A Grammar of Zuaran Berber (Libya): Grammar and Texts 9783896459268, 3896459260

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BERBER STUDIES ISSN 1618-1425 Volume 26

Edited by

Harry Stroomer University of Leiden / The Netherlands

Terence Frederick Mitchell

Zuaran Berber (Libya) Grammar and Texts

Edited by

Harry Stroomer and Stanly Oomen

RÜDIGER KÖPPE VERLAG · KÖLN

The series Berber Studies is a linguistic and text oriented series set up to enrich our knowledge of Berber languages and dialects in general. It is a forum for data-oriented studies on Berber languages, which may include lexical studies, grammatical descriptions, text collections, diachronic and comparative studies, language contact studies as well as studies on specific aspects of the structure of Berber languages. The series will appear at irregular intervals and will comprise monographs and collections of papers.

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

ISBN 978-3-89645-926-8 ISSN 1618-1425 © 2009 The Editors

RÜDIGER KÖPPE VERLAG P.O. Box 45 06 43 50881 Cologne Germany www.koeppe.de

All rights reserved. Published with financial support from Het Oosters Instituut, Leiden / The Netherlands Layout: Martin Baasten (Quintessentia Foundation, Den Haag / The Netherlands) Production: Druckerei Hubert & Co., Göttingen / Germany

â This book meets the requirements of ISO 9706: 1994, Information and documentation – Paper for documents – Requirements for permanence.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents

v

Editorial Preface to the Grammar

ix

I. Editorial introduction

x

1.

Transcription

x

2.

Abbreviations and symbols

3.

Selected references

xi xiii

II. The morphology of the verbal system

1

1.1

Principal categories concerned

1

1.2

Basis of conjugational distinctions

3

1.3

800 verb sample; Conjugations 1, 2

4

1.4

‘Quadriliterals’ of Conjugation 2

7

1.5

Final -Ca and -CəC in Conjugations 1 and 2

7

1.6

Conjugation 3

9

1.7

Conjugation 4

10

1.8

Conjugation 5

13

1.9

Summary of Conjugations 1–5

14

1.10

Conjugation 6

16

1.11

Conjugations 7, 8

18

1.12

Conjugations 9, 10, 11

21

1.13

Conjugations 12, 13

24 v

1.14

Overall summary of Conjugations 1–13

27

1.15

‘Odd men out’ in the sample

32

2.1

Personal affixes; the singular imperative

33

2.2

Plural imperative

36

2.3

The basic system of personal affixes

39

2.4

Modification in a-ending tenses

41

2.5

ad-variant of aorist prefix

46

2.6

Addendum: some phonetic implications

48

3.1

Derived forms of the verb

49

3.2

s-derivation

52

3.3

s-forms by conjugation

54

3.4

Addenda: the ‘odd men out’; -CuC for -CaC

63

3.5

ttwa-derivation

64

3.6

ttwa-, ttwa-a/u, attwa-

66

3.7

Distribution of ttwa-(a/u) among conjugations

69

3.8

Restricted occurrence of ttwa-/ttwa-a/u

71

3.9

a-ending forms of Conjugations 1 and 2

72

3.10

Personal affixes with the passive tenses

73

3.11

ttwa-s-(a)

75

3.12

Past passive and quasi-passive

77

3.13

m-derivation

84

3.14

Reciprocal m- + Conjugation 3

85

3.15

Pejorative m-

89

vi

4.1

Negative verb forms. General features

90

4.2

Infixal -i-

91

4.3

The negative prefix

96

4.4

Omission and inclusion of w-

100

4.5

Omission and inclusion of -š

103

4.6

wətšá

110

5.1

Object pronouns

113

5.2

Verb + object suffix

114

5.3

Affixation with the free-standing aorist

120

5.4

Negative forms

124

5.5

Negative imperative and negative nonpast

131

5.6

Summary of features considered at 5

137

6.1

The verbal noun

140

6.2

Morphological patterns

144

Editorial Preface to the Texts

152

III. Conversations

154

1.

A (female speaker) and B (male speaker) meet casually in Zuara after B’s recent return from a protracted stay in England.

154

2.

Two semi-educated speakers talk of political and daily events

158

3.

Two male speakers wishing to go from Zuara to Zhmil

164

4.

Buying clothes (in the suq) for the family

170

5.

Two acquaintances meet in London

177

vii

6.

Conversation in Zuara, one interlocutor having returned from abroad

187

IV.

Ferhat

198

Notes

324

Appendix: Marriage Customs

344

Addenda

347

viii

Editorial Preface to the Grammar This volume of Berber Studies contains a study devoted to the Berber language of the town Zuara on the west coast of Libya. Little was known about this language when T.F. Mitchell (1919-2007) started to study it in the late forties, in close cooperation with his main informant Ramadan Azzabi.1 In the fifties, Mitchell published two articles on the Zuaran Berber noun (cf. Mitchell 1953 and 1957a). The first part of the present book contains a study of the Zuaran Berber verbal system. The manuscript of this study, a total of 179 pages printed on a dot printer, was sent by Lionel Galand to Harry Stroomer in June 2006. On the 24th of July 2006 T.F. Mitchell gave Stroomer his permission to publish it. We have decided to publish this study with some changes in order to improve the readability of the text. For the rationale behind our editorial decisions, see the editorial introduction (x). What makes this study particularly interesting is the fact that T.F. Mitchell paid attention to contact phenomena between spoken Libyan Arabic and Zuaran Berber. This is not surprising, as Mitchell is well-known as an Arabist. We have chosen to include some of his writings on Arabic in the selected references. Harry Stroomer Stanly Oomen

“My research assistant during the past two years has been Mr. Ramadan Hadji Azzabi, who, aged 25, is a native of Zuara, where he lived until his family moved to Tripoli a few years ago. His family is an old Zuara one, many of whose members still live in the town. Mr. Azzabi’s mother and father, brothers and sisters are all natives of Zuara and Berber is the language of the home.” Mitchell (1953: 28)

1

ix

I. EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION 1. Transcription Consonants: The following transcription of consonants is used in this book: 1* plosives fricatives nasals

b f

m

liquids

2

3

t

ṭ

s

ṣ

d

z

n

r l

glides

4

ḍ

š

ẓ

ṃ

5

6

k

q

g

x

ž

ɣ

y

w

7

8 ʔ

ḥ ʕ

h

ṛ

ḷ

*1 bilabial; 2 dento-alveolar; 3 pharyngealized; 4 palato-alveolar; 5 velar; 6 uvular; 7 pharyngeal; 8 laryngeal.

Mitchell used capital letters to indicate pharyngealized consonants, while we use a subscript dot as is common practice in Berberology. Furthermore, the palato-alveolar fricatives are written š and ž respectively instead of ʃ and ʒ, and the voiceless pharyngeal fricative ħ is written ḥ. Vowels: Zuaran Berber has the following vowels: i

ə

u

a According to Mitchell (1975: xv): “As far as vowels are concerned, ‘ə’ is a short vowel behaving very similarly to the anaptyctic vowel of colloquial Arabic (Cyrenaican) and exhibiting similarly wide qualitative variation.” And also concerning ə (Mitchell 2007: 6): “though clearly a vowel unit in its own right, it is essentially a syllable marker and thus used as part of total admissible syllable structures.”

x

Accent: As Mitchell (2007: 20) stated already: “[…] Zuaran Berber words and phrases are predominantly paroxytones, i.e. with their penultimate syllable accented. […] Accented syllables, marked in relation to neighbouring syllables by higher tone and greater stress inter alia, are indicated in the transcription by the acute accent, e.g. lə́ktab ‘(the) book’, ləktábiw ‘my book’, ləktabə́ns(ə)n ‘their (m.) book’.” Phonetic symbols between square brackets “[ ]”: In the original manuscript of this book, Mitchell used a horizontal bar through a letter to indicate pharyngealization. We have decided to stick to the Berberology practice, using subscript dots to indicate pharyngealization, e.g. present tense yttẓúṛṛu [iḍḍẓo-] ‘dismiss’, even though the International Phonetic Association (IPA) uses a superscript pharyngeal fricative [ʕ] to indicate pharyngealization. 2. Abbreviations and symbols aor. Ar. C

aorist Arabic Consonant

cf.

confer

Coll.

Colloquial

E

Emphatic

etc.

et cetera

Cl.

Conj(s). e.g.

exc(s). ex(x). f.

i.e.

Classical

Conjugation(s)

exempli gratia exception(s) example(s)

feminine

id est

impve.

imperative

lit.

literally

intr. pl.

intransitive plural

xi

pres.

present

m.

masculine

pro. N s.

tr.

pronoun Noun

singular

transitive

s.o.

someone

usu.

usually

v.n.

verbal noun

s.t. V -

–

+

something vowel

affix boundary

negative verb form, separates inflected verb forms

positive verb form

/

indicates a verb root




becoming, giving

[]

phonetic notation (between square brackets)

1

first person, first consonant, first vowel

₤

() 2 3

final

glosses (between parentheses)

second person, second consonant, second vowel third person, third consonant, third vowel

xii

3. Selected references Basset, A. (1952) La langue berbère. London: Oxford University Press. Hamp, E.P. (1959) Zuara Berber Personals. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 22 (1): 140–141. Mitchell, T.F. (1952) The Active Participle in an Arabic Dialect of Cyrenaica. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 14 (1): 11–33. (1953) Particle-Noun Complexes in a Berber Dialect (Zuara). Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 15 (2): 375–390. (1954) Review of La langue berbère by André Basset (1952). Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 16 (2): 415–417. (1956) An Introduction to Egyptian Colloquial Arabic. London: Oxford University Press. (1957a) Some properties of Zuara nouns with special reference to those with consonant initial. In Mémorial André Basset (1895– 1956), pp. 83–96. Paris. (1957b) Long consonants in Phonology and Phonetics. Studies in Linguistic Analysis (Philological Society), pp. 182–205. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (1960) Prominence and Syllabification in Arabic. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 23 (2): 369–389. (1975) Principles of Firthian Linguistics. Longman Linguistics Library 19. London: Longman. —— & S.A. El-Hassan (1994) Modality, Mood and Aspect in Spoken Arabic (With special reference to Egypt and the Levant). Library of Arabic Linguistics Monograph 11. London: Kegan Paul. (2007) Ferhat. An Everyday Story of Berber Folk in and around Zuara (Libya). Berber Studies 17. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.

xiii

II. THE MORPHOLOGY OF THE VERBAL SYSTEM 1.1 Principal categories concerned It is necessary to recognize the following primary categories, root, stem, and affix, whereafter particular prefixes, infixes, and suffixes of person, number, and gender, mark in part the difference between imperative and tense. Tense in the positive conjugation is subject to threefold division into past, present, and aorist, which are distinguished by patterns of affixation and in some measure by accentuation, the latter a notable feature of Zuara, in particular in disyllabic structures. Time-reference of tenses is not at all clear-cut; past tense often refers to past events but may equally be interpretable often as a stative adjective, present tense may be either present progressive or present habitual, whereas aorist covers past, present, past habitual, and probably most often, future reference. Difference is recognizable between the aorist tense in what may be termed its free-standing (with specialized prefix a-) and dependent (non-prefixed) forms. Though this difference is of some morphological relevance, it is of primary syntactic import in relation to verb sequences and it will not therefore be considered in detail in the present chapter. Distinctions of person are congruent between the tenses and this congruence contributes more importantly than time-reference to the definition of tense. The total system of affixes marking the subject of a verb in its imperatival or tensed forms constitutes a paradigm, and the paradigm of a verb, including its derived forms (see below), are collectively referred to as its ‘scatter’. Differences of formal relationship between what is here called the positive past and present tenses as well as between them and the aorist tense and the imperative serve to define conjugations. Verbs may also be characterized by further prefixes which variously ‘carry’ the derived categories of causative/factitive, passive and potential/gerundive, less often reciprocal, which sometimes combine and to which the foregoing distinctions of tense and imperative apply grosso modo. Negation of verbal forms, simple or derived, is characterized by specialized prefix, suffix, or both, and additionally in some cases by vocalic infix, and these negative forms are treated seperately below. Direct and indirect object affixal pronouns very commonly form part, jointly or severally, of a given verbal 1

form, and a separate section is devoted to them subsequently, with reference also to negative forms containing these affixes. Finally, the forms of verbal noun appropriate to the several conjugations and derivations are listed briefly in the concluding section of the chapter. Attention will first be devoted at Section 1 to conjugations or differences of formal relationship between tenses, and tenses and imperative. Conjugations will be given roughly in the order of those whose roots often suggest Arabic cognation and thereafter those which are more evidently Berber. Section 2 is concerned with the personal affixes, the set of which is basic to the recognition of tense. Section 3 accounts for the derived forms of the verb, in turn derivation with s(causative), ttwa- (passive) and twa-a/u (potential/gerundive), and m- (predominantly reciprocal). Negation is the subject of Section 4, pronominal object affixes that of Section 5, and the final Section 6 describes the forms of the Verbal Noun. Notes: (i) Berber scholars will observe that no justification has been found for the recognition of a category ‘participle’ in the dialect. More importantly, the category ‘intensive’ applied to both the imperative and tenses of other dialects could only be recognized in Zuara at the cost of intolerable complexity in the statement of the verbal form. Three tenses have been distinguished in the positive conjugation, past, present, and aorist, of which the ‘radical’ element of the present tense seems to be that of the ‘intensive’ elsewhere; in the negative conjugation, no present/aorist distinction is recognizable and only two tenses, past and nonpast, may be established, with the negative nonpast sharing the ‘radical’ of the positive present. The negative imperative also shares this ‘radical’ in contrast with its positive counterpart, which shares its shape with the positive aorist and past tenses. Perhaps this suffices to indicate the complexity of matters without introducing the further unnecessary complication of an ‘intensive’ category. The topic is broached again in section 5.5, by which time a complete statement of verbal morphology has been made. (ii) Homophonous verbal forms quite often occur with the different meanings and different scatters. For example, the 3 s.m. forms of a verb nušš of radical structure C1uC2C2 occurs in the tenses ynúšš (past) / yttnúššu (present) / áynušš (free-standing aorist) but in no 2

other paradigm when the meaning is (heal, dry up (of wound, cut)). In this sense and with this scatter the verb would seem to belong to the indigenous verb stock. The same forms of the three tenses, however, occur with the addition of the dependent aorist form yə́nušš and the s. imperative ə́nušš when the meaning is (swat (flies), drive (flies) away). The verb in this meaning has been borrowed from Arabic (Cl. Ar. našs/yanišš), and the range of Berber paradigms are consequent upon it. The question of whether one (núšš) or two verbs (núšš1 and núšš2) should be recognized has to be left to the lexicographer. 1.2 Basis of conjugational distinctions The practice in Berber studies has been to derive tenses from the singular imperative, since for most practical purposes the latter is coterminous with the root and ‘unencumbered’ by affixation. The imperative is, however, wanting in the ‘scatter’ of many verbs and, for the non-derived forms, greater advantage may sometimes be gained, when establishing a given conjugation, from taking the 3 s.m. past forms as the point of departure and, if need be, basing other forms upon it. This form is always present in the case of a given verb, perhaps because its semantic range is wide, covering, for example, both passive (perhaps better ‘stative’) and active, intransitive as well as transitive domains as well as that of the predicative adjective. The first dimension, therefore, of verbal conjugation, is that between 3 s.m. past and s. imperative. In the great majority of cases the imperatival form may be derived from deletion of the 3 s.m. past prefix yand by modifying oxytonic to paroxytonic accentuation, e.g. yəbḥə́ṛ > ə́bḥəṛ (view, spot (hunted quarry)), though this is a simplification, particularly in respect of vowels associated with other types of root, and considerable refining statement is made consequently. Disyllabic oxytones in the past tense and contrasting accentuation in the imperative is a striking feature of Zuara Berber. Once the imperative is established, then the aorist is easily derivable from it by the addition firstly of the personal affixes (e.g. yəbḥə́ṛ) and thereafter as a rule by the prefixation of a particle a- (in rare cases, ad-) (i.e. ayə́bḥəṛ). The aorist form without the particle prefix is never free-standing and is minimally distinguished from the 3 s.m. past by paroxytonic accentuation, i.e. yə́bḥəṛ as opposed to past yəbḥə́ṛ. This ‘dependent’ form of the aorist is reached by the simple removal of the prefix of the 3

‘free-standing’ form, and for this reason the prefix is usually bracketed in subsequent formulation; in the few cases of formal difference between the dependent and free-standing forms, the former has been separately indicated within brackets. Historically and comparatively, the present tense may be seen as related to the intensive imperative/aorist of other dialects, but, as far as Zuara is concerned, the prefixal, infixal, and vocalic elements specific to this tense are too often difficult to derive from the imperative and should be considered for their own sake. Not unlike that between the two tenses of Arabic, the differences between past and present are seen here to provide the most important dimension to conjugational distinctions. Present form, moreover, is easily derivable from the past, with a single exception which will be pointed out when the times comes (See Conjugation 9 at 1.12). Thus, to arrive at a conjugation comprising the tense and imperatival paradigms, one starts with the 3 s.m. past to reach both the 3 s.m. present and the s. imperative, and, thereafter, from the s. imperative arrives at the 3 s.m. aorist. In the case of the example selected the present tense is marked by the gemination of the second radical of the root, and relevant forms within the conjugational ‘scatter’ are thus yəbḥə́ṛ (3 s.m. past) /// ybə́ḥḥəṛ (3 s.m. present) // ə́bḥəṛ (s. imperative) / (a)yə́bḥəṛ (3 s.m. aorist). In recognition of the basic distinction between tense and imperative, conjugations will normally be stated in the order past-present-aorist-imperative. At the risk of repetition, this array is appropriate to the positive conjugation only, and the distinction present-aorist has no place in the negative. For the time being, concern will be exclusively with positive forms. Complete paradigms are given in later sections, but first it is important to indicate something of the diversity of Berber verbal conjugations. 1.3 800 verb sample; Conjugatons 1, 2 The triconsonantal root /C1C2C3 illustrated by /bḥṛ in 1.2 is the most productive in the dialect and, like so much else in Berber, or at least in Zuara, from the quality of front open vowels to the potential/gerundive use of the passive, is shared with spoken Arabic. An important difference is, of course, the fact that the 3 s.m. morpheme y- belongs to the nonpast or imperfect ‘tense’ of Arabic and, in contrast with Berber, not to the correlative past or perfect. Of a random 4

sample of approximately 800 verbs culled from a short Zuaran glossary, more than 300 are of the C1C2C3 type. In this case the root is rendered ‘pronounceable’ by the appropriate incidence of schwa or the zero-vowel (ə), whereas in other cases, a full vowel V will be recognized where appropriate as part of the root. As far as the type /C1C2C3 is concerned, the conjugational formation of the present tense by gemination of the second radical and of the imperative and aorist by paroxytonic accentuation, with the prefixation of a(d)- to the aorist as it occurs in most grammatical contexts, seems to be completely regular, without any exception having yet come to light. Doubtless many Arabic loans occur within the type but, equally, many examples of indigenous roots conform to its patterns, e.g. yəmɣə́r (grow), cf. adjectival/nominal amə́qqɑr (big). The gemination of the second radical in the present tense of the foregoing first conjugation recalls prima facie the first Arabic derived verbal form, which is often variously causative or intensive inter alia (cf. Ar. fhhm (explain, make s.o. understand) in contrast with the simple form fhm (understand), and qṭṭʕ (chop up) in contrast with qṭʕ (cut)), but, within the first Berber conjugation, a simple difference of tense is involved, with the gemination of the middle radical marking the present. The type /C1C2C2C3, however, does occur in the past tense of the second highly productive Berber conjugation, which accounted for a further 165 examples from the 800-strong sample. It is this conjugation that, in some cases, evokes the aforementioned Arabic derived form. Though fairly numerous (25) examples of semantic derivation between the two conjugations do occur, these have to be seen in relation to the s- or causative derived form of Conj.1 (see 3 below), and it makes for better exposition to regard Conjugations 1 and 2 as in principle systematically separate. Examples of semantically related forms crossing the conjugational border are yəḥmə́l (tolerate, endure) / yḥə́mməl (carry (e.g. of porter)), yəxrə́b (be derelict (of house)) / yxə́rrəb (leave, desert), yəxlə́ṣ (be repaid (debt) die) / yxə́lləṣ (repay (debt)). Such differences are perhaps reflected in some form of local spoken Arabic but do not necessarily belong to Arabic generally and must be regarded as distinctively part of Zuaran Berber. Such relata, moreover, are comparatively rare and the past tense form of the second conjugation occurs far more frequently in the absence of a corresponding form belonging to the first. The relation5

ship is as often as not discernible in those cases which correspond to the Arabic ‘hollow’ verb, that is, one whose second radical is the ‘weak’ palatal or velar semi-vowel, y or w. The weak radical appears throughout the second Berber conjugation, e.g. ybə́yyən – y(ə)ttbə́yyən – (a)ybə́yyən – bə́yyən (reveal, make appear; announce betrothal), ydə́wwəb – y(ə)ttdə́wwəb [idd-] – (a)ydə́wwəb – də́wwəb (dissolve (trans.)), but once again greatly more examples of the second form occur independently. Of 27 examples of the structure yC1aC2, 6 are semantically related to yC1(ə)yy/ww(ə)C3 of the second conjugation, cf. ybán (appear), ydáb (dissolve (intr.), be dissolved). In all, 32 examples of the structure yC1əyyəC3 or yC1əwwəC3 occur in the sample and have been included in the second conjugation. The type yC1aC2, e.g. yban, ydab, exhibits a very different mode of formation for the present and aorist tenses and the imperative, and has been included as Conjugation 9 under the predominantly Berber conjugations given from 1.10 on. Conj. 9(a) is perhaps the exception proving the rule that past-present difference provides the best basis for the recognition of conjugations. There is no other similarity of form between the first two conjugations, and the second is as regular as the first. Its present tense is marked by an element tt prefixed to a stem derived from the deletion of the personal prefix y- of the past tense. The personal prefix is then reinstated. The tt- prefix is one of the modes of present tense formation, the other being gemination, variously of second (commonly) or first radical. The pronunciation of y- before -tt- varies between [i] and [jɪ]. The present tense stem is also that of the imperative, from which the aorist is derivable in the normal manner. There is no accentual variation within the conjugation and all forms are paroxytones. To sum up, the two overwhelmingly most productive conjugations are as follows, with 3 s.m. exemplars yə́rfəs (trample on; behave carelessly) and yrə́qqəʕ (patch, be patched (clothes)) in the order pastpresent-aorist-imperative: yərfə́s – yrə́ffəs – (a)yə́rfəs – ə́rfəs yrə́qqəʕ – y(ə)ttrə́qqəʕ – (a)yrə́qqəʕ – rə́qqəʕ

6

Productivity should not, of course, be confused with frequency. Without question the preceding conjugational patterns far outnumber any other, but frequency of occurrence is another matter and examples of some of the less productive conjugations given subsequently, not least those of unequivocally Berber origin, certainly occur with very high frequency. 1.4 ‘Quadriliterals’ of Conjugation 2 Examples cited so far have all contained three different radicals, though these have occupied four structural ‘places’ as a result of gemination in the present tense of the first conjugation and in all paradigms of the second. Examples of four different or differently distributed consonants behave wholly in the manner of the second conjugation. The sample contains 40 of these ‘quadriliterals’, which are again reminiscent of comparable forms in Arabic. The consonants may all be different, e.g. yxə́rbəš (scribble, scratch), or duplicate the consonant in first and third places, e.g. yxə́ṛxəḍ (card (wool)), or reduplicate the first and second consonants, e.g. ybə́zbəz (be dirty; make dirty; buzz (of flies)). Since no separate conjugation is recognizable for these verbs, their 40 exemplars should be added to the earlier 165 of triconsonantal type. The total ‘scatter’ of, say, yxə́rbəš within the conjugation is yxə́rbəš – yttxə́rbəš – (a)yxə́rbəš – xə́rbəš. 1.5 Final -Ca and -CəC in Conjugations 1 and 2 The occurrence of a (potentially) long vowel a in a final syllable -Ca renders that syllable equipollent with one of structure -CəC, so that e.g. yəšká (complain) is structurally parallel with the earlier yəbḥə́ṛ. This is reflected in the conjugation of many -Ca verbs, which is as that of -CəC counterparts, i.e. yəšká – yšə́kka – (a)yə́ška – ə́ška. At first sight yəflí – yfə́lli – (a)yə́fli – ə́fli and yəkrú – ykə́rru – (a)yə́kru – ə́kru suggest that final -i and -u should be added to -a within the conjugation, but further research shows that these [-i]- and [-u]-ending verbs are to be interpreted as -əy and -əw and therefore as belonging to the yəbḥə́ṛ type. Thus, the 2 s. past forms təflə́yəd (you (s.) stoned (dates)) or the plural imperative form ə́fəlyət and the corresponding təkrə́wəd (you (s.) scratched) and the plural imperative ə́kərwət clearly support interpretations yəflə́y and yəkrə́w for the 3 s.m. past 7

forms. At all events, the first conjugation should be subdivided into 1(a) (-CəC type) and 1(b) (-Ca type). -Ca ending verbs often, though not invariably, correspond to Arabic cognate forms containing a weak final radical. There are 30 such verbs in the sample. Cəy [-i] and Cəw [-u] ending verbs, 13 in all, are more often of Berber stock, though some are Arabic ‘loans’. Note: Reference should be made in passing to the fact that the structure yəC1C2á is also that of the past tense of numerous verbs of Berber origin in whose conjugation the final vowel is absent from the other tenses and the imperative. See in particular Conjugation 6 below, details of which are to be found at 1.10 and 1.13. The second conjugation may also be subdivided into the triconsonantal type with final -CəC syllable, illustrated by yrə́qqəʕ above, and a second subtype with medial geminate consonant and final syllable -Ca. An example of subtype (b), from among 17 in the sample, is yʕə́zza – y(ə)ttʕə́zza – (a)yʕə́zza – ʕə́zza (comfort, offer condolences). To sum up conjugational distinctions made so far, these are as follows: Conj. 1 (a)

(yə)C1C2(ə)C3:

yəbḥə́ṛ – ybə́ḥḥəṛ – (a)yə́bḥəṛ – ə́bḥəṛ (spot, see) (309 exx., incl. -əy and -əw exx.) (b)

(yə)C1C2a:

yəšká – yšə́kka – (a)yə́ška – ə́ška (complain) (30 exx.) Conj. 2 (a)

(y)C1(ə)C2C2(ə)C3:

yrə́qqəʕ – y(ə)ttrə́qqəʕ – (a)yrə́qqəʕ – rə́qqəʕ (patch (clothes)) (205 exx., all with consonants occupying 4 structural ‘places’ within a stem)

8

(b)

(y)C1(ə)C2C2a:

yʕə́zza – y(ə)ttʕə́zza – (a)yʕə́zza – ʕə́zza (condole) (17 exx.) It will be seen that Conjugations 1 and 2 account for roughly twothirds of the sample. 1.6 Conjugation 3 Some verbs, 18 in all, combine -CV- (usually -Ca-, but -Cu- and -Ciin four cases) in the penultimate syllable with ultimate CəC, and this typically entails the occurrence of the long open vowel -a- before the final consonant of the present tense, though the conjugation is otherwise 2(a) above. An example is ysáməḥ – y(ə)ttsámaḥ – (a)ysáməḥ – sáməḥ (forgive). Free variation seems to occur in two cases between forms with and without the long vowel in question; thus, both y(ə)ttxáḍaṛ (he bets, wagers) and y(ə)ttxáḍəṛ, y(ə)ttqábal (he meets by appointment) and y(ə)ttqábəl appear to be acceptable. Most examples seem to be of Arabic loans, and there is an occasional tenuous semantic link between this conjugation and Conj. 1, e.g. yəḥsə́b – yḥə́ssəb – (a)yə́ḥsəb – ə́ḥsəb (Conj. 1) (count): yḥásəb – yttḥássab – (a)yḥásəb – ḥásəb (Conj. 3) (settle (an account)). It was seen at 1.3 that Conjs. 1 and 2 of verbs with ‘weak’ second radical, y or w, fairly commonly exhibit semantic links between them, and these links may be extended, though extremely rarely, to include Conj. 3, e.g. (Conj. 1) yḍáq – yttḍáqa [iḍḍa-] – áyḍaq (no impve.) (feel stifled, as in (ə)nnə́fsiw yḍáq (I feel stifled): (Conj. 2) yḍə́yyəq – yttḍə́yyəq [-ḍḍ-] – (a)yḍáyyəq – ḍə́yyəq (be narrow, tight (of jacket); pinch of shoe; narow (tr.)): (Conj. 3) yḍáyəq – yttḍáyaq [-ḍḍ-] – (a)yḍáyəq – ḍáyəq (squash, constrict, squeeze out, as in g(ə)ʕməz llús(ə)ʕ, waɣənḍ(ḍ)ayíqš (sit further away, don’t squash us!). As in the cases of the first two conjugations, a second subtype (b) of Conj. 3, mustering 5 examples, occurs with final -a in place of -CəC, e.g. ynáda – y(ə)ttnáda – (a)ynáda – náda (call s.o., summon s.o.). The two cases of Cu- in place of Ca- include the evident European (Italian? French?) loan yṣúbən – yṣṣúban (with assimilation of tt- to ṣ-) – (a)yṣúbən – ṣúbən (wash (body, clothes, etc.) with soap; be washed (clothes)) and the apparently indigenous ykúbər – y(ə)ttkúbar – (a)ykúbər – kúbər (dig, 9

cultivate; be dug). There are two examples of i in place of a and u, e.g. yšíḍan – yttšíḍan – (a)yšíḍən – šíḍən (be naughty). This, then, is Conj. 3, verbs whose final two syllables in the past tense are characterized by the structure -C1VC2əC3/-C1aC2a: Conj. 3 (a)

(y)C1aC2(ə)C3:

ytážər – yttážar – (a)ytážər – tážər (trade) (12 exx.) (b)

(y)C1aC2a:

(y)ʕába – y(ə)ttʕába – (a)yʕába – ʕába (get one’s own back on s.o.) (5 exx.) (c)

(y)C1uC2(ə)C3:

ykúbər – y(ə)ttkúbar – (a)ykúbər – kúbər (dig, cultivate) (2 exx.) (d)

(y)C1iC2(ə)C3:

yhíṣək – ytthíṣak – (a)yhíṣək – híṣək (behave crazily) (said to have been imported during the last war) (2 exx.) Note: yláqqa – yttláqqa – (a)yláqqa – láqqa (meet by chance), a unique example of structure (y)C1aC2C2a in which C2 is geminated and preceded by a, is perhaps also classifiable at 2(b) but has, in fact, not been included. 1.7 Conjugation 4 For the purpose of systematic presentation, final attention is given in this and the following section to further types of predominantly Arabic loans, whereafter conjugations of unmistakably Berber origin are considered. Like Berber, Arabic makes widespread morphological use of a voiceless dento-alveolar unemphatic consonant t, not least in the derived forms of the verb. Thus, Conj. 4 comprises t and Conj. 2 of 1.5 and clearly reflects the frequent Arabic pattern in which t- is prefixed to a root whose consonant is at the same time geminated, though there are no similar Berber reflexes of the combination found in Arabic of t- and -C1aC2əC3 of Conj. 3(a) (see 1.6), an ‘absence’ undoubtly explained by the productive association of a derivational 10

Berber prefix m- with Conj. 3(a) in the reciprocal examples that are given in section 3.14. As cross-conjugational semantic links of Arabic derivation were earlier seen to apply somewhat sporadically to Conjugations 1 and 2, so in a few even more sporadic cases similar association occurs between Conj. 1 and Conj. 4, e.g. yəḥkə́m (catch, hold; rule (as father), look after) (Conj. 1): y(ə)tḥə́kkəm (look after, assume responsibility for, become ruler over) (Conj. 4) and yəmlə́s (escape; slip off (e.g. of dog-chain)) (Conj. 1): yətmə́lləs (of humans only) slip, slide out of, seek to excuse oneself). In some even rarer cases, these links may cover three conjugations, for example Conjs. 1, 2, and 4 with yəʕlá – yʕə́lla – (no other form) (be high), yʕə́lla – yttʕə́lla – (a)yʕə́lla – ʕə́lla (raise), and yətʕə́lla – yttətʕə́lla – (a)yətʕə́lla – (ə)tʕə́lla (climb (intr.) go higher, be promoted). However, Conjugation 2 may also occur within the same root as 4 but without evident semantic link, e.g. yṛə́bbəʕ (leave Zuara for countryside in spring): y(ə)tṛə́bbəʕ (squat cross-legged), whereas in other rather rare cases both conjugations are used without distinction of meaning, e.g. ynə́xxəm or y(ə)tnə́xxəm (hawk, clear throat and nose before spitting). In the several regional forms of spoken Arabic, prefixed t- is often subject to assimilation to the abutting first consonant of the root, especially when the latter is itself characterized by in part alveolar articulation, fricative or plosive. These consonants include d, ṭ, ḍ, s, ṣ, z, ẓ, š, ž (exceptionally also k and g in Egypt), and assimilations of this kind occur in the Zuaran Berber examples y(ə)ssə́ḥḥəṛ (breakfast before daylight during Ramadan), y(ə)ṣṣə́bbəḥ (be at a given location at daybreak), y(ə)žžə́mməl (boast of having done s.o. a favour). Certain of these verbs may be semantically related to cognates from Conj. 2, e.g. y(ə)ssə́qqəd – yttsə́qqad – (a)y(ə)sə́qqəd – əsə́qqəd (go, depart) and ysə́qqəd – yttsə́qqəd – aysə́qqəd – sə́qqəd (help s.o. prepare for journey, see s.o. off). It is somewhat confusing that assimilation and gemination in such examples as y(ə)ssə́ḥḥəṛ cut across Berber forms containing the causal prefix s- (see 3), which is itself subject to not dissimilar facts of assimilation in the present tense, i.e. (tt- + s> [ss]). It is thus not possible to be sure at first whether, say, Berber y(ə)ssə́qqəd (depart) is Arabic of origin. Similarly, the comparable quadriliteral form y(ə)zzə́lfəḍ or y(ə)zzə́lfəṭ (slip out of one’s grasp) seems at first sight to be clearly Berber and indeed perhaps is, notwithstanding the occurrence of a Classical Arabic root /zlq (slip, 11

slide). It might seem that such forms are in part treated as Berber sforms because, as in s-derivatives, a long open vowel occurs in the final syllable of their present tenses, i.e. y(ə)ttsə́ḥḥaṛ, y(ə)ttṣə́bbaḥ, and even, as a possible variant, y(ə)ttzə́lfaḍ [iddz-], but, in contrast with these examples, the present prefix tt- is assimilated in s-forms (see above) and the long vowel does not occur in Conj. 4 without exception, cf. y(ə)žžə́mməl. Moreover, in other examples of the conjugational type in which the first radical consonant is not a sibilant, no question arises of adaptation to Berber s-forms, e.g. y(ə)tʕə́ṛṛəḍ (detain s.o., make s.o. stay), whose present tense conforms to the pattern y(ə)ttətC1-, i.e. y(ə)ttətʕə́ṛṛəḍ, with no initial consonantal assimilation and schwa in the final syllable. Nevertheless, confusion can easily arise as a result not only of similar s-derivatives but also from the free variation in some cases between ə and a and, in addition, from the fact that the formation of the present tense in Conj. 4 is as that in Conj. 2. yttsə́qqad appears to be the present of past ysə́qqəd and yttsə́qqəd the present of yəssə́qqəd, but one may anticipate a good deal of fluctuation in practice. In the case of yəṣṣə́nnət (listen), the present forms yttṣə́nnət and yttṣə́nnat are said to be freely variant, and elsewhere similar variation occurs with the Conj. 2 quadriliteral exemplar yzə́lbəḥ (deceive out of fun), whose present tense variously occurs in the form yttzə́lbəḥ [iddz-] or yttzə́lbaḥ [izz-]. Any confusion is compounded by the fact that the occasional Berber forms occur with prefixed t-, e.g. tfísəx (trick s.o., be sarcastic to s.o.). This prefix should not, of course, be confused with the feminine singular personal prefix t- in e.g. the s-form tsífəf (sieve (usu. flour after milling)), an activity normally conducted by women, whence the form of the prefix. As elsewhere in association with a long vowel in the preceding syllable, a long vowel also characterizes the final syllable of the present tense of tfisəx, i.e. y(ə)ttfísix. Berber t-prefixed forms like tfísəx are extremely rare in the dialect. In spite of some hesitation over some of the aforementioned forms containing a long open vowel in the final syllable of the present tense, it has been decided to include them as a second subtype (b) of a fourth conjugation. Examples are limited to the three or four examples that have been cited. A third subtype involves, as in the case of the earlier second conjugation, a final syllable of structure CV, where V = a, in place of the more frequent and equipollent -CəC 12

structure, e.g. y(ə)tʕə́šša – y(ə)ttətʕə́šša – (a)y(ə)tʕə́šša – (a)tʕə́šša (dine). Conjugation 4 thus comprises: (a)

(yə)tC1(ə)C2C2(ə)C3:

y(ə)tmə́rrəɣ – y(ə)ttətmə́rrəɣ – (a)y(ə)tmə́rrəɣ – (ə)tmə́rrəɣ ((of animal) lie and roll over on clean sand) (8 exx. in sample) (b)

(yə)tC1(=s/z/ž)(ə)C2C2(ə)C3:

y(ə)ssə́ḥḥəṛ – y(ə)ttsə́ḥḥaṛ – (a)y(ə)ssə́ḥḥəṛ – (a)ssə́ḥḥəṛ (break fast before daylight in Ramadan) (5 exx., incl. y(ə)ssə́qqəd (depart) and y(ə)zzə́lfəḍ (slip out of one’s grasp)) (c)

(yə)tC1(ə)C2C2a:

y(ə)tʕə́lla – y(ə)ttətʕə́lla – (a)y(ə)tʕə́lla – (ə)tʕə́lla (climb (up)) (3 exx.) Note: -t- also occurs in other Arabic derived forms, notably as part of a compound prefix st- and as an infixed element following the first consonant of the root. The latter occurs quite frequently in Berber reflexes of Arabic weak verbs, ‘doubled’ (wherein the final radical consonant is geminated) and ‘hollow’ (wherein a long open vowel appears in place of a second radical consonant). An account of this infixed -t- is given at 1.8. Only one example of it, however, has been found with a triradical root, i.e. yəžtmə́ʕ – y(ə)ttə́žtməʕ – (a)yə́žtməʕ – (ə́)žtməʕ (gather together, assemble (intr.)). Another ‘oddity’ is yənṣbə́t (keep out of sight), which lacks a present tense and may just possibly be seen as related to the Arabic root /nṣb (take in, deceive). It has not been felt justified to give conjugational status to these two verbs. Similarly excluded are the two verbs found containing the earlier prefix st-, i.e. yəstmə́rr – y(ə)ttə́stmərr – (a)yə́stmərr – ə́stmərr (continue, said by my informant to be at the time a new verb in the dialect, and the widely used yəstḥə́qq – yttəstḥə́qqa – (a)yə́stḥəqq – (no impve.) (deserve). The final open vowel is noteworthy in the present tense of the second example and occurs again in Conjugation 5 at 1.8. 1.8 Conjugation 5 The infixed -t- in association with the ‘doubled’ Arabic verb occurs in four Berber reflexes of mostly defective conjugation, i.e. lacking pre13

sent tense or imperative or both, including yəxtə́ll – yttəxtə́lla – (a)yə́xtəll – (no impve.) (behave crazily). The final open vowel of the present is again noteworthy. It occurs in free variation with zero in yəftə́šš – yttəftə́šša or yttə́ftəšš – (a)yə́ftəšš – (imperative rare) (go down (of tyre, boil, etc.)). A spoken Arabic passive verbal form derived with a prefix n- is reflected in the single example of comparable structure yənfə́kk – (no pres.) – (a)yə́nfə́kk – (no impve.) (be dislocated (e.g. thumb)). These 5 verbs belong, then, to a fifth conjugation. They may, however, reasonably be considered as the first subtype of the conjugation, of which the second subtype contains cognates of Arabic ‘hollow’ verbs with infixed -t-. Two examples are yərtáḥ – yttə́rtaḥ or yttərtáḥa – (a)yə́rtaḥ – ə́rtaḥ (rest) and yəṣṭád – yttə́ṣṭad or yttəṣṭáda – (a)yə́ṣṭad – ə́ṣṭad (hunt, go shooting). The strong tendency for the association of a long stem vowel with a long final vowel is noteworthy and occurs with all three vowels in numerous conjugations. Conjugation 5 therefore includes: (a)

(yə)C1t(ə)C2C2:

yəftə́šš – yttə́ftəšš or yttəftə́šša – (a)yə́ftəšš – ə́ftəšš (rare) (go down (tyre, boil, etc.)) (7 exx., including, perhaps erroneously, the m-form yəṃṃə́ḍs (soil, desecrate) and yəffə́xs (hatch (eggs)) (b)

(yə)C1taC2:

yərtáḥ – yttə́rtaḥ or yttərtáḥa – (a)yə́rtaḥ – ə́rtaḥ (rest) (2 exx.) 1.9 Summary of Conjugations 1–5 To summarize so far, the conjugations and their subdivisions which have been distinguished above as those which most evidently, though not exclusively, incorporate Arabic loans within a Berber framework of imperative and tense, and whose exemplars number approximately three-quarters of the sample, are as follows:

14

Conj. 1 (a)

(past type) (yə)C1C2(ə)C3:

yətʕə́b – ytə́ʕʕəb – (a)yə́tʕəb – ə́tʕəb (tire; be tired; go) (incl. exx. like yərnə́y – yrə́nnəy – (a)yə́rnəy – ə́rnəy (add, increase), yəḥšə́w – yḥə́ššəw – (a)yə́ḥšəw – ə́ḥšəw (stuff (e.g. into sack, drawer)) (b)

(yə)C1C2a:

yəbná – ybə́nna – (a)yə́bna – ə́bna (build; (have) be(en) built) Conj. 2 (a)

(y)C1(ə)C2C2(ə)C3:

yḥə́zzəm – y(ə)ttḥə́zzəm – (a)yḥə́zzəm – ḥə́zzəm (bind, make bundle of) (b)

(y)C1(ə)C2C2a:

yzə́kka – y(ə)ttzə́kka [iddz-] – (a)yzə́kka – zə́kka (give alms) (c)

(y)C1aC2a:

yʕába – y(ə)ttʕába – (a)yʕába – ʕába (get one’s own back on s.o.) Conj. 3 (a)

(y)C1aC2(ə)C3:

yxátəl – y(ə)ttxátal – (a)yxátəl – xátəl (approach stealthily) (b)

(y)C1uC2əC3:

ykúbər – yttkúbar – (a)ykúbər – kúbər (dig, cultivate) (c) (y)C1iC2(ə)C3: yšíḍən – yttšíḍan – (a)yšíḍən – šíḍən (be naughty)

15

Conj. 4 (a)

(yə)tC1(ə)C2C2(ə)C3:

yətṛə́bbəʕ – y(ə)ttṛə́bbəʕ – (a)y(ə)tṛə́bbəʕ – (ə)tṛə́bbəʕ (sit properly (with crossed legs)) (b)

(yə)C1C1(ə)C2C2(ə)C3:

yəṣṣə́nnət – y(ə)ttṣə́nnət or y(ə)ttṣə́nnat – (a)y(ə)ṣṣə́nnət – (ə)ṣṣə́nnət (listen (out)) (c)

(yə)C1(ə)C2C2a:

yətɣə́dda – yttətɣə́dda – (a)y(ə)tɣə́dda – (ə)tɣə́dda (lunch) Conj. 5 (a)

