian informants from Basra
or Amara. The evidence for the informants' communal affiliation is, it must be
added, indirect, but nevertheless quite compelling, e.g. the name (Elias Georges in
Thompson) and certain passages in the other works. [n all, Muslim features are
liberally mixed with the Christian dialects, often occurring side by side and inter-
changeably.
13. This is based on statements by my informants, all of whom were quite
conversant with the Baghdad situation and aU of whom stated that differentiation
does not run along communa l lines in Mosul. The fact that my Jewish and Christian
Mosul informants say e. g. [honak] 'there' whe reas my Muslim informants say
[hnDka] o r that my Jewish informant has [elrather than [i] in the feminine ending
of such words as [bazziine] (non-Jewish informants : [bazzDui]) raises a question
which [ cannot answer, viz. how far these differences actually correlate with
community affiliation. Dabbag, 1956, p. 8, speaks of differences in pronunciation,
including greater vs. lesser 'imala (i. e. possibly the matter of the feminine ending
just referred to) as ex.isting between different quartcrs, not different communities.
Caiabl, 1935, includes a score of items (mostly but not exclusively words of
Aramaic origin pertaining to religion) in use among Mosul Christians only; cf.
notes 126 and 163 below.
14. A neat characterization of social dialects is given in the introduction to
Ferguson- Gumperz, 1960, pp. 9-11; a more extensive and fa r vaguer discussion
may be found in Cohen, 1956, esp. pp. 168- 213. The relevance of Hertzler, 1953,
seems restricted to its title. A critique of the American dialectologists' unaware-
ness of social dialects and of modern sociologica l techniques, especially with regard
to sampling, may be found in Pickford,1956,and the application of such techniques
in a particular case (Mexico City) in Sapon, 1953. Linguistic correlates of socio-
economic class in Engl ish have been studied by Ross, 1954 ; Putnam-O'Hern,
1955; McDavid, 1945, 1952/53; Fries, 1940; Hubbell, 1950; in French, by
Reichstein, 1960. Perhaps the most interesting studies and the most clear-cut cases
in po int are those dealing with the Indian caste dialects, nearly all in the
Dravidian area: Bloch, 1909; Ramaswamy-Aiyar, 1932; Gumperz; 1958;
McCormack, 1960. On the sedentary-nomadic sp lit in Ar.abic, see note 21. On
specifically religious grouping , cf. note 15 below.
15. For a bird's-eye view, sec Mieses, 1915 ; Cohen, 1956. It is noteworthy
that Mieses who, in his discussion of the origin of Jewish dialects, tries very hard
to show that «die Konfession" per se (as opposed to race, etc.) can create dialectal
splits, produces illustrations of " minor" differentiation only. Similarly, Pickford,
1956, suggests a difference between upper-class Protestants on the one hand and,
on the other hand , lower-class Protestants plus Catholics of all classes in the U. S.
in such matters as mentioning the name of the Deity or discuss ing religion. Another
so rt of mino r differentiation is mentioned in Bengali as between Muslims and
Hindus by Chowdhury, 1960, p. 69, namely in the adaptation of Persian phonemic
NOTES 185
distinctions . On Jewish dialects in present-day Arabic, see Cohen, 191 2 ; Brunot,
1936, and 1950, pp. 17ff.; Brunot-Malka, 1939, 1940; cf. a lso notes 17-21 below ·
on Jewish dialects in Iraqi Arabic, cf. note 3 above; on medie'va l Judeo-Arabic'
cf. Blau 1 9~5, 1961a, 1961b. On the language of Christian Arabic literature s~
~r~f~ 1905. On Jewish dialects in Persian, cr. Abrahamian, 1936. On the differe~ces
dlVldmg Orthodox from Catholics and Muslims in Serbo-Croatia, cf. Ivie, 1958.
16. The effect of migrations on the rise of communal dialects in the Serbo-
Cro~tian area is neatly summarized by l vic, 1958, pp. 138-139; both t his and the
JeWish-Muslim split described for parts of Persia by Abrahamian 1936 bear
striking s ~milarities to our Iraqi situation . • "
. 17. This ske~ch of communal differentiation in Jerusa lem Arabic is heavily
mdebted to M. Plamenta, who was kind enough to send me a deta iled preview of
his work on this subject. Both Piamenta and I doubt whether [1.] vs. [~) (Barthelemy,
1906, p. 199) or the structural differences reported by Garbell, 1958, pp. 306, 322, .
326, truly oppose Christians to Muslims, viz. a re fully correlated with communal
affiliation. .
IS. Barthelemy, 1905, p. IS3 , indicates a single difference between Christians
and MUSlim's in Aleppo, viz. Christian lay] and raw] vs. Muslim [eJ an(l [0]. One
wonders whether even this correlates fully with community affiliation, cf.
Barthele~y's DictiOllllaire, s: v. Itor/. where " les femmes chretiennes" are said to
pronounce 7tor/ and Itawr/ . For information on Cairo, I am indebted to N.
Safran, M. Farid, and G , Abi-Saab.
19. Goitein, 193~ , 1933, 1934; Rossi, 1939. My own experience. so far as it
goes, confirms the small degree of differentjation.
20. On the Algiers region, see Millon, 1937; Ca~tineau, 1937b, pp.709ff.;
on Fez, Brunot, .1936; on Tlemcen, Mar.;ais, 1902, and Cantineau, 1940, pp. 222ff.
The somewhat different account of Muslim-Jewish differences I find in Ph. Mar~is ,
1957, ~p. 223ff., though it does not invalidate my conclusions, is puzzling, as it is
?stenstbly based on the same sources. A complicating factor (which, incidentally,
10 no ~ay solves t~e puzzle) is that Cohen, 1912, leaves out of account the many
ru~a~ IOfluenc.es which seem to pervade present-day Muslim Algiers speech. lowe
thIS IOformatJon to A. F. R. Brown, who wrote a dissertation on.this dialect.
21. On s.~?entary v~. nomadic dialect t ypes in North Af.rica, cr. Mar.;ais-Guiga,
1925 , pp. "-'Sill ff.; Colin, 1936; Millon, 1937; Brunot , 1950; Ph. Mar.;ais, 1957,
pp. 21Sff.; on Greater Syria, -Cantineau, 1939. Note t hat (a) while all nomads talk
" nomadic ~ype" dia~ects, not all sedentaries t~lk "sedent ary type" dialects; (b) for
North Afnca, the view commonly held, foll owing W. Mar~is, is that this sp lit is
due to two phas.es of Arabization: one in the eighth century, resulting in present-
day sedentary dialects, and a second beginning in the twelfth century via wholesale
Beduin invasions and resulting in present-day nomadic dialects, some of whose
speakers have gradually become sedentarized.
186 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
22. On Oran, cr. Cantineau, 1940; on towns of the Algiers region, cr. Millon,
1937.
23. cr. Cant ineau, 1938, 1946.
24. For al-l;Iill a province, d. Meissner, 1903b, p. ix; this is confirmed by my
own rural Iraqi informants and recordings.
25. I am indebted to W. M. Erwin for pointing out this contras"ting pair.
26. Cf. Oussani, 1901, where this is attributed to the Baghdad dialect without
specification, but where the context makes it clear that Oussani is describing
Chr istian Baghdadi.
27. From my Siirt informant I have such forms as {hava] 'this', {fllfe] 'three'
(cf. Mosul {eaSe], [ellGin, [abyav] 'white', and so on throughout; it is quite certain
that this is not a speech peculiarity· of this particular individual. A Kurdish inform-
ant from Zakho (Upper Iraq) volunteered similar forms with labiodentals which
he attributes to unspec ified Christians from the North, though he does not have
them in his own Arabic, which was learned as a second language in Mosul; Zakho
itse lf seems to have only Kurdish and Nco-Aramaic speakers. A similar phenom-
enon, though apparently restricted to [v] for [6], is reported for "some speakers,"
apparently of the Shiite minority, in al-Hasa by Smeaton, 1958. Because of tbe
erratic transcr iption , it is hard to know wha t to make of the v in yerkov (= lyerkef) 1
'he runs') in Kelly. 1917, side by side with ethrobll ( = Ir,rebul 'hit him!') ibid. ,
p. 4 1, from a Basra Christian.
28. For further examples of III in M, see Ru~afi. 1926, p. 405.
29. On the 'presence of III in some roots in t he l:Ioran, d. Cantineau, 1946,
pp. 107-109; I have noted it among the Negev (Southern Palestine) semi-nomads
.in e.g. Inagal l ' he transferred' and throughout this root, /galebl 'heart ', etc. For
a general discussion of III in Arabic, d. Ferguson, 1956.
30. cr. Mansour, 1955/56, 1957.
31. The etymo logy of these fo rms is, of course, OA/albii riba/; the history of
the C form is self-evident , and must include such stages as /lberilJal > IlbeglJa/ >
ImbelJa/, but that of the J form is puzzling because of the 10/.
32. Socin, 1882, has only Ir/ for OA/r/ in his Mosul texts, does not mention
a 181 reflex ; Dabbag, 1956, p. 8, says that Igl for OA/rl is common to members
of all the communities in Mosul and is not a mark of communal ditTerentiation as
in Baghdad, but that "some quarters pronounce the r as such (kama hiya)."
33. cr. Ph. Maro;ais, 1956, pp. 16-17.
34. Cohen, 1912, p. 27. Ph. Mar~is, 1957, p. 224, has matters reversed,
perhaps through an oversight (see note 20).
35. Colin, 1936, p. 500.
NOTES 187
36. Tsereteli , 1954, p.254; 1956, pp. xiii, xxii.
37. Jai:liz, ed. Harlin, 1948, pp. 15 . 37. It is not entirely clear whether the
pronoun in the words awjaduhii and aqalluhii qub(lf,lII refers to all the lu8gal or to
all the '/lOgat,that befall the If/: the latter interpretation seems the more likely.
Kofler, 1949. pp. 81-82, reports ItJ for If/ in Baghdad al an unspecified time;
his references come from Howell's dictionary. where they are unclearly cited; they
seem to include Jawhari (d. 1010) and the Qamils of Firuzabadi (d. 1414), but
Howell's abbreviation "Jh" may just as well refer to J al:li~ as to Jawhari,
and the Qamlis yields nothing of interest upon inspect ion of the articles ra' and
/tIOga.
38. Cf. the rather full d iscussion and verbatim quotes in Gumpertz 1952/53,
pp. 114fT., and the confrontat ion with pfesent-day Jewish ,Baghdadi data in
Mansour, 1955/56, 1957. Cf. also the discussion , in Morag, '1959/60, pp. 221ff.
and p. 224, fn. 59. Gumpertz thinks , plausibly enough, that makriix may be
onomatopoetic reference to uvular pronunciation but also notes that Ibn Durayd
(d. 933 in Baghdad) believes the . term al-karixa or al-k(irNw (both versions in the
original) to refer to the throat. Ot herwise, the root k-r-x has, in the Arabic diction-
aries meanings that seem unrelated to pronunciation.
39. Bravmann, 1934, pp. 128ff.
40. l owe this info rmation to the kindness of I. Avineri, who sent me the
manuscript of his master's' thes is on the Arabic element in the Nco-A ramaic of
the Jews of Zakho.
4 1. It is noteworthy that among the speech defects and dialectal pronuncia-
t ions listed by the medieval Arab grammarians, such as kaskasa, kaskasa, talla/a,
etc. (for a list, cf. Anastase, 1903), there seems to be no spec ific term for 1&I < leI;
in these sou rces the te rm lufJga covers a number of speech pecu liarities (despite
Hava who thinks it refe rs only to "misp ronuociatfoo of Ir/"), as can easily be seen
from t he many examples in Bravmann , 1934, pp. 62ff., the discussion in Ja lJi~
(see note 36), etc. Among the several unexplained terms for speech peculia~ities,
howeve r, t here is one which might poss ibly refer to this; it is the term !utatjyat
al-'iraq, of which Xafllji (d. 1659), ed. 1299A.H., p. 234, says l hat it is a lso called
laxlaxonfyat al-'iraq. These terms appear in an anecdote that has come down in
several slightly variant versions, t he earliest of which seems to be in the Komi!
ofal-Mubarrad (d. 898) (quoted in Xafaji, ibid" and Rabin ; 1951, p. 21), where it
is listed with other pronunciation defects by a man who claims that one particular '
dialect is free of.a ll of them. Its meaning has, so far as 1 know, never been satis-
factorilyexplained; it is the only such peculiarity which is attached not to a tribal
name (such as kaskasat rabi'a, etc.) but to an area, that of al-'Iraq (viz. what we
have been calling Lower Iraq ; Upper Iraq bore the name of al-Jazira) and
presumably implying a sedentary population. Whether it applies to opr/gl < Irl
shift , or to the famous .accent of the "Nabateans" (Aramaic speake rs) of that
area or to someth ing else altogether cannot at present be ascertained.
188 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
42. For additional examples and for a characterization of "plain colloquial,"
"mildly formal ," and "semi-literary" styles, cr. Blanc, 1960, pp. 83, 85.
43. On reflexes of OA/kj in ru ral Lower Iraq, cr. Meissner. 1903b, Weissbach,
1904, 1908, 1930; Van Wagoner, 1944; data were corroborated by my informant
from al-J:Iilla province. On the classification of Beduin dialects having a leI reflex
and those having a jel reflex , see Cantineau , 1936, 1937a.
44. Cf. Cantineau , 1939, for the distribution of affrication of OA/k/ , and for
the different iation between conditioned affrication in nomadic dialects vs. uncon-
ditioned affrication (coupled with fronting of OA/q / to /kf) in some sedentary
dialects (Central Palestine. some Syrian oases, some North African sedentaries).
The coverage in Binder, 1939. is inadequate and has been superseded by Cantineau's.
The semi-nomad ic Beduins of the Negev, Sinai, and (presumably) Egypt show no
affrication o f OA/kL, whereas those of Transjordania follow the pattern of the
Baran sedcntaries and the Syrian desert nomads.
45. Cf. Kofler, 1940, p. 116, and notc 47 below.
46. Cf. Anastase, 1903, and references in note 41 above. On an other altera-
t ion of this pron. suff., called by the same names, cf. Cantineau, 1960, p. 87.
47 . Cr. e.g. 1the comments by Suyuti (d. 1503) quoted by Anastase in RU$afi,
1926, p . J47 , fn. I, and those by Xafaji, ed . 1299 A.H., p. 214.
48. Schaade, 1911 ; p. 18.
49. The opinion t hat there a re no more than three instances of OA/q/ > Ikl
in M is expressed by RU$afi, 1926, p. 144; this is also the source for the form
/kufax/, which issorroborated by my informants; the forms /ketal l and /waket/
are, of course, mo re common and came up without elicitation. A /kl in the root
corresponding to OA q-I-l is common to Beduin dialects in general , cr. Cantineau,
1936, p. 29, and is found also among the Negev and Sinai semi-nomads. Among
some of the Syrian desert Beduins and in rural Lower Iraq, (Meissner. 1903b,
p. ix) that root also has alternants with initial lei. ·tt also occurs in the west
(W. Mar,ais, 1902 , p. 1 I).
50. ·Cr. additional examples in RU$afi , 1.926 , p. 144. Some are listed as having
the alternate form with /g/, in other instances the forms w.ith /j/ are explicitly
stated to be rural (x a ~$a bi-'abna' al-badiya). ·Cf. also J:lanafi , 1963, p. 18.
5 1. Cf. Meissner, 1903b, p. ix ; Weissbach, 1908 ; and my own informant for
the region of Musayyab; for the Amara region , my own recordings and Van
Wagoner, 1944; cr. also reference in note 50 above.
52. Cf. Cantineau , 1936, pp. 3Qff. In his review of Van Wagoner, 1949
(Cantineau, 1953), he wonders at the lack of affrica tion of OA/q/ to /j/ in Baghdad,
in view of the other Beduinizing features of the Baghdad (Muslim) dialect , and
offers the form /I)arij/ (my info rmants know only /I)arijiya/) as evidence that
such affrication does exist . Cantineau's guess was in the right. direction, but he
did not anticipate that there would be, so to speak, two degrees of Beduinization,
NOTES
one of M (lqJ > /g/ with only occasional /j/ in loanwords) and another for the
countryside <tqJ > Ig/ or fjJ according to environruent, as in the Beduin dialects).
53. Meissner, 1903b, p. ix, indicates only /q/ inisuch words for his rural dialects
but my recordings have /&/, rather than /g/ in those words for which M has /q/ :
/ga$er/ 'castle', /gesma/ 'fate', /gabbot/ 'coat', (M/qappii\/),/ga¢iya/ 'issue, cause',
and /&at/ 'suit of clothes' .
54. Cf. Cantineau, 1939.
55. Cf. Kofler, 1940, p. 232, wherc the phrase " all grammarians" must be taken,
in the light of the sources he quotes, as referring to writers frool the eleventh
century onwards, which is corroborated by my own findings and , in a negative
way, by the lack of any such distinction in Brockelll1allll, 1908, p. 21.