(yə)C1t(ə)C2C2:

yəftə́šš – yttə́ftəšš or yttəftə́šša – (a)yə́ftəšš – ə́ftəšš (go down (tyre, boil, etc.)) (other exx. defective) (b) (yə)C1taC2 : yərtáḥ – yttə́rtaḥ or yttərtáḥa – (a)yə́rtaḥ – ə́rtaḥ (rest) 1.10 Conjugation 6 Reference was made at 1.5 to the fact that the past tense structure yəC1C2á of Conj. 1(b), though common among Arabic loans, also occurs frequently in conjugations of predominantly Berber type and membership. Conjugation 6 is one such. It differs chiefly from 1(b) by the absence of final -a in the imperative and the two nonpast tenses, e.g. yəẓṛá – yẓə́ṛṛ – áyẓəṛ (‘dependent’ aor. yə́ẓəṛ) – ə́ẓəṛ (see). Gemination of the second radical and oxytonic accentuation in the present tense are notable features, together with the elision in the aorist of the first ə of the imperative and ‘transfer’ of the accent to prefixal a- to ‘safeguard’ paroxytonic accentuation. In the example, the occurrence of schwa between first and second radicals relates to the presence of a ‘liquid’ consonant (ṛ) as second radical. A similar example is yəslá – ysə́ll – áysəl – (dependent aorist yə́səl) – ə́səl (lis16

ten), with l in place of ṛ, but a liquid as first radical or two consonants of non-liquid type entail the frequent pattern in which ə precedes a cluster of the two radicals, i.e. yəṛẓá – yṛə́ẓẓ – áyəṛẓ (dependent yəṛẓ) – əṛẓ (break), yənɣá – ynə́qq – áyənɣ [- ƞʁ] (dependent yənɣ) – ənɣ (kill), yəmtá – ymə́tt – áyəmt (dependent yəmt) – əmt (bury), yəḍṣá – yḍə́ṣṣ – áyəḍṣ (dependent yəḍṣ) – ə́ḍ(ə)ṣ (laugh, mock), etc. Undoubtedly the presence of w as second radical and the unacceptability of its post-vocalic and final gemination entails irregularity in the present tense of yəswá – ysə́ss – áysəw [-su] (dependent yə́səw) – ə́səw [-su] (drink, smoke). 10 examples of this conjugational type occur in the sample, including the irregular yəswá. This is subtype (a) of Conj. 6. In subtype (b), the 3 s.m. past tense is again of the pattern yəC1C2á and (b) is principally distinguished from (a) in the present tense, by gemination of the first radical as opposed to the second and by the occurrence of -a- between the two radicals. Examples are perhaps even more clearly of Berber type. Thus, the exemplar yəɣrá – yəqqár – áyɣər (dependent yə́ɣər) – ə́ɣər (read, study), notwithstanding its clear relationship to an Arabic root /qry (read), belongs to a conjugation whose phonological and morphological features owe nothing to Arabic. The gemination of the first radical in the present tense, specifically in the form of the voiceless uvular plosive corresponding to the voiced uvular fricative in the remaining paradigms, is typically Berber. Like (a), subtype (b) is marked by the occurrence of final -a in the past tense only, by the twofold occurrence of ə with final liquid in the imperative ə́ɣər, and by the elision of the first ə following the prefixation of a- in the aorist, i.e. ə́ɣər > *ayə́ɣər > áyɣər, with the accent located on a-. As in the case of (a), the incidence of ə varies in the imperative and the aorist. The two radicals are separated by ə when the second is a liquid, and also in the case of s + ɣ in yəsɣá – yəssáɣ – áysəɣ (dependent yə́səɣ) – ə́səɣ (buy). A similar example is yəflá – yəffál – áyfəl (dependent yə́fəl) – ə́fəl (go), which contrasts with yəɣzá – yəqqáz – áyəɣz (dependent yə́ɣz) – ə́ɣz (dig, be dug (of deep hole)). In contrast with paroxytonic accentuation in the imperative and aorist, the oxytonic accent not only of the past tense but also of the present is once again noteworthy. Other members of the subtype, 8 in all, exhibit characteristically Berber correspondences nongeminate w : geminate gg, nongeminate ḍ : geminate ṭṭ, e.g. 17

yəwyá – yəggáy – áywəy [-wi] (dependent yə́wəy) – ə́wəy [ˈɪwi] (take, contain), yəḍṛá – yəṭṭáṛ – áyḍəṛ (dependent yə́ḍəṛ) – ə́ḍəṛ (fly), the former of clearly Berber type, the latter behaving in Berber manner despite its Arabic cognation. In passing, the form [jɪuˈjæ͈̈ ] (= yəwyá) is interesting for the fact of the phonetic diphthong in the first syllable, which is plausibly owed to the close junction of the two semivowels and the consequent need to ‘protect’ the nature of the labiovelar radical w. The example is unique, and contrasts with the common occurrence of [ju-] elsewhere, with [u] variously interpretable as -əw or as long vowel u in response to the occurrence or not of w in related forms (cf. yəswá above). Conj. 6, therefore, is subdivided as follows: Conj. 6 (yə)C1C2(a) (bracketed a = omitted from nonpast): (a) yənsá – ynə́ss – áy(ə)ns – ə́ns (spend the night; be left over (of food) from day before) (10 exx.) (b) yəẓḍá – yəẓẓáḍ – áy(ə)ẓḍ – ə́ẓ(ə)ḍ (grind, be ground (flour)) (8 exx.) There is a choice between recognizing a third subtype (c) with the two members yədžá – yttádža – áyədž (dependent yədž) – ədž (leave, let), and yərrá – yttárra – áyərr (dependent yərr) – ərr (return s.t.), with -a ‘retained’ in the present tense out of keeping with those subtypes (a) and (b) or, perhaps less satisfactorily, of regarding them as irregular. The sequences d + ž and t + š, often realized as affricates, can pose problems of interpretation, and this is certainly the case of yətšá – ytə́tt – áyətš (dependent yətš) – ətš (eat), which, though exhibiting elimination of -a in nonpast paradigms, also seems to eliminate š in the present. There is apparently nothing for it but to regard this verb as irregular. 1.11 Conjugations 7, 8 It will have been seen by now that it is primarily difference between the past and present tenses that has been used as the basis for the recognition of different conjugations. 18

Relationship between past, aorist, and imperative is of a much more predictable kind. The present tense is marked chiefly by one or two morphological processes, prefixation of tt- or gemination of a radical consonant, variously first or second in the root. In contrast, two conjugations, 7 and 8, whose members usually contain two radical consonants, are characterized by the past tense gemination of either the first or second radical. Conj. 7, with first radical geminated, is highly productive and regular, whereas 8 is subject to irregularities in the present tense. Reference was made at 1.3 to sporadic instances of cross-conjugational derivation by gemination of a 2nd radical; there are suggestions, too, of occasional derivation by gemination of a 1st radical, e.g. yəksá (Conj. 1 (b)) (clothe the poor; buy clothes for special occasion) versus yəkkə́s (take off, e.g. clothes), yəṛẓá (Conj. 6(a)) (break (tr.)) versus yəṛṛə́ẓ (Conj. 7) (break (intr.), be broken), and, too, though involving an s- derived verb (see 3), the form yənzá (be sold) versus yəzzə́nz (sell). With wider reference to the significant use of gemination in the dialect, these C1-doubled forms should also be compared with the doubling of C2 in the present tense of the first member of such pairs as well as the further doubling of C1 in the present tense of Conj. 6(b). To return exclusively to Conjugation 7, the sample contains 27 members exemplified by yəẓẓə́f – yttə́ẓẓəf – (a)yə́ẓẓəf – ə́ẓẓəf (shout; wail, lament), including 4 which end phonetically with the vowel [-u], which, on the evidence of relata among the derived forms and the verbal noun may be regarded as of structure -Cəw in their final syllables. In contrast with comparable Conj. 1 forms in which the labio-velar semi-vowel appeared in e.g. second person forms of the past paradigm, e.g. təkrə́wəd (you (s.) scratched) (< yəkrə́w [-u]), Conj. 7 verbs ending in -əw contain a back rounded vowel doubtless as a result of the different overall structure of the form, e.g. (tə)ttə́ẓẓəwd [-ẓoˑḍ] (you (s.) planted), (tə)ttə́ttud (you (s.) forgot). There are problems, however, that have not been fully resolved. Thus, though examples of phonetically final [-i] are all to be interpreted as -Cəy on the basis of related forms like the plural imperative, e.g. ə́bbyət from yəbbə́y [-bi] – yttə́bbəy – (a)yə́bbəy – ə́bbəy (collect), this contrasts with -Cəw ending exemplars, cf. plural imperative ə́ttut. To summarize,

19

Conj. 7 (yə)C1C1(ə)C2: yəllə́m – yttə́lləm – (a)yə́lləm – ə́lləm (plait (rope)) (27 exx.) Conj. 8 involves gemination of the second radical. Its membership is much more limited than Conj. 7 and is subject to irregularities in the present tense. Thus, despite the paucity of examples, ybə́dd – yttbə́dda – áybədd (dependent yə́bədd) – ə́bədd (stand up, stand upright) and ymə́ll – yttmə́lla – áyməll (dependent yə́məll) – ə́məll (dictate, give dictation to (class)) seem to conform in respect of the use of -tt- and final -a in the present to patterning elsewhere within the total conjugational array, but yɣə́ẓẓaẓ, present tense in the scatter of yɣə́ẓẓ – yɣə́ẓẓaẓ – áyɣəẓẓ (dependent yə́ɣəẓẓ) – ə́ɣəẓẓ (munch, crunch (e.g. dry dates)) is decidedly an ‘odd man out’ from its final duplication of C2. Unfortunately, no present tense form is attested for yhə́žž – (no present) – áyhəžž – (dependent yə́həžž) – ə́həžž (flee, abandon a place), which might have confirmed the regularity of yttbə́dda, yttmə́lla, and this is also true of yṣə́ḥḥ (get well after illness). The present tense of ywə́tt (hit, strike), i.e. yttšát, seems even more irregular than yɣə́ẓẓaẓ. Yet irregularity occurs only in the present tense of both verbs, whose aorists and imperatives are in agreement with those of e.g. ybə́dd, i.e. áyɣəẓẓ (dependent yə́ɣəẓẓ) – ə́ɣəẓẓ and áywətt (dependent yə́wətt) – ə́wətt. Perhaps, therefore, it is permissible to recognize them as belonging to Conj. 8(b). In passing, the difference of final length and/or tenseness of articulation are noteworthy between the sing. impve. forms of say, ə́məll (dictate) and ə́məl (say), ə́wətt (strike) and ə́m(ə)t (bury), ə́ɣəẓẓ (munch) and ə́ɣẓ (dig), differences that are maintained also in the aorist. With allowance made for the present tense differences that have been stated, the conjugation may be summarized as Conj. 8 (y)C1əC2C2: ybə́dd – yttbə́dda – áybədd (dependent yə́bədd) – ə́bədd (stand up(right)) (6 exx., incl. yɣə́ẓẓ and ywətt, both irregular in their present tense).

20

1.12 Conjugations 9, 10, 11 Henceforth attention is paid to those verbs of whose root structure V is part. Firstly, consideration is given to cases in which V is interconsonantal, within several different structures. It is again the form of the present tense that is of greatest interest, and, nothwithstanding considerable apparent structural differences in terms of e.g. constituent vowels or gemination of consonants, there is again almost complete regularization between past, imperative, and aorist. Conjugational recognition must first be given to the type y(ə)bán, already mentioned in respect of the relationship it develops with Conj. 2 (see 1.3 above). It is the type which par excellence would provide justification for the traditional derivation of all other paradigms from the imperative. It is the only one. Thus, the ‘scatter’ of y(ə)bán is y(ə)bán – yttə́ban – áyban (dependent yə́ban) – ə́ban. Excluded are the three examples in which C1 = d or ḍ, where tt- is assimilated for voice and (non)emphasis to the consonant, and, possibly to avoid any possible confusion with the past tense as well as to meet the requirements of permissible syllable structure and in order to maintain paroxytonic accentuation, final -a is added in the present tense, i.e. yttdáxa [iddæ̈ -] (be faint, giddy), yttḍába [iḍḍa-] (be ripe, cooked). This, then is Conj. 9 (a)

(y)C1aC2:

yɣáb – yttə́ɣab – áyɣab (dependent yə́ɣab) – ə́ɣab (be absent) (24 exx.) (b)

(y)d/ḍaC2

ydáb – yttdába [idd-] – áydab (dependent yə́dab) – ə́dab (dissolve, be dissolved) (3 exx.) Note: A suggestion of instability occurs with the case of yṛáḥ (be lost), whose present form varies freely between yttə́ṛaḥ and yttṛáḥa. The outstanding characteristic of the next conjugation (10) is the occurrence of the vowel u, far less often i and a, in association with geminated consonants – postvocalically under (a) below and prevocalically under (b). The rare exceptions to the feature of gemination 21

are yẓún (divide, share out) and yẓúm (fast (during Ramadan)) at (a)(iii). Like Conjugations 8 and 9, 10 contains very many Arabic cognates, particularly in its highly productive subtype (i), usually relatable to the Arabic ‘doubled’ verb of structure C1VC2C2. (a)(i) provides 46 examples from the sample, all with final geminate consonant after -u-, and with the vowel repeated post-consonantally and final in the present tense (see ylúṭṭ below). Greatly less numerous, (ii) and (iii) contain the vowel i for u interconsonantally ((ii)) and nongeminate for geminate finally ((iii)). Only two examples of (iii) are attested and both contain ẓ as first radical, which entails assimilatory voicing of tt- in the present tense, so that similar remarks might perhaps be made as those which concerned the examples of Conj. 9(b). If examples of z as first radical come to light, one might expect additions to (iii). Subtype (b) is notable firstly for the gemination of C1 in past, aorist, and imperative, thereafter for the occurrence variously of -u-, -a-, and -i- interconsonantally, for the reduction of the prevocalic geminate in the present tense, and the ‘harmonizing’ occurrence of final -u and final -a in the present of yəllúzz, yəqqúr, and yəẓẓáll in contrast with the dissimilation of -i- and -a in the case of yəqqím. The three examples of (b)(i) (yəllúzz), variously with first geminate ll-, mm-, and nn-, probably reflect current or earlier processes of verbal derivation (see also 1.15 and 3). The overall conjugation is as follows: Conj. 10 (a) (i) (y)C1uC2C2: ylúṭṭ – yttlúṭṭu – áyluṭṭ (dependent yə́luṭṭ) – ə́luṭṭ (hit s.o. with back of hand) (46 exx.) (ii) (y)C1iC2C2: ydíqq – yttdíqqi [iddi-] – áydiqq (dependent yə́diqq) – ə́diqq (refuse food (of child); leave one’s husband) (2 exx.) (iii) (y)C1uC2: yẓún – yttẓúnu [iḍḍẓ-] – áyẓun (dependent yə́ẓun) – ə́ẓun (divide, share out) (2 exx.)

22

(b)

(i) (y)C1C1uC2C2:

yəllúzz – yttlúzzu – (a)yə́lluzz – ə́lluzz (run a race) (3 exx., incl. ‘m’forms yəmmúgg (fit (of clothing) and yənnúɣɣ (quarrel, fight)) (ii) (yə)C1C1aC2C2: yəẓẓáll – yttẓálla – (a)yə́ẓẓaḷḷ – ə́ẓẓall (pray) (1 exx.) (iii) (yə)C1C1uC2: yəqqúr – yttɣára – (a)yəqqúr – (no impve.) (be dry) (4 exx.) (iv) (yə)C1C1iC2: yəqqím – yttɣíma – (a)yə́qqim – ə́qqim (rare – usu. qə́yyəm) (stay, remain) (1 ex.) Note: At 10(a), present tense tt- is assimilated for voice to d, ẓ, and ḍ as C1, and if examples were to emerge of z and perhaps ž, no doubt further cases of such assimilation would arise. Available examples are ydúbb – yttdúbbu [iddu-] (walk slowly and painfully), yẓúṛṛ – yttẓúṛṛu [iḍḍẓo-] (dismiss), yḍúmm – yttḍúmmu [iḍḍo-] (collect; arrange (room)). There are fewer examples of Conjugation 11, some of which are, like Conj. 10 (b)(iii), distinguished by difference of vowel and vowel pattern between past and present. The conjugation importantly contains clustered nongeminated consonants variously before u and i and, also variously, final gemination or not. In addition, schwa is required after the present prefix tt- and before the radical cluster, possibly in order to obviate an unacceptable sequence of consonants. In the present tense, final -u and -i ‘echo’ the root vowel. In the cases of yədžúll and yətšúṛ, as in that of yəqqúr under Conj. 10, the vowel a replaces past tense u and is likewise ‘echoed’ finally. The type (yə)C1C2iC3, again with ‘echoing’ or ‘harmonizing’ final -i in the present tense, often relates to an Arabic adjectival pattern C1(a)C2i(i)C3 and, occurring only in past tense form in Zuara, typifies the verb type labelled elsewhere ‘predicative adjectival’ or ‘stative’. Examples are yəxfíf (be light, frivolous), yəṣḥíḥ (be strong, healthy), yənḍíf (be clean). The conjugation thus appears as follows:

23

Conj. 11 (a)

(yə)C1C2uC3C3:

(i) yəbʕúqq – yttəbʕúqqu – (a)yə́bʕuqq – ə́bʕuqq (retch) (1 ex.) (ii) yədžúll – yttədžálla – (a)yə́džull – ə́džull (take an oath) (1 ex.) (b)

(yə)C1C2uC3:

(i) yətšúṛ – yttətšáṛa – (a)yə́tšuṛ – ə́tšur (fill, be full) (1 ex.) (c)

(yə)C1C2iC3:

e.g. yəržíž – yttəržíži – (a)yə́ržiž – ə́ržiž (rare impve.) (shiver, tremble); yənḍíf (no other forms) (be clean) (5 exx.) Note: yəšyán – (no pres.) – (a)yə́šyan – (no impve.) (be weak, feeble, hollow-cheeked) (1 ex.) has been omitted from the conjugation, since, in the absence of a present form, the example is uninstructive. 1.13 Conjugations 12, 13 Conjugation 12 is distinguished by the fact that V precedes the first radical consonant in the root structure. Like 11, it involves alternating values of V as part of the root structure. In the first subtype of the conjugation, u as exponent of V in the structure (y)uC1(ə)C2 alternates with a in the remaining paradigms, e.g. yukə́z – yttákəz – (a)yákəz – yákəz (know, recognize; realize), yurə́y [-ri] – yttárəy – (a)yárəy – árəy (write), tuṛə́w (3 s.f. only) [-ṛo] – ttáṛəw – (a)táṛəw – áṛəw (give birth). This alternating stem structure may be represented as -uC1(ə)C2-aC1(ə)C2 or -uaC1(ə)C2. In the case of yurə́t(t) – yttár(ə)t – (a)yár(ə)t – ár(ə)t (inherit) one might from the corresponding Arabic form have expected this to be a case of u = əw, but this is not so. The close back rounded vowel [u] is nevertheless, of course, variously the phonetic form of u and -əw, and [ju-], as we have seen, is to be interpreted as yəw- in the cases inter alia of yəwsə́r (be old), yəwrə́ɣ (be yellow, ill), yəwhə́g (be afraid) on the strength of such related forms as present tense ywə́ssər, ywə́rrəɣ, ywə́hhəg. There are two members of the conjugational subtype that are noticeably irregular, i.e. yusə́d (come) and yuɣə́d (bring), which seem to incorporate a final -d (motion towards) derived from a Berber directional 24

particle (‘particule de rection’), which is transferred to initial position and doubled in the aorist, i.e. áddyas and áddyaɣ. This type of particle, which in other dialects includes -n (motion from), does not systematically occur in Zuara any more than the variant ad- for the regular aorist prefix a- (see, however, 2.4 below), though, as elsewhere, there seem to be ‘remnants’ of the directional particles in, say, the system of demonstratives. With reference to áddyas, it should perhaps be said that a regularized ayásəd does occur, albeit very rarely, for áddyas, and that an imperative form ásəd, also very rare, may possibly be heard for the normally used suppletive idáwərd. An irregular infix -y- also occurs in the present and aorist of yuzə́g – yttáyzag – (a)yáyzəg – (no impve.) (boil, be boiling), but in spite of these anomalies the basis for the conjugation seems regular enough, and, counting the irregular forms, there are 13 members of the subtype. One contains an unusually geminated first consonant following -u- but behaves regularly, i.e. yuzzə́l – yttázzəl – (a)yázzəl – ázzəl (run). The conjugation, like examples of Conj. 6(a) and (b), is subject to the deletion of past tense -a in all other paradigms, with the notable exception of yuḍá – yttúṭṭa – (a)yúḍa – úḍa (fall), which has not been classified. In addition, as with the preceding cases of -uC1(ə)C2 -aC1(ə)C2, the vowel -u- of the past tense alternates with -a- in the other paradigms, so that the stem structure is formulable as -uaC(a). An exception is the commonly occurring verb yušá – yttítš – áyuš (dependent yuš) – uš (give), whose present tense is notably irregular. Regular examples are yurá – yttár – áyar – (dependent yar) – ar (open), yufá – yttáf – áyaf (dependent yaf) – af (find), yuɣá – yttáɣ – áyaɣ (dependent yaɣ) – aɣ (marry; hurt; stain). These are the only three examples of the subtype but they are of very high frequency. The conjugation is thus: Conj. 12 (a)

(y)uC1(ə)C2:

yugə́l – yttágəl – (a)yágəl – ə́gəl (hang (tr. and intr.) (13 exx., incl. yusə́d, yuɣə́d, and yuzə́g)

25

(b)

(y)uC(a):

yufá – yttáf – áyaf (dependent yaf) – af (find) (3 exx.) (Excs. yuḍá – yttúṭṭa – (a)yúḍa – úḍa (fall), yušá – yttítš – áyuš (dependent yuš) – uš (give)) Conjugation 13, of limited membership, is of the generalized structure -V1C1V2/əC2, with variation in the exponency of V. In subtype (a), in contrast with Conj. 12, the stem vowel preceding C1 is i and remains throughout the scatter, but -a- is interposed between C1 and C2 in the present tense in the manner of the exceptional yttáyzag of Conj. 12. In this respect the subtype also bears some resemblance to Conj. 3 (see 1.9). There is a strong general tendency for a long vowel in the final syllable to follow a long vowel in that which precedes. Examples of (a) are yiẓə́ḍ – yttíẓaḍ – (a)yíẓ(ə)ḍ – íẓ(ə)ḍ (measure (cereals)), yinə́z – yttínaz – (a)yín(ə)z – ín(ə)z (bend or squat to pick s.t. up; start eating), yiṛə́ḍ – yttíṛaḍ – (a)yíṛəḍ – íṛəḍ (put on (clothes)). In other subtypes, V replaces ə in the forms of a, i, and u, whereas, preceding C1, V is variously i or u. This variation is free in the case of yiṛáṛ / yuṛáṛ (play) but choice of this kind is unavailable elsewhere, and the duplication of C in the example is noteworthy. V2 following C1 either ‘harmonizes’ with V1, i.e. -i-iC2 or -u-uC2 or otherwise ‘dissimilates’ to -a-, i.e. -i-aC2 or -u-aC2. In these respects, yiníg (sing) and yugúr (walk) contrast with yiṛáṛ (play) and yutláy (speak). In spite of these vocalic differences, the structural similarity of the examples justifies their unitary classification. Some examples are defective, e.g. yiríd (be clean, washed), which lacks a present tense and imperative; likewise, yiẓáy (be bitter) and yumúm (be sweet), which occur only in the past (predicatival or stative) form. Finally, it seems reasonable to include as a further subtype yigá – yttíg – áyig (dependent yig) – ig (do, make), which maintains the stem vowel -i- in all paradigms. The conjugation is, therefore, divisible as follows: Conj. 13 (a)

(y)iC1(ə)C2:

yinə́z – yttínaz – (a)yín(ə)z – ín(ə)z (bend to pick up ; start eating) (3 exx.) 26

(b)

(y)i/uC1aC1/C2:

yiṛáṛ or yuṛáṛ – yttíṛaṛ or yttúṛaṛ – (a)yíṛaṛ or (a)yúṛaṛ – íṛaṛ or úṛaṛ (play); yutláy – yttútlay – (a)yútlay – útlay (speak) (3 exx.) (c)

(y)iC1iC2:

yiníg – yttínig – (a)yínig – ínig (sing) (2 exx.) (d)

(y)uC1uC2:

yugúr – yttúgur – (a)yúgur – úgur (walk) (2 exx.) (e) (y)iC(a): yigá – yttíg – áyig (dependent yig) – ig (do, make) (1 ex.) Note: The auxiliary yisí (no other forms) (was, used to + Verb) has been excluded from the foregoing, perhaps unjustifiably. 1.14 Overall summary of Conjugations 1–13 The 13 conjugations recognized in the above sections are repeated here for reference purposes: Conj. 1 (a)

(past type) (yə)C1C2(ə)C3:

yətʕə́b – ytə́ʕʕəb – (a)yə́tʕəb – ə́tʕəb (tire; be tired; go) (309 exx., incl. those like yərnə́y – yrə́nnəy – (a)yə́rnəy – ə́rnəy (add, increase), yəḥšə́w – yḥə́ššəw – (a)yə́ḥšəw – ə́ḥšəw (stuff (e.g into sack, drawer)) (b)

(yə)C1C2a:

yəbná – ybə́nna – (a)yə́bna – ə́bna (build; (have) be(en) built) (30 exx.) Conj. 2 (a)

(y)C1(ə)C2C2(ə)C3:

yḥə́zzəm – y(ə)ttḥə́zzəm – (a)yḥə́zzəm – ḥə́zzəm (bind, make bundle of) (205 exx.)

27

(b)

(y)C1(ə)C2C2a :

yzə́kka – y(ə)ttzə́kka [iddz-] – (a)yzə́kka – zə́kka (give alms) (17 exx.) (c)

(y)C1aC2a :

yʕába – y(ə)ttʕába – (a)yʕába – ʕába (get one’s own back on s.o.) (5 exx.) Conj. 3 (a)

(y)C1aC2(ə)C3:

yxátəl – y(ə)ttxátal – (a)yxátəl – xátəl (approach stealthily) (12 exx.) (b)

(y)C1uC2(ə)C3:

ykúbər – yttkúbar – (a)ykúbər – kúbər (dig, cultivate) (2 exx.) (c)

(y)C1iC2(ə)C3:

yhíṣək – ytthíṣak – (a)yhíṣ(ə)k – híṣ(ə)k (behave crazily) (2 exx.) Conj. 4 (a)

(yə)tC1(ə)C2C2(ə)C3:

yətṛə́bbəʕ – y(ə)ttṛə́bbəʕ – (a)y(ə)tṛə́bbəʕ – (ə)tṛə́bbəʕ (sit properly with crossed legs) (8 exx.) (b)

(yə)C1C1(ə)C2C2(ə)C3:

yəṣṣə́nnət – y(ə)ttṣə́nnət or y(ə)ttṣə́nnat – (a)y(ə)ṣṣə́nnət – (ə)ṣṣə́nnət (listen (out)) (4 exx.) (c)

(yə)C1(ə)C2C2a:

yətɣə́dda – yttətɣə́dda – (a)y(ə)tɣə́dda – (ə)tɣə́dda (lunch) (3 exx.) Conj. 5 (a)

(yə)C1t(ə)C2C2:

yəftə́šš – yttə́ftəšš or yttəftə́šša – (a)yə́ftəšš – ə́ftəšš (go down (tyre, boil, etc.)) (other exx. defective) (7 exx.) 28

(b)

(yə)C1taC2:

yərtáḥ – yttə́rtaḥ or yttərtáḥa – (a)yə́rtaḥ – ə́rtaḥ (rest) (2 exx.) Conj. 6 (a)

(yə)C1C2(a) (bracketed a = omitted from nonpast):

yənsá – ynə́ss – áy(ə)ns (dependent yəns) – əns (spend the night); be left over (of food) from day before) (10 exx.) (b) yəẓḍá – yəẓẓáḍ – áy(ə)ẓḍ (dependent yəẓḍ) – ə́ẓ(ə)ḍ (grind, be ground (flour)) (8 exx.) Conj. 7 (yə)C1C1(ə)C2: yəllə́m – yttə́lləm – (a)yə́lləm – ə́lləm (plait (rope)) (27 exx.) Conj. 8 (y)C1(ə)C2C2: ybə́dd – yttbə́dda – áybədd (dependent yə́bədd) – ə́bədd (stand up(right)) (6 exx., incl. yɣə́ẓẓ and ywə́tt, both irregular in their present tense) Conj. 9 (a)

(y)C1aC2:

yɣáb – yttə́ɣab – áyɣab (dependent yə́ɣab) – ə́ɣab (be absent) (24 exx.) (b) (y)d/ḍaC2: ydáb – yttdába [idd-] – áydab (dependent yə́dab) – ə́dab (dissolve, be dissolved) (3 exx.)

29

Conj. 10 (a)

(i) (y)C1uC2C2:

ylúṭṭ – yttlúṭṭu – áyluṭṭ (dependent yə́luṭṭ) – ə́luṭṭ (hit s.o. with back of hand) (46 exx.) (ii) (y)C1iC2C2: ydíqq – yttdíqqi [iddi-] – áydiqq (dependent yə́diqq) – ə́diqq (refuse food (of child); leave one’s husband) (2 exx.) (iii) (y)C1uC2: yẓún – yttẓúnu [iḍẓẓ-] – áyẓun (dependent yə́ẓun) – ə́ẓun (divide, share out) (2 exx.) (b)

(i) (y)C1C1uC2C2:

yəllúzz – yttlúzzu – (a)yə́lluzz – ə́lluzz (run a race) (3 exx., incl. yəmmúgg (fit (of clothing)), yənnúɣɣ (quarrel, fight)) (ii) (yə)C1C1aC2C2: yəẓẓáll – yttẓálla – (a)yə́ẓẓall – ə́ẓẓall (pray) (1 exx.) (iii) (yə)C1C1uC2: yəqqúr – yttɣára – (a)yəqqúr – (no impve.) (be dry) (4 exx.) (iv) (yə)C1C1iC2: yəqqím – yttɣíma – (a)yə́qqim – ə́qqim (rare – usu. qə́yyəm) (stay, remain) (1 ex.) Conj. 11 (a)

(yə)C1C2uC3C3:

(i) yəbʕúqq – yttəbʕúqqu – (a)yə́bʕuqq – ə́bʕuqq (retch) (1 ex.) (ii) yədžúll – yttədžálla – (a)yə́džull – ə́džull (take an oath) (1 ex.) (b)

(yə)C1C2uC3:

(i) yətšúṛ – yttətšáṛa – (a)yə́tšuṛ – ə́tšuṛ (fill, be full) (1 ex.) 30

(c)

(yə)C1C2iC3:

e.g. yəržíž – yttəržíži – (a)yə́ržiž – ə́ržiž (rare impve.) (shiver, tremble); yənḍíf (no other forms) (be clean) (5 exx.) Conj. 12 (a)

(y)uC1(ə)C2:

yugə́l – yttágəl – (a)yágəl – ágəl (hang (tr. and intr.) (13 exx., incl. yusə́d, yuɣə́d, and yuzə́g) (b)

(y)uC(a):

yufá – yttáf – áyaf (dependent yaf) – af (find) (3 exx.) (Excs. yuḍá – yttúṭṭa – (a)yúḍa – úḍa (fall), yušá – yttítš – áyuš (dependent yuš) – uš (give)) Conj. 13 (a)

(y)iC1(ə)C2:

yinə́z – yttínaz – (a)yín(ə)z – ín(ə)z (bend to pick up; start eating) (3 exx.) (b)

(y)i/uC1aC1/C2:

yiṛáṛ or yuṛáṛ – yttíṛaṛ or yttúṛaṛ – (a)yíṛaṛ or (a)yúṛaṛ – íṛaṛ or úṛaṛ (play); yutláy – yttútlay – (a)yútlay – útlay (speak) (3 exx.) (c)

(y)iC1iC2:

yiníg – yttínig – (a)yínig – ínig (sing) (2 exx.) (d)

(y)uC1uC2:

yugúr – yttúgur – (a)yúgur – úgur (walk) (2 exx.) (e)

(y)iC(a):

yigá – yttíg – áyig (dependent yig) – ig (do, make) (1 ex.) Note: Unclassified are two verbs, the first of which has a full ‘scatter’ but, though commonly used, seems to be unique as to pattern, the second noticeably defective but of high frequency. The first is yəttkí – 31

yttə́ttki – (a)yə́ttki – ə́ttki (lean, rest, press on s.t.), and is plausibly related to a derived form of the doubly weak Arabic root /kwy. Final -i in yəttkí is to be interpreted as vowel -i, not as -əy. The second omission is yəɣs [jəχs] (want, like), which occurs in only one paradigm. 1.15 ‘Odd men out’ in the sample It will have been seen that the above classification accounts for approximately 780 verbs of the sample. Excepting the half-dozen examples of 10(b) and (c), 11(d) and (e), roots and stems have not involved basic structures of C and V exceeding 4 structural places. More extensive structures revealed in the remainder of the sample stray into the area of verb-derivation, particularly of s-forms, though cognate non-derived forms do not occur. These examples have occurred randomly, and though they do not run counter to facts as they have been stated so far, nevertheless cannot be seen as belonging to a complete, systematic treatment of derived forms, yet, since they occurred within the sample, it is felt appropriate to include some mention of them. Some forms are perhaps suggestive of earlier forms of derivation, nowadays sporadic but inherently interesting. Thus, for example, one may wonder whether yəmmíta – yttmíta – (a)yəmmíta – əmmíta (remember) and yəmqáqəs – yttəmqáqas – (a)yəmqáqəs – əmqáqəs (sparkle, shine) belong to a derived form with nasal prefix which is common elsewhere but less so in Zuara? And what is the pattern to which conforms the uniquely structured yəxxítər – (no present) – (a)yəxxítər – (no impve.) (be thick, cloudy (of liquid)) (cf. Arabic root /xṭr)? The special place of nasal consonants in the derived forms appeared in the earlier ‘reciprocal’ yənnúɣɣ (fight with one another) and now occurs in yənnúqqəb – (no present) – (a)yənnúqqəb – (no impve.) (have a hole in) (cf. Arabic /nqb), for which the parallel and similarly defective synonym yənnúffəg may be substituted. The use of non-prefixal n in association with other consonants occurs in the verb təknúnnəḍ – təknúnnuḍ – (a)təknúnnəḍ – (ə)knúnnəḍ ((of woman) put on jerd before going out), which occurs only in feminine forms. The remainder of what is left of the sample is clearly of s-forms, but ‘mixed in’ with the sibilant there occurs the lateral l, to which reference was made earlier but which appears here again in yəslúlləḍ – yəslúllaḍ – (a)yəslúlləd – (ə)slúlləḍ (slip on wet 32

ground), in the feminine restricted t(ə)sliləw [-lu] – t(ə)slilaw – (a)t(ə)sliləw – (ə)sliləw (ululate), and perhaps in the likewise feminine forms of t(ə)stulləs (become dark, night), though the latter evidently derives from tallast (night, nightfall). Are there fugitive suggestions here of possible phonaesthetic categories? For further remarks on some of the s-forms concerned, see section 3 below, from which point modes of verbal derivation are described. The examples are: (yə) CVCCəC: CCVCəC:

suggəm ssusəm žžužəf

(wait for) (be silent) (dream)

(yə) CCVCəC:

stufəs

(spit)

(tə)

sliləw

(ululate)

(yə)

tfisəx mqaqəs

(trick; mock) (sparkle; shine)

(tə) CCVCCəC:

ssingəl stulləs

(apply antimony) (grow dark)

(yə)

sraqqəb slulləḍ

(peer out) (slip)

knunnəḍ nnuqqəb nnuffəg

(don jerd) (be holed) (ditto).

Cf.

and also: (tə) (yə)

Though these verbs lie outside the classification of 1.14, they demonstrate the principle of the general acceptability or unacceptability of given patterns of syllables and their constituents. 2.1 Personal affixes; the singular imperative There are two basic systems of affixes to be recognized in respect of distinctions of person, number, and gender embodied as the subject of verbal forms and summarized under the label ‘personal affixes’. The first characterizes the imperative and contrasts markedly with 33

that associated with the tenses. The imperative system distinguishes between singular and plural number but makes no distinction for person. It is restricted to the second person in the sense that, where appropriate, only second person pronominal forms, for example, would accompany the imperative as subject of the verb. No imperatival distinction of gender is made in the singular, and the singular imperative is the zero-form of the verb, i.e. that which, like its counterpart in spoken Arabic, undergoes no affixation for person – gender – number. There are four types, arising from mutually exclusive root structures. All are paroxytonic, in contrast with the oxytonic accentuation of related disyllabic past tense forms of Conjugations 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. In the first type, whose root structure is Vbeginning, the root itself provides the singular imperative form, which is variously monosyllabic and disyllabic. In post-pausal position, accented V is typically preceded in pronunciation by the glottal stop, which is not, however, an integral part of the form and is therefore bracketed in the notation of the following examples of root structures VC, VCəC, VCVC, VCCVC, VCV: (ʔ)ig (do, make!) (ʔ)uš (give!)

(ʔ)ar (open!)

(ʔ)árəy [-ri] (write!) (ʔ)át(ə)f (come in!) (ʔ)íṛəḍ (dress!) (ʔ)ínig (sing!)

(ʔ)úgur (walk!)

(ʔ)úṛaṛ or (ʔ)íṛaṛ (play!)

(ʔ)útlay (speak!) (ʔ)úḍa (fall!)

The second type is characterized by an initial accented schwa, generated by roots containing an initial non-geminate or geminate consonant cluster, or by those of the structure C1VC2, C1VC2C2, C1əC2C2. Root structures with an initial consonant cluster are variously C1C2, C1C2V, C1C1V, C1C2əC3, C1C1əC2, C1C1VC2, C1C1VC2C2,

34

C1C2VC3, C1C2VC3C3, and these head the following list of examples: (ʔ)əmt (bury!)

(ʔ)ədž (let, permit!) (ʔ)ətš (eat!)

(ʔ)ə́fəl (go!) (with anaptyctic second schwa) (ʔ)ə́mḥa (erase!) (ʔ)ə́ttu (forget!)

(ʔ)ə́kka (smell!)

(ʔ)ə́knəf (roast (meat)!)

(ʔ)ə́fləy [-li] (stone (e.g. dates)!) (ʔ)ə́krəw [-ru] (scratch!) (ʔ)ə́ššəf (approach!)

(ʔ)ə́bbəy [-bi] (collect, glean!)

(ʔ)ə́qqur (wither (plant), freeze (human)!) (ʔ)ə́nnuɣɣ (fight!) (ʔ)ə́tšuṛ (fill!)

(ʔ)ə́džull (swear, take oath!) (ʔ)ə́qam (lift!)

(ʔ)ə́ḥinn (be kind to (of God)!)

(ʔ)ə́qqudd (do s.t. well, be capable of!) (ʔ)ə́wətt (hit!)

(ʔ)ə́ɣəẓẓ (munch, crunch!) (ʔ)ə́bədd (stand up!)

Note: When the first consonant is geminated and voiced, (ʔ)ə- may be elided and the accent, typified by greater stress and higher pitch in relation to the following syllable, is then carried by the consonant, whether continuant or not, e.g. (ʔə́)nnuɣɣ [ˈnnųɣɣ], (ʔə́)bbi [ˈbbi]. Though voiceless consonants, too, may be accent-bearing in other contexts, the post-pausal singular imperative does not admit the elision of ə from, say, (ʔ)ə́ttu, (ʔ)ə́ššəf. The third type of singular imperative is of the disyllabic C- beginning root structures CVCV, CVCəC, C1VC2C2əC3, C1əC2C2əC3, 35

C1əC2C1əC3, C1əC2C3əC4, tC1əC2C2əC3, tC1əC2C2a (Conjugations 2, 3, 4), examples of which are: náda (call!)

ḥáṛəb ((incite to) fight!)

kúbər (dig!)

ḥə́zzəm (bind!)

zə́kka (give alms!)

fə́žžəṛ (plate (with silver)!)

kə́rkəb (roll or push along!)

zə́lbəḥ (deceive (as prank)!) tṛə́bbəʕ (sit properly!)

Inclusion of the fourth type is problematical, since forms involved are probably all of derived forms of the verb (see 1.15, and 3), so that the structure of the root is sometimes obscured. The imperative form is itself characterized by an initial consonant cluster followed by V or ə, and the initial schwa entailed by CC-, though potentially present and pronounceable, is typically elided. Examples always paroxytones, are (ə)mmíta (remember!), (ə)stúfəs (spit!), (ə)skə́rkəs (tell lies!), but it will make for more systematic exposition to leave such forms for the time being and return to them later under section (3) devoted to derived forms, though the forms cited are not, in fact, derivable from any other attested verbal form in the language. This, then, for singular forms of the imperative. 2.2 Plural imperative The plural imperative is marked by a suffix -(ə)t, and, in the case of many verbs, a further gender distinction is made between masculine -(ə)t and feminine -m(ə)t, where -m- is the feminine morpheme. However, the -m(ə)t suffix variably occurs or not in some verbs and is admissible in others, where -(ə)t is of common gender. -m(ə)t is, in fact, the exponent of 2 pl.f. in the tenses, and its vacillating appearance in the imperative may indicate one of two opposing tendencies, either that it is being taken over to the imperative or that it is in the process of disappearing from the imperative paradigm. A third possibility is that further research will reveal that there is more regularity 36

to its appearance or absence than at first sight seems to be the case. Examples of the regular occurrence of -m(ə)t include: (ʔ)íṛəḍ (s.) // (ʔ)íṛḍət (pl.m.) / iṛə́ḍmət (pl.f.) (put on (clothes)) (ʔ)árəy [-ri] // (ʔ)áryət / arə́ym(ə)t [-riˑmt] (write) (ʔ)úgur // ugúrət / ugúrmət (walk)

(ʔ)útlay // utláyət / utláymət (speak) (ʔ)át(ə)f // (ʔ)átfət / atə́fmət (enter)

ḥáṛəb // ḥáṛbət / ḥaṛə́bmət (fight, incite to fight) (ʔ)ar // (ʔ)ár(ə)t / (ʔ)ármət (open)

(ʔ)ə́fəl // (ʔ)ə́flət / (ʔ)ə́f(ə)lmət (go)

(ʔ)ə́qam // əqámət / əqámmət (take up, lift) Note: The glottal stop tends to occur initially before the vocalic nucleus of an accented syllable but is again not part of the radical makeup of the verb concerned and is absent from initial pretonic syllables in the imperative paradigm. The incidence of ə, reflecting syllable structure, accentuation, the nature of contiguous consonants, etc., has not been considered in detail. We have seen, for instance, that the second instance of ə in (ʔ)ə́fəl (go) is explained by the lateral nature of the pre-pausal consonant (cf. ʔəmt (bury!)) and the first by the need for an accent-bearing syllable nucleus, but it would be quite gratuitous to postulate an initial *ə in, say, the corresponding 3 pl.m. form flən(n), in the pronounciation of which no such vowel ever occurs. We return to flən(n) below. Examples of verbs from which -m(ə)t is excluded are, firstly, some, though by no means all, with root-final -a or -a alternating with zero: (ʔ)(ə́)mḥa // (ʔ)(ə́)mḥat (pl.m. -&- f. ) (erase!) (ʔ)əmt // (ʔ)ə́mtət (bury!)

náda // nádat (call!)

sə́mma // sə́mmat (name!)

(ə)mmíta // (ə)mmítat (remember!)

In other comparable cases, however, -m(ə)t occurs regularly, e.g. (ʔ)ə́fəl // (ʔ)ə́flət / (ʔ)ə́fəlmət (go!) 37

(ʔ)ətš // (ʔ)ə́tšət / (ʔ)ə́tšmət (eat!) In yet other similar cases -m(ə)t is either rare or fluctuates as to occurrence, so that the -(ə)t ending may be used for both masculine and feminine, e.g. (ʔ)úḍa // (ʔ)úḍat / uḍám(ə)t (fall!)

(ʔ)ə́kka // (ʔ)ə́kkat / (ə)kkám(ə)t (smell!)

(ʔ)ədž // (ʔ)ə́džət / (ʔ)ə́džmət (let, permit!)

(ʔ)ə́məl // (ʔ)ə́mlət / (ʔ)ə́məlmət (say!)

Variation occurs, too, with other types of root, for example tri- and quadri-consonantal. Thus, -m(ə)t is excluded from the following paradigms: (ʔ)ə́skən // (ʔ)ə́skənət (show!)

kə́rkəb // kə́r(ə)kbət (roll or push along!)

zə́lbəḥ // zə́l(ə)bḥət (play prank on s.o.!) but occurs sporadically in e.g.

(ʔ)ə́knəf // (ʔ)ə́kənfət / (ə)knə́fmət (roast (meat)!)

(ʔ)ə́fləy [-li] // (ʔ)ə́f(ə)lyət / (ə)flə́ymət [ˈflimɪt] (stone (dates, etc.)!) and regularly in not only ḥáṛəb // ḥáṛbət / ḥaṛə́bmət ((incite to) fight!) fə́žžəṛ // fə́žžṛət / fəžžə́ṛmət ((silver-)plate!)

súggəm // súggmət / suggə́mmət (wait (for)!) (probably a derived form with initial s-) but also in, say, the bi-consonantal ə́ššəf (with C1 geminated), which contrasts with earlier ə́skən, i.e. (ʔ)ə́ššəf // (ʔ)ə́ššfət / (ə)ššə́fmət (approach!) and the similarly bi-consonantal (with C2 geminated) (ʔ)ə́bədd / (ʔ)ə́bəddət / (ʔ)ə́bəddmət (stand up!)