56. Bravmann, 1934, p. 121.
57. Ibn Xaldun, 1886, p.509; cf. also the citation of this passage by Anastase
in his comment to RU$afi , 1926; p. 143, fn. I.
58. Bravmann, 1934, p. 128.
59. Cf. Scbaade, 1911 , p. 14 and fns. 14' and 19.
60. In ~, /e/ and /u/.are in nearly compl~l~ntary dist~ib~ti~nor, to put it
another way, the contrast /e/-ju/ is neutralized in a good many pos itions but
maintained in some limited environments, e.g., fjerQal /'camel', /jumal/. 'sentehces',
/I)ebb/ 'jar', Il);ubb/ 'love', /rekbat/ 'she rode', /rukba/ 'knee'. Neut ral ization is
primarily connected with the existence of two types of consonantal environments,
one [u]-coloring and one [e]·coloring (see 3.32), e.g. Idarub/ 'road' but Ibaredl
'cold'; /waguf/ 'stand ing' but {lazem/ ' ne~essary'; /tufar/ 'he jumped' but /tela'/.
'he went out': For M speakers, t he ident ification of a given phone as belongir)g
to lu/ or to /el can be seen most clearly in the informants' spell ing, with lui classed
as tjamma and lei as kasraj the latter is, on the other hand, kept dist inct f.rom /i/
by some ql!alifying adjective. e.g. the frequent term used in Ru~afi, passim, of
kasra gayr ~ar;l.za. J and C speakers make similar verbal responses' when asked to
id~ntify a given allophone; several say that allophones of lei are " a sound 'like
the French e ' in je," a comparison also used by Anastase in his ' comments on
Ru.safi, and .Dy Dabbag, 1956, p . 8, in his discussion of the Mosul dialect. Many
of my phonemicizations (e.g. JC/I;lete!/ ys. M/I;lutulf) are l:5ased on such explicit .
speaker identifications.
61. This on-gl ide has been noted by Me issner, 1903b, p. ix, though he conceives
of it as a "moui llierung" of the preceding consonant; this is corrected by Weissbach,
1904; p. 932, who interprets it as a falling diphthong and rewrites Meissner's
m'ez, z'en, a's miez, zien, and so forth.
62. Ru~ fi , 1926 , p. 313,andpassim .
190 COM.MUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
63. This dist inction between final unstressed tal and lal is apparently not
sufficient to distinguish, in pronouncing CI. AT. , between the singular and dual
in such forms as Ikataba/ 'he wrote' and /katab<i! 'the two of them wrote': the
dual form has final stress as well as length. as in the pronunciation of CI. AT. in
other regions.
64. Though little is known about the OA stress system. I am assuming here
largely for compactness of statement, that word stress was on tbe whole similar to
the prevailing pattern found in the modern dialects, as stated in 3.4.
65. Meissner, J903b, p. xi, confirmed by my own rural informants and
recordings. A somewhat different picture is given by Van Wagoner , 1944, for
Qal 'at $a. lcb. according to which the short vowels in unstressed open "syllable are
preserved (though their quality is colored by the environment) except, remarkably
enough, in broken plurals of all patlerns, so that one gets e.g. lisQ(Jrl, filaall, but
claab,jmaal, and 'arUg but 'bUd. Whatever the situation in Qal'at Sale!), a somewhat
similar scheme is presented in Van Wagoner's course (1949, 1958), with even more
short vowels in unstressed open syllables; as a result the course is , in this respect,
quitc mis lead ing as to Muslim Baghdadi usage, which it ostensibly meant to portray.
66. Cant ineau, 1936, pp. 48-52.
67. The symbol T refers to the feminine ending, which was - /ahl (at some
stages perhaps -/al ) in the pause, - /atl in sandhi or with suffixes.
68. Cf. Rusafi , 1926, pp. 212, 596, on the M treatment of OA/a/.
69. Plurals of the OA pattern qitlall also seem largely immune to 'imala, e. g.
JC/sedqanl ' friends:, I!)ezmanl 'belts', J/begqanl 'ja rs', but there is the J plural
Ijegdinl ' mice' (C form not noted) and the fo rms J/Oebbin/, C/debbenl 'flies' to
ind icate that non-'imiila in this pattern is not as far- reaching and not due to the
same cause as non-'imala in the pattern qtiil.
70. From Kohen's exhaustive treatment of the verb in the dialect of the Amara
Jews (practically identical with J) it ·appears that aliForm I active participles have
this leI except Iyibesl "drying', i. e. the same as the adjective Iyibesl 'dry'; I know
o f no other Form I verb with K1-y. .
71. Thompson, 1915,. p. 16: aymree. (See note 12 above.)
72. From an informant from Jirja district of Suhaj province, Upper Egypt,
1 have such forms as [kalbi] 'bitch', [salli] 'basket', ('andeni] 'chez nous', [heni)
'herc'. Howevcr, I note that in a similar dialect of Qina province (Khalafallah,
196 1) such forms have IiI in the pause only, lal otherwise.
73. The dialect of the oasis of Sukhne in the Syrian desert has fil and IiI for
OA/al under conditions similar to those of J, but also in some cases where the
qellu-d ialects have only la/, e. g. [cib] "he brought', MJC/jab/ ; cf. Cantineau,
1956, pp. I 28ff.
NOTES 191
74. lowe t he admirably plausible suggestion as to the unattested qural pattern
for OA adjective plurals to Ferguson , 1959, p. 627, fn. 21.
75. On 'correct' 'imala as prescr ibed by various authorities from the eighth to
the twelfth centuries, cf. the monographs by Grunert, 1875, and Salabi, 1957, and
addit iona1 material in Schaade, 1911; Bravmann , 1934; Kofler, 1940; and Rabin,
1951. On colloquial 'imiila as a hallmark of the Iraqi vernacular, there are some
indications in the above, as well as in J:lariri (see note 79) and especia lly in Bill!
(d. 1348149). cf. Hoenerbach, 1956. I;filli, himself a Baghdadi, states that 'imiila
is one of the characteristics of Baghdad speech (p. 55 and p. 12 of Arabic text) and
hence a characteristic of Iraq i vernacular poetry (p. 33, p. 170, and pp. 135- 36 of
Arab ic text}..I am indebted to J. Blau for calling my attention to the last named
source.
76. Sibawayhi (d. 793) in Schaade, 1911, PP. 38ff; and 'ZamaxSari (d. 1144)
in GrUnert , 1875, pp. 22ff.
77. Siba":ayhi in Schaade , . ~911 , pp. 43-44{the action of back consonants is
not too clear 1.0 the examples gIVen: mi.Jbafl can be said with or without 'imiila,
qiirib on ly with 'imlila butfariq only without. In JC, despite such forms as Il).magl
(see also note 105 below) back consonants do not seem to prevent ' imala.
78. Schaade, 1911, p. 42 , though the point is not too clear; at any rate, the
examples just quoted from I;filli do show 'jmiila of qiitil forms; including.participles.
79. Schaade, 1911 , pp. 38-40; l:Iariri (ed. 1299 A. H.) p. 105, on not pro-
n.ouncing bauii with 'imala, and Xafaji's comment on this, ibid., p. 221, indicating
on the contrary that this is allowed by some authorities because "some Arabs"
do so pronounce. The form hiilli (read Iha ni/ ?) occurs in Hoenerbach , 1956,
p. 169,1.9.
80. Fiick, 1955, p. 69.
81. Salabl, 1957, pp. 238ff. The quote from Sibawayhi's Kiliib, II , p. 270,
referring to one speaker's pronunciat ion of the· fem. ending in pause, reads in
part : sabah 'a flui' bil'allffa'amal ilia qablahii kama yumfl mi; qabl 'al'ali/ 'he likened
the" [of the fem. ending] to an 'alii. and so pronounced the preceding [fattl]
with 'ill/dla as he does [for afatfz] preced ing an 'alif'
82. Sa labi, 1957, p. 238; Bravmann , 1934, p. 98.
83. GrUnert, 1875, p. 78; Schaade, 1911 , pp. 38-40.
84. Quoted in Rabin, 1951 , p. 123, fn. 13, from the Xitiib, II , p. 28 1. Kofler,
1940, p. 250, reports statements indicating some tribes pronounced this word with
M~ ~ ~~ .
85. The contrasts may be even more tenuous than they seem, since some
192 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
speakers seem to have /p l ratlier than /jay'f./; others may not use /zawil,/zawja/
at all, the common parlance terms for 'husband' and wife' being /rajel/ and /mara/.
For my MJC informants, however. the contrasts are unmistakable, even if their
functional yield is very low. Van Wagoner, 1949, 1958, and, presumably following
him, Malick 1956/57. write ay for both lay! and leI while differentiating aw from 00:
since no adjustments or explanations are added, the results are misleading : bayla
'his house' and mayta 'dead (f.)' are undifferentiated. For a discussion of this
and sim ilar problems, see Ferguson, 1957.
86. Kohen, in the remarkab ly accurate phonemic transcription he uses in his
work on the verb. regularly writes ~w and ~y not only in mawjiid sayydbu, mxawfin,
but also in cases such as nawladtu 'I was born'. However, in stressed forms, such
as tawzan 'she weighs' he gives the alternant tiizall. This may be due to the fact that
in unstressed syllables the phonetic diphthongizat ion is more common, whereas in
stressed syllables the monophthongal long vowel is the normal allophone. When
consulted by me on this point, Kohen agreed that [mlljild] occurs and that the aw
of mawjiid· sounds very much like lIW.
87. For a detailed and accurate list of M consonant c1usters,see Mal ick 1956/57.
88. Cf. Ru~ii n , 1926, p. 21J.
89. More accurately: when K) is y, as in 'my, the phonemic result of pattern
element if plus radical y is IiI. This sort of "merger" of a pattern element with a
radical (esp. y or w) into a single vowel phoneme is very common and will often
• ibid., p. 160), with the former type perhaps more frequent.
reappear in this text.
90. These form s may be due to an unusual development with / hiya/'she' as
the starting point: a metanaIysis of Ihiyal on the analogy of / biya/' jn her' /xalliyal
' leave her' as composed of a base hi· plus the 3f.s. pron. suff. - hii. (yielding -/yal
after base final - i). The equivalent masc. sing. and pIur. forms a re then constructed
in the regular fashion: just as we have Ibiyal 'in her', °/binu/' in him' Ibiyem/' in
them', so we now have /hiya/ 'she', /hinu/ 'he' and /hiyem/ 'they'.
91. Jawaliqi, p. 138, cites the vulgar forin nbn' .
92. cant ineau, 1939, p. 81.
93. Ru~~ifI , 1926, p. 460, lists the feminines throughout without mentioning
their marginal character. AI·Toma. 1957. p. 42 , may be reflecting Karbala usage;
for villages of a l ~ 1:iilla province, Meissner. 1903b, p. xiv, agrees with my informant.
94. The notation 0, e.g. kitbo 't hey wrote' in Al-Toma, 1957, and Ferguson,
1957, fn. 18. is puzzling. At any rate, Al-Toma might have intended [ow] and his
dialect is, moreover, not quite the s.a me as M; and Ferguson info rms me that,
though ht? be lieves he heard no diphthongization, he used. a C informant for M
usage.
NOTES 193
95. In fourteenth century Baghdadi vernacular poetry, which st udiously
avoids the final short vowels of C lassical Arabic. the 1st pers. sing. of the perfect
is consistegtly vocalized with t;lamma or {Iamma~wiiw (Hoenerbach, 1956.passim).
What is ~ore , this vocalization is explicitly stflted by t~e contemporary sources
to be de rigueur in Baghdadi vernacular genres, just as its absence is de rigueur in
Western genres, because those are the respective colloquia l usages: Baghdadi
qultu vs. Western quit (ibid., p. 31 of Int roduction).
96. RUl}afi, I926 , p. 247, says the dropping of Inl is wiijib (obligatory) before
·nl and ·mi, but jii';z (optional) before other pronouns.
97. Dlau, 1958, p. 164; Hoenerbach, 1956, p. 66 of Introduction and p. 88 of
Arabic text.
97a. Tn l;fanafi, 1962, p . 27, proverb 44 reads as follo\V.s: luxOi zzcn matxel}renl
'pick what's good , you (£.s.) won't lose by it' ; this J·like len! instead of M(ml in an
M proverb calls forth this comment by the author: "This is a proverb in the:
dialect of t he A'(}amiya quarter, a dia lect which is practica lly extinct." It would,
of course. not come as a comp lete surprise if J·like features were to be unearthed
among some conservative Baghdadi Muslims.
98. Cantineau had already noted (1 937c, p. 153) this invariant -/kil as a
feature of C and of a number of " paders de vieilles populations sedentaires"
(Palmyra , Sukhne, Derez-ZOr, etc.). However , I have note~ it also among the
Negev sem i·nomads. l;Iilli has both zawjik (Hoenerbach, 1956, p. 158) and 'ummiki
98a. l:Ianafi, 1963, p. 33,cites achildren'srhyme containing the forms /tal;ltu/
'under him'/waQ-dul "by himself'; commenting on the unusual -/u/ suffix instead
of M/a/, the author explains it as taken either from the Mosu1 dialect or from
that of the A'Oamiya quarter of Baghdad; cf. a lso n. 97a above,
99. On the overlapping of lal and lal in final unstressed position in M, and
on the possibility of an allomorph Ia! after 1t).1and rI. see 3.31. The same holds
for an optional allomorph -/hal rather than -/hal for the object suffix of the 3rd
pers. fern. after base final /a/.
100. One wonders whether this is connected'with the prevention ofhomc;mymy:
if the fern. ended in -Iii , there would be homonymy with Ixali/ 'my maternal uncle"
/,ammi/' my paternal uncle', Ijeddi/ 'my grandfather". Cf./kanni/'daughter· in·law,
(no possible homonymy, fern. has the regularly expected -liD.
lOt. In other words, where the base fina l syllable Kad IiI in OA, the present
fern. ending is -IiI, a d iachronic statement whi~h would include many other examples
cited so far. If we add that the remaining cases reflect /if 01" Iyl in the OA form, we
have an instance of a diachronic statement which is s.impler, shorter, and more
inclusive than the synchronic one. It would not cover such forms as Ibgadda/, or
words not attested in OA, principally loanwords, so that some supplt~mentary
statement would still be necessary.
102. One would expect the allomorphs of T in the prod~ctive, inflectional
function of creating fern. adject ives. as here, to be more regularly conditioned than
194 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
in words in which it is merely a fixed termination U~wayya/. I~arika/. Ibonta!).
All o ther adjectives in- lib/-noted have the aJlomorph-/i/ :/~l)il:ti"·wholet./~I:til:lil
'st ingy', /saril;li/' fran k', /qabii)i/ 'brazen', c1. also Imli'i/'obedient ', /wsi'i/ 'wide',
/gfi' i/ 't hin'. and nouns such as /gi'r)i/ 'smell ' .
103. C f. Canima, 1926, p. 267, on t he Aramaic origin of-f Ont·
104. Cohen , 101 2, p. 355, gives bl/lta fo r Jewish Algie rs.
105. Cf. the absence of 'imiila in this wo rd in other 'imiila dia lects, e.g.
Aleppo /bsebl vs. Il:lfllar /; and there a re instances of l'criplio plena with waw in
an eleventh century Judeo-Arabic tex t from Iraq (Epstein , 1915, p. 71). cr. also
Eg. /~u f!lii ~ / .
106. An archaic Mjjij / may have been preserved in a rhymed proverbial
imprecation: Ib.emmat ejjij wrej fat lefrii rij /' thc hens' fever and the chicks' quaking
{upo n you-r (Hanafi, 1962, p. 157, no. 697). I:'anafi's laconic comment (" /jijl ~nd
/jaj/ are the same as Idejaj /,,), coupled with this awareness of J .features OCCu~rlDg
in the J proverbs he Quotes (e.g. nos. 11 6. 274, 512, etc.) clearly Imply he conS iders
this fjU/ as M. That M may once have sounded mo re like J has already been seen
(3.300, 4.21b, notes 95 a nd 97a.).
107. 'Heard o nl y in the J proverb /,~ fUg kafal zarzl1r we6nenem tayyari/ 'a
sparrow was suret y for ' a starling and both are on the wing'. However, Sassoen,
1949. p. 195, has th is J proverb end in I~iyyar/ 'flying, having, flo wn off (pl. )'. and
the M version in l:Ianafi, 1962, p. 190, no. 899, is /zarzl1r kefal 'asffir we8nenhum
tayyara/. On /wag~afi / etc .• cf. a lso Jawad, 1930, p. 612.
108. This C term for the speech of the Baghdadi Muslims. which I've heard
in such comments as /qayei)ki baddawi tamaml 'he speaks the Muslim dialect to
perfection', shows that t he Bedu inized character of that dialec~ is .quite evident.