(ʔ)ə́ɣəẓẓ // (ʔ)ə́ɣəẓẓət / (ʔ)ə́ɣəẓẓmət (munch, crunch!)

38

Yet other examples of prima facie similar singulars vary as to the occurrence of -m(ə)t in the plural. Thus, for example, the suffix is excluded in the following cases (where the incidence of accentuation, ə, and the glottal stop are also noteworthy – ə is required before CV́ -): (ʔ)ə́ḥinn // əḥínnət (show kindness to (of God)!) (ʔ)ə́qudd // əqúddət (do s.t. well!)

(ʔ)ə́qqur // qqúr(ə)t (wither!; freeze!)

but is included with (ʔ)ə́tšuṛ // tšúṛ(ə)t / tšúṛmət (fill!)

(ʔ)ə́džull // džúllət / džúllmət (swear, take oath!)

(ʔə́)nnuɣɣ // nnúɣɣət / nnúɣɣmət (fight!)

Clearly, the fact of such variation calls for further investigation, though some correlation appears to be discernible between the occurrence or not of the suffix and the phonological constituency of the stem to which it is attached. Addenda: (i) An interesting feature is the exclamatory quasi-imperatival use of adverbial forms with the imperative suffixes. These are mostly, it seems, Arabic-derived, e.g. bə́ṛṛa // bə́ṛṛat / bəṛṛám(ə)t (go!; out!)

fís(ə)ʕ // físʕət / fis(ə́)ʕmət (hurry up!)

yáḷḷa / yáḷḷat (m. & f.) (come on!) but there also occurs the indigenous

ggətt // ggə́tət / ggə́tmət (+ v.n.) (enough (of) -ing!) (ii) The complex imperative form idáwərd is typically used in place of a rare ásəd ‘hurry up!’ (< yusə́d (come)) and is also interesting for the fact that in its plural forms t replaces final d, i.e. idáw(ə)rtət and the rare idáw(ə)rtmət. 2.3 The basic system of personal affixes The basic system of affixes, which, in contrast with Arabic, is applicable to all tenses, is as follows with verbs whose roots are conso39

nant-ending: (Formal variation occurs between C-ending and aending roots; forms of affix appropriate to a-ending roots are given at 2.4.) 3 s.m.

y-

2 s.

t-

3 s.f. 1 s.

t-

3 pl. m.

3 pl. f.

2 pl. m.

2 pl. f. 1 pl.

-(ə)d

-ɣ

-(ə)n

t-

t-

n-

-n(ə)t -(ə)m

-m(ə)t

It will be seen that this system comprises a mixture of prefixes (3 s.m., 3 s.f., 1 pl.), suffixes (1 s., 3 pl.m., 3 pl.f.), and three second person discontinuous morphemes combining prefix and suffix (2 s., 2 pl.m., 2 pl.f.). The affixes mirror those of the non-past tense of North African spoken Arabic as to 3 s.m., 3 s.f., 1pl., the prefixal component of 2 s., 2 pl.m., 2 pl.f., and, in small measure only, the suffixal element of 3 pl. Uniquely Berber are the suffixes -d (2 s.), -ɣ (1 s.), -m (2 pl.m., 2 pl.f.), and -t (3 pl.f., 2 pl.f.), none of which is, of course, to say that the complete paradigms to which the system contributes are not also uniquely Berber. The application of the personal affixes to all three tenses of, say, the verb yəknə́f – ykə́nnəf – (a)yə́knəf (roast (meat)) gives the following results: Past

Present

Aorist

yəknə́f

ykə́nnəf

ayə́knəf

t(ə)knə́fəd

tkə́nnfəd

t(ə)knə́f

tkə́nnəf

atə́knəf

atkə́nfəd [-ɱf-]

(ə)knə́fəɣ

kə́nnfəɣ

akə́nfəɣ [-ɱf-]

(ə)knə́fnət

kənnə́fnət

aknə́fnət

(ə)knə́fən

kə́nnfən

40

akə́nfən [-ɱf-]

t(ə)knə́fəm

tkə́nnfəm

atkə́nfəm [-ɱf-]

nəknə́f

(ə)nkə́nnəf [-ŋk-]

an(ə́)knəf

t(ə)knə́fmət

tkənnə́fmət

at(ə)knə́fmət

Note: The aorist prefix a- is not, of course, part of the system of personal affixes. A further illustration of similarity throughout the tenses is the otherwise partly irregular ywə́tt – yttšát – áywətt (hit): ywə́tt [iˈwɪt:]

yttšát

áywətt

twə́ttəd

ttšátəd

atwə́ttəd

ttšátən

awə́ttən

twə́tt

ttšát

átwətt

wə́ttəɣ

ttšátəɣ

wə́ttnət

ttšátnət

awə́ttnət

twə́ttmət

ttšátmət

atwə́ttmət

wə́ttən

twə́ttəm

(ə)nwə́tt

awə́ttəɣ

ttšátəm

atwə́ttəm

n(ə)ttšát

ánwətt

Note: 2nd person prefix t- merges regularly with the present tense prefix tt-, the gemination of which is revealed by tenseness of articulation and concomitant features elsewhere, notably in the force of utterance associated with the following vocalic phase. 2.4 Modification in a-ending tenses As the difference between a-ending and non-a ending 3 sing. forms in the past and other tenses contributed importantly to difference between conjugations, so it supplies the major difference between paradigms involving personal affixes in the three verbal tense paradigms. It was seen most clearly in Conjugations 6, 12(b), and 13(e), that -a is an unstable vowel and, in contrast with C-ending roots of 2.3, in any tense of whatever conjugation whose 3 s. forms end in -a, the vowel falls in favour of -i- in all 2 person forms and in 1 s. Within one ‘scatter’, therefore, this variation may occur in, say, either the past or the present or the aorist.

41

Nothwithstanding the substitution of the vowel -i- for -a- before the suffix consonant(s) of 2 s., 1s., 2 pl.m., and 2 pl.f. forms, it seems more satisfactory to regard the vowel as a variable constituent of the verbal root, i.e. /CCV, rather than as part of a separate system of suffixes. Thus, təmḥíd (you (s.) erased) in the past paradigm below is seen as t-(ə)mḥi-d, not as *t-(ə)mḥ-id, and likewise elsewhere. With used to symbolize variation, the twofold (ai) variation occurs in all tense paradigms of e.g. Past

Present

Aorist

yəmḥá

ymə́ḥḥa

ayə́mḥa

təmḥíd

tmə́ḥḥid

atə́mḥid

təmḥá

(ə)mḥíɣ

tmə́ḥḥa

atə́mḥa

mə́ḥḥiɣ

ámḥiɣ

(ə)mḥán

mə́ḥḥan

təmḥím

tmə́ḥḥim

atə́mḥim

nmə́ḥḥa

anə́mḥa

(ə)mḥan(ə)t təmḥím(ə)t nəmḥá

(erase)

m(ə)ḥḥán(ə)t tm(ə)ḥḥím(ə)t

ámḥan

amḥán(ə)t at(ə)mḥím(ə)t

but in the past tense only of e.g. yigá – yttíg – áyig (do, make), since 3 s. final -a etc. occurs only in this paradigm: yigá

tigá

tigíd igíɣ

igə́n

igə́nt

tigím

tigím(ə)t nigá

and for the same reason in the present tense only of ybə́dd – yttbə́dda – áybədd (stand (up)):

42

yttbə́dda ttbə́dda

ttbə́ddid ttbə́ddiɣ

ttbə́ddan

ttbəddán(ə)t

ttbə́ddim

ttbəddím(ə)t n(ə)ttbə́dda

and again, in the past and present tenses of otherwise irregular yəṃṃá – yənná – áyməl (say): yəṃṃá

yənná

təṃṃá

tənná

(ə)ṃṃíɣ

(ə)nníɣ

(ə)ṃṃán(ə)t

(ə)nnán(ə)t

təṃṃíd

(ə)ṃṃán

tənníd

(ə)nnán

təṃṃím

tənním

nəṃṃá

nənná

təṃṃím(ə)t

t(ə)nním(ə)t

and also – a rare case – in the past and aorist tenses of yəkká – yttə́kk – (a)yə́kka (smell): yəkká

ayə́kka

təkkíd

atə́kkid

(ə)kkán

ákkán

təkká

(ə)kkíɣ

atə́kka

ákkiɣ

(ə)kkán(ə)t

akkán(ə)t

təkkím(ə)t

at(ə)kkím(ə)t

təkkím

nəkká [ŋk-]

atə́kkim

anə́kka [-ŋk-] 43

Note: There is some hesitancy over the aorist paradigm in this example, as well as some confusion in the present tense between yttə́kk and a form yttə́kka. This instability of -a does not apply to the other full vowels u and i, both of which when final remain throughout the relevant paradigms, e.g. past, present and aorist of yəttú

yttə́ttu

ayə́ttu

təttúd

ttə́ttud

atə́ttud

təttú

ttə́ttu

atə́ttu

ttuɣ

ttə́ttuɣ

áttuɣ

ttún(ə)t

ttəttún(ə)t

attún(ə)t

təttúm(ə)t

ttəttúm(ə)t

atəttúm(ə)t

ttun

təttúm

n(ə)ttú

ttə́ttun

ttə́ttum

n(ə)ttə́ttu

áttun

atə́ttum

an(ə́)ttu

and in the present of e.g.: yttqúddu (be able) ttqúddu

ttqúddud ttqúdduɣ

ttqúddun

ttquddún(ə)t ttqúddum

ttquddúm(ə)t n(ə)ttqúddu

and again, with -i or -u, in the present tense of e.g. yttəržíži (shake, tremble) ttəržíži

ttəržízid ttəržížiɣ

44

(forget)

ttəržížin

ttəržižín(ə)t

ttəržížim

ttəržižím(ə)t

n(ə)ttəržíži

This twofold vocalic variation becomes threefold to embrace the zero grade (ə) in the 3 pl. forms of CC- and VC- verbs. The earlier /mḥ(ai) (erase) exemplified the twofold (ai) kind of variation and, as was seen, its past, present, and aorist paradigms contain forms in which the full vowel succeeds the second consonant, e.g. (ə)mḥan, (ə)mḥan(ə)t, məḥḥan, məḥḥan(ə)t, amḥan, and amḥan(ə)t, but, for example, /fla has to be further interpreted as /fl(aiə) in the light of its corresponding 3rd past forms flən [flɪnn] (they (m.) went) and flənt (they (f.) went). In other tenses, /fl(aiə) provides consonant-ending stems, so that the question of variation in presuffixal vowels does not arise (cf. t(ə)ffál(ə)d (you (s.) go), ffáləɣ (I go), atə́fləm (you (pl.m.) will go etc.), atə́fləmt or atfə́lmət (you (pl.f.) will go), ffálən (they (m.) go), ffálnət (they (f.) go), áflən (they (m.) will go etc.), áflənt or afə́lnət (they (f.) will go etc.)). However, the complete past paradigm of / fl(aiə) is as follows: yəflá

t(ə)flá

t(ə)flíd

fliɣ

flən

flənt

t(ə)flím

t(ə)flím(ə)t

nəflá

Note: The monosyllabic form of flən, derived from the biconsonantal stem fl-, induces extra length in the final consonant, whence the notation [flɪnn] above, and this is also noticeable in the similar forms džən(n) (they (m.) let, allowed), tšən(n) (they (m.) ate), in contrast 45

with the equally monosyllabic but V-beginning root (and stem) illustrated by the oxytonic urə́n (they (m.) opened), ušə́n (they (m.) gave), igə́n (they (m.) did, made), all of which, like flən(n), džən(n), and tšən(n), belong to the verb-type with triply variable past paradigm, i.e. yúra (he opened)

yušá (he gave)

yigá (he did, made)

turíd

tušíd

tigíd

urə́n

ušə́n

igə́n

turá

uríɣ

tušá

ušíɣ

igíɣ

urə́nt

ušə́nt

turím(ə)t

tuším(ə)t

turím

nurá

tigá

igə́nt

tuším

tigím

nušá

nigá

tigím(ə)t

2.5 ad- variant of aorist prefix One final matter remains to be included in this section, namely, the inclusion of -d- following the prefix a- in certain persons of the freestanding aorist. The variant forms a- and ad- are seemingly of widespread occurrence in other dialects of the language, but in Zuara, with the apparent exception of the two verbs yusə́d (come) and yuɣə́d (bring), the consonant d is restricted to use as a syllable divider in those aorist forms (1 s., 3 pl.m., 3 pl.f.) which, in the absence of a personal prefix, would otherwise contain a vowel junction (VV) (a-a-, a-u-, a-i-), which is morphologically and phonologically inadmissible in the language. In this respect, then, stems are divided into Cbeginning and V-beginning, the latter belonging to Conjugations 12 and 13 and occurring with -d- in the three forms indicated. Thus, the free-standing aorist tense of, say, yurá – yttár – áyar – ar (open) is: áyar átar

atárəd

adárəɣ

adárən 46

adárnət

atárəm

atármət ánar

This contrasts, therefore, with C-beginning stems, as in, say, yqúdd – yttqúddu – áyqudd – ə́qudd (be able to, etc.): áyqudd átqudd

atqúddəd aqúddəɣ

aqúddən

aqúddnət

atqúddəm

atqúddmət

ánqudd [-ŋq-] Other examples of the occurrence of -d-, randomly selected, with bracketed glosses and partial root formulations, are adígəɣ (I shall etc. make) (-igaiə-), adárən (they will etc. open) (-uaraiə-), adarə́yn(ə)t [-riˑnt] (they (m.) will write) (-uarəy-), adaṛə́wn(ə)t [ʌḍaˈṛǫˑnt] (they (f.) will give birth) (-uaṛəw-). adugúrəɣ (I shall walk) (-ugur-), adayzə́gnət (they (f.) will boil) (-uayzə-ag-), adutláyən (they (m.) will talk) (-utlay-), adúḍiɣ [ʌḍǫˑḍʁ], adátfəɣ (I shall enter) (-uat(ə)f-), etc. A descriptively unrelated and irregular form of the aorist occurs in the cases of two verbs in whose past tenses the ‘directional particle’ d of ‘motion towards’ occurs finally. The verbs are yusə́d (come) and yuɣə́d (bring). In the aorist forms of these verbs the element in question is front-shifted and doubled to follow prefixal a-, i.e. áddyas (he will come etc.), áddyaɣ (he will bring etc.). This should not be confused with the function of the foregoing syllable-dividing d. Before -tof the 3 s. and all 2nd person prefixes, -d- is assimilated to -t-, e.g. áttas (she will come), attásəm (you (pl.m.) will come), but appears as -dd- in all other persons. A further highly unusual feature is the use

47

of 1 pl. -n- before and after -dd-, i.e. an(ə́)ddnas (we shall come). The complete paradigm is, therefore, áddyas áttas

attásəd

addásəɣ

addásən

addásnət

attásəm

attásmət

an(ə́)ddnas An alternative much rarer form of the paradigm has been regularized, possibly but by no means certainly with some difference of meaning (see Addendum (ii) at 2.1 concerning imperatival ásəd, glossed as ‘hurry up!’, where the gloss may derive from inherent features of the imperative category). This regularized form of the paradigm is ayásəd atásəd

atásdəd

adásdəɣ

adásdən

adasə́dnət atásdəm

atasə́dmət anásəd

2.6 Addendum: some phonetic implications This has not been the place to consider in any detail the phonetic implications of, say, the junction of affixes with the remainder of a form, though summary indications have been given in square brackets in a few cases, and some instances of the elision of ə with retention of its attendant accent have been shown. But fairly subtle con48

siderations dictating the presence or absence of ə as vowel have not always been broached, for example among the imperatival forms (ʔ)(ə́)ššəf // (ʔ)(ə́)ššfət / (ə)ššə́fmət (come near!), any more than attention has been given to, say, the predominantly voiceless form of s before d in atásdəd of the preceding paradigm in spite of its assimilation to d in the form [z] elsewhere. The ‘spread’ of emphasis, too, has only been suggested notationally and no attempt is made to deal in any detail with the interesting feature of Berber whereby contrasting prosodies of emphasis and non-emphasis may fluctuate as to domain, e.g. [tīṛəḍəḍ] or [ṭīṛəḍəd] < tiṛə́ḍəd ‘you (s.) dressed’. The feature, like others involved, are not limited to verbs. The phonetic implications of the junction of present prefix tt- with the first consonant of a root may also be interesting, not least in the dento-alveolar zone of articulation. It was seen that 2 s. and 2 pl. t- was assimilated to tt-, but tt- itself is assimilated to e.g. -ḍ- in, say, yttḍába [īḍˈḍɑ:bʌ] ‘it (m.) ripens’, to -ṭ- in e.g. ttáṛəw [ṭṭɑ:ṛǫ] ‘she gives birth’, and to -z- in e.g. yttzə́lbaḥ [izzɪl-] ‘he plays a prank on’. Some indication has been given of the implications of root-final -əy and -əw as opposed to -i and -u, cf. turə́yəm [tu̕rijɪm] ‘you (pl.m.) wrote’ and turím [tuˈri:m] ‘you (pl.m.) opened’, in contrast with turə́ym(ə)t [turˈi:mt] you (pl.f.) wrote’, which is usually homophonous with turím(ə)t ‘you (pl.f.) opened’, though the 2 s. and 1 s. forms are clearly distinguished, i.e. turə́yəd versus turíd, urə́yəɣ versus uriɣ; similarly, tuṛə́wəd ( 2 s.) ‘you gave birth’ and uṛə́wəɣ (1 s.) ‘I gave birth’ contrasts with tuṛə́wm(ə)t [-ṛǫmt] ‘you (pl.f.) gave birth’, etc. Then, too, there is the interesting matter of gemination (= tenseness of articulation + build-up of breath force) in such forms as ttətt ‘you (s.) eat’, ttə́ttu ‘she forgets’, and tmətt ‘she buries’. Some reference to these last matters may be found in my ‘Long consonants in phonetics and phonology’ in Studies in Linguistic Analysis (Oxford. Blackwell (1957), for the Philological Society); otherwise fairly brief indications are given in the introductory chapter to this grammar as they relate to the transcriptional conventions employed. The need for further phonetic research is apparent. 3.1 Derived forms of the verb Concern has so far been almost exclusively with the simple form of the verb in which, following the deletion of any personal prefix, con49

sonantal and vocalic constituency has effectively been that of the root. In addition, however, disregarding comparatively few borrowings of Arabic forms of derivation to which reference was made, for example at 1.3 and 1.7, there are three principal derived forms of the Berber verb which differ from the simple form essentially by prefixation before the root. The prefixes are variously a sibilant, usually s but sometimes z or even š or ž by assimilation, a nasal consonant, usually bilabial m but occasionally dento-alveolar n and in some cases geminated, and, thirdly, a complex form comprising a geminated voiceless dento-alveolar stop preceding the labio-velar semivowel and the open vowel, i.e. ttwa-. The last is by far the most frequent form of derivation (282 examples from a representative sample of 812 verbs) but s- is also of high frequency (115 exx.), whereas m- is greatly less so (25 exx.). Broadly, the three derived categories are factitive or causative (s-), reciprocal or occasionally passive (m(m)-), and passive/gerundive (ttwa-/ttwa-a/u). It will be recalled that the simple form is often itself quasi-passive or stative in sense and the phrasal (periphrastic) possibilities of auxiliary (e.g. yədžá (make, let) + main verb) are also available in, say, the causative area. The vowel a, less often u, in the final syllable of a ttwa-form (ttwaa/u) is very commonly used with potential or gerundive meaning, i.e fit to be Xed, Xable, Xible, etc. In this respect the Berber verb is remarkably reminiscent of Arabic, in which passive forms are used similarly (see, for example, T.F. Mitchell & Shahir El-Hassan, Modality, Mood and Aspect in Spoken Arabic (London. Kegan Paul. 1994), pp. 60–1). It has been seen that the vowels a and u often occur in the final syllable of present tense forms of the simple verb, especially in the environment of an adjacent long vowel, and these vowels will also be found subsequently to characterize the present tense of the sderived form of the verb. The ttwa-a/u form, too, may be seen as the present tense of its ttwa- passive correlative, much in the way that, say, nonpast yə́ngətəl ‘he ought to be killed’ stands in relation to past ə́ngətal ‘he was killed’ in the Bedouin Arabic dialect of the Cyrenaican Jebel in eastern Libya, or that the same tense is used in, say, Egyptian Arabic yuktátab fíi(h) ‘it is worth investing in’ and yənʕə́məl or yətʕə́məl ‘it is feasible’. The examples are among many concerning which it is virtually impossible to know in which direction any bor50

rowing may have taken place. Not every ttwa-form has an accompanying ttwa-a/u form, nor vice versa, though ttwa- is noticeably more frequent in the absence of ttwa-a/u than otherwise. Among the aforementioned 282 examples from the sample, 62 were ‘imperfect’ in the sense that either ttwa- or ttwa-a/u was unattested. An example of the derived forms, cited in the 3 s.m. past tense, is, from Conjugation 6: yətšá ‘he ate’ – ysə́tš ‘he fed s.o.’ – yəmmə́tš or yəttwátš ‘it was eaten’ – yətwátša ‘it is edible’. A second example, from Conjugation 13, is: yiṛə́ḍ ‘he dressed (intr.)’ – ysíṛəḍ ‘he dressed (tr., i.e. s.o. else) – yttwáṛəḍ ‘it is second-hand, has been worn’ – yttwáṛaḍ ‘it is wearable’. The prefixes may sometimes combine, perhaps with additional semantic implications. The most common association is of ttwa- with -s- (36 exx. in the sample), i.e. to provide grosso modo the passive of a factitive form, as in yttwasíṛəḍ ‘he has been enveloped in (some voluminous garment)’ rather than simply ‘he has been dressed’, though the latter interpretation is not excluded. In these cases -s- follows ttwa- but, in the very rare cases of the association of s- and m(m)-, s- precedes the nasal consonant, e.g. yəmmíta (remember) / yəsmíta (remind). Roots are variably productive as to derivation: some distinguish four patterns, e.g. yəfhə́m (understand) – ysə́fhəm (explain) – ttwasə́fhəm (have been explained) – yəmfáhəm (come to an agreement, discuss, talk over); others carry three distinctions, e.g. yəlʕə́q (catch alight) – ysə́lʕəq (light (tr.) – yttwasə́lʕəq (have been lit); others again show a twofold distinction, e.g. yəbrə́d (be cold) – ysə́brəd (cool (tr.)) or ybə́xxər (smoke s.t. (e.g. fish)) – yttwabə́xxər / yttwabə́xxar (have been smoked/can be smoked); others yet again do not seem to occur in any derived form, e.g. yəbzə́g (thump; shoot out (as water from tap)). To illustrate further, yəddə́r (Conj. 7) (it is wet) / yttə́ddər (it is getting wet) is associated with the causative and the combined causative and passive/gerundive affixes in the forms ysə́ddər (he wet s.t.; he brought s.t. to life) – yttwasə́ddər (it is wet, it has been wetted) (i.e. it is in its present state through the past act of a human agent) / (a)y(ə)ttwasə́ddər (it will get wet) / yttwasə́ddar (it can be wetted) (i.e. without prejudice to its proper functioning). Elsewhere, yənnúɣɣ (fight, quarrel), interpreted as a rare nasal-prefixed form, corresponds simply to yəsnúɣɣ (incite to fight), but m(/n) and ttwa- are, it seems, mutually exclusive. Finally, it should be said that the system 51

of personal affixes appropriate to the tenses and the imperative applies in principle to the derived forms as to their simple counterparts. Personal affixes have been set out under 2, so that it is unnecessary to repeat the paradigms here. In passing, the imperative and unprefixed or ‘dependent’ aorist very rarely occur with ttwa- or m-. The derivative prefixes are now considered in the order s-, ttwa-(a/u), and (m)m-. 3.2 s-derivation Prefixed to the imperative of the simple form, s- gives the causative imperative, e.g. (Conj. 1) ə́tʕəb (rare impve.) (be tired) – sə́tʕəb (tire (tr.)). To provide the tenses, it is simply necessary to add the personal affixes, e.g. y- for the 3 s. in the scatter ysə́tʕəb [is-] (past) – yssə́tʕab (pres.) – (a)ysə́tʕəb (aor.) – sə́tʕəb (impve.). In contrast with the disyllabic yətʕə́b of the simple past form, the trisyllabic ysə́tʕəb is paroxytonic. Commonly in the derived forms, as in this example, the past form and that of the ‘dependent’ aorist are homophonous. A further example of the relationship between (Conj. 1) simple and sforms is yəhwə́n – yhə́ggən – (a)yə́hwən – ə́hwən (recover (from illness)) and ysə́hwən – yssə́hwan – (a)ysə́hwən – sə́hwən (cure s.o.). Perhaps the most noteworthy form of the causative scatter is that of the present tense, noteworthy for two features, the aforementioned long vowel (usually a, in some cases u) of the final syllable and the geminated -ss- preceding the stem. Gemination here can probably be seen ‘historically’ as the implication of the junction of the present prefix tt- with causative s-. It may have been noticed that, in very many of the simple forms, tt- is accompanied by a long vowel in the final syllable of the present tense. Instances of the implication of the junction of tt- and s- have been noticed elsewhere as well as of t + s = [ss], for example in Arabic loans like yəssə́ḥḥər (take a light meal before daybreak during Ramadan), though the present tense of this example, i.e. y(ə)ttsə́ḥḥar, does not reflect the feature. Firmer evidence of tt + s = [ss] in the present causative is provided by the variation that occurs in certain relevant forms. Thus, for example, the 2 s. present tense form of the earlier ysíṛəḍ (clothe) is variously t(ə)ssiṛáḍ(ə)d [-ḍḍ] or (ə)ttsiṛáḍ(əd), the latter occuring especially after a final accented vowel in the preceding word, e.g. imattá ttsiṛáḍd as gədd(ə)bášis? ‘Why are you putting his things on? (lit. dressing him in 52

his clothes?)’, in which the oxytonic as opposed to paroxytonic accent on imatta is an interrogative sign. Nevertheless, the occurrence of tt- in the present causative is rare, and the relevant morphemic cluster has been invariably represented in the grammar as ss-, the use of which often serves also to remove any possible ambiguity with the present of corresponding simple forms. The fact of widespread variability, however, should be recognized in passing, though no systematic attempt has been made to account for differences of form under this heading. Before the topic is left, however, perhaps one further variable example should be provided. From the form of its present tense ysífəf – yssífaf – (a)ysífəf – sífəf (sieve) has all the appearance of an s-form, though no corresponding simple form has been attested. Variable forms occur particularly in the past, aorist, and imperative paradigms of the verb, and include Past: (3 f.pl) (1 pl.)

ssífnət or sifə́fnət nsífəf or n(ə)ssíf

Aorist: (2 s.)

at(ə)ssífəd or atsíffəd

(2 f.pl)

attsífmət or atssif(ə́)fmət

(3 f.pl)

(1 pl.)

assífnət or asif(ə́)fnət

an(ə́)ssif or ansífəf

Impve.: (s)

(ə)ssíf or sífəf

(f.pl)

(ə)ssífmət or sif(ə́)fmət

(m.pl)

(ə)ssíffət or síffət

Within this framework, the incidence of schwa could be used to extend the facts of variability, but no purpose would be served by pursuing the matter further here. Two general observations should perhaps be made before proceeding. The first is that it is not seemingly possible to derive all s-forms unequivocally from simple counterparts, and a case could be made for the recognition of s-conjugations sui generis, though this has not been attempted here. This applies especially to the unmistakably 53

Berber conjugations and in particular to Conj. 7, in which three patterns of s-form occur (see below). Some, but not all, of the facts of difference may be accounted for on phonological grounds, and the absence of corresponding simple forms is sometimes a complicating factor. Secondly, it should not be assumed that the semantic relation between simple and s-form is always straightforwardly causative, cf. yərbə́ḥ (make a profit) – ysə́rbəḥ (make s.o. a profit), yiṛáṛ (play) – ysíṛaṛ (amuse (child), keep (child) occupied, let (child) play), yərqə́s (dance, usu. of negro entertainers) – ysə́rqəs (rock or dandle (child); twirl (top), spin), yəṛwə́l (escape, run away) – ysə́ṛwəl (help to escape (across border), smuggle (goods across frontier), remove (e.g. animals from orchard before its owner sees them)), yəṛlá (become reconciled with s.o.) – ysə́ṛla (+ dir. obj.) (seek to become reconciled with s.o.), yəḍm(ə́)ʕ (covet) – ysə́ḍm(ə)ʕ (appeal to s.o.’s selfish instincts), yəɣḍə́s (dive, sink (intr.), drown) – ysə́ɣḍəs (plunge s.t. into water), (3 s.f.) təqrə́q (stop laying (of hen)) – tsə́qrəq (place under chicken for hatching (of woman or girl)), yəxnə́b (rob, steal) – ysə́xnəb (accuse s.o. of theft), etc. (Similar semantic extensions attendant upon derivation apply to cases of causative relation between Conjs. 1 and 2, e.g. yənšə́f (dry up (intr.), be dry (of food)) – ynə́ššəf (dry (tr.), wipe (e.g. floor), blot (ink), etc.). Nevertheless, the inherent causativeness of s-derivation is apparent. Semantic links in other cases lacking such a clear morphological indicator are greatly more fugitive. For instance, is yẓẓə́lfəṭ (let slip from grasp) an s-form, nothwithstanding its present tense yttẓə́lfaṭ with the tt- prefix, and, perhaps more relevantly, given its sibilant-lateral-emphatic plosive constituency, is it related at least phonaesthetically to yəẓlə́ḍ (slip (on mud) (intr.)), yəzlə́q (slip (on any surface)), and even yəslúlləḍ (slip (on wet ground))? It is impossible to answer these questions with any certainty, but such forms may well be phonaesthetically and semantically motivated and, as in Arabic, often involve quadriliteral verbs at some point in a putative semantic chain. 3.3 s-forms by conjugation S-forms will now be considered in the order set out at 1.14:

54

Conj. 1 ysə́tʕəb – yssə́tʕab – etc. was, of course, an example of Conjugation 1(a) in its causative form. A comparable example of 1(b), with final -a retained throughout the scatter, is ysə́ṛla [-s-] – yssə́ṛla – (a)ysə́ṛla – sə́ṛla (please, appease, seek to be reconciled with s.o.; cf. simple form yəṛlá – yṛə́lla – (a)yə́ṛla – ə́ṛla (become reconciled after quarrel)). In the case of the s-form, the past and present tenses are minimally distinguished here by the gemination or not of the sibilant. An interesting occasional feature of the present s- tense is illustrated by ysə́qdəʕ – yssə́qdaʕ – (a)ysə́qdəʕ – sə́qdəʕ (accompany past (obstacle, danger)) (cf. simple yəqdə́ʕ – yqə́ttəʕ – (a)yə́qdəʕ – ə́qdəʕ (pass by, along)). The tense can sometimes, albeit rarely, occur with the potential or gerundive sense normally reserved for the ttwa-a/u form, for example with reference to a road that may be taken through a given location, i.e. a through road. This meaning is presumably carried in such cases by the long vowel in the final syllable, but examples are too rare to permit any certainty in the matter. A feature which occurs in other conjugations but is especially notable in Conj. 1 is the (palatal) assimilation of causative s- to š as the first radical of a root. Examples are numerous and include yšə́šb(ə)ʕ – yššə́šbaʕ – (a)yšə́šb(ə)ʕ – šə́šb(ə)ʕ (satisfy s.o.’s hunger, feed s.o. well) (s-form of yəšb(ə́)ʕ – yšə́bb(ə)ʕ – (a)yə́šb(ə)ʕ – ə́šb(ə)ʕ (be satisfied, replete). For reasons of space, following examples are given in only past and present tenses, though there is a full scatter in most cases. Thus, s-forms yšə́šrəq – yššə́šraq (choke s.o.) correspond to simple yəšrə́q – yšə́rrəq (choke (intr.)), yšə́šṛəm – yššə́šṛam (tear, e.g. ear by pulling on ear-ring) to yəšṛə́m – yšə́ṛṛəm (be cut, torn, slit), yšə́šṛəh – yššə́šṛah (calm s.o. down, appease) to yəšṛə́h – yšə́ṛṛəh (calm down (intr.), be even-tempered), yšə́šhəd – yššə́šhad (call upon s.o. to testify) to yəšhə́d – yšə́hhəd (bear witness), etc. One of the assimilated causative forms , yšə́šʕəf – yššə́šʕaf (make s.o. tire of s.t.), derived form yəšʕə́f – yšə́ʕʕəf (tire of s.t.), is less frequent than the corresponding Conj. 2 form, i.e. yš(ə́)ʕʕəf – yttš(ə́)ʕʕəf (see reference to ydáb in following paragraph). It will be seen subsequently that, however rarely, s may be assimilated not only to š but also to z and ž in other conjugations, but these assimilations do not occur in the case of Conj.

55

1, cf. yəzḍə́f [-ẓḍ-] (be(come) dark in colour) / ysə́zḍəf [-ṣəẓḍ-] (dye darker), yəžfə́l (rear up (of animal)) / ysə́žfəl (make (animal) rear up). Conj. 2 In Conjugation 2, s- when it occurs is in close junction with the first consonant of the root or stem and is not geminated, but, distributionally, it is severely restricted, and is largely absent from the conjugation. This is undoubtedly, due to the causative relationship, however sporadic, developed between the second (C1(ə)C2C2(ə)C3) and first ((ə)C1C2(ə)C3) conjugations as a reflex of Arabic facts, e.g. yəhlə́k – yhə́llək – (a)yə́hlək – (no impve.) (be spoilt, go bad, usu. food) and yhə́llək – y(ə)tthə́llək – (a)yhə́llək – hə́llək (spoil (tr.)). This constraint may now and then lead to free variation between Conj. 2 and the s-form of Conj. 1, e.g. yəbʕə́d (be distant) and its variant causative forms ybə́ʕʕəd and ysə́bʕəd (take away, remove). Only two examples of s- + Conj. 2 have been attested, i.e. yəsnə́ṭṭəṛ – (no pres.) – (a)y(ə)snə́ṭṭəṛ – (ə)snə́ṭṭəṛ (bounce (tr.), make jump), cf. simple ynə́ṭṭəṛ – yttnə́ṭṭəṛ – (a)ynə́ṭṭəṛ – nə́ṭṭəṛ (jump, bounce (intr.)) (Ar. /nṭṭr), and yəsqə́lləq – yəsqə́llaq – (a)yəsqə́lləq – (ə)sqə́lləq (make s.o. sad or angry), which is the causative form of yqə́lləq – y(ə)ttqə́lləq – (a)yqə́lləq – qə́lləq (be(come) sad, angry), which is in turn the ‘intensive’ form of simple yəqlə́q – yqə́lləq – (a)yə́qləq – (no other form) (be(come) depressed). An intensifying relation is quite common between Forms I and II of the Arabic verb, which correspond to the difference between yəqlə́q (Berber Conj. 1) and yqə́lləq (Conj. 2). There are a few more examples, four attested, of the pattern derived from Arabic verbs with a weak middle radical, i.e. *y/w, which appears as -a- in the simple form (see Conj. 9), in which causative scombines with the doubling of the middle radical, and in one case is omissible. Thus, ydáb etc. (dissolve (intr.)) (Conj. 9) occurs in the variant causative forms yəsdə́wwəb – yəsdə́wwab – (a)y(ə)sdə́wwəb – (ə)sdə́wwəb and ydə́wwəb – yttdə́wwəb [idd-] – (a)ydə́wwəb – də́wwəb (dissolve (tr.)), whereas yəsḍə́yyəb [-ṣḍ-] – yəsḍə́yyab – (a)y(ə)sḍə́yyəb – (ə)sḍə́yyəb (cook (tr.)) is the causative form of yḍáb – yttḍába [iḍḍ-] – áyḍab (dependent yə́ḍab) – ə́ḍab (rare impve.) (be cooked, ripe). In the s-cases of Conj. 2, including the rare quadriliteral forms below, the past and present tenses are minimally distinguished by the difference between ə and a (very occasionally, u) in the final syllable. 56

The last example cited is the only unequivocal example among these verbs of causative s- standing in relation to a verb of Conj. 9. In the remaining two cases, s- provides the causative form of a verb which, nothwithstanding a weak middle radical, belongs to Conjugation 2 in the absence of any corresponding form belonging to another conjugation. The two examples are (Conj. 2(a)) y(ə)sʕə́yyəḍ – y(ə)sʕə́yyaḍ – (a)y(ə)sʕə́yyəḍ – (ə)sʕə́yyəḍ (make s.o. cry, weep) (simple yʕə́yyəḍ – yttʕə́yyəḍ – (a)yʕə́yyəḍ – ʕə́yyəḍ (cry, weep)) (Ar. ʕyṭ) and (Conj. 2(b)) y(ə)sqə́wwa – (no pres.) – (a)y(ə)sqə́wwa – (no impve.) (make fat, add fat to food) (simple yqə́wwa – yttqə́wwa – (a)yqə́wwa – (no impve.) (be fat, strong)). No examples of s- have been found for Conj. 2(c), and it should perhaps also be noted more generally that s- does not occur in association with both of two related forms belonging to Conj. 1 and Conj. 2. It will be recalled that quadriliteral forms were classified under Conj. 2(a) and at first sight one would not expect confusion to arise between a quadriliteral verb and a corresponding s-form, but the aforementioned restriction also seems to apply to quadriliterals and only two quadriliteral s-forms have been found with the full verbal scatter and one of these is derived from a noun, not a verb. Two others are of defective distribution in that only present tense forms occur. Of the two fully fledged verbs the first is a loan from Libyan colloquial Arabic, i.e. y(ə)sg(ə́)ʕməz – y(ə)sg(ə́)ʕmaz – (a)y(ə)sg(ə́)ʕməz – (ə)sg(ə́)ʕməz (make s.o. sit) (simple yg(ə́)ʕməz – yttg(ə́)ʕməz – (a)yg(ə́)ʕməz – g(ə́)ʕməz (cf. Cl. Ar. /qʕd). The second is derived from the noun tikə́rkəst (pl. tikə́rkas) (lie/s) and is y(ə)skə́rkəs – y(ə)skə́rkus – (a)y(ə)skə́rkəs – (ə)skə́rkəs (lie, tell lies), in which -u- for -a- in the final syllable of the present tense is noteworthy. It will be seen that the example also illustrates the duplication of C1 in the position C3. Complete reduplication of the consonants occurs, together with -u- in the present tense, in the first of the defective scatters, i.e. y(ə)skə́ṛkuṛ [-kǫṛ-] (pull along, drag along) (simple ykə́ṛkəṛ – y(ə)ttkə́ṛkəṛ – (a)ykə́ṛkəṛ – kə́ṛkəṛ (approximately same meaning)) (cf. ykúṛṛ (pull) (Conj. 10)). The s-form and the simple present of the quadriliteral are in free variation in e.g. aḥulíyyik yəskə́ṛkuṛ or yəttkə́ṛkəṛ (your jerd is dragging on the ground). The examples are too few for firm opinions to be expressed, but there is a suggestion of phonaesthetic implications about them. The suggestion is stronger in the second defective 57

case, in which duplication of consonants again occurs in places C1 and C3 and -u- replaces -a-. The first consonant, moreover, is m, which often seems to carry pejorative connotations elsewhere in the language, for example in an adjectival prefix (i)m-. The s-form is again interchangeable with the simple present, and is y(ə)smə́rmud (or y(ə)ttmə́rməd) (make onself dirty), as in matta t(ə)smərmúdəd, ay mə́rmad?! (parent to son) (what are you dirtying your hands with, you dirty boy?!). Conjs. 3, 4, 5 The following conjugations, 3, 4, and 5, predominantly comprise Arabic loans. 4 and 5 are associated with consonant prefixes and infixes from the lending language, whereas 3 will be seen subsequently to occur frequently with the Berber derivational prefix m-, indeed to provide the main source for this prefix. Perhaps these facts of prefixation preclude the occurrence of s- with these conjugations, but, whatever the reason, no case of s- has been found, nothwithstandings some cases of possible confusion with s-forms to which reference was made at 1.7. It is first and foremost with indigenous conjugations, though not exclusively indigenous exemplars, that s- occurs. Conj. 6 The distinction made between subclasses (a) and (b) for the simple form of Conjugation 6 does not apply to s-forms, but the incidence of schwa follows the lines set out at 1.10, where it was seen that the nature of the root consonants, involving contrast in particular between liquids and non-liquids, dictates the places at which ə occurs or not. A major difference between s- and simple forms is the ‘elimination’ in the former of final -a in the past tense. Final -a occurs, of course, in the present tense of the s-form as the tense marker in association with prefixed ss-. Examples are as follows: (simple yəslá (hear)): ysə́səl – yssə́sla – (a)ysə́səl – sə́səl (make or let s.o. hear)

(simple yəflá (go)): ysə́fəl – yssə́fla – (a)ysə́fəl – sə́fəl (accompany s.o. past obstacle or danger) (simple yətšá (eat)): ysə́tš – yssə́tša – áysətš – (dependent ysə́tš) – sətš (feed (tr.)) 58

(simple yənsá (spend the night)): ysə́ns – yssə́nsa – áysəns – (dependent ysə́ns) – səns (put s.o. up overnight) (simple yəɣrá (study, learn)): ysə́ɣər – yssə́ɣra – (a)ysə́ɣər – sə́ɣər (teach)

(simple yəḍṛá (fly)): ysə́ḍəṛ – yssə́ḍṛa – (a)ysə́ḍəṛ – sə́ḍəṛ (make fly (away))

(simple yəḍṣá (laugh; mock)): ysə́ḍṣ – yssə́ḍṣa – áysəḍṣ (dependent ysə́ḍṣ) – səḍṣ (make s.o. laugh, amuse)

(simple yəswá (drink): ysə́səw [-su] – yssə́swa – (a)ysə́səw – sə́səw (water (plant))

(simple yəsfá (feed (intr.) at breast)): 3 s.f. tsə́sf – t(ə)ssə́sfa – átsəsf (dependent tsə́sf) – səsf (suckle)

Note: yəssúr – (no present) – (a)yə́ssur – (no impve.) (be mixed (together); inter-communicate (of rooms)) seems to belong to Conj. 11 but behaves in the matter of s-derivation as if there occurred an unattested form *yəsrá. Thus, corresponding s-forms are ysə́sər – yssə́sra – (a)ysə́sər – sə́sər (mix (together) (tr.)). The explanation for this behaviour may perhaps lie in the fact of geminate sibilance initial in the simple stem. Conj. 7 s-derived forms of Conjugation 7 are particularly interesting, following more than one pattern of derivation. Only 10 of the 23 or so examples of the yəC1C1ə́C2 pattern admit derivation with s-, but of these there are three types. The first, with 3 examples, incorporates swith the stem in the manner of Conj. 1, e.g. (y)əbbə́s (be extinguished) – (y)sə́bbəs (extinguish), (y)əddə́r (be wet; be alive) – (y)sə́ddər (wet), (y)əkkə́r (get up) – (y)sə́kkər (wake s.o. up); the second (5 examples) somewhat surprisingly inserts the long vowel u before C1C1, e.g. yəṭṭə́ṣ (sleep, be asleep) – (y)súṭṭəṣ (make s.o. sleep), (y)əẓẓə́l (lie down) – (y)súẓẓəl (lay down), (y)əffə́ɣ (go out) – (y)súffəɣ (take out), (y)əggə́z (go down) – (y)súggəz (bring down), (y)ənnə́ḍ (turn (intr.)) – (y)súnnəḍ (turn (tr.)); and the third (2 examples) substitutes the palatal vowel i for u in the context of a following nongeminated voiceless palato-alveolar fricative (š), e.g. (y)əššə́f (come near) – (y)šíšəf (bring near). The second example of the last pattern, i.e. (y)šíšəl – (y)ššíšal etc. (thresh; be threshed) is an s-form 59

which lacks a simple counterpart and should perhaps, therefore, not have been included under Conj. 7. The palatal feature is a prosody covering the initial phase of the stem in these examples, and perhaps the labio-velar vowel of the second set of examples is associated variously with emphasis or velarity in the stem. These features are absent from the first set, but again examples are probably too few to allow any firm conclusions to be drawn. Indeed, as will be seen below, there is some overlap with the few examples of s-derivation from Conj. 12, and this would permit (y)šíšəl to be derived from a hypothetical *(y)ušə́l rather than *(y)əššə́l. This would reduce the number of s-derived forms of Conj. 7 from 10 to 9. Conj. 8 Of the 6 examples of Conj. 8, only ybə́dd (stand up) occurs in the sform, i.e. yəsbə́dd – yəsbə́dda – (a)yə́sbədd – (ə́)sbədd (keep s.t. upright, stop s.t. from moving). It will be seen that, as in numerous subsequent cases, subject to the substitution of s- (yəsbə́dda) for tt(y(ə)ttbə́dda), the present tenses of the s- and simple forms correspond in constituent structure and are distinguished from their past correlates by the occurrence of final -a. Conj. 9 It has been seen that Conjugation 9 (structure (y)C1aC2), which contains many Arabic loans, may stand as the simple form in which the vowel a ‘replaces’ a weak middle radical (w, y) in relation to examples of Conjugation 2 in which w and y appear as C2, i.e. (y)C1əwwəC3 and yC1əyyəC3, which quite often provide the corresponding causative form. It was also seen that s- is, therefore, largely precluded from association with Conj. 2, and it is likewise excluded from Conj. 9. It will be recalled that, in a few cases of Conj. 2, s- and its absence are freely variant, e.g. yəsdə́wwəb or ydə́wwəb (dissolve (tr.)), yəsdə́wwəx or ydə́wwəx (make s.o. giddy, sick). Some verbs occur with both y and w in Conj. 2, as in the series yšáḍ (be burnt (of food) / yšə́yyəḍ (burn (food) (tr.)) / yšə́wwəḍ (roast (cereals to burn off husks, sheep’s head to burn of hair)). It is extremely rare for an sform to provide the only causative relatum of a corresponding simple form of structure CaC, and yḍáb (be cooked, ripe) / yəsḍə́yyəb (cook (tr.)) is the only attested case. Where appropriate, then, Conj. 9 finds 60

its causative forms in the shape of Conj. 2, e.g. yḍáʕ (be wasted) / yḍə́yyəʕ (waste (tr.)), yɣáb (be absent) / yɣə́yyəb (pass away (of sick man)). Conj. 10 (a)(i) is an extremely productive pattern, with approximately 45 examples, only one of which, however, occurs with s-derivation. A very high proportion of examples of the structure (y)C1uC2C2 are derived from the Arabic doubled verb with short u as the conjugational vowel of the Arabic imperfect tense, e.g. Ar. ḥass (for *ḥasas) (perfect) / yaḥuss (imperfect) (feel). It would appear that the Berber long vowel u (e.g. yḥúss) corresponds to the Arabic conjugational vowel, and the few cases of unequivocalically Arabic conjugational i, e.g. dabb / yadibb (move slowly), have been ‘regularized’ to u, i.e. ydúbb (move slowly and painfully), whereas other cases with i correspond only doubtfully to their apparent Berber equivalents, a fact also true of some u-examples. A few examples suggest other possible Arabic origins, e.g. yɣúṭṭ (smother, cover) (Cl. Ar. ‘weak’ verb /ɣṭw, Coll. Ar. ‘doubled’ /ɣṭṭ), ylúṭṭ (strike, hit (with back of hand)) (?Ar. /lṭʕ), ylúmm (blame) (Ar. ‘hollow’ verb laam / yaluum), and yʕúmm (swim) (Ar. ‘hollow’ ʕaam / yaʕuum). It is the last example, not ‘doubled’ in the Arabic cognate, that supplies the single instance of s-derivation under (a)(i), i.e. yəsʕúmm – yəsʕúmmu (a)yə́sʕumm – (ə́)sʕumm (make swim). s- is, of course, nongeminated and in close junction with the initial consonant of the stem/root, and, like the present tense of the simple form (yttʕúmmu), is marked in the present causative by final -u in harmony with the vowel of the preceding syllable. This feature will reappear in the present tense of the ttwa- (a/u) form (see 3.5 below). s-derivation in the remainder of the conjugation occurs only in the cases of yənnúɣɣ ((b)(i)) (fight, quarrel) and yəqqúr (be dry). Once again s- is in close transition with the first consonant of the stem and, in addition, the stem-initial geminate is reduced to a single consonant, i.e. yəsnúɣɣ – y(ə)snúɣɣu – (a)yə́snuɣɣ – (ə́)snuɣɣ (incite to fight, quarrel), yəsɣúr – y(ə)sɣára – (a)yə́sɣur – (ə́)sɣur (dry (tr.); hurt s.o. with heavy blow). The first of the pair, like earlier yəsʕúmm, contains final -u in the present in harmony with the vowel of the preceding syllable and again in parallel with the present of the simple form 61

(yttnúɣɣu), wherein -nn- is again reduced to -n-; yəsɣúr – yəsɣára etc. is subject to the change of vowel from -u- to -a- and the addition of final ‘harmonizing’ -a as a sign of the present tense. This feature will be found again throughout Conjugation 11. Note: Tense and derivational prefixes in close transition with a geminate consonant initial in the stem always entail the reduction of the geminate. Thus, yəllúzz / yttlúzzu (run a race), yəqqím / yttɣíma (stay, remain), yəẓẓáll / yttẓálla (pray), yəffə́xs / yəsfə́xs (make (eggs) hatch; lance (boil)), yəmmə́ḍṣ / yəsmə́ḍṣ (besmirch), yəmmút / yttmáta (die), yəmmúgg / yttmúggu (fit (of clothing)), yəmmíta / yəsmíta (remind), yəxxítər / yəsxítər (thicken (liquid)), etc. Conj. 11 Of the 8 examples of Conjugation 11, only 2 occur in s-form, yədžúll and yənḍíf, i.e. ysə́džull – yssədžálla – (a)ysə́džull – sə́džull (make s.o. take an oath), ysə́nḍəf – yssə́nḍaf – (a)ysə́nḍəf -sə́nḍəf (clean). It will be noticed that the two present tenses, s- and non-s, yssədžálla and yttədžálla, reflect each other as to overall structure and vowel constituency. An interesting feature of ysə́nḍəf is the short vowel of the final syllable, cf. yənḍíf. This feature will be found again in relation to -i- in Conj. 13. One possible explanation is the need that may be felt to avoid any confusion with the morpheme -i- which, in association with other features, occurs in the final syllable of certain negative verbal forms. Conj. 12 The s-forms of Conj. 12 vary in their treatment of the stem vowel u in the simple form. In the cases of yutə́f (enter) and yuzə́g (boil (intr.)) the vowel is changed to i, with once again the optional irregular substitution of ay for i in the second case, i.e. ysít(ə)f – yssítaf – (a)ysít(ə)f – sít(ə)f (bring in), ysízəg or ysáyzəg – yssízag or yssáyzag – (a)ysízəg or (a)ysáyzag – sízəg or sáyzəg (boil (tr.)). In the other two cases, u remains, i.e. (yuḍə́n (fall ill)) > ysúḍ(ə)n – yssúḍan – (a)ysúḍ(ə)n – súḍ(ə)n (make s.o. ill), (yulə́y (ride (intr.)) > ysúləy – yssúlay – (a)ysúləy – súləy (put s.o. in vehicle, on horse, etc.). Though no simple form occurs, yzúz(ə)n – yzzúzan or yttzúzan [iddz-] – (a)yzúz(ə)n – zúz(ə)n (rock, swing) (?Ar. /wzn), with assimilation of s to z, should doubtless also be included here. 62

Conj. 13 Conjugation 13 is characterized by the occurrence of long vowels in a disyllabic root and, with one exception, the vowels are maintained in the s-forms that occur, with the proviso that -a- occurs in the final syllable of the present tense, whatever the corresponding vowel of the simple form. Thus, (yugúr (walk)) > ysúgur – yssúgar – (a)ysúgur – súgur (walk (infant); drive (car)), (yutláy (talk)) > ysútlay – yssútlay – (a)sútlay – sútlay (make s.o. speak), (yiṛáṛ or yuṛáṛ (play)) > ysíṛaṛ (not *ysuṛaṛ) – yssíṛaṛ – (a)ysíṛaṛ – síṛaṛ (amuse, keep occupied, let play (child)). It will be noticed that, in the last two examples, the past and present tenses are minimally, and therefore unusually, distinguished by the difference between nongeminated and geminated prefixal s-. The s-form of yiríd (be washed) is, like the earlier case of yənḍíf / ysə́nḍəf (clean) (Conj. 11), notable for the shortening of the vowel of the final syllable in all paradigms except the present, i.e. ysír(ə)d – yssírad – (a)ysír(ə)d – sír(ə)d (wash (tr.)). 3.4 Addenda: the ‘odd men out’; -CuC for -CaC Two matters are worthy of further brief comment: (i) The sample’s ‘odd men out’ listed above at 1.15 are indeed for the most part s-forms, but usually lack other verbal forms to which they may plausibly be related. Their recognition as s-forms depends chiefly on the occurrence of long a in the final syllable of their present tenses, e.g. ysúggəm – yssúggam (with additional gemination of ss-) (wait (for)), t(ə)ssíngəl – t(ə)ssíngal (3 s.f.) (apply antimony), y(ə)sráqqəb – y(ə)sráqqab (peer out), y(ə)slúlləḍ – y(ə)slúllaḍ (slip). In these cases, no other relatable form, even nominal, seems to occur, whereas yəstúfəs – y(ə)stúfas (spit), t(ə)slíləw [-lu] – t(ə)slílaw (3 s.f.) (ululate), and t(ə)stúlləs (other paradigms unattested) (3 s.f.) (grow dark) are plausibly derived respectively from nominal forms tifúfas (spittle, saliva), talíliwt / tililíwin (ululation), and tállast (darkness) as in tállast t(ə)stúlləs (darkness fell). The single case of y(ə)ssúsəm – y(ə)ssúsam (be silent) seems to be a reflexive use corresponding to transitive ysúsəm – y(ə)ttsúsam (silence) as in ysúsmi (he silenced him). The example (ə)žžúžəf – y(ə)ttžúžaf [iddž-] (cf. tžúžəft [dž-] / tižužífin) (dream) is probably not an assimilated s-form in view of the occurrence of the present prefix tt- and of the explicability of a in the 63

final syllable as determined by the adjacent long vowel u. The gemination of ž (=C1) occurs elsewhere at Conjugation 4(b) in the evidently Arabic loan y(ə)žžə́mməl – y(ə)ttžə́mməl (keep boasting of doing s.o. a favour). Finally, the ‘unusual’ form y(ə)nnúqqəb (variant y(ə)nnúffəg) (be holed, have a hole in) cited at 1.15 is subject to derivation with s- in y(ə)snúqqəb – y(ə)snúqqab (or y(ə)snúffəg – y(ə)snúffag) (hole, make a hole in) (cf. nominal tnúqqibt / tinuqqíbin or tnúffigt / tinuffígin (hole/s)). (ii) The second addendum concerns the occurrence of u for a in the final syllable of present tense s-forms. As we shall see, this is a more frequent feature of ttwa-forms than of s-counterparts, if only because the productive Conj. 10 occurs more often with ttwa-(a/u). The only examples of this conjugation which occur with s- and final -u are y(ə)snúɣɣ – y(ə)snúɣɣu – (a)yə́snuɣɣ – (ə́)snuɣɣ (incite to fight) and y(ə)sʕúmm – y(ə)sʕúmmu – (a)yə́sʕumm – (ə́)sʕumm (bathe (child), make swim), in which the two occurrences of u harmonize and which reflect the appearance of u in the present tense of the simple form (y(ə)ttnúɣɣu, y(ə)ttʕúmmu). Elsewhere, final syllable u occurs noticeably in quadriliteral verbs of a phonaethetic kind in which a given consonant (k, m, ḍ) is duplicated in places C1 and C3, with reduplication occurring in two cases in which ɣ and ṛ are repeated in places C2 and C4. Of the four examples concerned three are defective and occur only in the present tense, whereas the fourth y(ə)skə́rkəs – y(ə)skə́rkus – (a)yəskə́rkəs – (ə)skə́rkəs (tell lies) shows a full scatter of paradigms. The defective three are y(ə)smə́rmud (make onself dirty), y(ə)skə́ṛkuṛ (drag along ground), y(ə)sḍə́ɣḍuɣ (tickle). The final two examples appeared among the ‘oddities’ of 1.15 and are ysə́stən – y(ə)ssə́stun – (a)ysə́st(ə)n – sə́st(ə)n (ask) and t(ə)knúnnəḍ – t(ə)knúnnuḍ – (a)t(ə)knúnnəḍ – (ə)knúnnəḍ (3 s.f.) ((of woman) put on jerd before going out). In conclusion, it should be said that u occurs in the present tense of a few m-derived forms and these will be noted at the appropriate place below. 3.5 ttwa-derivation To generate the passive ttwa-form of those verbs with which it is admissible, the prefix should simply be applied to the singular imperative of the simple or nonderived form, with ə́-, á-, or the extremely 64

rare ú/í- deleted where appropriate, the prefixal vowel accented in disyllabic forms, and the personal affixes applied in the normal way. After each of the following examples, cited in the 3 s.m. form, the singular simple or nonderived imperative is included in brackets, and conjugations are, of course, those listed at 1.14: (Conj. 1(a)) (3 s.m.) yttwáḥrəq (it (m.) has been burnt, burnt down) (< ə́ḥrəq), (3 s.f.) (tíddart) ttwáxnəb (< təttwáxnəb) ((the house) has been burgled) (< ə́xnəb), (Conj. 1(b)) yttwámḥa (has been erased) (< ə́mḥa), yttwábna (has been built) (< ə́bna), (Conj. 2(a)) yttwaxə́zzəz (has become rusty) (< xə́zzəz), yttwaxə́rbəš (has been scribbled on) (< xə́rbəš), (Conj. 2(b)) (lə́ḥsab) yttwaṣə́ffa ((the account) has been settled) (< ṣə́ffa), (Conj. 3(a)) yttwaḥásəb (affáyu la yiga yəkmə́l) (he has been punished, lit. called to account (for all he did) (< ḥásəb), (Conj. 3(b)) yttwakúbər (has been dug, prepared for cultivation) (< kúbər), (Conjs. 4 & 5, no examples), (Conj. 6(a) & (b)) yttwásəl (has been heard) (< ə́səl), yttwásəw [-su] (has been drunk) (< ə́səw), yttwáẓḍ (has been ground (of flour)) (< əẓḍ), (Conj. 7) yttwáddəs (has been threaded) (< ə́ddəs), yttwábbəy [-bi] (has been collected, gleaned) (< ə́bbəy), (Conj. 8) yttwáwətt (has been beaten) (< ə́wətt), yttwáɣəẓẓ (have been munched, crunched, eaten (dates) (< ə́ɣəẓẓ), (Conj. 9) yttwáqam (has been lifted) ( ay slə́mmi ttwaʕə́lla (a)myu? La budda taṛṃáṃṃu yʕəlláttət, tša múmkən attwaʕə́lla wə́ḥdəs (Since when has this been put up? Someone must have put it up, it can’t have put itself up). Other aorist examples include attwaḥə́ššməɣ díd(ə)s (I shall feel embarrassed with him, e.g. because he asked me to do s.t. for him and I have not done it), ggə́tas nínfax, ay(ə)ttwaṭə́ṛbəg (< ṭə́ṛbəg) (that’s enough blowing up (lit. enough of inflating for it), it will burst (lit. be burst), ɣir attə́džəd, ay(ə́)ttwaẓḍ físəʕ (if you leave it (grain), it will be ground soon), ḥədd ɣir ay(ə)ttwákəz gwə́mkan [gg-], m(ə)ʕádš ynəžžəm ayig šáṛa la wətṣəllə́ḥš (if someone becomes known in a place, he will not (lit. no longer) be able to do anything shameful (there)), aš m(ə́)ʕna txə́zzəz iziɣ txəzzə́zš [-ʃʃ], muhu b(ə)ʕdín attwaxzə́zzəz?! (What does it matter whether it rusts or not, won’t it get rusty later (anyway)?!). As the example with yttwaʕə́lla showed, futurity does not always inhere in this use of the aorist and, in the following example, it seems to share the gerundive sense normally reserved for the ttwa-a/u form, which, perhaps significantly, does not occur with the verb in question, i.e. wətša dṃaṃṃu ay(ə)ttwáttətt, ayə́dwəl swáwal bə́ss (he shouldn’t be hit, he’ll change with telling (lit. from words only, i.e. he’s a good boy, who just needs telling for him not to do it again). The future implication of the particle h- prefixed to the aorist and regularly entailed by the preceding use of qəbəl ma (before) appears in e.g. qəbəl ma hay(ə)ttwadə́ššəš amə́ssis, wəttəffə́ɣš (she (never) goes out before her dinner (i.e. the cereals for it) has been ground). The negative particles prefixed and suffixed in the case of wəttəffə́ɣš (she does not go out) and suffixed in the earlier txəzzə́zš (it (f.) does not get rusty) may be noticed in passing, together with the oxytonic implication of the negative suffix (see 4 below). 3.7 Distribution of ttwa-(a/u) among conjugations The passive forms are, as might be expected, most numerous in the first two conjugations. They are quite frequent, too, in Conj. 3, 69

though with the kind of restrictions set out at 3.4. Once again, as in the formation of s-derivatives, -a is appended to the past tense of Conjs. 6 and 9 and elsewhere inserted before the final consonant in order to form the present tense. Thus, as with ysə́səl / ysə́sla (make to hear), so with yttwásəl / yttwásla (have been/can be heard), yttwátš / yttwátša (have been/can be eaten), etc. Other examples are yttwáẓəṛ / yttwáẓṛa (have been/can be seen, be visible) and yttwádər / yttwádra (have been plaited/ready to be plaited (head of hair)). The case of yttwáməl / yttwámla (have been/can be said) is interesting for the appearance again of stem-final l, nothwithstanding the irregular simple tense-forms yəṃṃá / yənná. Final -a in these conjugations harmonizes with the vowel of the preceding syllable, and this also applies to final -u in the case of Conj. 10, e.g. yttwáʕudd / yttwaʕuddu (have been/can be counted), yttwámuṣṣ / yttwamúṣṣu (have been/can be sucked (of sweet)), etc. This is again in parallel not only with the rare case of s-derivation, i.e. yəsʕúmm / yəsʕúmmu (bathe, make swim), but also with the simple tense forms of the productive Conj. 10, e.g. ylúṭṭ / yttlúṭṭu (hit with back of hand), yəllúzz / yttlúzzu (run a race), etc. The only example of Conj. 11 that has come to light is yttwa(ẓ)ẓálla (< ə́ẓẓall) which, with an interesting shortening of radical ẓẓ doubtless imposed by the requirements of syllable structure, occurs only with potential sense in e.g. tuqzin uší ttwaẓ(ẓ)allán(ə)t (the tuqzin-prayer(s) can still be said, i.e. there is still time). Conj. 12 yields few examples of ttwa-(a), though ákəz (know, realize, recognize) provides a full scatter. No ttwa-(a) form occurs of ás(ə)d (come, arrive) but yttwátaf (can be entered), yttwáɣad (can be brought), and yttwáẓaḍ (can be given) are attested without accompanying *yttwátəf, *yttwaɣəd, or *yttwáẓəḍ, and, contrariwise, past passive yttwárəy [-ri] (have been written) occurs in the absence of *yttwáray. 12(b) is a highly unusual class, whose ttwa-(a) forms are no exception. yurá (open) is the one verb with the highly unusual m-passive form ymír (be open, have been opened) and the corresponding present yttmíra (can be opened). Similarly, yuɣá (marry; stain; injure) provides the unique example of a passive form yttə́waɣ (have been hurt), to which no ttwa-a form corresponds. yúfa (find), for its part, provides the ttwa-a form yttwáfa (can be found) but there occurs neither *yttwaf nor *yttə́waf. Examples from Conj. 13 are extremely rare.

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3.8 Restricted occurrence of ttwa-/ttwa-a/u It was said above that, of those verbs which occur in passive derived forms, not all admit both ttwa- and ttwa-a/u forms, and indeed a large number do not, for reasons by no mean always clear. Moreover, the meanings attached to a verb in non-derived form may not all lend themselves to both forms of passive derivation, so that the past passive may be associated with one meaning and the potential/gerundive passive with another. Thus, for instance, yhúdd / ytthúddu / áyhudd (dependent yə́hudd) / ə́hudd (force lock; put stallion to mare) occurs in the past passive in the second sense, i.e. yttwáhudd (have been put to mare (of stallion), in contrast with the sense of potential yttwahúddu (can be forced (of lock)). As things are, each verb needs to be considered for itself. It was seen that ttwáẓad [-ḍ] (< áẓ(ə)d), for example, in tšá dšaṛa la ttwáẓad (it’s not something that can or should be given, i.e. it is not a suitable gift) does not occur in the corresponding form *ttwaẓəd, and it is conceivable that the reason may lie in the possible confusion with the past passive form of another verb, i.e. ttwázḍ [-ẓ-] (əzḍ) (have been ground (flour)), though the explanation is probably tenuous. Likewise, yttwádž is very rare and replaced by yəqqím where it might have been expected, but yttwádža occurs regularly, as in wətšá dšaṛa la ttwádža (it isn’t something that ought to be left around), but one is bound to wonder why. In other cases, it is believable that one or other of the two forms is precluded for semantic or phonological reasons, but in many cases the absence of the form is far from immediately explicable, and any gap may be filled by other forms of the verb (cf. ay(ə)ttwə́wətt above) or by appropriate periphrases. Randomly selected examples, which could be greatly multiplied, include from Conj. 1 yttwáxləq (have been created (by God) without accompanying *yttwáxlaq, from Conj. 3 yttwasámaḥ (can be forgiven, be forgivable) or yttwaʕášaṛ (be a good man to have as a neighbour, friend, business partner, etc., i.e. be liveable with) in the absence of *yttwasáməḥ and *yttwaʕášəṛ. The reciprocal meaning associated with many examples of Conj. 3 might at first sight suggest an explanation for the absent member in these cases, but, then, how is the occurrence of both forms to be explained in, say, yttwaḥásəb / yttwaḥásab (have been/can be settled (account)) or the earlier yttwasáwəm / yttwasáwam (have been bargained or offered for (object only)/can 71

still be bargained over (object) or with (person))? Inanimate as opposed to animate subjects of verbs may conceivably be involved, but further research would be necessary before an opinion could be formulated. Likewise, in Conj. 10, a great many examples occur of the paired forms, e.g. yttwásull / yttwasúllu (have been/can be protracted) but not in the case of e.g. yttwaḥússu (can be felt; cf. ay dšaṛa t(ə)shə́l, ḥ(ə)tt(a) aḥússu (y)ttwaḥussúš ((to child wimpering over a cut) that’s nothing (lit. is easy), it can’t even be felt), which lacks a counterpart *yttwáḥuss, whereas the opposite case is illustrated by yttwáḍuṛṛ (have been harmed) in the absence of *yttwaḍúṛṛu. Again, in Conj. 2, yttwaḥə́lləf (have been threatened) is not matched by *yttwaḥə́llaf, and, among the quadriliterals are found yttwaxə́ẓṛəṭ (have been frightened, threatened) without corresponding *yttwaxə́ẓṛaṭ, yet both yttwaxə́lxel / yttwaxxə́lxal (have been/can be loosened, moved) occur, and so one might continue. 3.9 a-ending forms of Conjs. 1 and 2 In the case of Conj. 2(b) and (c), a single form frequently does duty for both ttwa- and ttwa-a/u elsewhere, embracing both semantic areas. Thus, yttwarə́qqa may be glossed variously as ‘he has been promoted’ or ‘he can or should be promoted’, yttwasáwa as ‘it has been levelled’ or ‘it can be levelled’. On the other hand, yttwaṛə́bba is only used with the past passive sense of ‘he has been (well) brought up’ and similarly yttwaṣə́ffa in e.g. lə́ḥsab yttwaṣə́ffa ‘the account has been cleared up’, as well as yttwaʕə́lla (have been raised), though yttwawə́ṣṣa appears in the gerundive sense in e.g. wətšá dṃaṃṃu yttwawə́ṣṣa (he can’t be recommended, he’s unreliable). 2(c) forms behave in a similar fashion, with the earlier yttwasáwa variously ‘has been’ or ‘can be levelled’ contrasting with, say, the exclusively potential/gerundive yttwaḥáda as in wətša dṃaṃṃu yttwaḥáda (he’s not someone to follow (i.e. who should be followed), be friendly with). The example might at first seem to support the afore-mentioned possibility of an animate/inanimate distinction but there also occurs the counterexample, in negative form, of (ə́)ššəṭṭ yttwaḥadíš (the coast, beach can’t be followed). Frustrating as the matter may be, it has to be left as one of those many untidy areas that belong to any language.

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A propos still of a-ending forms, Conj. 1 (b) is especially noteworthy. Of its 30 examples, 7 occur in ttwa- and/or ttwa-a form. 3 of these exhibit the interesting addition of final consonantal -y in the ttwa-a form in order to distinguish it from its ttwa- counterpart, i.e. yttwábna / yttwábnay (have been/can or should be built), yttwámḥa / yttwámḥay (have been/can or should be erased). The third example combines s- and ttwa- derivation, to which further attention is devoted in 3.11, and is yttwasə́hna / yttwasə́ḥnay (have been/can or should be lowered). Final -y here should not be confused with final radical -y in, say, yttwámḍəy [-ḍī] / yttwámḍay (have been tasted/be tasty, worth tasting). The remaining four examples occur only in the past passive or potential/gerundive form. Thus, yttwáḥka (can or should be told) is potential/gerundive only, whereas yttwáḥma (have been heated) and yttwáqḍa (have been done (shopping), discharged (business) are exclusively past passive. The 4th example is again doubly derived with s- and is yttwasə́ṛla (have been reconciled). The remaining examples of 1(b) do not occur either in ttwa- or ttwa-a form. 3.10

Personal affixes with the passive tenses

The application of the personal affixes to ttwa-(a/u) forms does not in general require particular notice. An exception concerning the 2 f.pl. and 3 f.pl. is given below. Examples of the several person-cumnumber-cum-gender affixes, of sentence size where attested, are as follows: 1 s. ttwaḍə́lbəɣ dís lakən wəqqíləɣ attúšəɣ (I have been asked for it but wouldn’t give it). Note The incidence of ə reflects the syllable structure of the form including its accentuation; ttwaḍə́lbəɣ, for example, may be compared with ttwáḍləb (she has been asked, it (f.) has been asked for), ttwaxə́tləɣ (I have been deceived) with 3 s. yttwáxtəl (< ə́xtəl). Cf. the simple form xrə́təɣ but xərtə́xtət (I tied a bow in it, e.g. tázra (rope) or tílli (string) and the ttwa-s- form (see 3.11) ttwasə́ḍ(ə)mʕəɣ (I have been tricked), where a 4-consonant sequence sḍmʕ(əɣ) is involved. 2 s. (to child) kə́tš abbáššar, š(ə)kk atəml(ə)d ša ttwasə́xḍəd (or -ṭəd) (cf. 3 s.m. yttwásxəḍ) (eat slowly, you are like (s.o. turned by God

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into) an animal). Note the regular insertion -i- before -d in e.g. the idiomatic š(ə)kkin ttwaẓárid (< yttwaẓáṛa) (you are weak-willed). 3 s.f. tazə́qqa tisi twə́ss(ə)x talži, lakən xxúl ttwaḍumm (the room was untidy this morning but now it’s been tidied up). 3 s.f./s.m. (gender dependent on that of referent of šáṛa) wətšá dšaṛa la ttwáḍlab / yttwáḍlab (it’s s.t. not worth asking for). 1 pl. n(ə)ttwaḥə́lləf (we have been threatened) 2 pl.m./f. ttwaɣúššum/(ə)t (you (pl.) are gullible) 3 pl.m. l(ə)ḥsabátis yttwaṣə́ffan (his affairs (lit. accounts) have been cleared up) 3 pl.f. ə́rrəxs gkúll [gg-] (m)mkan, dis tiɣusíwin [-m] bzáy(ə)d [-t] ttwasɣán(ə)t (cheapness is everywhere (i.e. everything is cheap), there are many things to be bought). In the ttwa-a paradigm, exceptional forms occur of the 2 pl.f. and 3 pl.f. suffixes, with the vowel of the suffix a in place of ə elsewhere, when the final radical of the verb is n. Thus, for example, (Conj. 1) 3 s.m. yttwáskan / 3 pl.m. ttwaskánən (it/they can be shown) take the usual forms but 3 pl.f. ttwaskánnat and 2 pl.f. ttwaskánmat illustrate the feature in question. Another example is ttwaqránnat (they (f., e.g. goats) can be tethered together (i.e. on one rope)) (< ə́qrən (thread together), which contrasts with e.g. (Conj. 12(b)) ttwašán(ə)t (they (f.) can be given). Note: This is perhaps the appropriate place at which to mention the impersonal passive construction exemplified by wətša dṃaṃṃu yttwalummu fəllas (he can’t be blamed (for it), he’s not someone who can be blamed)), in which the pronominal element -as appended to the preposition agrees with ṃaṃṃu (who, someone) and yttwalummu is an invariable impersonalized form, nothwithstanding the 3 s.m. prefix. The construction may have been borrowed from Arabic and is certainly reminiscent of e.g. Egyptian spoken Arabic sentences like salwa (f.) muttaṣal (invariable passive participle in 3 s.m. form) fiiha ‘Salwa has been communicated with (her)’ or ʔissəkka (s.f.) byətmaša (invariable 3 s.m. nonpast tense) ʕaleeha ‘the path is walkable (on it (s.f.))’. 74

3.11 ttwa-s-(a) ttwa- and s-forms of derivation frequently combine, with ttwa-prefixed to an s-form derived in accordance with the rules described at 3. For example, the verb forms of the root /ḥfḍ include (in 3 s.m. form) yəḥfə́ḍ (learn) – yttwáḥfəḍ (have been learned) – yttwáḥfaḍ (be easily learned) – ysə́ḥfəḍ (teach) – yttwasə́ḥfəḍ (have been taught) – yttwasə́ḥfaḍ (be easily taught). That s-derivation precedes ttwa-prefixation is shown clearly by examples in which a root vowel is subject to variation in s-forms, e.g. yuwə́ḍ / yttáw(ə)ḍ / (a)yáw(ə)ḍ / áw(ə)ḍ (catch up with s.o.)

ysíwəḍ / yssíwaḍ / (a)ysíwəḍ / síwəḍ (take s.o. or s.t. somewhere)

yttwasíwəḍ (have been taken or accompanied somewhere) / yttwasíwaḍ (can or should be accompanied) / ay(ə)ttwasíwəḍ (will have been accompanied).

A similar series containing the vowel change required by s-derivation is yənnə́ḍ (turn (intr.)) / ysúnəḍ (turn (tr.)) / yttwasúnəḍ (have been turned) – yttwasúnaḍ (can be turned). The priority of s-derivation is also shown by those s-forms in which s- is subject to assimilation, with, say, š (see 3.3 under Conj. 1), e.g. yəšb(ə́)ʕ (be satisfied, replete) – yšə́šb(ə)ʕ (satisfy, feed well) – yttwašə́šb(ə)ʕ (have been well fed) / yttwašə́šbaʕ (said to occur usu. in neg., wətša dṃaṃṃu yttwašəšbíʕš ‘he’s someone who can’t be satisfied’), and also in the case of s assimilated to z in yənzá (be sold) – yzə́nz or yəzzə́nz (sell) – yttwázzənz (have been sold) (cf. yttwázzənz qəbəl ma haddásəɣ (it had been sold before I arrived)). The ttwa-s- double derivation is perhaps particularly frequent in relation to verbs which are quasi-passive or stative in their simple form. The closeness of the relation between such non-derived forms and the past passive with ttwa- has to be recognized, and the comparison is explicitly made at 4.8. In the mean time, innumerable examples of non-derived forms and ttwa-s-(a) derivatives could be supplied but a few will suffice, notably from Conjs. 1 and 7. The example of yəddə́r (be wet) was quoted earlier, and its scatter includes yttwasə́ddər (has been wetted) / yttwasə́ddar (can be wetted) / ay(ə)ttwasə́ddər (it will get wet). yətʕə́b (tire (intr.), be tired) and its s-form ysə́tʕəb (tire (tr.)) was another example, whose ttwa- and ttwa-a-forms occur in e.g. ár75

gaz yttwasə́tʕəb bla ttə́mrət (the man has been tired out to no purpose, e.g. of witness travelling far to testify only to find court case postponed) and wəffálš lə́ššix attsə́t(ə)ʕbəd, dnə́tta wətša dṃaṃṃu yttwasə́tʕab (Don’t go to the Sheikh and tire him, when he ought not to be made tired, i.e. he’s old and tires easily). Other statives or quasi-passive examples are yəlʕə́q (catch or be alight) – ysə́lʕəq (light (tr.)) – yttwasə́lʕəq (have been lit) / yttwasə́lʕaq (can be lit, be combustible) / ay(ə)ttwasə́lʕəq (will have been lit), yənzə́ḥ (be dried up (well) – ysə́nzəḥ (dry up (tr.)) – yttwasə́nzəḥ (have been dried up (well), e.g. səssáfi ‘from wind-blown sand’) / ay(ə)ttwasə́nzəḥ (will have been dried up), yəʕqə́b (remain behind, be left (behind or over)) – ys(ə́)ʕqəb (leave s.o. behind) – yttwas(ə́)ʕqəb (have been left behind) / yttwas(ə́)ʕqab (should be left behind) / ay(ə)ttwas(ə́)ʕqəb (will have been left behind), yəbbə́s (be out, go out (fire)) – ysə́bbəs (extinguish, put out; smoke (tobacco)) – yttwasə́bbəs (have been put out, switched off (e.g. electric fire)), yəkkə́r (be awake, get up) – ysə́kkər (wake s.o.) – yttwasə́kkər (have been woken up) / yttwasə́kkar (should be woken up) / ay(ə)ttwasə́kkər (will have been woken up), etc. It will have been observed that past and present ttwa- forms are distinguished only by the vowel of the final syllable, ə as opposed to a. Once again, both past and present passive forms do not necessarily occur in the scatter of a given verb. Thus, only the past tense occurs in the series yəxl(ə́)ʕ (be frightened) – ysə́xl(ə)ʕ (frighten) – yttwasə́xl(ə)ʕ (have been frightened) or yəḥmá (be hot) – ysə́ḥma (heat) – yttwasə́ḥma (have been heated). The last example of Conj. 1(b) lacks the potential/gerundive sense, but, in contrast, yttwasə́ṛla (< yəṛlá) is ambiguous in isolation, variously past and potential, i.e. ‘have been/can be reconciled’. Of course, not all simple or non-derived verbs are quasi-passive or stative in nature. yənkə́ṛ (deny) is an example in the series yənkə́ṛ – ysə́nkəṛ (make s.o. deny s.t.) – yttwasə́nkəṛ (have been made to deny s.t.) / yttwasə́nkaṛ (can be made to deny s.t.) / ay(ə)ttwasə́nkəṛ (will have been made to deny s.t.), cf. yənkə́ṛ mallik yttwasə́nkəṛ, dṃaṃṃu ysə́n(ə)kri ssnə́ɣti [-χti] ‘He denied (it) because he was made to, and I know who made him’. In some cases the non-derived form is only in part quasi-passive. Thus, the semantic spread of yəggə́z, for example, is considerable and embraces (go down, descend; be deep (well); fight against; join (e.g. police, army)) and not all the areas glossed 76

are subject to ttwa-s- derivation. Thus, the s-form is typically illustrated in e.g. dn(ə́)tta la ysúggzit sənnəž ‘he was the one who brought it down from on top’, and the yttwasúggəz / yttwasúggaz is limited to the sense (have been/should be brought down). Finally, ttwa- sometimes relates unexpectedly to a simple intransitive form and not to an existing s-form within the total scatter. Thus, (Conj. 2) ynə́ṭṭəṛ (hop, jump, bounce) is intransitive to the transitive s-form yəsnə́ṭṭəṛ (jump, bounce (tr.); give s.o. a set-back), but the ttwa-form is based on the intransitive non-derived verb, i.e. yttwanə́ṭṭəṛ (have been got rid of, ‘bounced’ out of place or job). Cf. ak(ə)snə́ṭṭrəɣ tazbítik (I’ll get you sacked, lit I’ll bounce your bread), and yəqqim ɣə́rnəɣ yumín, ass n(ə)ttál(ə)t yttwanə́ṭṭəṛ. wnukízš [-išš] ṃáṃṃu iziɣ matta y(ə)snə́ṭṭṛi (He stayed two days with us, (and) was got rid of on the third. We don’t know who or what got rid of him.) 3.12 Past passive and quasi-passive These two verb forms are semantically close and sometimes give the appearance of mutual substitutability. They are, however, meaningfully different. To distinguish between the two it is usually necessary to consider them in extended contexts. Thus, for example, to say that təbná in tiddártis təbná (his house is built) refers to the state of the house, whereas tiddártis ttwábna (his house has been built) refers to past, probably immediately past, action of comparatively brief temporal duration, subsumes extended differences elsewhere that are being applied to this two-word sentence. Nor is it very helpful to say that one is substitutable for the other with little or no difference of meaning. The fact is that, when the context is extended, often minimally, one or other form is generally excluded in favour of the other. There are apparent exceptions like (ə)ssúkk(ə)r la ɣə́ri yəkmə́l yənzá / yttwázzənz ‘all my sugar is/has been sold’, where the difference between the two forms is negligible, but though it is undeniable that the non-derived form is often passive in sense, whence the label ‘quasi-passive’ or ‘stative’, cf., say (ə)ddbášiš səddíɣ ynə́zz (present tense of yənzá) (his things are still being sold, e.g. on his move from the district), nevertheless the overlap with the ttwa-form as in yənzá / yttwázzənz above is unusual and, by appropriately extending the context, difference between the forms will be revealed. Thus, a more frequent contrast is that between, for example, təržə́l and ttwáržəl in 77

(i) slə́mmi təržə́l ay ntxə́ṛṛažt? (how long (lit. from when) has this drain been blocked?), and

(ii) lə́mmi ttwáržəl ay ntxə́ṛṛažt? (when was this drain blocked?, implying human agency) The aspectually punctual, quasi-instantaneous act of (ii) contrasts with the durative and stative nature of təržə́l in (i) and is marked here by the presence or absence of the preposition s- (from). The punctual interpretation of, say, yttwánxəṣ (< yənxə́ṣ (pierce, e.g. with pin; smart, prick (of eye)) is also appropriate in yttwánxəṣ dwyukízš [-ʃʃ] ṃaṃṃu yənxə́ṣi (s.t. has been stuck in him and he didn’t see who did it), and of yttwawə́mməṛ (< ywə́mməṛ (mark s.t., brand (animal), be marked, branded)) in e.g. ay dtíkəlt [tt-] tamə́zwart la yttwawə́mməṛ (this is the first time it’s been branded). The frequently stative nature of Conj. 2 may be noticed in passing, and ywə́ssəx (be dirty, get dirty), is another example, as in aḥulíyyis dima yttwə́ssəx qəbəl (ə)lwə́qtis (his jerd is always getting dirty before it should (lit. before its time) and ɣir xxul bə́ss mamak ywə́ssəx or yttwawə́ssəx, swallín yisiš ywə́ssəx (*yttwawə́ssəx) (it/he has just got dirty, just now it/he wasn’t). On the other hand, yəḥṛə́q (burn, be burnt), for example, relates to a state deriving from a past act, and thus contrasts with its aspectually punctual relatum yttwáḥrəq, so that a similar distinction to that above between təržə́l and yttwáržəl above obtains in (i) tiddártis t(ə)ḥrə́q sws(ə)ggaṣ(ṣ) (ə)nnaṭ(ṭ) (his house was burnt down last year, lit. from last year, i.e. and still is)

(ii) tiddártis ttwáḥrəq as(ə)ggaṣ(ṣ) (ə)nnaṭ(ṭ) (his house burnt down last year, i.e. but may have been rebuilt since) In the sentence ušid taɣə́nžayt atšəɣ sís, wn(ə)žžmə́ɣš [-χʃ] atšəɣ sfúsiw, fúsiw yəḥrə́q (give me a spoon to eat with, I can’t eat with my hand, it’s burnt), yttwáḥrəq is substitutable for yəḥrə́q but with the implication that the speaker has only just burnt his hand. Unaware of this fact, the addressee may respond lə́mmi yttwáḥrəq fúsik? (when was your hand burnt?), whereas only yəḥrə́q may occur with s- in slə́mmi yəḥrəq fúsik? (since when or how long has your hand been burnt?). Similarly, in the following examples, yəḥbə́s in (i) is stative and durative, whereas yttwáḥbəs in (ii) is punctual, and the difference between

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them in (iii) is minimal, nothwithstanding the implicit sense difference made explicit in (i) and (ii): (i) ɣərs gə́lḥəbs aša šəhṛin [ʃʌhˈṛe:n], dwaṣṣ(ə)nnáṭṭ bə́ss yisí yəḥbəs (he’s been in prison for about two months and only yesterday was still there)

(ii) ɣərs gə́lḥəbs aša šəhṛín, xlafaṣṣíd(ə)n bə́ss mamak yəffə́ɣ, dwaṣṣ(ə)nnáṭṭ bə́ss yttwáḥbəs báqi (he had (lit. has) been in prison for about two months, came out just a few days ago, and was imprisoned again only yesterday)

(iii) ɣərs aša šəhṛín yəḥbə́s / yttwáḥbəs (he has been in prison for about two months)

The use of the auxiliary yisí (was) is also noteworthy in (i) and brings out the stative nature of the non-derived form, as again in say, aṣṣ(ə)nnáṭṭ yisí yəḥbəs (he was in prison yesterday, i.e. I saw him there) in contrast with aṣṣ(ə)nnáṭṭ bə́ss yttwáḥbəs (he was sent to prison only yesterday). Similarly, (díma) takmístis trə́qq(ə)ʕ (his shirt is (always) patched) contrasts with takmístis ttwarə́qq(ə)ʕ (his shirt has been mended, e.g. since yesterday). The adjectival stative implication of the non-derived form appears again in e.g. ẓṛíɣti ykə́mməm (I saw it (e.g. camel) tied up, not I saw that it had been or saw it being tied up), and yet another example of Conj. 2 is aš bih fúsik yʕə́ṣṣəb? (why is your arm bandaged?), where *yttwaʕə́ṣṣəb is inadmissible, as opposed to, say, wəssinə́ɣs [-χʃ] aš bih ay níɣəf(f), yttwaʕə́ṣṣəb ḥ(ə)tta (a)ʕáṣṣəb dbaqi yəqqim y(ə)ttʕə́ddəm (I don’t know what’s the matter with my (lit. this) head, it’s even been bandaged up but still hurts), where in its turn *yʕə́ṣṣəb is unacceptable. Again, the Conj. 1 forms yəṭṛə́ẓ in nəsɣi yəṭṛə́ẓ (we bought it embroidered), which contrasts with yttwáṭṛəẓ in yttwáṭṛəẓ b(ə)ʕd la n(ə)sɣí (it’s been embroidered since we bought it), and y(ə)ʕžə́n in ʕə́žni (t)taɣd(ə)dítti y(ə)ʕžə́n (knead it (dough) and bring it to me kneaded) are clearly stative, as too is the Conj. 7 example yəqqə́n in e.g. aydínnəɣ dima yəqqə́n (our dog is always tied up). Adverbs of time are often useful means of establishing the distinction, as, for instance, díma (always) in tazə́qqas díma txə́mməl (her room is always tidy), where *ttwaxə́mməl, with its implications of single past act, is excluded, whereas both forms are admissible in e.g. 79

(ə)ddúnyət txə́mməl (everywhere is tidy) / ttwaxə́mməl (has been tidied, i.e. from an earlier known condition of disorder). Interestingly, díma serves to reinforce the present tense (and habitual) interpretation of ttwa-a and also to provide rare examples of the simple form and ttwa-a derivation in the area under consideration. Thus, *yttwarə́kkəb (cf. yrə́kkəb (prepare, be prepared, ready)) is excluded from aməssínnəɣ díma yttwarə́kkab gəlwə́qtis (our dinner is always ready on time). Though the difference here is scarcely discernible, reference is to the human agency involved in preparation, whereas in aməssínnəɣ díma yrə́kkəb gəlwə́qtis (same translation), reference is rather to the meal and the state of its preparedness. Without díma, the usual contrast between yrə́kkəb and yttwarə́kkəb reappears, e.g. (i) amə́ssim yrə́kkəb iziɣ uší? (is your (s.f.) dinner ready or not (yet)?)