Though it is presumably not less evident to M or J. speakers. thiS term seems
unknown to them a nd they seem to have no specia l name for the dialect. Asked
whether this term does not a lso refer to Beduin speech, C informants say that ir
" reall y" does, l::lut that they "actually" only use it as indicated.
109. T he term M/jirant. J/jigan/, C/jigan/ seems to be used both as a plural
and as a singular, 'neighbor(s); in J there .is the new p lural fjwagin/.
110. The fusion of the Itt wit h the following noun is common to very many
Arabic dialects (d. Ferguso n, 1959. pp. 624-25) and attested in Middle Arabic
and medieval vernacular writings. For fourteent h century vernacular Iraqi, cf.
I;lilli in Hoenerbach, 1956, p. 35, xamas-Iasya 'five things', and many ot her
examples passim; cf. also Blau, 196 1b, p. 56.
111. On It! and general velarizat ion in the teens as a feature common to
most if not all Arabic dialects, cf. Ferguson, 1959, pp. 625- 26.
NOTES 195
11 2 ~ Each participal pattern bears a direct relation to a specific verb and a
specific conj ugation t ype. Participles ta ke the a lternant -/ni/ for the 1st pers.
object pron. suff.• as do verbs, but unlike nouns. Participles do not take the
"broken .plural" patterns, whereas nouns do: M /~aye f/' having seen', pl. /~aynn /,
vs. M/M.yeb/ 'old man', pI. /~iyyab/. Individual words may belong to both
categories : M/masjunl 'having been imprisonejd ' (p I. /masjfrnin/) or 'a prisoner'
(pI. Imsajin/). The distinction is, however, of,ten blurred, espec ially in passive
participles, e.g. the noun /masjun / can also take the sound plural.
11 3. MJC/qabel / is a predicat ive expression, coniOlon ly heard in rhetorica l
question , e. g. /hassa qabe l enjGz?/ 'does it make sense for us to give up now?';
cf. the similar use given in Barthelemy's Dictiollary for Aleppo , and the similar
lack of 'illla/a.
114. Malaika. 1963. p. 53, reports forms without co ll apsi ng, viz./hubeb/. for
his variet y of M.
115 . .In other fo rms of geminate roots. the onl y modification is t he different
behav ior of the KKK cluster: fromjllll we get MJC/mjannen/ 'maddening', fern.
M/mjannena/, JC/ mjanneni/, etc. This holds for the var ious forms of the Form II
verb, e. g. M/yjannenun/ vs.· /ykamlUn/.
116. Most of my M informan ts and RU$a~i have only If)erab/, but one of my
informants has /Qurab/. Fluctuation between -lui and le/ in some envi ronments
has already been a llude!i to ; W. M. Erwin tell s me that some of his' M informants
show, without entire consistency , such alternations as / rckab/ 'he rode' but /rukbat/
'she rode', /geraf/' rooms ' but /gurfa/'a room'.
117. [n J, the verb 'to read', root qgy. presents an anomaly wherever the
parad igm requ ires the sequence KIK 2 , in that therc 'is /qq/ rather than /qg/, e.g.
/qqelu/ ' Illave read' ,/aqqa/' I shal l read', imperative /qqa/./qqe/. /qqO/. cf. 3.24(c).
In M and C, the root is qry and the behavior normal.
118. Kohen gives both liJwz;m and tiiziJ", etc. , i.e. {~wJ"'" [uw], [11], cf.
note 86.
119. Some speakers may have only Ie; (cr. RU$afi, t927, p. 148),othersseem
to have lui in a few environment s: /gumet/, but /te'Qct/. Malaika, 1963. p. 56,
reports lu/ in practically every verb with K 2 ...-<.w (a notable exception is cellet . so
that the ru le given , ibid., is incorrect as it stands), e.g. /gulet /./sufet/./rui)et/, etc.
My sources and W. M. Erwi n's informants have on ly /gelet/, /~e fe t /. / rebet / , etc.,
but /gumet/, /buget/.
120. RU$afi, 1927, p. 96, lists no forms with in it ial Je/- . and says that "some"
say /jit/. etc. instead of /jet/, but in his treatment it is neve r clear whether he is
rest rict ing himse lf to Baghdadi Mus lims. Mosul has /jit/. etc. li ke JC. as has
'A na ; the latte r a lso has the unusual3rd pers. plur. of the pe rfect [jam], 't hey came'
though with suffixes agai n (jowk) 'they came to you'. Cf. Cairo Igum/. /guk/,
though in Cairo /ml in the 3rd pl ur. is not restricted to thi s verb.
196 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
121. In M . t he second a, when unstressed, yields zero Ukamlawn or an
anaptyctic vowel (fkammeiaw/), which may be luI in the appropriate e~vironment:
fjarbaw / or /jarruhaw! ' they tried'. This holds for Form V and the quadnconsonant-
als as well; cr. Malaika, pp. 46, 48, 61.
122. Kohen gives for the J verb r ayan! 'to see' the somewhat irregular
imperfect forms fl 'ayn/. In'ayn!, etc., It'anon/. Iy'anon!. etc. My informants
give forms both wit h and without Iy! fo r the lattcr. i.e. both It 'anon/ .a nd It'aynon/.
but in the suffixless forms only the regularly expect ed /t'ayenl. Iy'ayen/. etc.
123. Kohen lists for KI -w a lso J/ntakal/' torely·. a sort of merger of a hypo-
thetical*/nwakal / and an actual Form VIII /ttakal/, also found in MC. One
wonders whether one can still speak of a root wkl; the verbal nouns are /tekliin/
and /netkal/. Cf. a lso J:l anafi , 1963, s. v. /nteCal!. p. 335.
124. Somel speakers have /qal/-in the 1st pers. sing.: /qalaqul/'l say" /qalam~i!
' I'm walking' . Kohen gives neither /qadl nor /qal/, but only /qa/: !qa'aqul/, /qaqul/,
as in C ;.this may be onc of the rare differences between his Amara speech and true J.
125. In C, a lthough there is usually no 1'/ bet ween /qa/ and the following
la/, a merger into la/ is o rten prevented by the phonetic differences bet,,:,een the
two !a/'s, thus /qaam~i/, viz. [qAam~il However , when the second la/ Is back ,
merger does occur : Iqaaqull is usually the same as /qaqiil/.
126. My Mosul ·informants (two Muslims, one Jew , one Christian) all h~ve
this /qa/ ,..... /qad/, but CalabI , 1935 , p. 72 , says that this is in use among Muslims
only, whereas Christians h~ve / ka/ ,..., /kad/ (~ews are not ~e?tioned); several
other present markers used III Mosu! are also listed there. Socm s texts have ke-
throughout , eJg: ke-ja'mif ' he docs', p. ll , as well as a past marker spelled identically,
e.g. ke-gilla 'we came', p. 7 ; my informants have [b), [kan) in the latter case.
127. Van Wagoner, 1944, pp. 56- 57.
128. Cf. Cantineau , 1936, p. 83; as a gene ral characteristic of nomadic vs.
sedentary dialects , 1939, p. 82. Among the Negev semi-nomads, who otherwise
speak an unmistakabl y "Bedu in type" dialect. there is a fbI preposed . to the
imperfect in non-subord inate verbs, t hough its function rema ins to be invest igated.
129. On the /d/ of /dekteb/ see4.8ge; /a~ui is a frequent MlC "tone modifying"
particle, often corresponding to Fr. alors, o r to some uses o f Russ. till , Eng. well,
so , tltel/. See this item in 6.5.
130. MJC!yam'awwad/, fern. /yam'awda/, plur. /yam'awdinl is used to
underscore a request. roughly like Syr.-Pal. /daxlak/. Idaxilak/ ; on the Id/ of
Idogfu /, see 4.8ge.
131. M J ~/wda' tak / is used to unde rscore affirmations or- oaths; the pron.
suff. is variable: M/wdu'ta Imal:1mDd/ 'I swea r by Mal:\lllUd'.
NOTES 197
,
132. A similar Iken/ or {ka/ occurs i~ Anatolia and Mosul; on kllll , k im in
the Central Asian dialects. see F ischer, 1961,<1>. 256, and rn. 2.
133. In Baghdadi Judeo-Arabic translations of Hebrew scriptural or liturgical
texts. /ila/ regularly serves to render the Hebrew accusative particle 'eO . This type
of Arabic. which we may call "Judeo-literary," has many features of its own and
differs from J as much as it differs from C lassica l Arabic. It naturally does not
fall within the scope o f this monograph. A rough idea of its features can be gained
from a perusal of Blum, 1927, though Blum was unaware of t he spec ia l nature and
position of this idiom.