(ii) amə́ssim yttwarə́kkəb iziɣ uší? (is your dinner on or not?, i.e. has it been put on the fire to cook?) The preceding verbs and others that follow are from Conjs. 1, 2, and 7, which supply most examples. However, the irregular yəssúr (see 3.3, Conj. 6, Note) is similarly stative in (i) of the following examples: (i) ay la ɣə́rnəɣ yəkmə́l yəssúr (all our property is (i.e. always has been) pooled), in contrast with

(ii) ay la ɣə́rnəɣ yəkmə́l yttwasə́sər (all our property has (just, recently) been pooled). Though both yəssúr and yttwasə́sər are acceptable in, say, the question ay slə́mmi yəssúr / yttwasə́sər, ay n(ə́)ddbaš? (since when have these things been mixed up?), only yttwasə́sər is admissible in the answer ássu bə́ss mamak yttwasə́sər (only (from) today). The punctual nature of the ttwa- form is also indicated by B’s response in the exchange A. áš bih (ə)ṃṃam yttə́ẓẓəf? (why is your brother crying?) B. yttwáʕṭəb (he’s been hit on his sore place; yəʕṭə́b = knock scab off wound). The non-punctual nature of the simple form, on the other hand, is indicated by the verb yəɣzá (dig, be dug) whose lexical meaning contains an inherent durative component, since reference is always to a deep hole which takes a considerable time to dig. Thus, ykúbər (dig, be dug), which involves the simple process of turning the 80

soil over, is inappropriate to the sentence annúnəɣ yəɣzá (our well is/has been dug). Phrases of structure (N + stative verb) commonly occur as both objects and subjects of sentences. The latter occur in e.g. (táṃuṛt təkmə́l) ttwáqləb (the whole town is in turmoil, e.g. from huge crowd milling around in market on special occasion), wherein the ttwa-form contrasts with the simple counterpart in, say, ttiṛáḍš (takmístik təqlə́b) (don’t put your shirt on inside out), where the bracketed phrase stands in objective relation to the verb. Cf. yqə́lləb (ransack (house, town)) / yttwaqə́lləb (no *yttwaqə́llab). Another objective example is ɣsəɣ [χs-] (ə)ss(ə́)ʕtiw təqʕə́d (I want my watch mended, i.e. I am not going to be fobbed off any more). Both təqʕə́d (be(come) in good order again) (cf. yqə́ʕʕəd (repair)) and ttwaqə́ʕʕəd may occur in e.g. (ə)ss(ə́)ʕtiw tisi təhlə́k, lakən ttwaqə́ʕʕəd / təqʕə́d xxul (my watch was out of order but has been repaired/is alright now). The phrasal structure in question, in the absence of the relative la between the elements, is often referentially indefinite, as in the Conj. 7 example ušid tḥúkkət(t) təqqə́s (give me an unopened tin). Examples of objective pronoun + stative verb have been cited without specific comment and the structure occurs again in conjunction with an earlier verb, i.e. ay dtíkəlt tamə́zwart la zṛíɣti [-χti] ywə́mməṛ / yttwawə́mməṛ (this is the first time I’ve seen it with a brand on). An area which merits further research is that of Aux (yəllá / yisí, yṛáḥ, ayə́ḍḍəl, etc.) + V, and indeed of verb sequences in general. yisí was seen earlier to carry the meaning of past state, as in yisí yəḥbəs (he was in prison). yəḥrə́z (be hidden) and yttwáḥrəz (have been hidden) are virtually indistinguishable in yəḥrə́z / yttwáḥrəz swass(ə)nnáṭ(ṭ) (it’s been hidden since yesterday), and in yisí yəḥrəz / yttwáḥrəz lakən ay n(ə)ššyáḍ(ə)n wəttadžínš šáṛukan yəḥrə́z (*yttwáḥrəz) (it was/had been hidden, but these (little) devils don’t leave anything hidden), but the second use of yəḥrə́z is necessarily stative and precludes yttwáḥrəz. It is thus on a par with yisí yəḥrəz in the sense (it was hidden, i.e. but no longer is), where the function of yisí is to project back the time-reference of yəḥrə́z. The corresponding present form yəllá (is) is used inferentially in association with both the simple and ttwa-forms, often enough but not exclusively in conditional sentences; thus 81

(i) ukan tədžídti [ddžitti], yəlla yəẓḍá xxul (if you had left it (grain), it would have been ground (by) now)

(ii) (ə)f(ə)l áɣd ar(ə́)nnəɣ, xxúl yəlla yttwáẓḍ (go and bring our flour, it must be ground (by) now)

(iii) ar(ə́)nnəɣ yəẓḍá, fl áɣdi (our flour is ground, go and fetch it!) (iv) ɣir attə́džəd, ay(ə́)ttwaẓḍ fís(ə)ʕ (if you leave it, it will be ground soon)

The preceding use of yəllá are reminiscent of e.g. colloquial Arabic laazim / yimkin + y(i)kuun + past (cf. laazim / yimkin yikuun rawwaḥ (he must/may well have gone home), and so, too, is the use of the loan yṛáḥ (become), which corresponds to ayə́ḍḍəl in other contexts and often indicates the passage from one state to another, as in ussáni yṛaḥ yəẓbə́ṭ (he has become quiet or quietened down these days), which is to be compared with ussáni yttwáẓbəṭ (he has been quietened nowadays, i.e. by parental control). A further example is tazə́qqa tisi tḍə́yyəq [ḍḍī-] lákən b(ə)ʕd la tərnə́ymas [-nim-] ay nídis, tṛaḥ twə́ss(ə)ʕ / (tə)ttwawə́ss(ə)ʕ (the room was narrow (confined), but after you (pl.) added this section, it has become/been made more spacious). For an example of ayə́ḍḍəl, see 3.13. A further area for relevant research lies in the relationships developed between borrowed Arabic participles, in particular active participles, and the stative and ttwa-forms that have been the subject of this section. In the spoken Arabic of North Africa, inherent to the participle is the meaning of a past act creating a state which has since endured unbroken, a fact which clearly has implications for the Berber verb forms in question. Thus, the stative verb yənkə́ẓ (cf. Ar. /nqṣ) (decrease (intr.), be diminished) (cf. ysə́nkəẓ (decrease (tr.)) has a past component of meaning in contrast with the borrowed participial form nákəẓ (missing, lacking (now)). Cf. yənkə́ẓ f(ə)llánəɣ idžən (we were missing one, e.g. yesterday) in contrast with nákəẓ f(ə)llánəɣ idžən (we are missing one (now)). The participle takes the full (Arabic) range of number-cum-gender inflections, i.e. nákəẓ (s.m.) / nákẓa (s.f.) / nakẓín (pl.m.) / nakẓaát (pl.f.). Contrast also obtains between t(ə)frə́ɣ (be empty, become empty; e.g. of tíddart (house)) and participial fárɣa (s.f.), but in this case the relationship seems to differ from that between yənkə́ẓ and nákəẓ, whence the need 82

for further research. Consider a context wherein A asks his friend B to let him have B’s house when it soon becomes vacant. Conversation may go as follows: A. ušid tiddártik aʕə́mrəɣ dís ((will you) let me have your house to live in) B. tiddart xxúl tətšúṛ, lakən hatə́frəɣ b(ə)ʕd aitšá (the house is occupied at present but will be free in a day or so, lit. the day after tomorrow)

They meet again after a few days and B says tiddart t(ə)frəɣ al(ə)mmi t(ə)ɣsədtət [tχsɪttɪt] (the house is empty if you want it). fárɣa is precluded here, since its use would imply that the house had been empty for some time, whereas t(ə)frə́ɣ ‘says’ that it has just become empty. This is, in fact, in accord with Arabic usage of the participle, and the question, at present unanswered, is to ask whether the earlier nákəẓ also implies that the item in question had been missing for some time in contrast with the implication of yənkə́ẓ. If so, and this seems likely, then nákəẓ and fárɣa would match. A final example at present available is that of y(ə)ʕmá (blind (tr.); be(come) blind) > yttwáʕma (have been blinded), forms which have to be seen in relation to (Ar. >) participial múʕmi (blind). In this case, neither y(ə)ʕmá nor, self-evidently, yttwáʕma can mean that the person was blind from birth, cf. ylúl dmúʕmi (he was born blind, lit. he was born, he was blind). Again, neither verbal form is usable for the participial and adjectival múʕmi occurring in the plural form in ɣərs sə́n(n) nibušírən dimuʕmíy(y)in or (ə)ʕmán (< Ar. ʕumyaan) (he has two blind children). However, for dmúʕmi in ʕəṃṃáṛ dmúʕmi s(ə)lbúmbət (Amar is blind from a bomb explosion), the verb forms are substitutable in ʕəṃṃáṛ y(ə)ʕmá / yttwáʕma s(ə)lbúmbət (Amar became blind from/has been blinded by a bomb explosion). Again, in reply to A’s information in the form ʕəṃṃáṛ aṛahuk [-hǫk] dmúʕmi (Amar is blind, you know), B may ask slə́mmi (since when?), to which A’s reply may variously be ɣərs xxul aša t(ə́)lt šhúṛ y(ə)ʕma (*yttwaʕma) (for about three months) or ayəkkəd aša t(ə́)lt šhúṛ swass la yttwáʕma (*y(ə)ʕmá) (a)lwássu (lit. it’s about three months from the day he was blinded to today). Further research is needed in what is clearly an interesting area.

83

3.13 m-derivation The last clearly recognizable form of derivation is that with the nasal consonant m-, sometimes doubled and very occasionally in the form n(n)-. There are very few, principally four, verbs only in the verb sample on which this chapter has been based within whose scatter mforms regularly occur, so that the impression is left that these forms, together perhaps with a few m-beginning verbs to which reference has already been made, are the remnants of older, no longer productive Berber derivation. The only truly productive formation with moccurs in association with Conj. 3 as described at 3.14 below. First, however, consideration should be given to the aforementioned verbs of other conjugations. In two cases, yənkə́ḍ (cut; break free of tether) and yəkkə́s (take off, remove), the m-form alternates with the ttwaform with some difference of meaning; in the third, yurá (open), the m-form appears as the only passive indicator; and in the fourth, yətšá (eat), the m- and ttwa-forms appear to be freely variant. Conj. 1 yənkə́ḍ (cut; break free (e.g. from tether) provides both ttwaand ttwa-a forms, i.e. yttwánkəḍ / yttwánkaḍ (have been/can be cut or severed), e.g. tázra ttwánkəd (the rope has been cut, i.e. by s.o. or s.t.), which contrasts with tázra t(ə)mmúnkəḍ (the rope has parted, i.e has been broken of its own accord, so to speak, for instance because of its age). The paradigms of the m-form, with prefix tt- and reduction of geminate -mm- to -m- in the present tense, are yəmmúnkəḍ / yttmúnkud / ayəmmúnkəḍ. A further example is A. z(ə)ʕma smátta ttwánkəḍ ay ntə́zra? (I wonder what made this rope break?)

B. šáṛukan ttyənkíḍš, ɣír mallik t(ə)qdəm bzáy(ə)d, təmmúnkəḍ. (Nothing cut it, it’s just because it is/was very old that it broke/snapped).

The Conj. 7 verb yəkkə́s (take off, remove) likewise provides the ttwaforms yttwákkəs / yttwákkas (have been/can be removed, not only of fixtures), which occur in association with the m-forms yəmmúkkəs / yttmúkkus / ayəmúkkəs (have been/can or should be/will be removed (of earlier fixture). An example is talži bə́ss tisi t(ə)lsə́q lakən xxúl t(ə)mmúkkəs, ttwákk(ə)s s(s)yihanit (only this morning it was up (lit. stuck) here but it has been removed, it has been taken from here). In 84

the third case, yurá (open), m- provides the only passive (or middle voice) forms, i.e. ymír (be open, have been opened) / yttmíra (is habitually open or can be opened) / áymir (will be open). The present tense is either habitual as in díma yttmíra (it is always open) or potential/gerundive as in yttmíra ḥ(ə)tta swúzzal (it can be opened even with a bit of iron, i.e. a key is unnecessary). The m-forms occur frequently with the past auxiliary yisí, e.g. yisi (y)mír (it was open), yisi (y)ttmíra (it was openable, could have been opened, i.e. but not now). The fourth example, yətšá (eat) allows partially free variation between ttwa- and m-forms. Thus, yəmmə́tš or yttwátš (it (m.) has been eaten) / ayə́mmətš or ay(ə́)ttwatš or ay(ə́)ttwətš (it (m.) will be eaten), but the present tense potential/gerundive form occurs only with ttwa-, i.e. yttwátša (it (m.) is edible, is tasty). Cf. rə́kkbit xxúl dáttwatš or dáttwətš or datə́mmətš b(ə)ʕdín, xír nmatta [mm-] (a)tə́hlək (cook it (f.) (e.g. fish) now, and it will be eaten later, that’s better than it should go off), and notice the variation between the auxiliary ayə́ḍḍəl (become) with yttwátša, on the one hand, and the other ttwaand m-forms, on the other, in ttwatšíš xxúl ɣir attsḍə́yybəm [-ṭṭsḍ-], b(ə)ʕdín áttwətš / áttwatš / atə́mmətš / áḍḍəl (< atə́ḍḍəl) ttwátša (it (f.) is not eatable now, but when you have cooked it, it will be worth eating/tasty). Another example with ayə́ḍḍəl is ə́n(ə)ɣlas [-ḷɑṣ] aššar nmúdi [mm-], xxul ayəḍḍəl yttwátša swá swa (pour a little oil on it and it will taste fine, lit. become extremely tasty). A fifth example appears to occur only in the present tense and is otherwise of an irregular kind. It is yəṛẓá (break (tr.) of Conj. 6, unusually related to yəṛṛə́ẓ (break (intr.), be broken) of Conj. 7, which relate to the present m-form yttmúṛẓu (be breakable), seemingly of Conj. 10. No other m- or ttwa- form has been attested. 3.14 Reciprocal m- + Conj. 3 The Arabic derived verb forms III (C1aaC2aC3) and VI (taC1aaC2aC3) are the respective sources of Conj. 3 and (m- + Conj. 3). The first Arabic form is usually ‘sociative’, i.e. verbal action involves someone else (e.g. write to s.o.), whereas the second form is generally reciprocal (e.g. meet each other, one another). Berber m- ‘replaces’ Arabic t(a)-, which probably explains the absence of tC1aaC2əC3 among Berber conjugations in contrast with 85

tC1əC2C2əC3 (Conj. 4). In addition, it will be seen later, that there are no verbal nouns of these m-forms, almost certainly because the comparable Arabic category has initial m- in ‘sociative’ class III (muC1aaC2aC3ah) and t(a)- in ‘reciprocal’ class VI (taC1aaC2uC3). The pattern of tenses and imperative are illustrated by yəmhátək – yttəmhátak – (a)yəmhátək – (ə)mhátək (punch one another), and there appear to be no exceptions. The example is related to Ar. /htk, whose meaning (tear, rip apart) does not match the Berber verb, though the derivation seems clear enough. yəhtə́k – yhə́ttək – (a)yə́htək – ə́htək (punch s.o.) also includes within its scatter yttwáhtək / yttwáhtak (has been/ought to be punched) as well as the reciprocal m-form. Further examples of Arabic cognation include yəmdábər (consult, discuss with), yəmḥáṛəb (fight, go to war with each other), yəmxásəm (quarrel), yəmqábəl (meet each other by arrangement), yəmfáhəm (come to an agreement, discuss), yəmḥásəb (settle account with), yəmxáḍəṛ (wager with s.o.) (Ar. ṭ for ḍ), yəmṣáləḥ (be reconciled with), yəmsáməḥ (forgive one another), yəmnášəb (fall out with one another), yəmkábəš (grab each other (ready for fight)), yəmkárəh (dislike each other (‘hate’ is too strong)). Some of these verbs occur exclusively or almost so in plural forms, e.g. ttəmḥaṛábən (they (m.) fight each other), ttəmxasámən (they quarrel), ttəmnagáḥən and ttəmnagáḥnət (they are butting each other (of goats)), though this verb could occur in other persons, for instance in the aorist example anəmnágəḥ (we will butt one another, which might be used by boys when gaming). This last example is seemingly related to the Arabic root /nṭḥ. Not all examples can be related unequivocally to relevant Arabic derived forms, and the Berber m- formation is a productive process in its own right. Thus, nothwithstanding the existence of the Arabic root /ržm (throw stones), the insertion of the long vowel a between C1 and C2 in yəmṛážəm (throw things at one another) is in response to Berber morphology. In the case of yəmzánək (punch, slap each other), things go further, since /znk is not a recognizable Arabic root. The purely Berber origin of other relevant forms appears with e.g. yəmlábəẓ (come to blows; wrestle on ground) as in fúkkak sis, ya ṛážəl, xxul at(ə)qqíməm ttəmlabáẓ(ə)m (leave him, man, or you will come to blows). It seems plausible to relate this verb to verbal 86

ylə́bbəẓ (dirty one’s clothes), perhaps also ylə́bbəx (bespatter, besmirch), and to nominal (ə)lləbbúẓi (mud from rain), (ə́)llbəẓẓ (mud from discarded water in house). Perhaps even the earlier yəslúlləḍ (slip on mud) may be seen to belong to a phonaesthetically related group of forms. Another m-form without any sense of reciprocity and without Arabic association is yəmláwəḥ (be lost, left) (cf. ylə́wwəḥ (throw away, lose)), which occurs in, say, the exchange A. ufíɣti (y)ttəmláwaḥ (I found it left/lost (e.g. lying in street)). B. mámak yttəmláwaḥ!? muhu dnə́tš la nbrə́ɣtid [mb-] din?! (How could it be lying about!? Wasn’t it me who put it there?!). That reciprocity is not alone involved in m-forms is also indicated by the Arabic-related yəmʕáqəb in e.g. ay dšáṛa t(ə)shə́l, xxul ɣir atəmʕáqbəm f(ə́)llas, attkə́mmləm fís(ə)ʕ (it’s easy, if you do it in turn (i.e. alternately, turn and turn about), you will quickly finish it), where reference is to successivity, related as this no doubt is to recprocity. This verb may be used to illustrate the association of mforms with conjoint pronouns. Thus, (ə)mʕáqbəɣ nšíd(ə)s (we missed each other) is translatable literally as ‘I missed, I and him’, where nšíd(ə)s is analyzable as comprising nətš (I) a linking element -id and -s ( 3 m.s. affix), and it occurs again in, say, (ə)mláqqiɣ nšíd(ə)s gə́ssuq (we ran into each other in the market). Similar conjoint pronouns occur in e.g. Libyan Arabic, cf. nawiyaá(h) (I and him) in Cyrenaica, but it is again impossible to say whether the Berber forms are borrowed from Arabic or vice versa, and the Berber pronouns are clearly sui generis. They occur in all persons and not least with m-forms of the verb, whence the need felt to set them out in full below in association with yəmḥásəb (settle accounts). First, however, it should be said that their occurrence is not de rigeur with the m-forms, cf. džiɣt(ə)n ttəmdabár(ə)n (I left them discussing the matter), where the subject of the two verbs differs in contrast with e.g. yəmdábər n(ə)ttáids(ə)n (he consulted with them, lit. he consulted, he and them (m.)). The conjoint pronouns are often replaced by the reciprocal pronoun (b(ə)ʕḍ + (Ar.) pro. suffix), itself preceded by a preposition g- (in) and especially did (with) e.g. (ə)mfáhmət (ə)gb(ə)ḍkəm wb(ə)ʕḍkəm wb(ə)ʕdín əm(ə)ltíy(y)id (talk it over between you, then let me know), ə́flət mdábrət (impve.) or təmdábrəm (aor.) did b(ə)ʕḍkəm, dal(ə)mmi ttə́fqəm ydawərdtíy(y)id [-rtti-] (go and talk it over between you, and, if you agree, come (back) to me), and (did + 87

(Berber) pro. suffix), too, may replace the conjoint pronoun, as in (ə)mḥásbəɣ díd(ə)s (I settled with him (fully)), for which (ə)mḥásbəɣ nšíd(ə)s is substitutable. The homophonous aorist form appears in e.g. aqə́wwməɣ taḥnúytiw (ə)mḥásbəɣ (aor.) díds(ə)n wb(ə)ʕdín anə́ttfəq (I will clear up my business (lit. shop) (i.e. at the end of year) and settle my accounts with them (i.e. those I am in financial relations with), and then we will come to an agreement) (all said to a man seeking partnership). With the 3 m.pl. forms used for the second pronoun, changes may be rung on the first pronominal component as follows, for all of which forms díds(ə)n may be substituted: yəmḥásəb n(ə)ttáids(ə)n (they settled up, lit. he settled with them)

təmḥásəb n(ə)ttatíds(ə)n

təmḥásbəd š(ə)kkíds(ə)n (m) / š(ə)mmíds(ə)n (f) (ə)mḥásbəɣ nšíds(ə)n

nəmḥásəb nəšniníds(ə)n

təmḥásbəm nəknimíds(ə)n

təmḥasə́bmət nəknimatíds(ə)n

(ə)mḥásbən n(ə)tniníds(ə)n

(ə)mḥasə́bnət n(ə)tninatíds(ə)n The same conjoint forms are equally usable with the present (yttəmḥásab etc.) and aorist ((a)yəmḥásəb etc.) tenses and with the imperative ((ə)mḥásəb etc.), and díds(ə)n is substitutable in all cases. Note: The examples cited have all been based on Conj. 3(a), and, of course, the few examples of Conj. 3(c) and (d) are precluded from occurrence with m-. The occasional example of Conj. 3(b) does, however, occur. Thus, yəmxáḍa (Ar. root /xṭʔ) – yttəmxáḍa – (a)yəmxáḍa – (ə)mxáḍa (miss each other (by going in different directions)). Though yláqqa (meet) was not included at Conj. 3(b), perhaps it should have been, if only because of the m-form yəmláqqa (meet each other by chance, bump into s.o. unexpectedly). The root does not, it seems, belong to Classical Arabic, but laaga (meet) occurs in Cyrenaican colloquial Arabic and probably more widely in Libya. It is the gemination of -qq- in the Berber form that constitutes something of a problem.

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3.15 Pejorative mEarlier mention was made of some verbs which may possibly have been m-derived but which in the modern form of the dialect conform to no generalizable semantic distinctions. They included, for example, yəmmíta (remember) (with its s-form yəsmíta (remind)), yəmqáqəs (sparkle, shine), yəmmúgg (fit (of clothing)). More interesting perhaps is the passive yəmmə́ḍṣ (have been desecrated, of clothes and place no longer suitable for prayer), which occurs only in the third person forms yəmmə́ḍṣ / təmmə́ḍṣ / (ə)mmə́ḍṣən / (ə)mmə́ḍ(ə)ṣnət, though no such restriction applies to the s-form yəsmə́ḍṣ (desecrate, besmirch). It is probably not too far-fetched to see yəḍṣá (laugh, mock at) as the simple form of this verb. Interest here centres on the apparently pejorative use of prefixed m-. There are fairly strong suggestions of the occurrence of such a prefix elsewhere, for example in the nominal/adjectival class, cf. amə́ḍṛuš (deaf < yəḍṛə́š (be(come) deaf)), máḍun (ill < yuḍə́n (fall ill)), and is the Berber adoption of múʕmi (blind), in preference to the more readily available local Arabic form áʕma, to be seen in the same light? Other examples include amə́nžuh (feckless; procrastinating), am(ə́)ʕfun (nasty, mean), amə́škun (silly, immature), am(ə́)hbul (more often ab(ə́)hlul) (stupid, crazy). The Arabic class of ‘colour and physical defect’ comes to mind, though colour is not involved and a physical defect class is less clearly defined in Berber. There can be no doubt as to the pejorative use elsewhere in the language of a prefix im- containing the same consonant, cf. imnə́ttəf (extremely mean, miserly) (a word considered impolite by women), imnə́ddəf (wily, difficult to catch or snare (of bird)), immə́lləḥ (unlucky (of day when everything goes wrong) in ass dimmə́lləḥ assu (this is an unlucky day), and the feminine form in e.g. (ə)lḥáltis dtimmə́lləḥt [tt-] (he is in extreme penury). Certain verbs, too, especially among the quadriliterals, contain m- as their first radical and are of pejorative sense, e.g. ymə́rkəs (be upside down, in disorder), ymə́rməd (dirty s.t.), ymə́ḥməs (dirty clothes). Again, the verb yəmṣə́x (be dirty, have dirty habits), though evidently relatable to the Arabic root /wsx, again adopts m- as first radical, possibly as a Berber ‘interpretation’ of local Arabic (ə)mwassəx (dirty). Should even yəmmút – yttmáta – (a)yə́mmut – (ə́)mmut (die) (cf. the curse (ə)nšalla xxúl atəmmútəd (may you die now!)) be considered to belong to a pejorative (?taboo) class? The corresponding noun tamə́ttant 89

(death) is not related to Arabic mawt, as one might have anticipated, and the gemination of -mm- is noticeable in contrast with the current spoken Arabic form maat / y(i)muut (die). It is perhaps imprudent at present to take too definite a view because of the comparative paucity of available data, but, as in the area of phonaesthetic associations, the feeling is strong as to the need to recognize a pejorative morpheme m- as C1 in the root structure of members of more than one grammatical class. This clearly is a separate matter from those of verb derivation considered at 3.13 and 3.14 above. 4.1 Negative verb forms. General features There are three morphological devices marking negative forms of the verb, prefixal, suffixal, and infixal, not all of them present in a given case. The negative prefix is w- (rarely wəl- and, even more rarely wəld- and wəd-), the infix is -i-, sometimes directly preceding the suffixal morpheme but more often interconsonantal, occurring in certain clear-cut cases between C2 and C3 of a root and elsewhere before the personal suffix, which in turn precedes the negative suffix. The latter is -š and is probably the most frequent negative indicator. The suffix is usually regarded as a borrowing from spoken Arabic, but this may be a somewhat facile assumption, since Arabic š, itself often baldly and almost certainly misleadingly considered a shortening of the noun šayʔ (thing), has to be seen, at least in Libyan Arabic, within a series of ascending emphasis š, ši, and šayy, which invites comparison with Zuaran Berber š, ša, and šáṛa (thing), used in somewhat similar manner. Moreover, the similar role of Arabic ši and Berber ša in interrogative sentences is also deserving of notice. However, these comparative questions will not be pursued further here. Negative verbal forms were quoted by my informant without the wprefix and this practice has been followed in examples at 4.2, though the importance of the prefix should not be seen as thereby diminished. Indeed, either prefix or suffix may occur in the absence of the other, and circumstances of absence are stated subsequently. One outstanding feature should be recognized at the outset; it is that no distinction is made between present and aorist tenses in the negative conjugation and that the common negative form shares its stem structure with the imperative. Cf. positive atkə́sbəd (< ayəksəb) and 90

negative wətkəssbə́dš (< ykəssəb) in wkan atáɣəd (ə)ṛṛáyiw bəss xxul atə́zṛəd al(ə)mmi atkə́sbəd dis iziɣ wətkəssbə́dš (if you only take my advice, you’ll then see whether you make a profit (in it) or not). There is thus a twofold negative tense distinction, past and nonpast, and an imperative distinguished from the nonpast tense by the normal array of personal affixes associated with each. Finally, negative suffixation attracts the accent and all negative forms are oxytones. The negative morphemes will now be considered in turn, and it is convenient to deal first with the infix -i-. 4.2 Infixal -iAn outstanding negative characteristic is the substitution of so-called ‘infixal’ -i- for any final -a in corresponding positive forms. This vowel may directly precede suffixal š and, in the absence of the latter, may occur finally. In addition, -i- often replaces -a- before a stem-final consonant, notably in gerundive ttwa-aC derived forms. -ialso occurs importantly between C2 and C3 in the past tense of triradical root of Conjugations 1, 7, 12, and 13 in place of ə in corresponding positive forms. Examples of the occurrence of -i- are as follows (+ = positive, – = negative): (+ yurá (open) turá etc. )

yuríš (he didn’t open)

turíš (she)

turídš [-tʃ] (you s.)

uríɣš [-χʃ] (I)

urínš (they m.)

urinə́tš (they f.)

turímš (you m.pl)

turimə́tš (you f.pl) nuríš (we)

Note: The personal suffixes -d (2 s.) and -ɣ (1 s.) are both devoiced before negative š, in contrast with cases in which the consonant occurs as the final radical of the root. It will be seen that where the co-occurrence is involved of a personal suffix and the negative suffix, -i- precedes the former. The corre91

sponding present and aorist positive tenses as well as the positive imperative do not end in -a in this example, so that negative forms appear with suffixed š only, i.e. yttárš (nonpast) and ttarš (also = 3 f.s. nonpast). The plural imperative forms are also homophonous with certain tense forms, i.e. ttarə́tš (open! (m.pl.impve.) and you (s.) open (ttárəd + š [-tʃ])), ttarmə́tš (open! (f.pl.impve.) and you (f.pl) open). In contrast, those verbs ending in -a in both past and present positive forms include -i- in their negative paradigms, e.g. yəmḥá / ymə́ḥḥa (erase): yəmḥíš (he didn’t erase)

yməḥḥíš (he doesn’t erase)

təmḥídš [-tʃ] (you s.)

tməḥḥídš [-tʃ] (you s.)

təmḥíš (she)

tməḥḥíš (she)

(ə)mḥíɣš [-χʃ] (I)

məḥḥíɣš [-χʃ] (I)

(ə)mḥinə́tš (they f.)

məḥḥinə́tš (they f.)

(ə)mḥínš (they m.)

təmḥímš (you m.pl.)

təmḥimə́tš (you f.pl.) nəmḥíš (we)

məḥḥánš (they m.) məḥḥímš (you m.pl.)

məḥḥimə́tš (you f.pl.) (ə)nməḥḥíš (we)

The rule + a£ > – i(š) is not in general restricted by conjugation or derivation, so that a random selection provides, for example, + yt(t)ḍába > – yt(t)ḍabíš (becomes > does not become ripe), + yssə́fla > – yssəflíš (drives, makes go > does not drive, make go), + yttwáɣra > – yttwaɣríš (be readable > be unreadable), + yttɣára > - yttɣaríš (be dry > not be dry), + yttətšáṛa > – yttətšaṛíš (be full > not be full), + yttədžálla > – yttədžallíš (takes an oath > does not take an oath), + yttwáša > – yttwašíš (can be given > cannot be given), + yttbə́dda > – yttbəddíš (stands up > doesn’t stand up) (cf. past – ybə́ddš (did not stand up)), + ynáda > – ynadíš (called > didn’t call), + yttnáda > – yttnadíš (calls > doesn’t call), etc. An extension of the rule to include the pre-radical occurrence of -a, i.e. -aC£ > -iC(š), is predominantly confined to gerundive ttwa-aC forms, though s-derived examples also occur. The feature applies, too, to the present tense of Conj. 3 verbs, an example of which is + yttḥáṛab > - yttḥaṛíbš (fight > does not fight) and its m-derivative forms + ttəmḥaṛáb(ə)m > – ttəmḥaṛibə́mš (you (pl.) fight > don’t fight with one another) and + nəttəmḥáṛab > – n(ə)ttəmḥaṛíbš (we fight > 92

don’t fight with one another). More widespread examples include the gerundive forms of the same verb, i.e. (wətša dṃaṃṃu) + yttwaḥáṛab > – yttwaḥaṛíbš (he is quick-tempered, not someone you can banter with) and also e.g. + yttwáknaf > – yttwaknífš (can > cannot be roasted), + ttwállam (f.s., e.g. of tázra (rope)) > – ttwallímš (can > cannot be plaited), + yttwáskan > – yttwaskínš (should > shouldn’t be shown), + yttwak(ə́)rkab > – yttwak(ə)rkíbš (can > can’t be pushed along), + yttwafə́žžaṛ > – yttwafəžžíṛš (can > can’t be plated (with silver)), + yttwasə́lʕaq > – yttwasəlʕíqš (can > can’t be ignited), etc. However, unlike the -a£ > -i(š) rule, there are exceptions when C follows a. Thus, the negative form of + yttwáẓaḍ (can or should be handed over) is – yttwaẓáḍš, and the present tense of sforms is even more subject to fluctuation and in many cases to the rejection of -i- in favour of the retention of -a-. For example, -i- is excluded in + yssíṛaḍ > – yssiṛáḍš (dresses > does not dress (tr.)), + yssírad > – yssirádš (washes > does not wash (clothes)), + yssúgar > – yssugárš (drives > does not drive), + yssúṛaṛ > – yssuṛáṛš (makes > does not make play), + yssítaf > – yssitáfš (brings in > does not bring in), + yssútlay > – yssutláyš (makes > does not make speak), + yssífaf > yssifáfš (sieves > does not sieve), + yssúggam > – yssugámš (waits (for) > does not wait (for)), + y(ə)stúfas > y(ə)stufásš [-ʃʃ] (spits > does not spit), + yɣə́ẓẓaẓ > yɣẓẓaẓš [-ʃʃ] (munches > does not munch (dried dates)) (contrast + yttwáɣẓaẓ > – yttwaɣẓíẓš ((dates) can > cannot be eaten)). On the other hand, -ioccurs variably with -a- in, say, + y(ə)sḍə́yyab > – y(ə)sḍəyyíbš or – y(ə)sḍəyyábš (cooks (tr.) > does not cook), + y(ə)ssə́qdaʕ > – y(ə)ssəqdíʕš (keeps > does not keep s.o. company) (contrast – y(ə)ssəqdáʕš, used of road with no exit, cul-de-sac), + yssə́ddar > – yssəddírš or – yssəddárš (wets (tr.) > does not wet) (also + yttwasə́ddar > – yttwasəddírš or – yttwasəddárš (can > cannot be wetted)), + y(ə)ssə́lʕaq > – y(ə)ssəlʕíqš or – yssəlʕáqš (ignite > does not ignite) (contrast – y(ə)ttwasəlʕíqš (cannot be ignited), where *-ʕaqš does not seem to occur). It is clear, then, that the rule -aC£ > -iC(š) is a variable rule subject to quite numerous exceptions and to fluctuation which is either random or based on meaning differences. Contrariwise, a rule -əC£ > -iC(š) is unbreakable in application to the past tense of disyllabic oxytones of Conjs. 1, 7, 12, and 13 in their simple forms. ‘Disyllabic’ and ‘oxytonic’ conditions have to be 93

stipulated in order to exclude, for example, verbs of Conj. 2, including quadriliterals. Examples of the rule are as follows: + yiṛə́ḍ > – yiṛíḍš (put on > did not put on (clothes)), + yəknə́f > – yəknífš (roasted > did not roast), + yəššə́f > – yəššífš (approached > did not approach), + yəskə́n > – yəskínš (showed > did not show), + yəlʕə́q > – yəlʕíqš (caught (of fire) > did not catch), + yutə́f > yutífš (came in > did not come in), + yuzə́g > – yuzígš (boiled (intr.) > did not boil), + yusə́d > yusídš (more commonly, – ddyusíš) (came > did not come), + yusə́r > – yusírš (became old > did not become old), etc. Verb-forms which phonetically end in the vowels [-i] and [-u], interpretable morphophonologically as -əy and -əw respectively, behave similarly, e.g. with change of person between paired members, + yurə́y [-ri] > – turimə́tš (he wrote > you (f.pl.) did not write), + yəflə́y > – t(ə)flimə́tš (he stoned (dates) > you (f.pl.) did not stone (dates)), + yəbbə́y > – təbbimə́tš (he collected > you (f.pl.) did not collect), + yəkrə́w [-ru] > – təkriwə́dš [-tʃ] (he scratched > you (s.) did not scratch), + tuṛə́w [-ṛǫ] > – tuṛiwə́dš [-tʃ] (she gave birth > you (s.) did not give birth). It appears from the foregoing, as it has appeared elsewhere, that ə is a weak vowel, subject to substitution by i in appropriate contexts. This does not, of course, apply when the vowel belongs integrally to the stem, and never to u, even when the latter is final. Thus, to illustrate the first case and to add to the examples provided above by + yuṛáṛ / – yuṛáṛš, + yɣə́ẓẓaẓ / – yɣəẓẓáẓš among others, the tenses of the positive array yqám – yttə́qam – áyqam – ʔə́qam (lift) correspond to negative yqámš (past) – yttəqámš (nonpast) – ttəqámš (s.impve.), and the derived yttwáqam (has been lifted) likewise corresponds to negative yttwaqámš, whereas, under the -a£ > -i(š) rule, positive gerundive yttwaqáma (can be lifted) gives yttwaqamíš in the negative. The vowel u, final or within the stem, remains in negative forms, e.g. (past) + yugúr > – yugúrš: (present) + yttúgur > – yttugúrš: (impve.) + ʔúgur > – ttugúrš (walk); (past) + yqúdd > – yqúddš: (present) + yttqúddu > – yttquddúš: (impve.) + ʔə́qudd > – ttquddúš (do s.t. well); (past) + yəttú > – yəttúš: (present) + yttə́ttu > – yttəttúš: (impve.) + ʔə́ttu > – ttəttúš (forget); (ttwa- past) + yttwáʕudd > – yttwaʕúddš (has > hasn’t been counted), (ttwa-u present) + yttwaʕúddu > – yttwaʕuddúš (be countable > be countless); (s-form past) + yəsʕúm > – yəsʕúmš: (present) + yəsʕúmmu > – yəsʕummúš 94

(make swim); (s-form past) + ysə́stən > – ysəstə́nš: (present) + yssə́stun > – yssəstúnš (ask); (s-form past) + yəsk(ə́)rkəs > – yəsk(ə)rkə́sš [-ʃʃ]: (present) + yəsk(ə́)rkus > – yəsk(ə)rkúsš (tell lies); etc. Addendum: There are four verbs with notable negative irregularities involving -i-. These are yəɣs [-χs] (no other form) (want; be about to), yuzə́g (boil) in its nonpast forms, yəžtm(ə́)ʕ (assemble (intr.)) also in the nonpast negative tense, and yusə́d (come) in the past negative. Their irregularities are as follows: + yəɣs > – yɣísš [iʁiʃʃ], with -iinterposed between the two consonants of the root, and with what is apparently prefixal w- of the negative inomissible in three forms of the verb’s only paradigm, which is yɣísš (he didn’t want) tɣísš (she)

tɣisə́dš [-tʃ] (you (s.))

wɣisə́ɣš [u-χʃ] (I)

wɣisə́nš (they (m.)) wɣisnə́tš (they (f.))

tɣisə́mš (you (m.pl))

tɣismə́tš (you (f.pl)) (ə)nɣísš [-ʃʃ] (we)

The second irregular verb yuzə́g (boil (intr.)) has already been categorized as such on the basis of the correspondence between its positive past and present tenses, and the relationship between its nonpast positive and negative forms is likewise anomalous. These are, in the canonical 3 s.m. forms, + yttáyzəg > – yttayzígš or yttayzágš (boils > doesn’t boil). In the third example, it is probably the final voiced pharyngeal fricative and its perceived association with final -a that accounts for the negative nonpast form yttəžt(ə)mʕíš, which alternates with yttəžt(ə)m(ə́)ʕš, both in relation to the positive form yttə́žtm(ə)ʕ (assembles). In the case of yusə́d (come), with the regular negative past paradigm yusídš (he didn’t come) tusídš (she)

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tusidə́dš (you s.) usidə́ɣš (I)

usidə́nš (they m.)

usidnə́tš (they f.)

tusidə́mš (you m.pl.) tusidmə́tš (you f.pl.) nusídš (we)

there alternates the irregular ddyusíš ttusíš

ttusídš [-tʃ]

ddusíɣš [-χʃ] ddusínš

ddusinə́tš ttusímš

ttusimə́tš

n(ə)ddnusíš. 4.3 The negative prefix The negative prefix, henceforth w- (realized variously as [wə-] and [u-], may precede any of the negative verbal forms cited above and, in addition, pro-verbs like ɣər + pro. suff. (have) or adverbial elements like zzər + pro. suff. (near, close to), which are equally associable with the negative suffix -š, though these will not be dealt with in detail before 5, where pronominally affixed negatives are specifically considered. A few examples of verb forms with w- included are as follows: (təbʕíd (ə)bzáyəd,) (ə)nnə́btik wtəṭṭisə́dš [u-] iḍ(ə)nnáṭ ((you are very tired,) you look as if you didn’t sleep last night)

báqi məmmítsən wyəhwínš (their son has still not recovered (from illness))

flə́nn hasnádan lakən uší wəddyusíš (they went to call him but he has still not come) 96

nətš madʕíli wəffalə́ɣš (I don’t think I’ll go)

ɣəri šəhṛín [ʃʌhṛe:n] wəffiɣə́ɣš (dísən (lit. in them, i.e. months) (I haven’t been out for two months). wkan kəssbə́ɣš [-χʃ] dis, wxəddməɣtə́tš [-χt-] (-tət = 3 s.f.pro.) (if I made no profit, I (still) wouldn’t do it).

Innumerable other examples may be added from the text on which the grammar is mainly based. Preceding the auxiliary yəllá / yisí (is/was) and the existential particle dis (there is, lit. in it), which closely parallels spoken Arabic fiih (particle fi (in) + 3 s.m. pro. suffix), w- may occur in the aforementioned form wəl- and wəld-. These forms also occur, albeit rarely, with verb forms of clearly Berber origin e.g. yufá (find), yəflá (go) and with the possessive sentence particle or pro-verb ɣər- + pro.suffix. Thus, contrast w- in wəllíš (there is not, there aren’t any) with wəl- in wəldísš (there is not; also there is not(hing) in it), and with wəld- in wəldufíɣš (more commonly, wdufíɣš and (usually) ufíɣš) (I didn’t find), and again in wəldəflíɣš (I didn’t go) (usually fliɣš) and wəldəɣríš (usually wəɣríš), where -i- is the 1 s. pronominal affix. The copular verb ‘be’ is, of course, notoriously irregular in many languages. Both wyəllí and wəlyəllí occur as negative forms of yəlla (is, or he is (here)), for example in wyəllíš [-ž] / wəlyəllí zzəri nə́tš (it isn’t near me or there isn’t one/any near me), with which wəllíš zzəri šáṛukan (there’s nothing near me) and wəzzríš (it isn’t near me) may be compared. Without final -š, wyəllí / wəlyəllí / (less often) yəllí d(ə)hanit (he isn’t here) variously occur in contrast with wyəllí, wəllíš, and wəldísš (lit. not in it) in, say, yəlla ša sm(ə́)ʕan gtiddárt a? (Is Sem’an in the house?) lá, wyəllí (No, he’s not);

yəlla ša ḥə́dd gtiddárt a? (Is anyone at home?) lá, wəllíš (No, there isn’t);

dis ša ḥə́dd tiddárt a? (Is anyone in the house?) lá, wəldísš [-ʃʃ] (No, there isn’t).

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Varying time-reference is indicated in the series wəllíš ḥə́dd dəhanit (there is no one here)

wyisíš ḥə́dd dəhanit (there was no one here)

wyttəḍḍə́lš (< yəḍḍəl) ḥə́ddukan dəhanit (there will be no one here), for which a preferred order is ḥə́ddukan wyttəḍḍə́lš dəhanit

This may be extended to include the interesting combination of yisi and wəlliš in qə́bəl yisi wəlliš ḥə́ddukan dəhanit (there used to be no one here (before)), in which wəlliš ḥəddukan seems to behave as a grammatical unit (not anyone). Variants of the last sentence include wəldisš and dis in ay(u) nwə́mkan [mm-] yisi wəldísš ḥə́ddukan or ay(u) nwə́mkan yisíš dis ḥə́ddukan. wəlliš ḥə́ddukan gtíddart (there is no one in the house) is the unmarked order of the sentence to which corresponds the typically emphatic rendering, with a high fall intonationally on ḥəd(dukan) and the remainder on a low level monotone, in wəldisš ḥə́ddukan tiddart. tíddart wəldisš ḥə́ddukan is likewise an unemphatic sentence order. wəldísš occurs preceding one of a number of nouns, usually loans from Arabic, e.g. wəldísš (ə́)llzum (baš...) (there’s no need (to...), wəldísš (ə)lfáydət / (ə)ttə́mrət / (ə)lmə́nfʕət (it’s pointless/useless/purposeless), though the loan (ə)lm(ə́)ʕna (meaning) occurs with the pro-verb ɣər- in wəɣrə́sš [-ʃʃ] (ə)lm(ə́)ʕna (it’s meaningless). The form wəllíš is especially frequent, so perhaps some further examples should be provided. The omission of w- and indeed of -š in other accompanying negative forms will be discussed subsequently. As far as wəllíš is concerned, cf. wəllíš ṃaṃṃu yəssínš áṣbiḥ swm(ə́)ʕfun (there is no one who does not know good from evil); ay(u) dšáṛa wəlliš ṃaṃṃu ttyəssín (everybody knows that); ay(u) dšaṛa wəllíš (ə)s(ə)hlis (there’s nothing easier);

ama xir yəll(a) áššar iziɣ wəlliš kúl (isn’t it better for there to be little rather than nothing at all!);

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(ə)lkə́ṛhbət tətšúṛ, wəllíš mani atályəd (the car’s full, there’s nowhere for you to get in). In the preceding sentences wəllíš negates a following noun phrase, but it may also precede verbal forms, especially in conditional sentences: thus, wkan wəllíš dʕə́sɣas, fís(ə)ʕ yəlla y(ə)mmút (if I hadn’t hurried to him, he would soon have died) (NB Use of auxiliary here is closely reminiscent of that of the spoken Arabic auxiliary y(i)kuun);

al(ə)mmi wəllíš t(ə)flid dtuɣdə́dti [tt--tti], wyəttasə́dš (if you don’t go and bring him, he won’t come) (NB Timereference in the protasis is dictated by that of the apodosis);

al(ə)mmi wəllíš asətd(ə́)ʕsad (aor.) or tədʕə́sdas (past) fís(ə)ʕ, ayə́mmut (if you don’t hurry to him, he will die); etc. It is noteworthy that in this category of sentence, wəllíš + positive verb is used instead of the negative verb form, for example preceding stative verbs of Conjs. 1 and 2 and also the h- of future intent prefixed to the aorist in e.g. nə́tš əššahi al(ə)mmi wəllíš yəqʕəd (not *y(ə)ʕqídš), ws(ə)ssəɣtíš (I won’t drink tea if it isn’t thick), for which an alternative form with kunš(i) al(ə)mmi (unless) is nə́tš əššahi ws(ə)ssəɣtíš kunš(i) al(ə)mmi yəqʕə́d. An example of wəllíš with h- is ay(u) ntíddart al(ə)mmi wəllíš hattzə́wwqəm [haddz-] (the past tense tzəwwqə́mtət is substitutable) dhattlə́bbnəm, wʕəmṛə́ɣš dis (if you (pl.) aren’t going to decorate the house, I won’t live in it), for which the past tense of these stative verbs of Conj. 2 is substitutable in ay(u) ntíddart al(ə)mmi wəlliš tlə́bbən d(ə)tzə́wwəq, wʕəmṛə́ɣš dis (if the house isn’t decorated, I won’t live in it). It is not, however, only with stative verbs of the first two conjugations that wəllíš is found, and it seems to be rather a feature of conditional sentences with aləmmi. Thus, with a change of verb type, cf. al(ə)mmi təwyídti [-tti] dídək, məʕádš [maʕʕatʃ] akyáwəd (if you don’t take him with you, he will (certainly) never follow you). Further examples of wəllíš are given at the same time as those containing wətšá, at 4.6 below.

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4.4 Omission and inclusion of ww- may be omitted and, conversely, included for a variety of reasons. The first of these are seemingly phonological in response to differences of syllable pattern, though further research is needed before any definite statement can be made. Thus, in the first four of the following random series, w- [u-] seems to be better included, whereas the last two are preferred without the prefix: ama xir atəsɣəd iziɣ wt(ə)ssaɣədš? (is it better for you (s.) to buy or not?)

ama xir aysəɣ iziɣ wy(ə)ssaɣš [uis-]? (is it better for him etc.) ama xir ansəɣ iziɣ wn(ə)ssaɣš? (is it better for us etc.)

ama xir at(ə)sɣəm iziɣ wt(ə)ssaɣəmš? (is it better for you (m.pl.) etc.)

but ama xir asɣəɣ iziɣ ssaɣəɣš (is it better for me etc.)

ama xir asɣən iziɣ ssaɣə́nš (is it better for them (m.) etc.) In these cases it might seem that w- occurs after a consonant except before a geminated consonant followed by a long vowel, but this is no more than a tendency and the negative forms concerned are subject to a high degree of free variation in respect of the occurrence or not of w-. Syllable structure of the negative forms which follow a vowel in the pattern (swa swa) aṃṃi ... aṃṃi ... (it makes no difference whether...or...) might seem to dictate the tendency for w- to occur or not in swá swa, aṃṃi yəflá aṃṃi yəflíš (it’s all the same whether he went or not)

swá swa, aṃṃi flíɣ aṃṃi wəflíɣš (it made no difference whether I went or not)

swá swa, aṃṃi ɣə́rs aṃṃi ɣrə́sš (no matter whether he has it or not) (pro-verb + 3 s.m. -s)

swá swa, aṃṃi ɣə́ri aṃṃi wəɣríš (it doesn’t matter whether I have (it) or not) (pro-verb + 1 s. -i)

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swá swa, aṃṃi ɣə́rnəɣ (aṃṃi) wɣərnə́ɣš (it makes no difference whether we have (it) or not) (pro-verb + 1 pl. -nəɣ) but again the fact is that no hard and fast rule can be provided along these lines and tendency and variation replace any putative rule. Thus, examples like təṃṃá haddásəɣ lakən ttusíš (she said she (lit. I) was coming but hasn’t), and təṃṃá haddásəɣ lakən uší wəttusiš (she said she was coming but hasn’t yet)

apparently run counter to the earlier examples, so that the question of phonological influence in the matter must remain an open one. Sometimes w- is omitted or included as a means of distinguishing between present and future time reference, as in the following examples: atə́fləd iziɣ t(ə)ffalə́dš? (are you going or not?, i.e. NOW), and (l(ə)žmáʕət mašyín,) ánfəl iziɣ n(ə)ffálš (the others, lit. people, are going, i.e. NOW) are we going or not?), as opposed to

ánfəl iziɣ wn(ə)ffálš aitša (are we going tomorrow or not?), and áddyas iziɣ w(ə)yttasə́dš [wit--dʃ] aitša? (is he coming or not tomorrow?), as opposed to

áddyas iziɣ yttasə́dš [-dʃ] anttnsuggə́m a? (is he coming or not? shall we wait for him? (-tt- in attnsuggə́m = 3 m.s. pro.)), and

yəɣs [-χs] / h-áyfəl iziɣ yəffálš? (is he going to go or not?), and ayfəl dídnəɣ iziɣ yəffálš? (is he going with us or not?), as opposed to

yəɣs / h-áyfəl dídnəɣ aitšá iziɣ wyəffálš (is he going to go with us tomorrow or not?)

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With both the imperative and the tenses, the inclusion of w- is usually an emphatic device, associated typically with a high intonational fall which entails the rendering of surrounding syllables on a monotone. Examples are as follows, with (E) indicating the emphatic member of contrasting pairs: ggáyš / (E) wəggáyš (don’t take (it)!)

lá ffálš / (E) lá wəffálš (no, don’t go!) Note: With ya há for lá, the imperative is yet stronger and w- is obligatory. ssáɣš / (E) wəssáɣš (don’t buy!)

(ə)nníš / (E) (lá) wənníš (don’t say (it)!). However, the disyllabic structure of the relevant form with w- seems to play its part, so that there is little or no difference between the inclusion or exclusion of w- in, say, (lá) (w)f(ə)ssə́rš (don’t put (it) out to dry!), and indeed, with dis an integral part of the verb phrase, ttəkkədš dis (don’t touch it!) is said to be a stronger warning than wətt(ə)kkə́dš dis. There is almost certainly a good deal of fluctuation once again, yet the difference is often perceived as a real one and applies to the tenses as much as to the imperative. Thus, cf. (present) (past)

yəffal ɣádi dyəggáyš dis / (E) yəffal ɣádi dwyəggáyš dis (he goes there and doesn’t take it), or

alləxxúl flíɣš / (E) alləxxúl wəflíɣš (I still haven’t been).

This emphatic role of w- is associated with the use of other words or phrases, themselves inherently emphatic, e.g. ynəff(ə)ʕ (be useless) in ay(u) yəkmə́l wynəff(ə́)ʕ (this is all (utterly) futile!) or šáṛukan (< šáṛa + Ar. ukan) (anything at all, nothing at all) in ay(u) nwxə́mməm [mm-] akynəff(ə́)ʕš šáṛukan (this fretting does you (= ak) no good at all). If šáṛukan is omitted from this sentence then w- should be included, i.e. wakynəff(ə́)ʕš. Similarly, with aṛáhuk (be sure, mind you) in, say, ṃaṃṃu áyig əṛṛay n(ə)tsə́dnan aṛahuk yṛəbb(ə́)ḥš (whoever takes the opinion of women (you can) be sure that he loses out); leave it out and w- is required; leave w- out and the sentence loses its ‘bite’. The emphatic conditional element of a sentence áfləɣ daddásəɣ dwəttaɣdəɣtiš, lukan hatbə́ddəd aft(ə)kṛúmtək (I’ll go and return but 102

(lit. and) will not bring it (= -ti), even if you stand on your head (lit. neck)), imposes the use of w- in the negative verb form. One final comment on the omission of w- in what is unavoidably a somewhat inconclusive account is that it is not required after the first verb in a linked sequence of verbs, as wətqəbbə́lš dəttəqqə́lš in, say, yadžis (ə)ssə́nəɣ wətqəbbə́lš dəttəqqə́lš atədž məmmis attə́wyən ləṣṣbíṭaṛ (I know his mother won’t agree and will refuse to let her son be taken (lit. that they take him (= -tt-) to the hospital). 4.5 Omission and inclusion of š The following selection of forms require š obligatorily: wəɣríš (w- + pro-verb ɣər- (have) + -i (I) šáṛukan (I haven’t anything); wasyəṃṃíɣš ig ámyu (I didn’t tell him to do (lit. do (impve.)) so); (ə́)mlas wyəggayíš (-i- = (it)) didəs (tell him not to take it with him); ttəkkə́dš dis (don’t touch it (= dis)!); (w)asttitšəɣtiš (-as- (to him), -ti (it)) (I won’t give it to him); al(ə)mmi wətɣisədš [-tʃ], bláš (if you don’t want to, never mind). On the other hand, other indigenous Berber forms, regularly occur without -š, e.g. wəttufíɣ (I didn’t find him), wəttufín gtíddart (they didn’t find him in the house), wyəqqíl (he didn’t refuse), (w)yəllí or wəlyəllí (he/it isn’t), to which may be added wyəḥlí (he’s no good; also he’s dangerously ill, as in ássu ṛṛə́hdis [ṛṛɑh-] wyəḥlí (he looks extremely ill today)), where the verb is probably of Arabic origin. In the great majority of cases, the presence or absence of -š is attributable to other features of the linguistic context. Thus, with the verb yəssə́n (know) and perhaps predominantly with this verb, the occurrence of -š appears to be determined by question-and-answer predication in which lá (no) may or may not precede the verb in such exchanges as Q. t(ə)ssə́n(ə)d ša mani y(ə)ʕmə́ṛ ṣalə́ḥ a? (do you know where Salih lives?) A. (lá,) wəssinə́ɣš ((no,) I don’t), which contrasts with

Q. z(ə)ʕma háyfəl iziɣ a há? (I wonder if he’s going or not?) A. wəssínəɣ (I don’t know).

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Similarly, Q. t(ə)ssə́n(ə)d ša ləmmi mášəy [-ʃi] ṣaləḥ a? (do you know when Salih is going?)

A. (lá,) wəssinə́ɣš ((no,) I don’t), contrasts with Q. lə́mmi mašəy ṣaləḥ? (when is Salih going?) A. wəssínəɣ (I don’t know).

Some verbs resist the use of -š in the presence of a direct object pronominal suffix. Thus, Q. t(ə)ẓṛíd a? (did you see?) A. (lá,) wəẓṛíɣš ((no,) I didn’t) in contrast with Q. t(ə)ẓṛidtí a? (did you see it?) A. (lá,) wəttẓṛíɣ [wəḍḍẓ-] ((no,) I didn’t). Other examples are Q. t(ə)slíd a? (did you hear?) A. (lá,) wəslíɣš (no, I didn’t) in contrast with Q. t(ə)slidtí a? (did you hear it?) A. (lá,) wətt(ə)slíɣ ((no,) I didn’t); Q. tufíd a? (did you find (e.g. the solution)?) A. (lá,) ufiɣš ((no,) I didn’t), as opposed to Q. tufidtí a? (did you find it?) A. ((lá,) wəttufíɣ; Q. t(ə)ɣsə́d a? (do you want (things so)?) A. ((lá,) wɣisə́ɣš ((no,) I don’t) versus Q. təɣsədtí a? (do you want it?) A. ((lá,) wəttɣísəɣ ((no,) I don’t). The earlier al(ə)mmi wətɣisə́dš, bláš (if you don’t want to, never mind) contrasts similarly with al(ə)mmi wəttɣísəd, bláš (if you don’t want it, never mind). However, as was seen in part in the case of w-, this behaviour of -š cannot be generalized, and exceptions are not hard to find. Thus, both təɣríd a? (did you read/study?) and təɣridtí a? (did you read/study it?) generate -š in the replies (lá) wəɣríɣš (I didn’t read/study) and wəttəɣriɣš (I didn’t read/study it?), and the same is true of verbs like yurə́y (write), yurá (open), yəswá (drink), yukə́z (realize, understand), yuɣə́d (bring), yəṃṃá (say), yəkká (smell), yəṃḍá (taste), etc. However, there seem to be a clearcut distinction between wakyufí (he didn’t find you), where -ak- is the direct object and š is unacceptable, and wakyufíš (he didn’t find (s.t.) for you), where -ak- is the indirect object and -š regularly occurs. A similar contrast is maintained between e.g. wakẓṛíɣ (I didn’t see you) and wakẓṛíɣš (I didn’t see (s.o.) for you), and wakslíɣ (I didn’t hear you) and wakslíɣš matta nnán (I didn’t hear for you what they said (lit. say), i.e. you had asked me to keep my ears open on your behalf), and -š, as well as w- is precluded with the non-sensory yufá (find) in, say, ífla flíɣ lakən ttufíɣ (I certainly went but didn’t find him). 104

The area of emphasis, as for w-, provides surer ground, not least perhaps because the facts of omission closely parallel those concerning negative -š in the spoken Arabic of Libya and Egypt, conceivable, too, of countries further west. Indeed, many of the contexts of omission are provided by Arabic lexical items, as will be seen from the list provided below. It might seem to be the emphatic end to the sentence that accounts for wṣíləɣ (< yuṣə́l) in e.g. wṣíləɣ dəhánit al(ə)mmi mmútəɣ (I nearly died getting here, lit. I didn’t get here until I died, i.e. of exhaustion) in contrast with wṣilə́ɣš dəhánit qəbəl alləxxúl (I’ve only just got here). Similarly, -š occurs with the single verb form wəṭṭiṣə́ɣš (I didn’t sleep) and with its occurrence in wəṭṭiṣə́ɣš iḍ(ə)nnáṭ al(ə)mmi ḥ(ə)ttá tiṭṭawíniw ássu nfə́xnət (I didn’t sleep last night, so that today my eyes are swollen), which contrasts with the absence of -š in wəṭṭíṣəɣ al(ə)mmi ḥ(ə)ttá tiṭṭawíniw nfə́xnət (I didn’t sleep until my eyes became swollen). There follows the list of items that commonly occur in association with the omission of -š: Pro-verb ɣər + pro.suff. (lit. have; since + period of time): wɣə́ri matt(a) akúšəɣ (I have nothing to give you) is a stronger, more emphatic assertion than wəɣríš matt(a) akušəɣ, and likewise wufiɣ matta hámləɣ (I didn’t know what to say, lit. what I was going to say) by comparision with wfíɣš matta hámləɣ. In the following examples with ɣər-, further emphatic elements áṃkan (anywhere, lit. place) and tɣúsa (anything, lit. thing) require the omission of -š, i.e. ɣər(i) áša tə́lt əyyám wətšíɣ dis tɣúsa (I haven’t eaten a thing for three days), ɣər(i) áša xə́ms əyyám [ijj-] wəffíɣ(ə)ɣ dis lwə́ṃkan (I haven’t been out anywhere at all for five days). If the verb occurs in sentence-final position without the following emphasizing noun, then -š occurs, as in ɣəri šəhṛín wəffiɣəɣš (dís(ə)n) I haven’t been out for two months), which contrasts with ɣəri šəhṛín wəffiɣ(ə)ɣ dis lwə́ṃkan (I haven’t been anywhere at all for two months). Somewhat surprisingly, as yet another indication of fluctuation, if dis is omitted and ukan added to lwəṃkan in the manner of šaṛa + ukan > šáṛukan (see below under šáṛa at end of section), then -š is included in ɣəri šəhṛín wəffiɣəɣš lwəṃkánukan (I haven’t been out anywhere for two months), as in the later cases of šáṛukan.

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waḷḷáhi (I swear): The oath or invocation of the divine name in the form waḷḷáhi (by God) or waḷḷáhi l(ə)ʕḍím [laʕ-] (by Almighty God) (waḷḷáhi l(ə)ʕzíz in women’s usage) predicates emphasis which precludes -š, e.g. waḷḷáhi (ləʕḍím) wəfliɣ (I will not go), waḷḷáhi l(ə)ʕzíz wəttíṣəɣ dis iḍ(ə)nnáṭ ḥ(ə)tta lɣə́mḍət (I swear I didn’t sleep a wink last night), waḷḷáhi l(ə)ʕḍím wətqússəd dís txúḍift (by God, you will not take one step towards (lit. in) it). The oath is frequently accompanied by the Arabic loan elements la, wla, and wkan, as in waḷḷáhi (l(ə)ʕḍím) wlá fliɣ (I have not been). Both waḷḷáhi wəflíɣ and waḷḷáhi wlá fliɣ contrast interestingly with the use of the Arabic negative particle and verb in waḷḷáhi (l(ə)ʕḍím) má nəmši (I am not going, i.e. immediately), where the whole sentence is Arabic. Other examples include waḷḷáhi wayy(ə)ʕžíb wkan matta astígəd (I swear I won’t like it (lit. it won’t please me) whatever you’re going to (təɣsəd) do to it, i.e. by way of improvement). An interesting difference of time-reference obtains between the use of the originally Arabic negative particle la and Berber w- before the past tense of the verb and following waḷḷáhi l(ə)ʕḍím and a further intensifying element iziɣ (elsewhere = (or)), e.g. waḷḷáhi l(ə)ʕḍím iziɣ la ygiɣ dís tɣúsa (I swear I had nothing to do with it), but waḷḷáhi l(ə)ʕḍím iziɣ wygíɣ [wig-] dis tɣúsa (I swear I will have nothing to do with it), and again waḷḷáhi l(ə)ʕḍím iziɣ la flíɣ (I swear I did not go), but waḷḷáhi l(ə)ʕḍím iziɣ wəflíɣ (I swear I will not go (on any account)). la...(w)la..., w-...w-... (neither...nor...): Yet further items imposing the absence of -š are the negative alternatives la...(w)la... (neither...nor), e.g. la ẓṛíɣ la slíɣ (I neither saw nor heard, i.e. I will keep silent), nəšnin mməmmítnəɣ wnttnɣís la d(ə)lḥákəm wla hayg(ə́)ʕməz afləkrási (we don’t want our son to be either a governor or a functionary, lit. one who is going to sit on seats), and the corresponding Berber frame w-...w-..., e.g. was(ə)ṃṃíɣ wayyəṃṃí (I didn’t tell him and he didn’t tell me, i.e. we each kept our own counsel), wəflíɣ wəṛtáḥəɣ (I haven’t been nor have I rested, 106

i.e. I’m always saying that I will go tomorrow), wyəggáyi (-i = (it)) wytə́kkəd dis (dis marks progressive aspect) ḥ(ə)tta íkkad (he’s neither taking it nor even touching it). These negative alternatives are normally twofold, e.g. wyufíš la mə́mmis wla (a)ʕə́zzab (he didn’t find either his son or the teacher) or ddaltúlat la hattwə́ttəd wla hatə́kkdəd dís (this time you won’t either hit him or (even) touch him), but a series is theoretically infinite and is often enough threefold, e.g. ɣsə́ɣtid [-χt-] áyɣər báss, la ṃṃíɣas ə́krəz wlá mžər (< wla ə́mžər) wla kúbər (I just wanted him to study, I didn’t tell him to plough or harvest or dig (i.e. with mattock)). ɣir (only) (e.g. + b(ə)ʕd (la)) (after): Among other elements with the same implication is ɣir b(ə)ʕd (la) as in wyəṃṃí ɣir b(ə)ʕd la ggə́z(ə)n f(ə)llas s(ə)tṛə́ṭṭa (he only talked after they had beaten him (= f(ə)llas, lit. on him) with a stick), which contrasts with e.g. wyəṃṃíš kan (or ḥ(ə)tta) b(ə)ʕd la ggə́z(ə)n f(ə)llas stṛə́ṭṭa (he didn’t talk even after they had beaten him with a stick) and with wyəṃṃíš ɣir (or ḥ(ə)tta) tawalt ídžət (he didn’t say a single word). al(ə)mmi, kun(ši) al(ə)mmi, al(ə)mmi…awəl… (if, until, unless, etc.): al(ə)mmi, kun(ši) al(ə)mmi, and al(ə)mmi…awəl are also productive elements involving the deletion of -š, as in wəttsítfəɣ al(ə)mm(i) ysufɣə́yyid [-ijjid] (ə)ṛṛúhiw (it nearly killed me bringing it in, i.e. it was so heavy, lit. I didn’t bring it in until it took out my soul), wəttufíɣ al(ə)mmi yəṃṃayid nə́tta (I didn’t give it until he told me to), wasfliɣ al(ə)mmi y(ə)ʕyá yttṛəžža də́gi (dəg- (progressive indicator) + -i) (I didn’t go to him before he was tired (of) begging me to), wyútlay kun(ši) al(ə)mmi áššar la nɣánti [nʁʌn-] (he didn’t speak until they (had) almost killed him) (BUT contrast wəttyušíš or wyušíš kunš(i) al(ə)mm(i) áššar la nɣánti (he didn’t give it (up) until etc.), al(ə)mmi wəɣrə́kš awə́lɣərk (since you haven’t got it, may you never have it, i.e. a strong form of wishing someone ill, usually said by women). The last sentence has the same meaning as al(ə)mmi wəɣrə́kš ž(ə)ʕlək aḷḷáh la ɣərk (since you haven’t got it, may God ordain that you (never) have it). Another example of al(ə)mmi...awəl is al(ə)mmi wt(ə)flídš 107

awəl tə́fləd (since you haven’t gone, may you never go, said to someone who has not gone, though repeatedly asked to go). The last example suggests that a- of awəl- is the aorist prefix and that wəl is the form of the negative particle spoken of earlier. An alternative form of the last example is al(ə)mmi wt(ə)flídš, ž(ə)ʕlək aḷḷáh la t(ə)flid. kan (except, only): ay(u) nl(ə́)ʕməl [llaʕmɪl] wyttígi (-i =(it)) kan wúh la wəldisš l(ə́)ʕqəl (only a crazy man does such a thing, lit. this act not does it except the one in whom there is no mind); wyttásəd kan ṃṃaṃu ɣərs (ə́)ššɣəl (a man comes (here) only on (his own) business); ə́ddwa wəttitšə́nti kan iṃaṃṃu dṃáḍun (they only give medicine (lit. medicine they give it only) to someone who is ill, i.e. only the sick man takes medicines). šáṛa (anything): assu tə́lt əyyám wyutif šáṛa ṛṛíqiw (nothing has entered my stomach (lit. saliva) for three days). If šáṛa ukan (nothing whatsoever) precedes the verb, w- is omitted and š included, i.e. assu tə́lt əyyám šáṛa ukan yutifš (ə)ṛṛíqiw; by contrast, w- is optional if the unitary form šáṛukan is substituted, i.e. assu tə́lt əyyám šaṛukan (w)yutífš (ə)ṛṛíqiw (šáṛukan may follow the verb but the order given is preferred). šáṛa does not, however, provide a sure indicator for the omission of -š. The time-phrase in the preceding example seems, on the other hand, to be essential. *wətšiɣš šaṛa is unacceptable without the ‘support’ of some time element like səddíɣ (still) or alləxxúl (up to now) in səddiɣ wətšíɣš šaṛa (I still haven’t eaten a thing), where, however, the inclusion of -š is optional. There are three possible forms the verb phrase may take without distinction of meaning in, say, swaṣṣ(ə)nnáṭ alləxxúl wətšíɣš / wətšíɣ / wətšíɣ dis šáṛa (from yesterday (till now) I haven’t eaten anything). Again, wɣə́ri alternates freely with wəɣríš in wɣə́ri / wəɣríš šaṛa la dis (ə)ttə́mrət (I’ve nothing worth while, i.e. response to request for e.g. tea, sugar, etc.), and with wəldisš, the negative suffix regularly occurs, e.g. wəldísš la šáṛa (there’s nothing (wrong) with it) wəldísš šaṛa náf(ə)ʕ (there’s nothing of any use, i.e. among effects of someone selling contents of house). With tɣúsa 108

(thing) for šáṛa, however, as the example under the pro-verb ɣərabove showed, š is omitted, e.g. ukan ayə́xləq ṛə́bbi dmátta wmátt, wtəẓṛíd [uḍẓ-] dis tɣúsa (I will not give it to you on any account, lit. God can make of you whatever you like (e.g. the mightiest man on earth), you will not see anything of (lit. in) it). Finally, in contrast with the optionality of -š with šaṛa elsewhere, -š seems regularly to occur with šáṛukan; as(ə)ygíɣš šáṛukan (I did nothing to him, i.e. I don’t know why he is crying), wayyəttsálš šaṛukan (I don’t owe him anything, lit. he has no claims on me), and wəttsalə́ɣš dis gšáṛukan (he doesn’t owe me anything) can be added to earlier examples. ḥədd (anyone): The optionality of -š in association with šáṛa applies also to ḥədd, which occurs, for example, in aṣṣ(ə)nnáṭ wəẓṛíɣ / wəẓṛíɣš ḥə́dd [ħɛdd] (I didn’t see anyone yesterday), wɣə́ri / wəɣríš ḥədd la hay(y)ə́ddyaɣ (I’ve no one who’ll bring me (or bring (things) for me)), wyəflí / wyəflíš ḥə́dd (nobody went). As with šárukan in relation to šáṛa, so ḥə́ddukan entails -š, e.g. wəlliš ḥə́ddukan gədzə́qqa (there’s no one in the room), ḥə́ddukan (w)yəqqímš or (w)yəqqímš ḥə́ddukan (nobody stayed). m(ə)ʕádš [maʕʕaˑtʃ] (no longer, no more): The item is, of course, itself negative and its following verb positive. Examples are nə́tš m(ə)ʕádš hadígəɣ šaṛukan (I’m not going to do anything more), m(ə)ʕádš atə́ggḍəd f(ə́)llas (don’t worry about him any more), ussáni yəkmə́l(ə)n [-mɪnn] m(ə)ʕádš yttásəd (for all this time (lit. days) he hasn’t been (lit. isn’t) coming any more), mlə́yyid, šəkkin t(ə)ffál(ə)d lətməzgída iziɣ m(ə)ʕádš t(ə)ffál(ə)d? (tell me, do you go to the mosque or aren’t you going any more?), ɣir ayə́ḥfəd m(ə)ʕádš ay(ə́)ttu [a’it-] (when he learns (s.t.), he doesn’t forget (it) again). madʕil- / maḍənn- + pro. + v. (I etc. think...), madabi- + pro. + (baš) + v. (I etc. prefer): Negation is sometimes interchangeable between these borrowed elements and the following verb, e.g. madʕilíš afləɣ or madʕíli wəffalə́ɣš (I don’t think I’ll go). maḍənníš appears to occur predominantly in nega109

tive form and, with the past tense, contrasts with madʕíli in e.g. maḍənníš yəflá (I don’t think he went), which alternates with madʕíli yəflíš. *madʕilí yəflá is unacceptable. Some speakers maintain an interesting difference of time reference marked by the presence or absence of w- before the negative nonpast following madʕil-, e.g. madʕíli wyəffálš (I think he doesn’t go or I don’t think he goes) in contrast with madʕíli yəffálš (I don’t think he’ll go). Though the topic belongs strictly to the following section, perhaps it should be stated here that madʕil- takes the full set of Arabic pronominal suffixes, i.e. -i (I), -ək (you s.), -a (he), -ha (she), -na (we), -kəm (you pl.m.), -həm (they pl.m.), and, interestingly, the mixed Arabo-Berber suffix in the cases of -kmət (you pl.f) and -hmət (they pl.f.), i.e. madʕílkmət and madʕílhmət. Cf., too, the slightly different but still Arabic suffixes of madabiyya (I (prefer)), madabík (you s.), madabíh (he), madabíha (she), madabína (we), madabíkəm (you pl.m.), madabíkmət (you pl.f.), madabíhəm (they pl.m.), madabíhmət (they pl.f.). Addendum: Certain elements, again usually involving loans from Arabic, entail an inherently negative imperative sense in the verb following them, though neither they nor the verb appears in negative form. ərr (ə)lbálik (take care you don’t..., mind you don’t...), pronounced as a single entity, is one such item, for example in the admonition from parent to child iškəlt íḍ(ə)nt (ə)rr (ə)lbálik atṛə́wləd ((< yəṛwə́l) s(ə)tməzgída (another time, mind or take care you don’t play truant from the mosque!). 4.6 wətšá w- is also importantly part of the element wətšá used predominantly to negate a following noun/adjective or nominal phrase or clause and also a whole sentence but not least occurring, too, before verbal forms in certain conditional sentences. The final element -ša is doubtless the extended form of š used in interrogative sentences and some negative sentences and a correspondingly shortened form of šáṛa (thing and šáṛukan (= šáṛa + -ukan) (nothing, anything at all). There also occurs a form wədšáṛukan, which is exemplified subsequently, and it seems fairly reasonable to regard -t- of wətšá as the devoicing of d in wədšáṛukan. Choice seems to lie between regarding the plosive as part of the negative prefix (cf. the abovequoted vari110

ants wəldufíɣš and wdufíɣš (I didn’t find)) or as the nominal sentence particle d (is), i.e. wə-d-ša (not is (a thing)) but etymological fancy is not the present concern. Examples of wətšá are: wətšá dargaz dáṣbiḥ (he is not a nice man)

wətšá dṃaṃṃu yttwatə́bb(ə)ʕ (he’s not someone to be followed)

wətšá mamak təɣš [-χʃ] (it’s not what (lit. how) she wants, i.e. she cannot have her way)

wətša dəlʕib f(ə́)llak! (aren’t you ashamed!, lit. isn’t it shame on you?) wətšá zərri nə́tš (it’s not near me, surely, or you don’t mean it’s near me)

wətša dḥə́ddukan ssə́gwən, la dšə́kkin wla dnə́tta (none/neither of (lit. from among you), neither you nor him). wətšá may also negate the stative verb, as nəfṛə́ḥ (we are happy) in wətša nəfṛə́ḥ nəkmə́l a? (imátta wasn(ə)ttsəmmíš (-as- = (to) him fə́ṛḥat?) (aren’t we all happy? (why don’t we call him Ferhat?)). It will be seen that in some of the above examples wətšá negates the whole sentence (much in the manner of, say, the spoken Egyptian Arabic negative particle muš or miš), and wətšá nəfṛə́ḥ is an unacceptable Berber sentence without some kind of extension. An interesting contrast seems to occur between wətša + v. and negative verb in wətša nəfṛə́ḥ lakən nəḥzə́n (we are not happy but sad, i.e. they look sad; why should we look happy when we are sad?), as opposed to

wnəfṛíḥš lakən nəḥzə́n (same translation, but the speakers look happy; i.e. we may look happy but we are not). Such apparent contrasts require further investigation.

The scope of negation is also of interest in the case of wətšá followed by the earlier madabi- + pro + (baš) + v. in e.g. wətšá madabíyya baš áfləɣ (lit. I don’t prefer to go, i.e. I prefer not to go) cf. nətš madabíyy(a) áfləɣ (I prefer to go)). 111

wətšá is of widespread occurrence in conditional sentences, wherein it negates a following verb phrase. It is interchangeable with wəllíš (see 4.3) in e.g. ukan wətšá / wəllíš fliɣ dídəs, lliɣ wəttḥaṣṣlə́ɣš (-tt- = 3 m.s.pro.) (if I hadn’t gone with him, I wouldn’t have got it). There is a good deal of variation in these sentences, between, for example, (a) lukan / ukan wətšá fliɣ dídəs, wəttḥaṣṣləɣtí (-ti = 3 s.m.pro.) sɣə́rs (if I hadn’t gone with him, I wouldn’t have got it from him), and

(b) lukan / ukan wəflíɣš dídəs, wəttḥaṣṣlə́ɣš sɣə́rs (same translation) In (a), wəttḥaṣṣləɣtíš is the negative form of the nonpast ttḥaṣṣləɣ with stem-suffixed -ti (it), whereas in (b), wəttḥaṣṣlə́ɣš is the negative form of past ḥaṣṣləɣ with stem-prefixed tt- (it). If the apodosis is positive in contrast with negative (a) and (b) above, then no such formal contrast is possible, i.e. only lliɣ ḥaṣṣləɣti sɣə́rs (I would have got it from him) occurs. It is worthy of note in passing that e.g. wətšá / wəllíš fliɣ dídəs is neutral as to time-reference and it is the nonpast tense of the apodosis that dictates the time-reference of the protasis in e.g. al(ə)mmi wəllíš fliɣ dídəs, lliɣ wəttḥaṣṣləɣtíš (if I don’t go with him, I won’t get it), for which ukan wəffaləɣš dídəs, wəttḥaṣṣləɣtíš is an alternative, with the specific use of the nonpast in the protasis. Two final examples of conditional wətšá are (l)ukan (ɣir optional) wətša yfat də́gi dušíɣas táwalt, wəffalə́ɣš (if I hadn’t already (= yfat dəgi d-) given him (my) word, I wouldn’t go) (cf. apodosis lliɣ wəflíɣš = (I wouldn’t have gone))

lukán ɣir wətša ttḥə́ššməɣ zzat mídd(ə)n, t(ə)ssə́n(ə)d mamak akígəɣ (if I weren’t ashamed in front of people, you know what (lit. how) I would do to you) (cf. apodosis t(ə)llid t(ə)ẓṛíd mamak / matta ygíɣak = (you’d have seen what I’d have done to you)).

Finally, brief mention should be made of the form wədšáṛukan mentioned earlier, which is doubtless related to wətšá and plausibly seen as made up of wət(ša) + šáṛa + ukan (not a(ny) thing at all). The form is inherently emphatic and occurs, for example, in wayyəṃṃí wədšáṛukan (-ayy = (to me)) (he said nothing at all to me), wyutláy 112

lɣəri wədšáṛukan (he didn’t talk to me (= lɣəri) at all), wayyuší(š) wədšáṛukan (he didn’t give me a thing), (ə)ssíx wənttəmʕafín nəšniníd(ə)s wədšáṛukan (we shan’t be at all at odds with the Sheikh). Note: As wətšá may negate a following sentence, so the borrowed Arabic element muhu [mǫhǫ] (isn’t etc.) may precede a sentence, usually a ‘rhetorical’ question, as in the rebuke to a child failing to welcome guests in the proper manner, muhu atkúbbəd afifassə́nsən iziɣ ya há? (shouldn’t you kiss their (i.e. people’s) hands or not!?). (y)a há (no, not) is also noteworthy among the elements occurring in the overall field of negation. An account of positive and negative verbs forms which include the direct and indirect object pronominal affixes, several examples of which have occurred above, will follow now in section 5. 5.1 Object pronouns There is a great variety of pronominal affixes, in particular suffixes, in Zuaran Berber, most of them fairly clearly relatable to the independent pronoun, itself divisible into non-genitive and genitive forms, e.g. nətš (I) and ənnə́w (mine). In addition among ‘independent’ forms are conjoint pronouns, e.g. n(ət)šídəs (he and I), to which earlier references was made. Thereafter, pronominal suffixes of somewhat varying form occur with prepositions (e.g. zzər (near), qəbəl (before), etc.), nouns excluding nouns of relationship, with minor differences between C- and V-ending nouns, nouns of relationship, and Arabic loans, some of which are associable with the total system of local Arabic suffixes. In the case of loans, suffixes are sometimes an Arabo-Berber mixture. Finally, and these are the forms which will engage us in this chapter, there are the object affixes which are associated with verb forms, positive and negative. In relation to the verb, these affixes are variously prefixed or suffixed or both. Distinction must be made between direct and indirect objects, though mainly in the third person, between affixes appropriate to different tenses, and between positive and negative verbal forms. It is also necessary to recognize difference between the cases of single and double affixation, the first more frequent but the second frequent 113

enough. A preliminary idea of the complexities of affixation may be formed from the realization that, in the case of double affixation (e.g. yušásti (he gave it (m.) to him/her), both affixes follow the verb in (i) the positive past and (ii) the positive imperative, both precede the verb in (i) the free-standing aorist and (ii) the negative past, and one affix precedes and the other follows in (i) the negative imperative and (ii) the negative nonpast. It seems reasonable to begin with the case of suffixation following the verb, and 5.2 will concentrate principally on the past positive verb. 5.2 Verb + object suffix The distinction between direct and indirect objects seems to be applicable to third person affixes only. Thus, yušá (he gave) + -i (it m.) > yuší (he gave it (m.)) and uš (s. impve.) + -i > uší (give it (m.)!), contrast with yuša + -as > yušás (he gave (to) him) and úšas (give (to) him!). The third person suffix, which in appropriate contexts may have personal reference, takes the form -ti (s.m.) / -tət (s.f.) / -tən (pl.m. & f.) when preceded by a consonant other than root-final, e.g. ušə́nti (they gave it (m.)), tušimə́ttət (you (f.pl.) gave it (f.)), tənk(ə)yə́mti(d) (you (m.pl.) sent him), tənkəymásti (you (m.pl.) sent it to him), but e.g. yuší / yušít / yušín / yušín(ə)t (he gave it (m.) / it (f.) / them (m.) / them (f.)), where the suffixes are respectively -i / -it / -in / -in(ə)t. When the two object suffixes combine, the indirect object precedes, i.e. yušásti (he gave it to him/her), ušásti (give it (m.) to him/her!), ušídti(d) [-tti(d)] (give it (m.) to me!), tušidídtən (you (s.) gave them to me), uɣədɣákti (I’ve brought him to you (= -ak-), (ə)ɣrást(ə)n (read them to him!). A third form of the third person direct object pronoun is -tti / -ttət / -ttən, where gemination of t is probably required by syllable patterning. It occurs in e.g. yəṃṃátti (he said it), in those persons in which the final open vowel of the verb stem is retained, and also therefore in, say, laqqatti (sɣə́ri) (take it (from me)!, i.e. it’s heavy). The third person suffixes seem predominantly to refer to an impersonal object but not exclusively so; cf. ywə́tti / ywə́ttət (he struck him/her). Nor are the other object suffixes invariably interpretable semantically as ‘indirect’, cf. twəttdíyyid (you hit me), yqúddak (he overcame you (in bargaining)), etc., though they are more often so.

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The retention of the open vowel in yəṃṃa(tti) contrasts with its elimination from e.g. yuša > yuší (he gave it), and this difference of verb type correlates with a difference, albeit relatively minor, in the form of an accompanying indirect object. Thus, with the yəṃṃa-type, there occurs a syllable-linking -y- between the stem-final vowel and the vowel -a- of the suffix, e.g. yəṃṃáyas (he said to him/her), whereas the stem-final vowel is eliminated in the case of the yušatype and the object suffix appended directly to the verb, i.e. yušás (he gave (to) him/her). Similarly, yəmḥáyas (he wiped (s.t.) clean for him/her) contrasts with yəwyás (he took (s.t.) to him/her). A further difference between the two types occurs with 1 s. suffix. The basic form of this suffix is -əyd [-id] ((to/for)) me), e.g. yəṃṃáyəyd [-ɑjɪd] (he said to me), but an alternative form of the suffix with the yušatype is -əyyid or -iyyid [-ijjiˑd], i.e. yušə́yyid or yušíyyid (he gave (to) me). It is an open question whether the suffix should be written -əyyid or -iyyid, since either form would respond to pronunciation in a given case. However, a distinction must be made between e.g. ušíyyid (give (to) me!) and ušíyid [-ʃi’id], ušíyak, etc., as in, say, ušíyak ɣír tuh baš atkə́mləd (there is only this (f.) left for you to do). The element uší (still, (not) yet) is reminiscent of spoken Egyptian Arabic líssa, which is also pronominally suffixed in e.g. lissaáku ma ruḥtúuš (you (pl.) still haven’t gone). The pronunciation of -y- in ušíyid is as that in e.g. turə́yəd [-ri’id] (you wrote) as opposed to both turíd (you opened) and ušíyyid [uˈʃijjid]. Final -d of -(iyy)id may well relate to an earlier directional particle, and the basic first person element is -y(y/i)-, which, as will be seen below, occurs elsewhere in the verb system. The alternative form of the suffix with the yuša-type is as for the yəṃṃa-type, i.e. -id in yušíd, and it should be noted that in the aorist and the imperative yəṃṃa takes the stem-form (ə)məl, with a- eliminated as with yuša and the -iyyid form of the suffix occurring in (ə)mlíyyid (tell me), and it is this suffixal form that occurs post-consonantally elsewhere, e.g. ṛábbi yrəzzqíyyid ɣír gətbušírin (God has blessed me only with girls). In ušíyas, the palatal glide -y- acts as a syllable-divider between -i and -a, and likewise between -u and -i/a in e.g. yəttúyid / yəttuyáw(ə)n / yəttuyánəɣ (he forgot me/you (pl.)/ us) but, interestingly, a rare labio-velar glide -w- replaces -y- in the case of the monosyllabic suffix -ak, i.e. yəttúwak [jɪt’uwæˑk]. In general, for persons other than the third, the same set of affixes is used,

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no matter whether the object is direct or indirect from a semantic point of view and the total paradigm of suffixes is as follows: yuša-type

yəṃṃa-type

1 s.

-iyyid / -id

-ayid

2 s.f.

-am

2 s.m.

-ak

-ayak

-as

-ayas

1 pl.

-anəɣ

-ayanəɣ

(rare)

(2 pl.f.

-akmət

-ayakmət)

(rare)

3 pl.f.

3 s.

2 pl.m.

3 pl.m.

-ayam

-awən

-ayawən

-asən

-ayasən

-asnət

-ayasnət

Notes: (i) The element -a- is appropriate to the verbal contexts in which the pronominal affixes are considered but, as appears from comparably suffixed forms of other grammatical categories, the essential pronominal elements are y / k / m / s / nəɣ / wən or kən / k(ə)mt / sən / sənt. It will be seen that, among the plural suffixes, in all persons, plurality is marked by nasality in the typical dentoalveolar form (n) but expectedly by bilabial (m) for the second person plural feminine, i.e. n(əɣ), (wə)n, (kə)m(t), (sə)n(t). Femininity is marked twice in the 2nd pl. form, by m and t, whereas it is marked once only in the 3rd person, i.e. masc. (sə)n versus fem. (sən)t, where s is the person indicator. (Labio-)velarity, w and k, is the indicator of the 2nd person, however apparently different its exponents between masc. w(ən) and fem. k(əmt). As to 1st person, this is marked by uvular friction (ɣ) as in the corresponding personal suffix of the tense paradigms, but, unexpectedly in the pronominal nəɣ, plural n precedes ɣ. The order is, however, ‘restored’ in the case of the other tenses, e.g. the aorist, in which the affix precedes the verb and takes the form (a)ɣən (see 7.3). 2nd person plural suffixes share exponency of person with singular forms, i.e. k (masc.) and m (fem.), and, likewise, s is shared between third person singular and plural. It is only 1st person forms that appear to be ‘out of step’, with front palatal friction (y) in the singular corresponding to back (uvular) friction (ɣ) in the plural. The morphophonological ‘interpretation’ of -iyyid / -id 116

– (y(y), əy, yəy, etc.?) – is uncertain but a tense palatal element (y(y)) seems to be focal. (ii) The abovementioned uší is not the only nonverbal form associable with the preceding suffixes. The earlier ‘odd’ or quasi-imperatives also combine with them, cf. gg(ə)t(t) / ggə́tət / ggə́tmət (enough of..., stop -ing!) in the frame ɣír ay(u) la yušak ṛábbi, ggə́tak (what God has given you, is enough for you), and, with change of suffix after yuša, ggə́tam / ggə́tas / ggtíyyid / ggtánəɣ / ggtáw(ə)n / ggtákmət / ggtásən / ggtásnət. Formal distinctions of gender and number in the third person direct object suffixes of both personal and impersonal reference are: yuša-type

yəṃṃa-type

3 s.f.

-i, -ti(d)

-it

-(t)ti

3 pl.m.

-in

-(t)tən (m. & f.)

3 s.m.

3 pl.f.