134. Tsereteli, 1956, p. 5; also Fischer, 1961, p.254. In Cairo, the demonstra-
tives are sometimes used as copulas, e.g. /gozik da-gabi! 'your husba.nd is a fool',
fax iik da-dallu'a/ your brother is a spoiled brat '; on some copula-like uses of a
particle /d/. apparently of Berber origin, in an Algerian dialect, cf. Ph. Mar~is .
1956, pp. 462-466.
135. On /mal elpaspOrtat/ > /malpaspo rtat /. cf. 4.91c.
136. J-Iowever. in a sub-Saharan- dialect. I find kitiib hanak, halla'i, 'your.
my book' (Carbou, 1913, p. \7).
137. In MJC. /yemna/ and /yes r:a/ often seem to hav~ substantive status.
Le. 'the right. left side'. However, /idak elyemnal 'your right hand', is just li ke
fidak eecebira/ 'your big hand .'
J
138. Thnayyan, 1927, p. 78. A host of examples may be found in I;lanafi.
1962, e.g. p. 79,/id e lmag$u~/ ' the amputated hand', p. 104. /het el'atig/ ' the old
house'; p. 138. /ealb elmii6i/ 'the harmful dog' . and !11any more.
139. Sassoon, 1949, p. 187. The construction is part icularl y .common and
product ive in the quasi-literary idiom of the Baghdadi Jews.
I
140. Cf. the many examp les in Yahuda, 1906 , and Sassoon, 1949, pp. I95ff.
141. On the cl ose connection between definite articles and relat ive pronouns,
cf. Feghali, 1928, pp. 90- 100,190, 310 ; Brockelmann, 1913.pp. 536ff.; as a prob-
lem in general linguistics , E. Benveniste, "~1. phrase relativc-probleme de syntaxe
generale," BSL 53: 39c 54 (1958).
142. Cf. l;Ianafi , 1962, p. 145, /\:Ijart e lmate'ejbak/ ... 'a slone you don't like'
the equivalent of the 1 proverb cited ; l;Ianan's collection contains many more M
proverbs illustrating this ·const ruction: p. · 82, Ibab ettcjik menha rib/, ' the door
through which wind comes in'; p. 105. Ibir eUeSrab menha/'a well from which
you drink'; p. 138, /talb elyenbal)/ 'a barking dog' ; p. 138. /celmat ettestelJ i menha/
'a word you're ashamed o f' . etc. Fo r Kwerd in the Musayyab district. a gelet-
dialect , cf. /~ fl:lat elli mabiha qcb la/ ·a side not facing towards Mecca' (Meissner,
.~
•
.
198 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
1903b, p. xxvi); for MardIn, a qe/t/tMdialect, cL /ani larai:tet laqulti/ ... 'where is
the carpet which you said .. .' (Socin, 1882, p. 260).
143. Brockelmann, 1913, p. 208; Feghali, 1928, pp. 134-36, pp. 211- 12;
Bauer, 1913, par. 70b.
144. Tsereteli , 1956 , is replete With examples, e.g. i had qatalu 'he killed him'
i .salldiiq kasaru 'he broke the chest', zaraba i billl 'he hit the girl'; cf. also Tsereteli.
1941 , pp. 143ff., and Fischer, 1961 , pp. 262-63.
145. Fcghali, 1928, pp. 298, 332- 33.
146. Brockelmann , 1913 , p. 316.
147. For Lebanon , Feghali, 1928, p. 362; for Mosul. Calabi, 1935, p.S,
Dabbag, 1956, p. 15; (or Jewish Baghdadi, Schramm . 1954, p. 110 ; on Baghdadi
in genera l •. Ganima, 1926, p. 586. On Middle Arabic Jewish texts from Iraq, er.
Blau 1961a, p. 215 , and 1961b, pp. 172, 179.
148. AI-Wat:aidi (d. J075) in his Sarb Dlwdfl al-MIlIQllabbi, ed. Dieterici
. (Berlin , J 861- 64), p. 384, line 3: "wa-'i1btiq 'aI-lam bit-mart'll qabT11 jiddan wa-6iilik
mill fah 'al-bagiladiyin"; Brockelmann, 1913, p. 316, thinks these words are a
continuation of the immediately preceding sentence from Ibn Furraja quoted by
WabidI; if so , the statement is from the tenth rather than from the eleventh century.
149. lowe this distinction to some classroom remarks of H. J. Po!otsky's
concerning similar constructions in Syr iac and Geez; cf. his review of R. Schneider's
L'expressioll des complbnellts de verbe et de nom et la place de ['adjecti! epilhete
eu Cueze (paris, 1959) in JSS 6:251- 56 (1961).
150. It is perhaps even commoner in I raq that a person addressed as labu
salmanl should not be the father of Isalman/, because of the custom of using.
a n " automatic kunya" for persons having certain given names: anyone oalled
Idft.wo.d/, whether he has children or not , is likely to be addressed as labu salmanl
jllst as anyone called Isa lmanl is likely to be addressed as labu dawud/. Son~e
other fixed (and reversible) pairs: Isukurl or Isakerl is labu mabmiid/, lyOsef/ ls
labu ya'gOb/, Imbammadl is labu jasem/, labmadl is labu shab/, etc. This is said
to be most prevalent among Muslims, but occurs among Jews and Christians as
well. cr. !:lanafl, 1963, s.v. !abb!.
151. Brockelmann, 1913, pp. 34. 237,243; Feghali, 1928 , p. 363.This constru~­
tion as well as the types lsafu leflanl and Iqallu leflan/, are att ributed to AramaiC
inft~ence by these authors and those mentioned in note 147, but somewhat similar
constructions in North African dialects are thought by Fischer, 1907, and p:h.
Man;ais, 1956, pp. 413, 611, to be due to Berber influence; these occur with kin-
ship terms on ly.
152. Tsereteli, 1941, p. 145, and for examples , Tsereteli, 1956,passim.
NOTES 1 199
153. Cf. lJAL 21: 121- 37 (l955); and AI-Toma, 1957, who uses this list for
a lex ical c~rnparison of classical Arabic and Iraqi. I have not used his entries
where they seemed to deviate from M and reflect another Iraqi colloquial, perhaps
that or Kafbala.
154. C.A. Ferguson and M. Said, Lexical Voriallll' ill Arabic Dialects, 1958,
18 pp. (muJt \lith).
154a. However, Malaika, 1963, p. 26, has the regular cognate M/makensa/.
155. An interesting historical and comparative study of the demonstrat ive
constructions in the Arabic dialect , based on the ava il able literature, may be found
in Fischer, 1959.
156. Fischer, 1961, p. 259.
157. The vowel of J/keml is probably nothing'but a lengthening of the original
Ikam/, which in J as in MC would have been (k£ITL], with the characteristically
Baghdadi mid or lower mid vowel; it is this vowel, lengthened , t hat we have in
Ikern/. As for the lengthening itself, it has parallels jn Cairo Ikarnl and elsewhere .
158. On C /emti/ , cf. 3.360 (iii) and note 71. One wonders whether the initial
syllab le of M/yamta/ [yemt£] could not have developed from an original /cmtal
(i em1E;] through stabilizat ion and phonell1iciza~ion of t he on~glide (cf. 3.31e (iii]).
A more certain instance of sllch a shift can be seen in IbOfya/ 'buffet'; the non-
occurrence of final unstressed /el in the dialect caused something like -[biW£) to
be resolved into [bOJYf:]. which is more in accordance with existing patterns, cf.
!barnya! 'okra'.
159. Positing - [hawniki] as the basis of both the J and C forms, the·J develop-
ment would look something li ke this : [Ihawniki] 'thither' [Iawnik i) [I~wnikil and
[Iuwniki], which is' reinterpreted as /11 plus Iwniki/, just as Iluwl5.dl is III plus
Iwladl 'the ch ild ren'; a simi lar deve lopment took place in Iwlani/ 'first', ultimately
from lawwaian i/. cf. 4.6. That the initial phoneme is Iwl and not luI (o n, the
instabi lity o~ the dist inction , see 3.21e) is confirmed by the "Judea-li terary" version
of t his word. This idiom replaces initial /KKI by I KeK/, e.g. IbeUidl for Iblad/,
and Iweladl for Iwlad /, and similarly Iwenik i Ifor (wnik i/.