-(t)tət

-inət

(rarely, -tənt)

Both -ti and -tid occur as well as -i for the 3 s.m. suffix with the yušatype, where -d is again presumably a remnant of earlier Berber form, perhaps involving a directional particle. Thus, with yəwyá as exemplar, one finds e.g. wɣíɣti [-χt-] xxul (I have just taken it (m.)), wɣíɣtid swaṣṣ(ə)nnáṭ (I took it yesterday), wɣíɣti aṣṣ(ə)nnáṭ (also I took it yesterday, lit. from yesterday). The question of the difference between -ti and -tid is at present an open one and, though all substitutions are possible among examples just quoted, nevertheless usage is as shown. As with yuša, the elision of -a followed by the direct appending of -i / -it / -in / -in(ə)t occurs as in the case of the personal suffixes, so that one finds, e.g. yəmtí (he buried him/it), yədží (he left him), yətší (he ate it), etc. It should be noted that yəṃṃa-type is a label for all forms associated with the suffixes appearing under it, most importantly all forms in which the personal suffix is consonantending, e.g. t(ə)ɣsə́dtət (you s.) want(ed) it (f.) versus t(ə)ɣsít (she wants (wanted) it (f.)). The doubling of t in -tti / -ttət / -ttən as in yəṃṃáti (he said it) occurs in many a-ending verbs, e.g. yəmḥátti (he erased it), ynadáttət (he called her), yəmmittátt(ə)n (he remembered them), as well as in the u-ending verb yəttúti (he forgot it), and is 117

doubtless required by (in)admissibility of syllable pattern. As was seen when the conjugations were considered, disyllabic forms like yiṛə́ḍ (he dressed) do not elide ə in e.g. yiṛə́ḍi (he dressed him) in contrast with e.g. yḥaṛəb + -i > yḥáṛbi (he fought him, he incited him to fight). Like yiṛə́ḍi are e.g. təknə́fi (she roasted it), yəkkə́sit (he took it (f.) off), yəskə́nin (he showed them), though some variation in the distribution of ə occurs, for example between yəskə́ni and ysə́kni (he showed it). The irregular verb yəɣs (he likes/liked, wants/wanted) provides a useful paradigmatic base on which to vary the forms of suffixation, and at the same time illustrates the incidence of schwa in response to the constraints of syllable structure. Thus, ‘it (m.)’: (he) yəɣsí [-χs-], (she) təɣsí, (you s.) təɣsə́dtid [-tti(d)], (I) ɣsə́ɣti(d) [χs-χt-], (they m.) ɣsə́nti(d), (they f., unsuffixed ɣsə́nt) ɣsnə́tti(d), (you m.pl.) t(ə)ɣsə́mti(d), (you f.pl.), unsuffixed t(ə)ɣsə́mt) t(ə)ɣsmə́tti(d), (we) nəɣsí; ‘it (f.)’: yəɣsít, t(ə)ɣsít, t(ə)ɣsə́dtət, ɣsə́ɣtət, ɣsə́ntət, ɣsnə́ttət, t(ə)ɣsə́mtət, t(ə)ɣsmə́ttət, nəɣsít; ‘you (s.m.)’: (he) yəɣsák, (she) t(ə)ɣsák, (I) ɣsə́ɣak, (they (m.)) ɣsə́nak, (they (f.)) ɣsə́ntak, (we) nəɣsák; ‘you (s.f.)’: As for ‘you (s.m.)’, with -am substituted for -ak; ‘me’: (he) yəɣsíyyid, (she) t(ə)ɣsíyyid, (you s.) t(ə)ɣsdíyyid, (they (m.)) ɣsníyyid, (they (f.)) ɣs(ə)ntíyyid, (you (m.pl)) t(ə)ɣsmíyyid, (you (f.pl.)) t(ə)ɣs(ə)mtíyyid;

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‘them (m.)’: yəɣsín, t(ə)ɣsín, t(ə)ɣsə́dtən, ɣsə́ɣtən, ɣsə́ntən, ɣsnə́ttən, t(ə)ɣsə́mtən, t(ə)ɣsmə́ttən, nəɣsín; ‘them (f.)’: yəɣsín(ə)t, t(ə)ɣsín(ə)t, t(ə)ɣsə́dtən(t), ɣsə́ɣtən(t), ɣsnə́ttən(t), t(ə)ɣsə́mtən(t), t(ə)ɣsmə́ttən(t), nəɣsín(ə)t;

ɣsə́ntənt(t),

‘you (pl. m. & f.)’: (he) yəɣsáw(ə)n, (she) t(ə)ɣsáw(ə)n, (I) ɣsɣáw(ə)n, (they (m.)) ɣsnáw(ə)n, (they (f.)) ɣsəntáw(ə)n, (we) nəɣsáw(ə)n; ‘us’: (he) yəɣsánəɣ, (she) t(ə)ɣsánəɣ, (you s.) t(ə)ɣsdánəɣ, (they (m.)) ɣsnánəɣ, (they (f.)) ɣsəntánəɣ, (you (m.pl)) t(ə)ɣsmánəɣ, (you (f.pl.) t(ə)ɣsəmtánəɣ. Note: The comparatively rare 2 f.pl. and 3 f.pl. suffixes – (ay)ákmət and -(ay)ásnət have not been included above. A miscellaneous selection of sentences illustrating the object suffixes is as follows, with the first four exemplifying the -tid form of the 3 s.m. direct object suffix: tušástid (baš) attə́ysəw [æ̨ t’tisu] (she gave it to him to drink), where -tid is preferred to -ti, as also in sḍəyyə́bɣas aššar n(ə)šš(ə́)ʕʕal dušiɣastid yəswí (I prepared a little ‘sha’’al’ for him and gave it to him to drink, lit. and gave it to him, he drank it), and again in the following emphatic predications illustrating the structure (v(X) + d + v(X)vn) sirdə́ɣtid dasírəd (I cleaned it (m.) thoroughly), and t(ə)ẓṛídtid diẓṛá iziɣ t(ə)slid dísla? (did you see it yourself or (just) hear about it?) Other suffixes occur in the remaining examples:

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(ə)šškálik (or ləškálik, cf. s. (ə́)šškəl) wn(ə)ttxaliḍínš (< yxáləḍ) (we have nothing to do with people like you or the likes of you) ysə́stnin mani (a)ʕə́zzab (he asked them where the teacher was)

ida kan t(ə)ʕžbánəɣ, áita dádin dnə́ttat (if we like it (i.e. f.s. (ə)smə́yyət (name), lit. if it pleases us), then that is it or the one)

tisurratínis y(ə)ḥfḍín(ə)t am (ə́)ššə́ṛbət nwáṃan [mm-] (he learned his suras perfectly. lit. like a sip of water)

yəsɣíyyid ay ntə́kmist dway (ə)lbə́lɣət dyəṃṃáyid sɣiɣákt(ə)n mallik ... (he bought me this shirt and these shoes and told me he (lit. I) bought them for me (lit. you) because ...).

Attention should be drawn to the favourite syntactic structure in which an object noun is front-shifted and the suffixed pronoun refers back to it, as in tisurratínis y(ə)ḥfḍín(ə)t... (his suras he learned them...) above. This is also a favourite device of spoken Arabic, in description of which the pronoun is spoken of as the ‘resumptive’ or ‘returning’ pronoun. Predominantly Berber, however, though within the same domain, is the use of an object suffix followed by a particle (usually -i) preceding a noun of the same personal reference as the suffix, e.g. tusə́das iwərgázis (she came to her husband, lit. she came to him to her husband), yəṃṃáyas iwərgázis (she said to her husband), nadánas ifə́ṛḥat (they called him Ferhat). Perhaps note of the reciprocal verb should briefly be taken before the necessary changes are rung on the tenses. Though the verb form láqqa, for example, may be pronominally suffixed in the normal way, e.g. laqqíɣti (I met him), the reciprocal form nəmláqqa requires, of course, the conjoint pronoun, i.e. nəmláqqa n(ət)šíd(ə)s (we met each other, lit. we met, I and him). The aorist tense will now be considered. 5.3 Affixation with the free-standing aorist The predominant absence above of combined suffixes corresponding in translation to e.g. ‘me + it’, ‘me + you’, ‘you + us’, etc. does not mean that the language is incapable of providing such combinations. Recourse is had to the use inter alia of suppletive particles and other 120

elements following the verb, and indeed not all verbs admit affixation of the kind illustrated above. Thus, to vary the tense from the earlier past, not only does, say, ttutláynət (ə)lɣə́rs (they (f.) talk to him/her) occur in the present but the aorist áyḥinn af(ə)llánəɣ (He will be good to us (of God)) also shows how direct suffixation may be supplemented by the use of suffixed prepositions following the verb, the verb and preposition constituting a phrasal verb. The present tense is particularly associated with the particle d- / dəg- + pronominal suffix when used with habitual and sometimes aspectually progressive sense. We shall see in chapters elsewhere that dis (there is, lit. in him) and g- (in) correspond very closely to the use of existential fiih (there is) and f(i) (in) in precisely these senses in spoken Arabic, and indeed Egyptian Arabic. An example of the suffixed particle occurs with the present tense in the contrast between past təẓṛí (she saw him) and present tẓə́ṛṛ [ḍẓʌṛṛ] dís (she sees him), both of which contrast with the semantically different past təẓṛás (either she looked at him, e.g. through hole in wall, or she looked for him, i.e. on his behalf, e.g. in his eye to see if he had a.t. in it) and present tẓə́ṛṛas (she looks or glances at him). Other examples of habitual dis, which takes the form dəg- before affixes other than those of the third person, are: nisí nḥə́ssəb dis dídžən siməddukalə́nnəɣ (we used to consider him as one of our friends)

bálək ɣir tẓəṛṛə́dš dis (, kull yúm yənnáyid ffáləɣ) (perhaps you just don’t see him (, every day he tells me that he (lit. I) comes)) múhu [mǫhǫ] ḥtta šəkk tẓəṛṛəd də́gi kull yúm!? (don’t you yourself see me every day!?)

(ə)mbə́lḥəq (ə)ssəkkárəɣ də́kk (< dəgək) talži bə́ri (true, I wake you early every morning) and with some negative verbs: yəggáyš dis díd(ə)s (he doesn’t (habitually) take it/him with him) (cf. yəggayíš díd(ə)s (he will not take it with him)

asyəggáyš dis in(ə́)tta (he doesn’t take it to him, e.g. but to her) asyəggáyš dis in(ə́)tta (he doesn’t take it to him) asyəggayíš in(ə́)tta (he will not take it to him) 121

In the last examples dis was associated with double pronominal affixation in the verbal form, though this was negative and negative forms are not considered specifically before 5.4. First, an account is given of affixation in association with the aorist. In contrast with the positive past tense and positive imperative, pronominal affixes in relation to free-standing aorist stem are preposed after the initial a- prefix. Thus, with single affixation, áyyuš (he will give me) and áttyuš (he will give it (m. and f.) correspond to the double counterpart ay(ə́)ttyuš [æ̨ ’ittjuʃ] (he will give it (m. and f.) to me). Differences may be remarked upon between the pronominal affixes in this context and those set out for the positive past and positive imperative at 5.2. There is, of course, close similarity between the systems but differences do occur, though it should perhaps first be said that free-standing and dependent aorist differ in that order as to preposing and postposing of pronominal affixes. Cf. áddyas dakyáɣəd or yáɣdak matta təṃṃídas (he will come and bring you what you told him to), (ə)mlas áddyas dattyáɣəd or yáɣdi díd(ə)s (tell him to come and bring it with him), and (ə)mlas áddyas dakəttyáɣəd or yaɣdákti (tell him to come and bring it to you). The dependent aorist thus behaves in the manner of the positive imperative and positive past. The dependent aorist is not, however, considered further in this chapter, and it is the free-standing aorist with prefixed a- that is accounted for in the concluding paragraphs of this section. The first substantial difference was recorded in the examples at the beginning of the preceding paragraph. The third person direct, predominantly impersonal object is -tt- (s.m. & f.) and -nət- (pl.m. & f.) with singular indirect object as opposed to -tən with plural indirect object (see examples at end of paragraph). This is considerable simplification of the array of forms set out above at 5.2, i.e. s.m. -i, -ti(d), -tti, s.f. -it, -ttət, pl.m. -in, -ttən, pl.f. -inət, -ttənt (rare). -t appears to mark the third person, its gemination singular number, and n- plural number. These morphemic devices, though simplified, seem to be shared grosso modo with the earlier set. As to the remaining persons, these are again marked overall in the manner of the earlier affixes displayed at 5.2, yet there are some important differences between the two sets. Thus, -y- appears unequivocally as the 1 s. morpheme in contrast with the earlier -iyyid, -id appropriate to the past, impera122

tive, and dependent aorist. The remainder of the singular morphemes are as before, i.e. 2 s.m. (a)k-, 2 s.f. (a)m-, 3 s. (a)s-, but, in the plural, 1 and 2 pl. differ markedly from their predecessors, i.e. 1 pl. (a)ɣən- and 2 pl.m. & f. (a)kən- in contrast with the earlier -(a)nəɣ and -(a)wən. The third person plural (a)sən- is of the same form. No gender distinction is made, even rarely, in the second and third persons plural. Exemplification of the affixes is as follows, with the Berber stem yuš (he gives) and the the English future modal ‘will’ used for convenience to gloss the multivalent free-standing aorist: áttyuš (he will give it) – áyyuš (he will give (to) me) – ay(ə́)ttyuš (he will give it to me) an(ə́)tyuš (he will give them) – ay(ə́)ntyuš (he will give them to me) ákyuš (he will give (to) you (s.m.)) – akə́ttyuš (he will give it to you) – akə́ntyuš (he will give them to you)

ámyuš (he will give (to) you (s.f.) – amə́ttyuš (he will give it to you) – amə́ntyuš (he will give them to you)

ásyuš (he will give (to) him/her) – asə́ttyuš (he will give it to him/her) – asə́ntyuš (he will give them to him/her)

aɣə́nyuš (he will give (to) us) – aɣə́nttyuš (he will give it to us) – aɣ(ə)t(ə́)nyuš (he will give them to us)

akə́nyuš (he will give (to) you (pl.)) – akə́nttyuš (he will give it to you) – ak(ə)nt(ə́)nyuš (he will give them to you)

asə́nyuš (he will give (to) them) – asə́nttyuš (he will give it to them) – as(ə)nt(ə́)nyuš (he will give them to them).

By and large the other persons of the verb conform to the above patterning, but one or two ‘oddities’ should be pointed out. As might be expected, -tt- and -t- of the 3 s. and pl. object suffix fuse in the form -tt- with the personal prefix t- of the second person, so that atúšəd (you (s.) will give) provides in pronominally affixed forms attúšəd (you will give it), antúšəd (you will give them), ay(ə)ttúšəd (you will give it to me), ay(ə)ntúšəd (you will give them to me), etc. However, in the case of the plural affixes, personal t- usually falls in favour of a protracted nasal, which not only marks the plural object but also provides the consonant to open the following syllable, i.e. aɣənt(ə)nnúšəd (you will give them to us). This is repeated with the 123

other plural indirect objects ak(ə)n- and as(ə)n-. The feature is not limited to the second person but occurs throughout, i.e. akəntnnúšəɣ (I will give them to you (pl.)), aɣənt(ə)nnúšnət (they (f.) will give them to us), asənt(ə)nnúšəm (you (pl.m.) gave them to them). 1 pl. verb forms call for special mention. It was seen earlier (2.5) that the free-standing aorist of the two verbs yusəd (come) and yuɣəd (bring) exhibits unusual Zuaran features not only of the transfer of final -d to pre-stem occurrence in geminated form (e.g. addyas (he will come) but also of the further preceding of -dd- by an element -n- which is not the 1st plural personal suffix, which occurs after -dd-, but is conceivably derived historically from one of the Berber directional particles d and n. Be that as it may, -n- also occurs without -dd- in a number of pronominally affixed forms of the 1st person plural verb in its free-standing aorist form. Thus, áknuš (we will give you (s.)) and akə́nnuš (we will give you (pl.)) contain no surprises but if the third person singular direct object affix is added to the former, the resultant form is akə́nttnuš (we will give it to you (s.m.)), in which (‘otiose’) -n- unexpectedly precedes -tt-. Likewise, an(ə́)ttnuš (we will give it or we will give them). The form akə́nttnuš, for example, is ambiguous, doing duty also for the second plural indirect object, i.e. (we will give it to you (pl.)), and ambiguity does not stop here, since plural direct object forms match those of the singular, i.e. akə́nttnuš is interpretable variously as (i) (we will give it to you (s.m.)) (ii) (we will give it to you (pl.)) (iii) (we will give them to you (s. only)). Similarly, amə́nttnuš is variously (i) (we will give it to you (s.f.)) and (ii) (we will give them to you (s.f.)), whereas as(ə́)nttnuš is again triply interpretable as (i) (we will give it to him/her) (ii) (we will give them to him/her) or (iii) (we will give it to them). Second and third person plural verbs in conjunction with the plural direct object are alone unambiguous, distinguished importantly in part by distinctive accentuation, i.e. akənt(ə́)nnuš (we will give them to you (pl.)) and asənt(ə́)nnuš (we will give them to them). It will be seen that first person plural forms, unlike all the others, are noticeably irregular. Negative forms will be considered next. 5.4 Negative forms If a somewhat repetitive aside may be permitted, it has been said that no descriptive justification has been found for the recognition of 124

‘intensive’ verbal forms in line with those used in the description of other dialects, i.e. intensive imperative, intensive aorist, intensive past. To recognize what may be vestigial indicators of such a category would be to complicate yet further, even intolerably, what is already a complicated enough verbal picture, as far as Zuara is concerned. If, as seems to be the case, ‘intensive’ is equated with ‘habitual’ (= iterative or repetitive) action, the fact is not only that the present tense is often habitual in many languages but that, in Zuara, the free-standing aorist counts habitual among its many interpretations. The recognition of a present tense in place of an intensive category not only squares with native speaker intuition in the matter but also facilitates a more coherent statement of verbal morphology and syntax. The fact remains, however, that relations within the verbal system do sometimes suggest earlier classification within which the term and category of ‘intensive’ might well have been justified. Is this so among negative verb forms, where negative imperative and negative nonpast fall together in the use of the stem elsewhere dubbed ‘intensive’ but here, in the positive conjugation only, termed ‘present’? Thus, the negative imperative and nonpast of our verbal exemplar uš (give!) and ayuš (he will give) above are ttitš ((s.m.impve.) don’t give!) and (3 s.m. nonpast) (w)y(ə)ttítš (he will not give), cf. the homophonous positive present y(ə)ttítš (he gives). It is perhaps unfortunate that the final consonant of the exemplar is also that of the negative suffix – it is optionally lenghtened by some speakers but not obligatorily so. There is no sign of an intensive past, cf. yušíš (he did not give), where -i- is a negative morpheme. In the positive it was necessary to distinguish between three tenses to which the terms ‘past’, ‘present’ and ‘aorist’ were applied, but in the negative conjugation, in striking contrast with its positive counterpart, only past and what has been termed ‘nonpast’ are recognizable, with the imperative and nonpast distinguished only by the personal tense and imperative suffixes. Some may prefer the label ‘aorist’ to ‘nonpast’ but this would tend to confuse matters. Some specimen negative contrasts are:

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(3 s.m.

Past

Nonpast

yušíš

y(ə)ttítš)

tušímš

ttitšə́mš

2 s.

tušídš

2 pl.f.

tušimə́tš

2 pl.m.

Imperative

ttitšə́dš

(s.)

ttitš

ttitšmə́tš

(pl.f.)

ttitšmə́tš

(pl.m.) ttitšə́tš

Homophony is again noticeable between pl.f. nonpast and imperative forms, but much more significant is the fact that the pronominal affixes of present concern play an important part in disambiguating forms and tenses. The two tenses, past and nonpast and the two moods are distinguished more by the manner of the association of their stems with the object affixes than by any other plausible set of criteria. It has been seen that, in the case of double affixation, both prefixes follow the verbal element in the positive past and imperative and precede it in the case of the free-standing aorist. The order and form of the pronominal prefixes are in parallel between the positive free-standing aorist and the negative past, so that the negative morphemes, including accentuation, alone distinguish between the paradigms, e.g. ay(ə́)ttyuš (he will give it to me) as opposed to (w)ay(ə)ttyušíš (with secondary accent on -y(ə)-) (he did not give it to me). The negative past will now be considered before the negative imperative and nonpast and a preliminary comment may be made on the strength of the preceding example that the form of the 1 s. affix is ay, not y, as appears even more clearly in the singly affixed form ayyušíš (he didn’t give (to) me). Nor is any gender distinction made in the third person direct object, whose forms distinguish number only. In the citation forms of members of the verbal paradigm that follow, initial negative w- has been generally omitted in accordance with local citation practice, which gives precedence to the negative suffix -š. Relevant forms are as follows: From the singly affixed forms ayyušíš (he didn’t give (to) me), ttyušíš (he didn’t give it), n(ə)tyušíš (he didn’t give them), we may proceed to the complete doubly affixed paradigm:

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(i) (I...it/them...you (s.m.)/you (s.f.)/him, her/you (pl.)/them) ak(ə)ttušíɣš (I didn’t give it to you (s.m.))

aməttušíɣš (I didn’t give it to you (s.f.))

as(ə)ttušíɣš (I didn’t give it to him/her)

ak(ə)ntušíɣš (I didn’t give them to you (s.m.)) aməntušíɣš (I didn’t give them to you (s.f.))

as(ə)ntušíɣš (I didn’t give them to him/her)

akənt(ə)nnušíɣš (I didn’t give them to you (pl.))

as(ə)nt(ə)nnušíɣš (I didn’t give them to them)

Note: Alternation in the third person plural direct object between -t(ə)n- following the 2 and 3 pl. prefixes, characterized also by ‘otiose’ n. -nət- occurs in all other cases. (ii) (you (s.)...it/them...me/him, her/us/them) ay(ə)ttušídš [-tʃ] (you didn’t give it to me) (cf. ay(ə)tušídš (you didn’t give (to) me), ttušídš (you didn’t give it))

as(ə)ttušídš (you didn’t give it to him/her)

aɣənttušídš (you didn’t give it to us) (cf. aɣəntušídš (you didn’t give (to) us)

as(ə)nttušídš (you didn’t give it to them)

ay(ə)ntušídš (you didn’t give them to me)

as(ə)ntušídš (you didn’t give them to him/her) (also you didn’t give (to) them) aɣənt(ə)nnušídš (you didn’t give them to us)

as(ə)nt(ə)nnušídš (you didn’t give them to them) (iii) (he...it/them...me/you (s.m.)/you (s.f.)/him, her/us/you (pl.)/them) Note: The plural direct object takes the form -nət- with a singular indirect object but -tən- with a plural counterpart. ay(ə)ttyušíš [æ̨ ˌittyuˈʃiˑʃ] (he didn’t give it to me) (secondary accent where indicated but not shown henceforth), ay(ə)ntyušíš (he didn’t give them to me) 127

ak(ə)ttyušíš (he didn’t give it to you (s.m.)),

akəntyušíš (either he didn’t give them to you (s.m.) or he didn’t give (to) you (f.pl.))

am(ə)ttyušíš (he didn’t give it to you (s.f.)),

aməntyušíš (he didn’t give them to you (s.f.))

as(ə)ttyušíš (he didn’t give it to him/her),

as(ə)ntyušíš (either he didn’t give them to him/her or he didn’t give (to) them (f.))

aɣənttyušíš (he didn’t give it to us), aɣənt(ə)nyušíš (he didn’t give them to us)

akənttyušíš (he didn’t give it to you (pl.)),

akənt(ə)nyušíš (he didn’t give them to you (pl.))

as(ə)nttyušíš (he didn’t give it to them),

as(ə)nt(ə)nyušíš (he didn’t give them to them)

(iv) (she...etc.) ay(ə)ttušíš (she didn’t give it to me), ay(ə)nt(t)ušíš (she didn’t give them to me)

ak(ə)ttušíš (she didn’t give it to you (s.m.)),

akənt(t)ušíš (either she didn’t give them to you or she didn’t give (to) you (pl.)) (NB (ə)ntušíš = she didn’t give them)

am(ə)ttušíš (she didn’t give it to you (s.f.)),

am(ə)ntušíš (she didn’t give them to you)

as(ə)ttušíš (she didn’t give it to him/her)

as(ə)nt(t)ušíš (either she didn’t give them to him/her or she didn’t give (to) them)

aɣənttušíš (either she didn’t give it to us or she didn’t give them to us)

akənttušíš (either she didn’t give it to you (pl.) or she didn’t give them to you (pl.))

as(ə)nttušíš (either she didn’t give it to them or she didn’t give them to them) NB With reference to the singular/plural ambiguity in the three preceding forms containing a plural indirect object, singular reference 128

(‘it’) will normally be understood unless a plural referent is present as in, say, tikmísin tušawə́nt(ə)n iziɣ akənttušíš? (did she give the shirts to you or not?). (v) (we...it/them...you (s.m.)/you (s.f.)/him, her/you (pl.)/them) Note: ‘Otiose’ -n- appears again in singular forms (see last paragraph of 5.3 with reference to the first -n- of the form akə́nttnuš (we will give it to you (s.m.)), but it will be seen subsequently that the feature is not restricted to 1 pl. verb forms. In addition, as a consequence of the morphological multivalence of n and t, similar ambiguities arise to those indicated at 5.3. akənttnušíš (we didn’t give it to you (s.m. & pl.)) (cf. wnttnušíš [untt-] (we didn’t give it)

amənttnušíš (we didn’t give it to you (s.f.))

as(ə)nttnušíš (we didn’t give it to him/her/them)

akəntt(ə)nnušíš (we didn’t give them to you (s.m. & pl.))

aməntt(ə)nnušíš (we didn’t give them to you (s.f.))

as(ə)ntt(ə)nnušíš (we didn’t give them to him/her/them) Note: Some speakers are said to distinguish between akəntt(ə)nnušíš and as(ə)ntt(ə)nnušíš, on the one hand, and the singly affixed akəntnušíš (we did not give to you (f.pl.) and as(ə)ntnušíš (we did not give to them (f.)), on the other, a difference marked by tenseness versus laxness of articulation over the phases -nttn- and -ntn-. This distinction, however, was not apparently maintained by the informant. What is clear is that a good deal of variation occurs in the area, and, in any case, it is unlikely that ambiguity will arise between these forms when they are contextualized. (vi) (you (pl.)...it/them...me/him, her/us/them) Note: Notwithstanding the difference between m.pl. tušímš and f.pl. tušimə́tš as forms without pronominal objects, the two genders are not distinguished among the forms concerning us. ay(ə)ttušímš (you (pl.m. & f.) didn’t give it to me)

as(ə)ttušímš (you didn’t give it to him/her) aɣənttušímš (you didn’t give it to us) 129

as(ə)nttušímš (you didn’t give it to them)

ay(ə)ntušímš (you didn’t give them to me)

as(ə)ntušímš (you didn’t give them to him/her; also you didn’t give (to) them) aɣənt(ə)nnušímš (you didn’t give them to us)

as(ə)nt(ə)nnušímš (you didn’t give them to them) (vii) (they (m.)...it/them...me/you (s.m.)/you (s.f.)/him, her/us/you (pl.)/them) ay(ə)ttušínš (they didn’t give it to me)

ak(ə)ttušínš (they didn’t give it to you (s.m.))

aməttušínš (they didn’t give it to you (s.f.))

as(ə)ttušínš (they didn’t give it to him/her)

aɣənttušínš (they didn’t give it to us) (cf. aɣənnušínš (they didn’t give (to) us) akənttušínš (they didn’t give it to you (pl.))

as(ə)nttušínš (they didn’t give it to them)

ay(ə)ntušínš (they didn’t give them to me) (cf. (ə)ntušínš (they didn’t give them)

akəntušínš (they didn’t give them to you (s.m.))

aməntušínš (they didn’t give them to you (s.f.))

as(ə)ntušínš (they didn’t give them to him/her)

aɣənt(ə)nnušínš (they didn’t give them to us)

akənt(ə)nnušínš (they didn’t give them to you (pl.))

as(ə)nt(ə)nnušínš (they didn’t give them to them)

(viii) (they (f.)...it/them...me/you (s.m.)/you (s.f.)/him, her/us/you (pl.)/them) ay(ə)ttušinə́tš (they didn’t give it to me) (cf. ayyušinə́tš (they didn’t give (to) me, ttušinə́tš (they didn’t give it) ak(ə)ttušinə́tš (they didn’t give it to you (s.m.)) aməttušinə́tš (they didn’t give it to you (s.f.))

as(ə)ttušinə́tš (they didn’t give it to him/her)

130

aɣənttušinə́tš (they didn’t give it to us) (cf. aɣənnušinə́š (they didn’t give (to) us) akənttušinə́tš (they didn’t give it to you (pl.)) as(ə)nttušinə́tš (they didn’t give it to them)

ay(ə)ntušinə́tš (they didn’t give them to me)

ak(ə)ntušinə́tš (they didn’t give them to you (s.m.)) (cf. ak(ə)nnušinə́tš (they didn’t give (to) you (s. & pl.)) am(ə)ntušinə́tš (they didn’t give them to you (s.f.))

as(ə)ntušinə́tš (they didn’t give them to him/her) (cf. as(ə)nnušinə́tš (they didn’t give (to) them)) NB For the remaining plural indirect object forms, the feminine verb form is unacceptable and the above masculine forms are used, i.e. aɣənt(ə)nnušínš / akənt(ə)nnušínš / as(ə)nt(ə)nnušínš. Is this because Berber, at any rate in Zuara, does not permit words more than five syllables? 5.5 Negative imperative and negative nonpast In the last two paradigms for consideration the two object affixes do not occur en bloc as hitherto but are split, with the indirect object still occuring before the direct object but with the former preposed in relation to the radical element and the latter postposed. The singular imperative, of course, provides the bare bones of the verb, so to speak, and, in the negative, the ‘radical’ ttitš (give) is the form from which other forms of the imperative paradigm, and also of the nonpast, may be derived. In the positive, the s.impve. and ‘radical’ uš (give) provided the past (yuša (he gave)) and aorist (ayuš (he will give)) tense forms but not the present (y(ə)ttitš (he gives)), which shares its ‘radical’ with the negative imperative and nonpast. The position may be a little confusing but would, it seems reasonable to believe, be confused further by recognition of an ‘intensive’ category. The distinctions made in this grammar comprise: (positive) uš (s. impve.) – (á)yuš (3 s.m. aorist) – yušá (3 s.m. past) – y(ə)ttítš (3 s.m. present) versus (negative) (wə)ttítš (s.m. impve.) – (w)y(ə)ttítš (3 s.m. nonpast) – (w)yušíš (3 s.m. past). To ‘return to our muttons’, the negative imperative paradigm with object affixes, is as follows: 131

Singular imperative: (w)ay(ə)ttitší or (w)ay(ə)ttitšittíš (don’t give it (m.) to me!)

(w)ay(ə)ttitšítš (don’t give it (f.) to me!)

(w)ay(ə)ttitšínš (don’t give them (m.) to me!)

(w)ay(ə)ttitšin(ə́)tš (don’t give them (f.) to me!) (w)as(ə)ttitšíš (don’t give it (m.) to him/her!)

(w)as(ə)ttitšítš (don’t give it (f.) to him/her!)

(w)as(ə)ttitšínš (don’t give them (m.) to him/her!)

(w)as(ə)ttitšin(ə́)tš (don’t give them (f.) to him/her!)

(w)aɣənttitšíš / -ítš / -ínš / -inə́tš (don’t give it (m.) to us / ... it (f.) .../... them (m.) ... / ... them (f.) ...!) (w)as(ə)ttitšíš / -ítš / -ínš / -inə́tš (don’t give it (m.) to them /... it (f.) ... /them (m.) ... / ... them (f.) ...!)

Note: Although, other things being equal, the distribution of negative w- is broadly parallel between imperative and the following negative nonpast, there is a tendency for the inclusion of w- with the imperative to be token a stronger prohibition. Thus, for example was(ə)ttitšítš (don’t give it (f.) to him/her!) is a stronger form of the more usual form without w- and the nonpast homophone was(ə)ttitšítš (she will not give it (f.) to him/her) (see below) more usually occurs with w-. There is, however, a good deal of variation. masc. pl. impve. (w)ay(ə)ttitš(ə)ttíš (don’t (pl.) give it (m.) to me!)

(w)ay(ə)ttitš(ə)ttə́tš (don’t give it (f.) to me!)

(w)ay(ə)ttitš(ə)ttə́nš (don’t give them (m. & f.) to me!)

(w)as(ə)ttitš(ə)ttíš / -ə́tš (don’t give it (m.)/(f.) to him/her!)

(w)as(ə)ttitš(ə)ttə́nš (don’t give them (m. & f.) to him/her!)

(w)aɣənttitš(ə)ttíš / -ə́tš /-ə́nš (don’t give it (m.) / it (f.) / them (m. & f.) to us!)

(w)as(ə)nttitš(ə)ttíš / -ə́tš / -ə́nš (don’t give it (m.)/it (f.)/them (m. & f.) to them)

132

fem. pl. impve. Note: Not all speakers use the feminine forms and the masculine occurs more frequently. (w)ay(ə)ttitšm(ə)ttíš (don’t (f.pl.) give it (m.) to me!)

(w)ay(ə)ttitšm(ə)ttə́tš (don’t give it (f.) to me!)

(w)ay(ə)ttitšm(ə)ttə́nš (don’t give them (m. & f.) to me!)

(w)as(ə)ttitšm(ə)ttíš / -ə́tš (don’t give it (m.)/(f.) to him/her!)

(w)as(ə)ttitšm(ə)ttə́nš (don’t give them (m. & f.) to him/her!) (w)aɣənttitšm(ə)ttíš / -ə́tš / -ə́nš (don’t give it (m.)/it (f.)/ them (m. & f.) to us!)

(w)as(ə)nttitšm(ə)ttíš / -ə́tš / -ə́nš (don’t give it (m.)/ it (f.)/ them (m. & f.) to them)

In the negative nonpast, double object affixation only occurs as a rule when the direct object is of the third person and is of impersonal reference. Thus, (w)ayy(ə)ttítš in(ə́)tta (he will not give me to him) is a more likely sentence, though (w)ayy(ə)ttitšítš (he will not give her to me) is an aceeptable form in spite of the personal reference of both objects. The full paradigm follows: 1 s. Note: When the third person pronominal suffix follows a consonant of the personal endings -əɣ, -əd, -əm, -mət, it takes the forms -ti (s.m.) / -tət (s.f.) / -tən (pl. m. & f.). In all other cases, even including the exceptional 3 s.m. subject with 1 s. indirect object below, the suffix takes the forms -i (s.m.) / -it (s.f.) / -in (pl.m.) / -in(ə)t (pl.f.). (w)ak(ə)ttitš(ə)ɣtíš [-χt-] / -tə́tš / -tə́nš (I will not give it (m.)/it (f.)/them (m. & f.) to you (s.m.))

(w)am(ə)ttitš(ə)ɣtíš / -tə́tš / -tə́nš (I will not give it (m.)/it (f.)/them (m. & f.) to you (s.f.)) (w)as(ə)ttitš(ə)ɣtíš /-tə́tš / -tə́nš (I will not give it (m.)/it (f.)/them (m.& f.) to him/her)

(w)akənttitš(ə)ɣtíš / -tə́tš / -tə́nš (I will not give it (m.)/it (f.)/them (m. & f.) to you (pl.))

133

(w)as(ə)nttitš(ə)ɣtíš / -tə́tš / -tə́nš (I will not give it (m.)/it (f.)/them (m. & f.) to them) 2 s. Note: For plural direct object suffix, contrast s.impve. for both form and gender differentiation. (w)ay(ə)ttitš(ə)dtíš [-ttiʃ] / -tə́tš / -tə́nš (you (s.) will not give it (m.)/it (f.)/them to me)

(w)as(ə)ttitš(ə)dtíš / -tə́tš / -tə́nš (you will not give it (m.)/it (f.)/them to him/her) (w)aɣənttitš(ə)dtíš /-tə́tš / -tə́nš (you will not give it (m.)/it (f.)/them to us)

(w)as(ə)nttitš(ə)dtíš / -tə́tš / -tə́nš (you will not give it (m.)/it (f.)/them to them) 3 s.m. (w)ayy(ə)ttitšittíš (?< -id + tiš?) (he will not give it (m.) to me) (Note (w)ay(y)(ə)ttitšíš is also used but more frequently as the 3 s.f. subject form)

(w)ay(y)(ə)ttitšítš / -ínš / -inə́tš (he will not give it (f.)/them (m.)/them (f.) to me) (Note The initial difference between (w)ayy- and (w)ay- seems to be a matter of free variation)

(w)aky(ə)ttitšíš [-kit-] (he will not give it (m.) to you (s.m.) (cf. positive form akə́ttyuš)

(w)aky(ə)ttitšítš / -ínš / -inə́tš (he will not give it (f.)/them (m.)/them (f.) to you (s.m.))

(w)amy(ə)ttitšíš / -ítš / -ínš / -inə́tš (he will not give it (m.)/it (f.)/them (m.)/them (f.) to you (f.s.))

(w)asy(ə)ttitšíš / -ítš / -ínš / -inə́tš (he will not give it (m.)/ etc. to him/her)

(w)aɣənny(ə)ttitšíš / -ítš / -ínš / -inə́tš (he will not give it (m.)/etc. to us) (the gemination of n following the plural indirect object is noteworthy) (w)akənny(ə)ttitšíš / -ítš / -ínš / -inə́tš (he will not give it (m.)/etc. to you (pl.))

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(w)as(ə)nny(ə)ttitšíš / -ítš / -ínš / -inə́tš (he will not give it (m.)/etc. to them) 3 s.f. (w)ay(ə)ttitšíš or (w)ayy(ə)ttitšittíš (she will not give it (m.) to me (the first form is more usual with the 3 s.f. subject)

(w)ay(ə)ttitšítš / -ínš / -inə́tš (she will not give it (f.)/them (m.)/them (f.) to me)

(w)akəttitšíš [-kɪt-] / -ítš / -ínš /-inə́tš (she will not give it (m.)/it (f.)/ them (m.)/ them (f.) to you (s.m.))

(w)aməttitšíš / -ítš / -ínš /-inə́tš (she will not give it (m.)/etc. to you (s.f.))

(w)as(ə)ttitšíš / -ítš / -ínš / -inə́tš (she will not give it (m.)/etc. to him/her) (w)aɣənttitšíš / -ítš / -ínš / -inə́tš (she will not give it (m.)/etc. to us)

(w)akənttitšíš / -ítš / -ínš / -inə́tš (she will not give it (m.)/etc. to you (pl.))

(w)as(ə)nttitšíš / -ítš / -ínš / -ínə́tš (she will not give it (m.)/etc. to them) 1 pl.

Note: It may be recalled that the unaffixed form is n(ə)ttítš (we will give), i.e. with initial personal prefix n-, so that some falling together of number and gender reference is to be expected. In the positive forms áknuš (we will give (to) you (s.)) and akə́nnuš (we will give (to) you (pl.)), a second person number distinction is readily made which is, however, eliminated in (w)akənttitšíš (we will not give it (m.) to you (s. & pl.)). It will be remembered, too, that the distinction was also absent in the positive case of akə́nttnuš (we will give it (= tt) to you (s. & pl.)), an example of what has been termed ‘otiose’ n. Relevant forms in the paradigms under consideration are: (w)akənttitšíš / -ítš / -ínš / -inə́tš (we will not give it (m.)/etc. to you (s. & pl.))

(w)as(ə)nttitšíš / -ítš / -ínš / -ínə́tš (we will not give it (m.)/etc. to him/her/them) 135

2 m.pl. (w)ay(ə)ttitš(ə)mtíš / -tə́tš /-tə́nš (you (m.pl.) will not give it (m.)/it (f.)/them to me)

(w)as(ə)ttitš(ə)mtíš /-tə́tš / -tə́nš (you will not give it (m.)/etc. to him/her)

(w)aɣənttitš(ə)mtíš / -tə́tš / -tə́nš (you will not give it (m.)/etc. to us) (w)as(ə)nttitš(ə)mtíš / -tə́tš / -tə́nš (you will not give it (m.)/etc. to them)

2 f.pl. (w)ay(ə)ttitšməttíš / -tə́tš /-tə́nš (you (f.pl.) will not give it (m.)/it (f.)/them to me)

(w)as(ə)ttitšməttíš / -tə́tš / -tə́nš (you will not give it (m.)/etc. to him/her)

(w)aɣənttitšməttíš / -tə́tš / – tə́nš (you will not give it (m.)/etc. to us)

(w)as(ə)nttitšməttíš / -tə́tš / -tə́nš (you will not give it (m.)/etc. to them)

3 m.pl. (w)ay(ə)ttitš(ə)ntíš / -tə́tš / -tə́nš (they (m.pl.) will not give it (m.)/it (f.)/them (m. & f.) to me) (w)ak(ə)ttitš(ə)ntíš / -tə́tš / -tə́nš (they will not give it (m.)/etc. to you (s.m.)) (w)am(ə)ttitš(ə)ntíš / -tə́tš / -tə́nš (they will not give it (m.)/etc. to you (s.f.)) (w)as(ə)ttitš(ə)ntíš / -tə́tš / -tə́nš (they will not give it (m.)/etc. to him/her) (w)aɣənttitš(ə)ntíš / -tə́tš / -tə́nš (they will not give it (m.)/etc. to us) (w)akənttitš(ə)ntíš / -tə́tš / -tə́nš (they will not give it (m.)/etc. to you (pl.)) (w)as(ə)nttitš(ə)ntíš / -tə́tš / -tə́nš (they will not give it (m.)/etc. to them)

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3 f.pl. (w)ay(ə)ttitšnəttíš / -tə́tš / -tə́nš (they (f.pl) will not give it (m.)/it (f.)/them to me)

(w)ak(ə)ttitšnəttíš / -tə́tš / -tə́nš (they will not give it (m.)/etc. to you (s.m.))

(w)am(ə)ttitšnəttíš / -tə́tš / -tə́nš (they will not give it (m.)/etc. to you (f.s)) (w)as(ə)ttitšnəttíš / -tə́tš / -tə́nš (they will not give it (m.)/etc. to him/her) (w)aɣənttitšnəttíš / -tə́tš / -tə́nš (they will not give it (m.)/etc. to us) (w)ak(ə)nttitšnəttíš / -tə́tš / -tə́nš (they will not give it (m.)/etc. to you (pl.))

(w)as(ə)nttitšnəttíš / -tə́tš / -tə́nš (they will not give it (m.)/etc. to them) 5.6 Summary of features considered at 5 (i) In double object affixation, both affixes (a) follow the verb in the positive imperative and the positive past (b) precede the verb in the free-standing aorist and the negative past and (c) precede (indirect object) and follow (direct object) the verb in the negative imperative and negative nonpast. (ii) The distinction between direct and indirect object is in principle applicable to the third person only. The third person direct object takes the form -ti (s.m.) / -tət (s.f.) / -tən (pl. m. & f.) when it follows a consonant. After a stable open vowel in the verb stem, the form is -tti / -ttət / -ttən but -i (s.m.) / -it (s.f.) / -in (pl.m.) / -in(ə)t (pl.f.) following an unstable open vowel. (iii) Following a consonant or unstable open vowel, the remaining object suffixes are -(iyy)id (1 s.) / -ak (2 s.m.) / -am (2 s.f.) / -as (3 s. m. & f.) / -anəɣ (1 pl.) / -aw(ə)n (2 pl.m.) / -akmət (2 pl.f.) (rare) / -as(ə)n (3 pl.m.) / -asn(ə)t (3 pl.f.) (rare). Following a stable vowel (e.g. yəṃṃa), -ay- is prefixed to the foregoing set of suffixes.