160. JavJaliqi, ed. 1875, p. 139: Jllvll' ; Hoem!rbach, 1956, p. 169, 1.9. : Jui ni.
,
161. C/hekkil « - /hekkil < - !hekdi/?) may perhaps be compared with
Moroccan Ihakkakl and with a different sort of ass imilat i~n, Cent. Pal. village
hMOal (Bauer, Wort., s. v. so). The Ihc/- or /hi/- initia l of most d ialects does
suggest an OA etymon -/ha k iM /, cr. J. Greenberg, Wd. 17: 64 (1961); as do the
forms with in itial /ke/-, Iki/- ; Mosul/ hakc()1 poses a problem, however, as one
would have expected 'imala.
 200 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
162. Cf. the Iii o f M/ hlci/, Qa " at ~a 'e~ Ih.MIiI (Van Wagoner, 1944, p. 139;
repeated in his 1949 course ostensibly as Baghdadi) in dialect s with no IiI a llomorph
of the fem. ending; and even the IiI ofthe J forms does not conform to t he morpho-
phonemics of the fern. cnding (cf. 4.3).
163. The study of Aramaic elements in Mesul Arabic (Dlabi. 1935, does list
a score of items , largely connected with religion, that are in usc among Christ ians
only. Some of these, incidentally, arc probably not of Aramaic origin at all
(d. notc 126 above) but they arc nevertheless of interest in that they contribute to
our understanding of communal differentiation in Mesu!. . 226 ljre'akl 'he saw you') and Inre'aj for 'to be seen' (e.g. p. 58, no. 195).
164. The dist inction was initiated by M. Weinreich, 1954. pp. 85- 86
J 65. There is as yet no detailed study of the tradit ional pronunication of
Hebrew used by the Ba ghdadi Jews. This section is therefore based on my own
preliminary observations and on some details kindly passed on to me by S. M~rag
and A. Levin. The latt er, who did a seminar paper on the Hebrew elements to J
in 1962, also supplemented the Hebrew lexical items listed here.' ~or w?ich I am
especialiy indebted t o D. Khazzum, a J speaker. For some addlllo~allt~~s an~
their occas iona l use in M , see now l;Ianafi, 1963, esp. s.v. lalmanal widow,
lawir/ 'ai r', l(e)~baI:t6al ' hy mn s'.
166. The rhymed phrase may echo the Biblical ,!JPf!1 wa(ulfuy rOl, 'mournful
and bareheaded' (Esther 6: 12); at any rate, Il:teffcll has no meaning by itself.
167. Cantineau, 1939, p. 85.
168, Cf. the va riant given by l;Janafi, 1962, p. 42, no. 11 6: leSqal qalbak
sason mentaqqat eHeqqaqa/ 'what did your heart say, S., when the ~un went off',
which has M/(e)sl fo r J/asl and M/atl in the verb fo r J/et/, and a different mock
J form for gun. The given name Isasonl is as typically J as Il:lesqel/.
169. I am indebted to U. Heyd for this suggesti~n as to the etymology of
the Turk ish term .
I 170. The exp ression M/xo majabaw esmi?j 'I hope they didn't mention my
name?' (l::Ianafi, 1962, p. 169, no. 759) is proverbiall y put in the mouth of a man
wishing to insinuate he might be included among certa in persons wanted by the
pol ice or feared by the authorities. '
J7 J. This Ixosl is simila rl y dev iant (i.e. precedes noun, is invariable) in the
Nco-Aramaic dialects of the area, e.g. Zakho. Turkish influences are fa r less
~oll1mon in those dialects than in Baghd'ad, so that the so lution must be looked for
elsewhere.
172, Barthelemy . Diel. , S.y. darbakke, gives dumburko for "Mesopotamia,"
i.e. Upper Iraq (or the Syrian Jazira) and dumbug for "I raq septent.rional.''' i.e.
Northern Lower Iraq, viz. what we would today call Central Iraq, mcludmg of
NOTES 201
course Bag~dad. On the terminology "Iraq" for Lower Iraq and "Mesopotamia"
for Upper Iraq, see Blanc, 1962, p. 52, fn. I.
173. The:. J vs. Me split in usage is eviden~iy more complex, for Fa rmAn
19~9.' p ..11, ~oe.s have Igamaw y'aynun 'aJayya/ 'they started looking at (or ogling)
me In hl~ genumel.y M dialogues, though he regularly uses lsafl and Ibawa'j with
the. mea~ mg ~esc flbed here. Ferguson, 1959, p, 629, is only partially right when
he 11llp iJe.o; that OA/ra'al has eve rywhere been replaced by Isarl' in addition' to
Qarabas lara), l::Ianafi's M proverbs often have M/re'al for ' to se;' e.g. p. 63, no.
174. The Turkish dictionaries seem to list no such form, but 1 note that M.
Ben-Cheneb, Nfols lures el persons cOl/serves dans Ie parler arabe d'Alger (Algiers,
1922), p. 57., gives as etymon for Alg. 1awla "turc lavla, IQvli , grec lavli,"
175: Op~nheim, 1952, p. 478, classifies *~ Beduin (tribally organized)
PO!,~lat lon of Iraq into four categories, called respect ively /baduj (camel herders),
lsawlyal (s heep and goat herders), Ifelel:tl (peasants, viz. sedentarized tribesmen),
and Ime'danl (water buffal o he rders). He gives I'arabl as a synonym for the second
group, but in Baghdadi usage, so fa r as I can tell, the term covers the Ifeleh l as
well ; certa inly j'erbij does. Similarly, Ime'danl covers loosely aU marsh dwellers.
In Talmudic Aramaic, 'arbii'e des ignates the sedentary Arab ic-speaking population
of Babylonia, the nomads being referred to as toyyii'e, cf. SYi'ia~ rayyti'e and the
Arab triba illame Tayyi' (Obermeyer, 1929, p. 235).
176. Fischer, 1961 , p: 236 , fn. 1, derives this from Cl. Ar. j-d-y 0;1 t he basis
of the Iraqi rura l fo rm Ijaddal cited by Meissner 1903b Glossar. Hanafi 1962
twice cites proverbs containing the form Ijedyat" bcgga;y' (p. 18, 'p. 130) and
seems to imp ly a similar derivation. Surely the existence of the forms in Igi and the
common affrication of Igl t o fjf (cf. 3.26a) prec lude such a der ivation. . .
177: The Questi?n of the composition and or igin of the Baghdadi Christian
population has receIVed but scanty attent ion, My informants are a ll aware of
"large" numbers of fairl y recent immigrants from t he Nort h some of them
Aramaic speaking. The name ItelkH/, sing. Itelkcfi/. derived fr.~m an Aramaic-
spea.ki~g Christian vi ll age near Mesul, is loosely used by J and M ' speakers for
Chnsttans as a whole. However, the features characterist ic of C do not date from
this ce~tury (cf. Oussani , 1901; Ganima, 1906), nor are they attr ibutnblc 10 <In
Arama iCsubstratum. At the turn of the century. Oppenheim, 1900, p. 238 , estimated
the Baghdadi Christ ians at froni 8,000 to 10,000, o f wh ich he thought about 6.000
were Chaldeans recent ly arrived from the Mosul region.
I ..
178. Sassoon, 1949, gives documentary evidence for the continuous existence
of a Jewi~h community in Baghdad from its foundation to the present', except
for a peflod from the middle of the fou rteenth to the middle of the sixteenth
century (pp. 100- 101). 1 know of no reports of large-scale migrations of Jews from
ot her regions,to Baghdad, though among ind ividuals I have known surnames or
;,
 202 COMMlJNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD
other evidence occas ionally indicate Persian or Aleppo origin; I cannot corroborate
Peterman's supposition (1820, II, p. 281), quoted by Coke, 1927, p. 262. that most
o f the oldest famili es of Baghdadi Jewry emigrated from 'Ana. For a useful histor-
ical summary. see now G. Vajda, "Le Milieu Juif a Bagdad", Arabica 9.389-
393 ( 1962).
179. The Arabization of the Iraqi Jews must have been well-nigh complete
by the tenth century, if on ly because it was then that Sa'adya wrote his Arabic
translation of the Old Testament. Traces of Aramaic speech (not restricted to
Jews) can st ill be found in the e leventh century (Epstein, 1915, pp. 53ff.).
180. [ find no reports of communal differentiation in Baghdad before the
nineteenth century (cf. note 2). Flick, 1955. pp. 87- 88, thinks the minorities did,
on the whole, speak Arabic like the major ity; on the other hand, his statement
that the Jews of MedIna spoke, in the seventh century, an "un inte lligible" dialect
of t heir own (ibid.), repeated by Blau . 1961b. p. II , fn. 26,is surely somewhat hasty.
It is based on a single s tatement reporting that someone was able to jabber bi-I-
yahiidiya (ibid. , p. 88, fn . 1). On the term '''Kal 'al-yalllid referring to unspecified
peculiarit ies of the Jews' speech, andlor to Hebraisms in their Arabic, cf.
Goldziher, 1872, p. 755, fn. 5; 1901 , p. 14 and fn. 4; the latter reference also cites
a single specific feature said to be characteristic of the speech of the MedIna Jews,
viz. ItI for 19/. Weinre ich , 1954, p. 83, fn. 27. apparently bases his assumption of
an early differentiation of Jewish dialects with in Arabic entirely on these reports
of Goldziher's.
181 . Cf. Weulersse, 1946 , p. 64. The figures for the population of Iraq given in
Docum entation Franltaise, 1951, pp. 6-8 (estimated for 1930) show approximately
55 percent non-'Sedentaries vs. 45 percent sedentaries, but many village dwellers
are in various stages of sedentarization , and very few townsmen (estimated at
5 percent) are truly urbanized. The preponderance of semi-sedentary and recently
, sedentarized populations is considerably greater in Lower Iraq thap in Upper
Iraq. These figures, as G. Baer pointed out to me , are only rough estimates at
best ; they are based on Dowson , 1932, p. 12, where the author states that they
are "the best estimates that the /iwa authorities were able to furnish, and the censUS .
was not in a position to give me any better material." For a list and account of
sedentarized groups in Lower Iraq, cf. OpvCnheim. 1952; for the different situation
in Upper Iraq , cf. Oppenheim, 1939. A detailed history of the sedentarization of
o ne large group is given in SalIm, 1956, pp. 197-248. Cf. also note 175 above.
182. Oppenheim , 1952, pp. 428ff., reports that the towns of Sfik al-Suyfix
and al-Xamisiya in Southern Iraq were, in the nineteenth century, partly peopled
by Najada (anparentl y immigrants from Najd).
183. C f. the discuss ion in 2.23 ·and 2.24 and note 21.
183a. Cf. notes 97a, 98a, 106. Malaika , I963, whose variety of M is of the
" less Beduinized" type, has one or two forms that may represent this sort of
conservatism : Iluxxil as a variant of Iluxl 'other (f.)' (pp. 13, 70) is unexpected
NOTES 203
for M , where the form s so far noted a re Ilux/. Iluxra/. but cf. JC/lexxi/, with the
no~m~l ~C " i!lIala and Ixxl < Ix&! </xr/. If true M, this Iluxxil may be s uch a
r~hc; It IS harder to know what to make of the fiI of Ikaslani/ 'Jazy (f.s.), (p. 76,
I~n ~ 3 from bottom).; one expect s a fin a l lal, as everywhere else in Mala ika's tex t
/II l~ such cases bemg properly C or Mosu!. W. M. Erwin's informants, whom
he klild ly consulted for me on these two po int s, confirm my sources.
. I
184. The main works consulted were Coke, 1927 ; Lewis, 1950 ; Longrigg,
1925, 1953; Obermeyer, 1929; Opp«nheim, 1939, 1952; Streck, 1900, 1901; and
the relevant articles of the Ellcyclopaedia of Islam ; especia lly Duri, 1960. .
IS5. On tho re-Beduinization of Iraq in the eleventh and the thirteent h
centuries , cf. Oppenheim, 1952, pp. 185- 18S.
IS6. It is possi ble that the ruin of the flood cont rol and irrigation system ,
on which Lower Iraqi agriculture depends, and which in turn depends on stable
~dmi?ist ration for regulation and maintenance, actually p receded the Mongol
I~vaslons br about a century; an interesting hypOthesis connecting that ruin with
Silt depos its and the inabil ity' of a weak administrat ion to cl ear them , may be
found 1Il Jacobsen-Adams, 1958, espec ially pp. 1257- 125S. lowe this reference to
M. Brosi.
IS7. Cf. Longrigg, 1925, p. 13, where the author summarizes the effect of the
Mongo l invasions on the course of Iraqi history ; fo r a brief b\lt exCellent summary
of this effect, cf. Lewis, 1950, pp. 154, 158- 159. Cf. a lso Oppenheim , 1900, p . 356;
1952, pp. 187- IS8. On the downfall and in some cases the disappea rance o f towns
from the 15th century onward, cf. Coke, J927, pp. 182- IS3; Longrigg, 1925, pp.
2- 3; Lew is, 1950, pp. 154, 15S- 159. A check through the articles summarizing
the history of the various towns in the Encyc/opaedia ofblam shows almost uniformly
the same picture of decay and depopulation between the fifteenth and the nineteenth
centuries.
188. Longrigg, 1925, pp. 120-128, 154-162,200--211 ; Coke, 1927, pp. 194ff.,
230ff. ; and Oppenheim, 1952, pp. 415ff.• are replete with accounts of the struggles
between tht pashas and the Beduins. .
189. The process of re-urbanization, which is still going on (cf. note l SI a nd
note 9), can only be pieced together from various scattered notes and figures.
In the s ixteenth century, Baghdad was "a large carav.an center'~ (Longrigg. 1925,
p. 30) had an estimated population o f 14,000 in the seventeenth century (Streck,
art. "Baghdad" in Ellcycl. of lsI. I), of 40,000 to 100,000 in the early nineteenth
century (Duri , 1960), and today num be rs over 7S0,000 (th is and a ll present-day
figures. for which I am indebted to G. Baer, a re rrom the Ira.q Statistical Abstract -
1959, Bag hd~d , 1960). In the sixteenth century , Hi ll a was "a large tribal market
and center or exchange" as it has been a lmost to the present (Longrigg, ibid.) and
Basra consisted mostly of reed huts "whose owners were but lightly tied to city
life" (ihid.); it was rebui lt , though not on its ancient site, in t he e ighteenth century
(Pellat. a rt. " B~ra" in EIIcyc/. of 1sf.2) and today numbers ove r 164,000 inhabitants.
204 COMMUNAL DIALECTS IN BAGHDAD

Kut was non-existent in the fifteenth century (Longrigg, 1925. p. 2), was a "miser-
able little village" down to 1860 (Kremers, art. "Kut" in Elleyc/. of lsi. 1), now
numbers 26,500. Amara was built in 1862 (Longrigg, a rt. "Amara" in Elleyc/, 0/
Isl.2), now numbers 53,300. Nas iriya, present population 39,000, was founded
about 1870 (Oppenhe im , 1952. p. 204); al-Xamisiya was founded about 1880
(ibid., p. 428) and Satra seems to have been founded in 1778 (ibid.). The literary
revival reported in eighteenth cent ury Baghdad by G ibb, art. "Arabic literature",
Elleyc/. of Isf.2 , p. 596, may also be con nected with the fe- urban ization process.

190, On the contrastive topography of Upper and Lower Iraq cr. Docu-
mentation Fran9aise, 1951 , pp. 3- 5; Dowson, 1932, p. II. On the stability vs.
instability of towns in the two areas, cf. the disappearance of Lower fraqi towns
such as Wasit, 'al-Mada' in , l;Iulwan, Qadisiya, a.nd many others that can be found
e.g. in Streck, 1900, pp. IOff.; and compare this to the relative stability of the Upper
fraqi towns whose history is summarized in the El/cyclopaedia of Islam or in Musil,
1927, pp. 345, 350, 353, 363; 'al-'Anbar, which was on the boundary between
Upper and Lower Iraq near present-day Falliija, is ruined (M usil, ibid., p. 353).
Naturall y, matters must not be oversimplified: Mosul, in Upper Iraq , has had a
rather turbulent history, while Hilla in Lower fraq has had a rather stable o ne,
though the core of its population seems to have been Beduin since its foundation.

19 1. The socio-li ngu istic data and hypotheses set forth in this work thus tend
to bear out an opinion exp ressed twent y years ago by H. A. R. Gibb: " ft is the
contin ua l recruitment from fresh nomadic stock-operating of course in a series
of stages-that has preserved the Arab population of the settled areas in the Middle
East from the ph~sical degeneration and decay to which the populations in its
lowland areas have been especially liable. It is reasonably certain that no people
could halle come through the long centuries of economic impoverishment and
enderuic disease which have been the fate of the Eastern lands, and yet have
retained such a measure of vit ality, had it not been able to draw fresh powers
of resistance from it s desert reservoir." (G ibb , 1942, p.. 88).