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(iv) The prefixes associated with the free-standing aorist are (a)y(1 s.) / (a)k- (2 s.m.) / (a)m- (2 s.f.) / (a)s- (3 s.) / aɣən- (1 pl.) / akən- (2 pl. m. & f.) / (a)s(ə)n- (3 pl. m. & f.). The third person direct object pronoun takes the form -tt- (s. m. & f.) (it) and variously -t(ə)n- and -n(ə)t- (pl. m. & f.) (them). Where both direct and indirect objects co-occur, the latter precedes the former, e.g. as(ə́)ntyuš (he will give them to him/her), akə́nttyuš (he will give it to you (pl.)). (v) Unusually, in 2 s. forms -n- replaces the personal prefix t- following the 3 pl. suffix -t(ə)n, e.g. aɣənt(ə)nṉúšəd (you will give them to us). Comparably, ‘gemination’ of -n- of the plural -t(ə)n also occurs with the plural prefixes akən and as(ə)n-, still in the free-standing aorist, e.g. akənt(ə)nnúšəɣ (I will give them to you (pl.)). (vi) The nasal behaviour at (v) is not to be equated with so-called ‘otiose’ n, which, in 1 pl. forms, precedes the 3 s. direct object -tt-, again in the free-standing form of the aorist, e.g. akə́ṉttnuš (we will give it to you (s.m.)). This feature entails fairly considerable ambiguity in the uncontextualized verb form, e.g. as(ə́)nttnuš, triply interpretable as (we will give it to him/her), (we will give them to him/ her), and (we will give it to them). (vii) In the negative conjugation, only two tenses are recognized, past and nonpast. Negative imperative and negative nonpast share their radical structure with the positive present. The radical of the three positive paradigms imperative, aorist, and past is of quite different shape. Tenses and mood throughout the scatter are distinguished mostly by the manner of association with the object affixes set out broadly under (i). The sequence of prefixes in the case of double affixation is in parallel between the positive free-standing aorist and the negative past, so that the specifically negative affixal morphemes may sometimes alone mark the distinction between the two. (viii) Affixes are preposed in the negative past as in the free-standing aorist. Noteworthy is the form ay- for the first person singular and the fact that gender is not distinguished among the third person direct object affixes. -n(ə)t- and -t(ə)n- alternate as 3 pl. direct object forms, the latter occurring, for example, with the 2 and 3 pl. indirect object and inducing ‘gemination’ of -n- in -t(ə)n- in, say, 138

as(ə)ntt(ə)nnušíɣš (I didn’t give them to them). The alternation -n(ə)t/ -t(ə)n- as well as ‘otiose’ n occurs widely throughout the paradigm. Variability and ambiguity both occur. (ix) In the negative imperative and nonpast, the two object affixes are split, the indirect object being preposed in relation to the radical and the direct object postposed. When the third person suffix follows a consonant-ending ‘personal suffix’, i.e. -əɣ, -əd, -əm, -mət, it is of the form -ti (s.m.) / -tət (s.f.) / -tən (pl. m. & f.). In all other contexts, for example following a stem final consonant, the forms of the suffix are -i (s.m.) / -it (s.f.) / -in (pl.m.) / -in(ə)t (pl.f.). (x) Unusually, the distinction between masc. and fem. plural subjects of the verb is maintained in the second and third persons of the negative nonpast (see 5.5). (xi) For remarks on the occurrence or not of the negative prefix w-, see 4. Perhaps it should be said again that there is a tendency for wto be included in an emphatic rendering of the imperative as against homophonous forms of the nonpast. For example, wəttitšíš iḥə́dukkan (don’t give it to anyone) is an imperative contrasting with nonpast ttitšíš iḥə́dukkan (she doesn’t give it (m.) to anyone). If the independent pronoun is used in the latter case, then w- may well occur in accompaniment, i.e. n(ə)ttat wəttitšíš iḥə́dukkan, where the context provided by n(ə́)ttat clearly identifies the nonpast. The pronoun šəkk (you (s.m.)) may also occur before the nonpast but not before the imperative. ə́ḥkmi šə́kk dwəttitšíš iḥə́dukkan (keep it yourself and don’t give it to anyone) is, of course, an amalgam of two sentences separated by the co-ordinator d- (and). It was seen that dis (same as dəgi, dəkk, etc.) often replaces the 3 s. direct object affix with the negative nonpast, in particular when the latter is used with habitual or progressive sense. This (particle + pronominal suffix) occurs, too, with the imperative in some contexts. Thus, though ttitš dis iḥədukkan is unacceptable in place of ttitšíš iḥə́dukkan (don’t give it to anybody), yet the sequence may occur in e.g. taẓúḍa twə́ssəx, ttítš dis iḥə́dukkan (the place is dirty, don’t give it to anybody), where dis has a locative sense, i.e. (don’t give (a.t.) in it to anybody). Further research is necessary, however, before the facts of the possible inclusion or exclusion of w- are clarified in such variable sentences as aṣṣ(ə)nnáṭ flíɣš

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d(ə)xxúl ffalə́ɣš dḥ(ə)tt(a) áytša wəffalə́ɣš (I didn’t go yesterday, am not going now, and shall not even go tomorrow). 6.1 The verbal noun The act or fact of performing the verbal action or, less often, the expression of the verbal state is embodied in the verbal noun, which is exemplified in the following specimen sentences. V.n. is shown in relation to the 3 s.m. verb form, principally because the latter is always attested whereas the s.impve form, from which the v.n. might have been preferably derived, quite often does not occur. In fact, the v.n. is considered for its own sake, with the bracketed verb form mostly provided for mnemonic purposes. ašábis wətša dímɣaṛ, daxə́mməm (it’s not age but worry that he gets his grey hair from) (v.n. ašábi (< yšab (go grey)), ímɣaṛ (< yəmɣəṛ (grow older)), axə́mməm (< yxəmməm (fret, worry)) wt(ə)bʕídš díbʕad lákən al(ə)ʕwəṣ la dís y(ə)ss(ə́)ʕya (it’s not terribly far but the twists (lit. twisting) in it (i.e. in the road) are (lit. is) tiring) (v.n. íbʕad < yəbʕəd (be far), al(ə́)ʕwəṣ < yl(ə)ʕwəṣ (twist, bend)) m(ə)ʕádš atkə́mmləm sítša (aren’t you (m.pl.) ever going to stop eating?) (v.n. ítša < yətša (eat))

itšáns(ə)n yṛəzz tákṛumt (they have an irritating way of eating, lit. their eating breaks the neck, i.e. they take a long time, go in and out during the meal, talk a lot, and so on) ɣir itqális báss (ə)ggətt (just its weight is enough) (v.n. ítqal < yətqəl (be heavy))

atə́qqəl wyn(ə)ff(ə́)ʕš, tasnayt (ə)ttánya tətqəl (ə)bzáy(ə)d (making (it, i.e. one saddle-bag) heavier is no good – the other one (lit. the other saddle-bag) is (already) (too) heavy) (atə́qqəl < ytəqqəl (make heavy)) ižṛabə́ns(ə)n af(ə)ssə́blət (it’s easy for them to catch scabies, lit. their becoming infected with scabies is easy) (v.n. ížṛab < yəžṛəb (have scabies))

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ífla lə́ssuq yḥə́ṛṛmi f(ə́)llas (he forbade him to go to the market any more, lit. going to the market, he forbade it him) (v.n. ífla < yəfla (go)) adáxis af(ə)ssə́blət, ɣir ayáləy [-li] gəlbábuṛ, ḥállən aydax (he gets sick easily, as soon as he boards a boat/train etc.) (v.n. adáxi < ydax (be giddy, nauseated)) Note: v.n. + pro. suffix frequently acts as a finite verb form. kúl(l) ḥədd ayəqbəl aḥuzzúyis (everyone accepts his mediation) (v.n. aḥúzzu < yḥuzz (arbitrate, mediate)) A verb with more than one meaning may occur with the same form of v.n. as e.g. íxrat > yəxrət (tie a bow; be(come) worm-eaten), in qqənid díqqan, ixrat yḥkkə́mš dis (tie it in a knot, (tieing) a bow doesn’t last (lit. in it = e.g. táškaṛt (sack), which is being secured) (v.n. íqqan < yəqqən (tie knot); íxrat < yəxrət), and

íxrat nway(u) [mmɑi] n(ə)lmubílyat [llm-] af(ə)ssə́blət (that furniture gets easily worm-eaten, lit. the becoming wormeaten of that furniture is easy).

A distinction is often made between verbal nouns of the same root having general meaning and those referring to a particular instance. For example, from the verb yətšuṛ (fill) are derived the general v.n. atšáṛi and its counterpart for particular events tatšáṛit, a feminine singular form. Thus, ((ə)f(ə)l (ə́)tšuṛ tabəṛmíltim ḥtta s(ə)ššíšmət tásdəd.) atšáṛi wətšá d(ə)lʕib (Go and fill your (small) tank from the (public) tap and come back.) Filling (i.e. from a public tap) is not shameful.) (v.n. atšáṛi), but tatšáṛit nway(u) [mmɑi] nwbə́ṛmil [mmb-] wəllíš w(ə)ʕṛis (There’s nothing more difficult than filling this tank.) (v.n. tatšáṛit). A similar contrast involving Arabic loan material is that between aṛə́bbi and ttəṛbə́y(ə)t (bringing up children) (< yṛəbba), cf. aṛə́bbi nibušír(ə)n wəllíš w(ə)ʕṛis (there’s nothing more difficult than bringing

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up children), as opposed to ttərbə́y(ə)tis xásra or wətṣəllə́ḥš (he had a bad upbringing). In some cases, v.n. adapted to Berber form may alternate with an Arabic loan, as in axə́ṛṛfis / (ə)lxuṛṛáfis bzáy(ə)d (he talks a lot of nonsense) (v.n. axə́ṛṛəf < yxəṛṛəf (talk drivel)) The ‘reinforcement’ of a verb by its v.n. is a common device in Arabic and is also frequent in Zuara. Thus, ə́d(ə)lki dídlak (give it a good rubbing!) (v.n. ídlak < yədlək (rub garment between hands when washing to remove stain), and, with the singulative form of noun containing the suffix -ət, ə́d(ə)lki(t) ddəlkət íḍ(ə)n, xxul átfəl (give it another (good) rub (and) it will go!) (v.n. (ə)ddə́lkət). The last example is reminiscent of e.g. Cl. Ar. ḍaraba ḍarbata laazib (he struck a hard blow), and is repeated with, say, əlɣə́lḍət (Ar. ɣalṭa(h) ‘mistake’) in təɣlə́ḍəd díd(ə)s (ə)lɣə́lḍət dtamə́qqaṛt [tt-] (you have done him a great wrong) (v.n. (ə)lɣə́lḍət < yəɣləḍ (err, make mistake)). (For the form of Arabic loans, see Note (ii) following.) Similar examples to the foregoing are yəxnə́qi lxə́nqət aššar la ysúfɣas (ə)ṛṛúḥis (he nearly strangled the life out of him, lit. he strangled him a strangling, i.e. grasped him by the throat, and nearly drew the soul from him) (v.n. (ə)lxə́nqət < yəxnəq (strangle)), and yxə́ẓəṛṭi ttxəẓṛíṭ (aššar la ysúfɣas (ə)ṛṛúhis) (he threatened him so direly that...) (v.n. (ə)ttxəẓṛíṭət < yxəẓṛəṭ (threaten)). Notes: (i) In the last example, the general v.n. axə́ẓṛəṭ may not replace the particular (ə)ttxəẓṛíṭət. See the earlier examples of atšáṛi versus tatšáṛit (with Berber feminine singular prefix t- and suffix -t), and aṛə́bbi versus (ə)ttərbə́y(ə)t (with borrowed Arabic prefixation and suffixation), to which might be added, let us say, aẓáṛi versus (ə)ẓẓyáṛ(ə)t (regularly visiting a holy place versus paying one visit) (< yẓaṛ (visit shrine)), aláẓi (regularly feeling hunger) and tláẓit (being hungry on specific occasion) (< yəlluẓ) (cf. also ə́laẓ (hunger)), and írkaʕ (bowing in prayer) versus (ə)rrə́kʕət (one bow) (< yərkəʕ 142

(bow)). In a comparatively rare case, (ə)ṣṣídət (hunting, shooting, fishing) is the only form of v.n. corresponding to the verb (yəṣtaḍ), the formation of which is clearly borrowed from Arabic. The feminine singulative ending, however, is not perhaps a prerequisite for the recognition of the category. Thus, within a class of qualitative nouns, ə́ttʕəb (tiredness) (< yətʕəb (be(come) tired)) may conceivably also be ascribed to the category v.n. in e.g. wyḥəmmə́lš ə́ttʕəb (he tires easily, doesn’t tolerate tiredness) or ə́ttʕəb wasyttígš šáṛukan (tiredness doesn’t affect him, lit. getting tired does nothing to him). Similar examples are ə́rrəxs (cheapness) (< yərxəs (be(come) cheap) and, with the feminine but not singulative ending, (ə)lxə́ffət (lightness, frivolity) (< yəxfif (be light)), but the question of their status as verbal nouns is an open one. Support for the view of such forms as v.n. is provided by such, admittedly rare, examples as íshaṛ and (ə́)sshəṛ(ṛ) (going to bed late), which are variable forms of the v.n. of yəshə́ṛ / ysə́hhəṛ / etc. (ii) Arabic loans are borrowed with the article (ə)l- without any implication as to a contrast definite/indefinite, and, in the case of feminine nouns, with the ending -ət (Ar. -at(un)). l of the article is assimilated to the following noun-initial consonants: t / d / r (ṛ) / z / ẓ /s / ž (local Arabic) / š / ṣ / ḍ / ṭ / (l) / n. It should be said that the verbal noun does not occur in the scatter of all verbs. Perhaps a case could be made for the recognition of the feminine singulative nouns tadžállit (oath), tẓállit [ḍẓ-] (prayer), and táržižt (one shiver, as in təwyíyyid táržižt (I shuddered, lit. a shudder took me) as verbal nouns respectively of yədžull (take an oath), yəẓẓáll (pray), and yəržíž (shiver, tremble) but this is less than certain, and the absence of v.n. in the s-form ysə́džull (make s.o. take an oath) is striking. The fairly numerous verbs without v.n. include yəṛḍə́b (be smooth by nature, e.g. silk), yədmə́ṣ (be half-blind, suffering from trachoma), yəẓlə́ḍ (slip on mud), yurə́t (inherit), yəṛmə́š (blink, nevertheless cf. Ar. singulative loan (ə)ṛṛə́mšət), yiẓə́ḍ (measure cereals), yuzə́g (boil, be boiled), yšáḍ (be burnt (food)), ysíṛaṛ (amuse, keep (child) occupied; s-form of yi/uṛaṛ (play)), yiríd (be clean; contrast v.n. asírəd (washing clothes) of s-form), yəssə́n (know), yəsxə́m (go off (of food)), yəsxə́f (take pity on s.o.; v.n. also lacking in

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s-form ysə́sxəf (make s.o. feel pity), yəssə́ḥḥər (break fast before daybreak during Ramadan), yənnúqqəb (have hole in), etc. 6.2 Morphological patterns With some simplification, and disregarding Arabic loans, it is possible to reduce v.n. patterns to few in number, including those belonging to s-forms, which is the category to which the derived forms of v.n. nearly all belong. The first two patterns are overwhelmingly the most numerous and correspond to the first and second verbal conjugations distinguished at 1.14. V.n. is not, however, best presented specifically in relation to the conjugations, since many conjugations may share the same pattern, especially the first and second of these. The first pattern is disyllabic and characterized by the vowels i in the first syllable and a in the second. It is predominantly that of the first conjugation of verbs and takes the forms iCCaC and iCCa corresponding to the consonant- and vowel-ending members of that conjugation. Examples are íblaʕ (swallowing) (< yəbl(ə)ʕ), íḥbas (imprisoning, being imprisoned) (yəḥbəs), ížfal (rearing up (of animal)), ísbak (mixing pastry) (< təsbək) (s.f.)), ídʕaw (cursing) (< yədʕəw [-u]), íwsar (getting old) (< yusər), íbna (building, being built) (< yəbna), íxḍa (missing (one’s aim)) (< yəxḍa), írra (returning) (< yərra), and the examples could be greatly multiplied. There are many verbs from Conjugations 6, 7, and 12 which share these i-a patterns, variously with two separate intervocalic consonants or a geminated consonant. Thus, íẓṛa (seeing) (< yəẓṛa), ísɣa (buying) (< yəsɣa), íẓḍa (grinding, being ground) (< yəẓḍa), ísla (hearing, listening) (< yəsla), íddar (being wet) (< yəddər), íẓẓal (lying down) (< yəẓẓəl), íẓẓaw (planting) (< yəẓẓəw), ídday (hammering; threshing small quantity of cereals) (< yəddəy) (Note Interpretation of [u] and [i] as -əw and -əy is not always as certain as may seem; cf. yəttú (he forgot), təttúd (you s. forgot), etc. and v.n. íttəw (forgetting) and the interplay between vowel and semi-vowel requires further research). Many examples of v.n. occur from Conjugation 12 with a single intervocalic consonant, e.g. íẓaḍ (handing over) (< yuẓəḍ), ítaf (entering) (< yutəf), ísad (coming) (< yusəd), íɣad (bringing (< yuɣəd), íkaz (realizing, knowing) (< yukəz), ílay (mounting, riding) (< yuləy), íra (opening) (< yura), ífa (finding) 144

(< yufa), íɣa (marrying; staining; hurting) (< yuɣa), etc. The aforementioned varying interpretation of [u] variously as vowel or semivowel occurs in íwhag (being afraid) (< yuhəg), íwsar (getting old) (< yusər) as opposed to the preceding examples. The irregular unclassified yəttkə́y [-i] (lean, press on), in spite of its threeconsonant medial cluster, also shares the v.n. pattern in the form íttkay. Note: V.n. of a few verbs takes a feminine form, e.g. tíra (writing) (< yurəy [-i]). There are irregularities among the few forms of this kind, including tázzla (running, as in ggə́tt (ə)ntázzla (stop running!) (< yuzzəl), tíṛẓi (breaking, with unexpected final -i) (< yəṛẓa), tíẓẓaf (wailing at s.o.’s death). The last example is a plural form whose singular (tíẓẓəft) is rare; there seems prima facie to be transfer of female reiterated activity to the grammatical category of the grammatical category of feminine plural. Other feminine forms of v.n. are táḍṣa (laughing; mocking) (< yəḍṣa), tɣárit (being, becoming dry) (< yəqqur), tasɣírit (dying (tr.)) (< yəsɣur), taɣímit (staying, as in taɣímit wəttɣimíɣš (I cannot stay)) (< yəqqim), tíɣri (reading, studying) (< yəɣra). Most of the feminine forms occurring within the verb sample have now been included. The second very frequent form of v.n. involves initial a- and a multiconsonantal stem with final consonant or, in some regular cases, final -i. The noun corresponds most often to (y)CəCCəC verbs, which in turn, as has been seen, are variously triconsonantal with medial gemination, quadri-consonantal, non-reduplicates or with differing measures of reduplication, etc., and, importantly, s-forms of the first conjugation. First examples include abə́ttər (shortening, being short) (< ybəttər), atə́bb(ə)ʕ (following) (< ytəbb(ə)ʕ), ažə́ṛṛəb (trying (out)) (< yžəṛṛəb), aḥə́ṛṛəš (telling on s.o.) (< yḥəṛṛəš), aḥə́lləs (harnassing, being harnassed), ašə́ttəl (sowing seeds, e.g. tomatoes) (< yšəttəl), abə́yyən (making apear; announcing betrothal) (< ybəyyən), aṣə́wwər (drawing, painting, photographing) (< yṣəwwər), aṣə́yyəṣ (being unfruitful (palm), half-cooked (food)) (< yṣəyyəṣ), ab(ə́)hdəl (annoying, upsetting) (< yb(ə)hdəl), ašə́ryən (ringing) (< yšəryən), alə́bləb (flickering, flaming (of (ə)lʕáfyət)) (< tləbləb), aṣə́ngər (squatting) (< yṣəngər), (s-form) asə́brəd (cooling) (< ysəbrəd), asə́ḥfəḍ (teaching) (< ysəḥfəḍ), asə́žṛəb (infecting with scabies) (< ysəžṛəb), (s-form with 145

assimilation to š), ašə́šb(ə)ʕ (satisfying, feeding well) (< yšəšb(ə)ʕ), and, again, these are but a small sample of available forms. It will be recalled that structural equipollence was earlier recognized between CəC and Ci/u/a (i.e. C + long vowel), and this allows the inclusion with the foregoing of such examples of v.n. as asítəf (bringing in) (< ysitəf), asízəg or asáyzəg (boiling, being boiled) (< ysizəg or ysayzəg), asíf(ə)f (sieving) (< ysif(ə)f), ašíḍ(ə)n (being naughty) (< yšiḍ(ə)n, ašíšəl (assimilation s > š) (threshing, being threshed) (< yšišəl), ašíš(ə)f (assimilation s > š) (bringing near) (< yšiš(ə)f), ahíṣək (behaving stupidly) (< yhiṣək), asúsəm (silencing) (< ysusəm), azúz(ə)n (assimilation s > z) (selling) (< yəzzənz), aṣúb(ə)n (soaping, washing) (< yṣub(ə)n), etc. The verbal nouns of verbal Conjugation 3 also belong here, with -a- for -i- and -u-, e.g. aḥásəb (settling account) (< yḥasəb), aḥáṛəb (looking for trouble with s.o.) (< yḥaṛəb). The structure -CəCCəC and its variants for the final two syllables is repeated in other conjugations and types, for example in the tprefixed Conjugation 4, and the quantity of the initial syllable seems to be immaterial, so that relevant verbal nouns take the same form with prefixed a-. Examples include atṛə́bb(ə)ʕ (sitting properly) (< yətṛəbb(ə)ʕ), atʕə́ṛṛəḍ (retaining, delaying s.o.) (< yətʕəṛṛəḍ), atʕə́ddər (excusing oneself) (< yətʕəddər), atmə́rrəɣ ((of animal) rolling about on clean sand) (< yətmərrəɣ), atnə́xxəm (hawking and spitting) (< yətnəxxəm). The pattern also applies to s-derived forms and to consonant-assimilated forms, whether s-derived or not, e.g. asḍə́yyəb (cooking (tr.)) (< yəsḍəyyəb), aṣṣə́nnət (listening) (< yəṣṣənnət), assə́qqəd (departing, leaving) (< yəssəqqəd) (contrast asə́qqəd (helping s.o. prepare to leave) (< ysəqqəd)), ažžə́mməl (boasting of helping s.o.) (< yəžžəmməl). Examples of Ci/Cu = CəC include rather rare mderived forms amqáqəs (sparkling) (< yəmqaqəs) and amqábəl (meeting) (< yəmqabəl) and also aslíləw [-u] (ululating) (< t(ə)sliləw), ažžúžəf (dreaming) (< yəžzužəf), atfísəx (playing a joke on s.o.) (< yətfisəx), asxítər (thickening (tr.) liquid, soup) (< yəsxitər; there is no v.n. of yəxxitər), and, with an extension of the penultimate syllable, asúggəm (waiting (for)) (< ysuggəm), asúzzəl (laying down, stretching s.t. out) (< ysuzzəl), asíngəl (applying antimony) (< t(ə)ssingəl) (assingəl is very rare), and with a further extension to close the first 146

syllable, aslúlləḍ [ɑs-] (slipping on a wet patch) (< yəslulləḍ), aknúnnəḍ (donning jerd (of woman)) (< t(ə)knunnəḍ), asnúqqəb (making a hole in) (< yəsnuqqəb), and asnúffəg (ditto.) (< yəsnuffəg), as well as asráqqəb (looking out from concealment) (< yəsraqqəb). The pattern of aslúlləḍ and aknúnnəḍ is shared by the m-derived ammúnkəḍ (breaking free from tether) (< yəmmunkəḍ), all forms indicative of earlier modes of verbal derivation. a-ending verbs of the second conjugation and structurally similar sforms of the first conjugation append final -i in their verbal nouns, reversing the pattern of the earlier i-a, and the suffixation of -i also frequently involves other conjugations and verbs earlier unclassified. Among numerous examples occur aḍə́ḥḥi (sacrificing animal for ‘Id al-Kabir’)) (< yḍəḥḥa), aṛə́bbi (bringing up (children)) (< yṛəbba), azə́kki (giving alms) (< yzəkka), aḥə́nni (henna-ing) (tḥənna), aʕə́šši (dining (tr.)) (yʕəšša), aṣə́ḥḥi (correcting, being corrected) (< yṣəḥḥa), aṣə́bḍi (delaying s.o.) (< ysəbḍa), asə́ddi (weaving) (< ysədda), aṣə́ddi (becoming rusty) (< yṣədda), asə́ḥmi (heating) (< ysəḥma), asə́ṛli (seeking reconciliation) (< ysəṛla), asə́xsi (killing (animal non-ritually)), etc. In addition, any verb form containing final -a, stable or not, within its conjugation adds final -i in the verbal noun, from yḥada, yʕaba, yʕana, etc. of Conjugation 2(c) with verbal nouns aḥádi (following line of s.t.; frequenting s.o.’s company), aʕábi (getting one’s own back), aʕáni (suffering; looking after children), to asə́sri (mixing) (< ysəsər (where second ə is anaptyctic), cf. yəsra), azə́nzi (selling) (< yəzzənz, cf. yənza), asə́swi (watering (plants)) (< ysəsəw, cf. yəswa), asə́sfi (suckling) (< tsəsf, cf. t(ə)sfa), etc. The pattern aCaCi of preceding aḥádi is shared with verbal nouns of Conjugation 9, e.g. abáni (appearing) (< yban), aẓári (visiting (shrine)) (< yẓar), asáxi (losing consciousness) (< ysax), adábi (dissolving, being dissolved) (< ydab), aṛáḥi (getting lost) (< yṛaḥ), anáxi (taking a nap) (< ynax), etc. The pattern also occurs with the unusual yəffud, i.e. afádi (being thirsty). Monosyllabic stems as in the case of -səsf etc. attract final -i, and polysyllables, too, may be similarly characterized. Though these may be quite extensive in terms of their constituency, they offer a clear structural contrast with the earlier -CV/əCCəC and its equivalents. To be included here are the ‘consonant-rich’ asfə́xsi (hatching out) (< yəsfəxs), aftə́šši (going down (of tyre, boil)), anfə́kki (being dislocated) (< yənfəkk), ažtə́mʕi (gathering 147

(together)) (< yəžtm(ə)ʕ), astmə́rri (continuing) (< yəstmərr), astḥə́qqi (needing, deserving) (< yəstḥəqq), as well as examples from Conjugation 5(b) in the shape of axtaṛi (choosing) (< yəxtaṛ), aṛtáḥi (resting) (< yəṛtaḥ), aštáqi (missing chance of s.t.) (< yəštaq), and, too, atšáṛi (filling, being full) (yətšuṛ) and ašyáni (looking ill) (< yəšyan, cf. Ar. šayn) from Conjugation 11, to which may be added finally the irregular askáni (showing) (< yəskən), which also occurs in the regular form ískan. Though nonce-forms, aláqqi (meeting by chance) (< ylaqqa) and its m-form amláqqi (unexpectedly meeting each other) (< yəmlaqqa) also belong here. It was seen earlier that particularly in Conjugation 10 harmonizing vowels occurred in present tenses, in the common sub-type illustrated by ylútt / yttlúttu (hit s.o. with back of hand) as in the rare yẓún / yttẓúnu (divide, share out), yəbʕúqq / yttəbʕúqqu (retch), yəslíl / yttəslíli (rinse), ydíqq / yttdíqqi (refuse food (of child); leave husband). This feature extends to include the verbal noun, e.g. aḥússu (feeling) (< yḥuss), aḥúššu (cutting grass) (< yḥušš), aẓúṛṛu (dismissing) (< yẓuṛṛ), adúbbu (walking slowly and painfully) (< ydubb), aḍúṛṛu (harming, hurting s.o.) (< yḍuṛṛ), asúnnu (sharpening (knife) (< ysunn), aṣúkku (kicking) (< yṣukk), aẓúnu (sharing out) (< yẓun), aẓúmu (fasting during Ramadan) (< yẓum), abʕúqqu (retching), aslíli (rinsing), adíqqi (refusing food; leaving husband), etc. As the shortening of a geminated consonant occurred between past and present tenses and between simple and s-forms, so shortening may appear in the verbal noun, as in e.g. anúɣɣu (quarrelling, fighting) (< yənnuɣɣ) and its corresponding s-form asnúɣɣu (inciting to fight) (< yəsnuɣɣ). One last v.n. pattern covers a handful of attested examples from Conjugations 7 and 13, in which long vowels uniquely appear in the two stem syllables. It may be that the labio-dental consonant -f- and postvelar (uvular) fricative are concerned with the generation of the u-uin the verbal noun úfuɣ (going out) (< yəffəɣ), cf. (ə)ggətt núfuɣ dítaf (stop (keeping on) going out and coming in). Two other examples are úluf (divorcing) (< yəlləf) and únuḍ (turning) (< yənnəḍ), the second of which has a variant form ínnaḍ. Two final examples are ínig (singing) (< yinig) and úṛaṛ (playing) (< yuṛaṛ). The paucity of exemplification does not diminish its regularity.

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The verbal noun is remarkably regular as to its formation, yet, however rarely, exceptions do occur. Among m-derived forms there occur ammíti (remembering) (< yəmmita) and asmíta (reminding) (< yəsmita), which do not conform to any recognized pattern. Again, ám(ə)ḍṣ (besmirching, causing desecration) (< yəmməḍṣ) is unique of its kind. Four final irregularities, some more irregular than others, will bring the chapter to a close. Earlier Conjugation 12(a) was seen to ‘trigger’ the structure i(w)CaC for the most part, but v.n. in the example yugəl and yuḍən is of the pattern aC1C1aC2, i.e. ággal (hanging) and áṭṭan (falling ill; illness). Whether the undoubted phonetic relationship between the rounded close back vowel -u- of the stem and the velar occlusive -g-, and indeed also between -u- and the emphatic -ṭ- of the second example, should be seen as providing the beginnings of an explanation is far from proved but is suggestive. The same pattern occurs in the verbal noun áɣẓaẓ (crunching, munching) (< yɣəẓẓ), an irregular verb on other grounds, and again post-velar and emphatic articulation are involved, though without the presence of a close back rounded vowel in the derivational history of the form. Finally, there is aw(ə́)ṭṭu (falling) (< yuḍa), where the form, surprisingly, comes close to *awuṭṭu and therefore to the frequent pattern associated above with e.g. aḥússu (feeling) (< yḥuss) and other exemplars of Conjugation 10. Perhaps mention should also be made here of atšáti (beating) (< ywətt / yttšat), which is of recognizable v.n. pattern but with the irregularity shown by the present tense. These unexpected examples are, however, manifestly the exceptions that prove the rule of remarkably regular verbal noun shape. To summarize: if feminine nouns and the few irregulars indicated in the preceding paragraph are disregarded, then, among the attested verbal noun patterns in the material, distribution is as follows: Pattern 1 (i-a)

(i(C)(C)Ca(C))

Type 1

íbḥas

Type 3

íẓaḍ

Type 2

Type 4

Type 5

293

íbna

51

8

íra

4

1

íttkay 149

Pattern 2 (a-) (a(C)CV/ə(C)CəC) (Note: This pattern includes under Type 1 examples with geminated second radical, quadri-consonantals including reduplicates of different kinds, and s-forms of the first type under Pattern 1) Type 1

abə́ttər

246

asúsəm

6

9

Type 2

asítəf

Type 4

aḥáṛəb

11

asíngəl

1

Type 3

Type 5

asúggəm

Type 7

asḍə́yyəb

Type 6

Type 8

Type 9

atṛə́bb(ə)ʕ

amqáqəs

2

Type 12

aslíləw

Type 14

5

4

ažžúžəf

Type 13

4

ažžə́mməl

Type 10

Type 11

1

2

3 5

aslúlləḍ

asráqqəb

1

Pattern 3 (a-i) (Note: The pattern includes under Type 1 the case of geminated second radical and of s-forms corresponding to Type 2, Pattern 1) Type 1

Type 2

Type 3 Type 4

Type 5

Type 6

aḍə́ḥḥi

18

asə́sri

3

asə́bḍi

18

aḥádi, abáni aláqqi

25

1

axtáṛi

6

astmə́rri

2

asfə́xsi

7

150

Pattern 4 ((i) a-u (ii) a-i) (a(C)C1u/i(C2)C2/C1u/i) Type 1

aḥússu

Type 2

aẓúnu

Type 4

adíqqi

Type 3

Type 5

45

2

abʕúqqu

2

aslíli

1

1

Pattern 5 ((i) uC1C2 (ii) uC1aC1 (iii) iC1iC2) Type 1

úfuɣ

3

Type 3

ínig

1

Type 2

1

úṛaṛ

151

Editorial Preface to the Texts This part contains texts from the legacy of T.F. Mitchell, namely six conversations and a re-edition of Ferhat. The conversations were left by Mitchell along with the grammar and a lexicon. The original manuscript2 of the conversations was sent to Harry Stroomer by Lionel Galand. The study of conversation was of particular interest3 to T.F. Mitchell (1975: 100-101): “It might perhaps be said in passing that all linguists are at one in recognizing the primacy of speech over the essentially different manifestations of language in writing but far from all linguists adduce examples of recognizable spoken language in their work and the close study of conversation, for example – a functionally vital form of spoken language – has barely begun.”

The conversations concern the following topics: 1. A (female speaker) and B (male speaker) meet casually in Zuara after B’s recent return from a protracted stay in England. 2. Two semi-educated speakers talk of political and daily events. 3. Two male speakers wishing to go from Zuara to Zhmil. 4. Buying clothes (in the suq) for the family. 5. Two acquaintances meet in London. 6. Conversation in Zuara, one interlocutor having returned from abroad. Conversation 4 carries an additional title in Zuaran Berber: ísɣa nəlbáṣmət d(ə)-lkə́ttan i-lə́ʕyal (lit. buying of-calico and-cloth for-family). The original manuscript of Ferhat has already been published as Berber Studies 17 (= Mitchell 2007); the present edition provides a better readable text with facing translations. Another manuscript of the same conversations, but without accent marking, was given to Harry Stroomer by Ouahmi Ould Braham. Because of the lack of accent marking, and because the manuscript of the conversations given by Lionel Galand resembles the original manuscripts of the grammar and of Ferhat, we have decided to publish the original one. 3 Cf. also his article The language of buying and selling in Cyrenaica: a situational statement in Hespéris 1957 (44: 31-71) (= Mitchell 1975: 167-200). 2

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Other published texts in Zuaran Berber are: Serra, L. (1964) Testi Berberi in dialetto di Zuâra. Annali dell’Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli 14: 715-726. –––– (1968) Due racconti in dialetto berbero di Zuâra. Studi Magrebini 2: 444-447.

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III. CONVERSATIONS 1 (A (female speaker) and B (male speaker) meet casually in Zuara after B’s recent return from a protracted stay in England.) A. B. A. B. A.

ʕəsláma a ḥážži. ‘Hullo, Hadji.’ sə́lmək. ‘Hullo.’ mamak tə́llid? ma bík ša? ‘How are you? No problems?’ lá, (ə)lḥámdulla(h). ‘None, thank you.’ ṭə́yyəb manis tṛə́wwḥəd la sú la swíya. ‘It’s good that you’ve come back safe and sound.’ B. aḷḷa yṭə́yyəb ḥálək. ‘(Many thanks.) I hope you’re well, too (lit. God keep you well).’ A. əyyak ʕad ɣír wəttqəllqə́dš iziɣ wtəstaḥšə́dš. ‘I just hope you were not worried or homesick.’ B. aləmmi qə́llqəɣ iziɣ stáḥšəɣ mátta ɣəri hadígəɣ? ay(u) wətšá daṃkan la yəqṛə́b aləmmi təstáḥšəd attásəd. ‘If I had been, what could I have done (about it)? This wasn’t somewhere near (so that) if you were homesick you could come back (lit. come to it).’ A. astáḥəš iziɣ aqə́lləq yəkmə́l ayə́qdəʕ. ḥə́dd ɣir yəṣḥíḥ gəṣṣə́ḥtis dyəddə́r ayṛə́wwəḥ. ‘Homesickness and worry all pass with time. As long as (lit. if only) a person in good health and surviving, he will come back (i.e. whereafter any stress will disappear).’ B. wəttṛə́wwəḥ ɣír wu(h) la yəmmút. ‘Only the dead do not return (= formulaic ‘I agree’).’ A. áá! (ə)lḥáltik dtáṣbiḥt əbzáyəd. šə́kkin xír nmánis tisid dəhánit səbzáyəd. tṛáḥd tqə́wwid dúdmik náyəṛ dšə́kkin mamak atə́mləd. ‘Oh, you look very well – better than when you were here (before). You have put on weight and look blooming (lit. your face is shining), and you really are in good shape (lit. you are just as you wish (lit. say)).’ B. la mbə́lḥəq, (ə)lḥáltiw xxul xír. nətta ɣ(i)r attásəd attḥə́kkṛəd, útšu dlə́hwa dəhánit xír lakən (ə)ddə́wwət wətšá gwútšu iziɣ glə́hwa, (ə)ddə́wwət gəlžə́smik. al(ə)mmi ɣərk ə́lbəʕd nmʕə́ddmat wəynəffəʕ la útšu w la lə́hwa. al(ə)mmi təɣs(əd) ə́tš ḥətta stálži allə́ggiḍ wəytəffə́ɣš fə́llak, dal(ə)mmi wəɣrə́kš aʕə́ddəm kul mátta hátətšəd ayə́ffəʕ fə́llak. nətš mánis wṣə́ləɣ ɣádi əwwəl šáṛ(a) igíɣtət fliɣ lwə́ḍbib yigíyid lə154

mʕáynət síɣfiw altfəndídtiw. yufa də́gi aššar nmʕə́ddəm yənkíyid ləṣṣbíṭaṛ. dawaníyid ɣádi al(ə)mmi ṣə́ḥḥəɣ swa swá dəffə́ɣ(ə)ɣ. swássdin xláṣ, maʕád daʕə́ddəm w la dšáṛukan. adin nmʕə́ddəm nə́tdist la yttasdíyid qəbl dwadin níḍ(ə)ṣ la wəttəṭṭsə́ɣš kúl yəkmə́l yəflá. ‘Yes, it’s true (that) I’m better now. (The fact is that) when you come to look at it, the food and weather are better here, but it’s not a matter of food and weather – it’s a matter of your body. If you have anything wrong with you (lit. any diseases), neither food nor weather serves any purpose. You can eat (lit. even if you want, eat) from morning to night to no avail (lit. it, i.e. food, does not come out in you) (An expression used only of food), and if you have nothing the matter, everything you eat does you good. As soon as I arrived there, the first thing I did was to go (lit. I went) to the doctor, (and) he examined me from head to toe. He found I had a problem (lit. some illness in me), sent me to hospital, and there they treated me until I was completely cured (before leaving, lit. and I left). It was over from that day – no more illness or anything. The stomach pain that I used to get (lit. comes to me) before and my insomnia (lit. that sleep I didn’t sleep) have (lit. has) completely gone.’ A. dmaɣar dis ə́lfərq žar iḍbibən ndəhánit diḍbibən nɣadí a? ‘And is there a difference then (= maɣar), between doctors here and doctors there?’ B. ééé(h), dis ə́lfərq dam(ə)qqaṛ əbzáyəd. mɣádi (Note ‘emphatic’ use of prefixed m- to female addressee) áḍbib ɣir astə́fləd dastə́mləd tbužžíyid tissə́gnit báss, ámyig ləmʕáynət stə́ma altə́ma dal(ə)mmi yšúkk əgšáṛa bíss (Contrast bass two lines above) amyə́nkəy ṭúl ləṣṣbiṭaṛ. də́lfərq lə́kbəṛ uší gəṣṣbiṭáṛat. əṣṣbiṭáṛat nɣádi atmə́nnid ukan atʕə́mṛəd dís(ə)n əlmə́ddət nma šə́mm təddə́rəd. adin nlə́ḥyuḍ la tnə́žžməd atəẓṛəd dís(ə)n údmim dwadin nləfṛášat l(a) áyməl ḥə́ddukan ayəṭṭəs dís(ə)n líl nháṛ wəyšəbbə́ʕš síḍəs. w bəʕdín n adin nmíddən la ttázzlən xə́ddmən də́gək atə́mləd ša dəṣṣə́ḷṭan. ɣir mátta təɣsəd bə́ss. ay(u) kúl bláš, mən ɣír iflúsən. ṣṣbiṭaṛatə́nnəɣ ʕád a? ‘Oh, yes, there’s a very big difference. Look (m-), a doctor there you just (have to) go to him and tell him a pin (lit. needle) has pricked you (lit. me), and he will examine you from top to toe, (and) if he has any doubt at all (=biss), he will send you to hospital. In addition (= uši), the biggest difference of all (lit. the difference which is the biggest) is in the hospitals (i.e. between 155

there and here). You wish you could make your home (lit. live) in the hospitals there (lit. the hospitals there you wish you could live in them) for your lifetime (lit. as long as you live). Those walls you can see yourself (lit. your face) in and those beds of which anyone would say he had not slept long enough (in them) even if he slept in them day and night! And then (there are) those people running around serving you as if you were (lit. you would say) a sultan – just what you (could) wish for, and all this is free, without payment (lit. money). Are our hospitals like that?’ (NB The year was circa 1952.) A. iziɣ (ə)mlánəɣ (ə)dž anə́kkər anfəl ɣádi nəkmə́l ‘Then let’s all (lit. tell us all to) go there.’ (Cf. Arabic gulli xalli nimši ‘let me go’). ((ə)mlánəɣ ‘tell us’ indicates that she is not making a serious proposal). B. ukan atə́fləd lɣádi atə́ẓṛəd. lákən matta hamysúṣəl ayu wətšá madʕílək də́žžmil iziɣ dtiridálin (Arabic rəgdalin), kúnš(i) al(ə)mmi təɣsəd atályəd əgbuṭíyar adin ədšaṛá iḍən (elsewhere ədšáṛa) ‘If you went there, you would see. But what will get you there? This is not (a distance) like (is) Ižžmil or Tiridalin – unless you want to go by plane (7 hours Tripoli-London by air, 2 hours TiridalinZuara by donkey), which is a different matter.’ A. (ə)ṣṣḷát ʕalə́nnbi! wəttalyə́ɣš əgbuṭíyaṛ lukan ayyə́mlən atafəd ʕáli ɣádi nətš wəttxaḍiṛə́ɣš síɣfiw. ‘Heaven preserve us (lit. Prayers on the Prophet)! I shan’t go by plane even if they tell me I will find Ali (i.e. her dead brother) there – I am not risking (or gambling with) my neck (lit. head).’ B. manis wəttxaḍiṛə́dš iziɣ gə́ʕməz dəhánit. ‘Since you won’t risk (it), then stay here! A. láá, ya kə́bdi, al(ə)mmi wəllíš ifla kan əgbuṭíyaṛ wɣisə́ɣš ifla kúl. aqqíməɣ ɣír dəh. ay(u) la yəɣs ayyíṣaṛ (ə)dž áyṣaṛ. ‘No, my son (lit. my liver), if there’s no going except by air(plane), I’ll just stay here, come what may (lit. let whatever is going to happen, happen).’ B. ʕad təɣsəd (ə)lḥídž dəsslámət ayəkkəd əbzáyəd wkan wəldísš lə́xḍaṛ dwəldísš tíwdi yəllá wyəqqim ḥə́dd. ‘It’s too much (= ayəkkəd əbzayəd?) to want (lit. if you want) both the pilgrimage and safety. If there were no risk and no fear, nobody would stay (i.e. in Zuara).’ (Presumably, all would go to the west.)

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A. báhi, (ə)mbə́lḥəq. lákən ḥətta lə́xḍaṛ wətša (ə)stə́kṛumt wəstətyttxáḍiṛ (ə)stəkṛúmtis kan amə́hbul. ‘All right, true, you don’t just gamble (lit. place a wager) on your life. One risks one’s life only if one is a lunatic (lit. one doesn’t risk one’s life unless ...).’ B. lákən ayu wətšá (ə)dšaṛa nlə́xḍaṛ mallik wətšá hatályəd wə́ḥdəm əgbuṭíyaṛ. buṭíyaṛ yətšúṛ nmíddən wbəʕdín ayu wətšá dbuṭiyaṛ amə́zwar la háyfəl. flə́nn qə́blis tind áluf dkúll yum ind buṭíyaṛ mašyín žayyín. ‘But it’s not a matter of risk, since you aren’t going to take the plane on your own (NB wəttalyədš is unacceptable). A plane is full of people, and then this wouldn’t be (lit. isn’t) the first plane to go (lit. which will go) – thousands have been before it and planes are going and coming daily.’ A. al(ə)mmi míddən kmə́lən dimə́hbal hanətʕándəɣ nə́tš a? ‘And if everybody’s crazy, am I to imitate them?’ B. ʕad míddən kmə́lən diməhbál a? wəllíš ṃaṃṃu dəlʕáqəl (or simply ʕáqəl) kan šəmmín a? ɣír mallik təɣsə́d imanim əbzáyəd. ‘So everybody’s crazy! There isn’t anyone intelligent except you! Just because you think too much of yourself.’ A. báhi, (ə)džánəɣ sway(u) nmáwal xxul. (ə)mlánəɣ matta dís uši ɣádi dmátta ttígən míddən dmátta ɣə́rsən. ‘Ok, let’s change (from) the (lit. this) subject. (Let’s) talk about what else there is over there, and what people do, and what they have.’ B. nətš ṃṃíɣam al(ə)mmi ɣsəɣ amə́mləɣ kúll ší, aqqíməɣ alwáitša nətš ttutláyəɣ dwəttkəmlə́ɣš. ‘I tell you, if you want me to describe everything, I’ll be (here) until tomorrow talking non-stop (lit. and not finishing).’ A. báhi, mlánəɣ ḥ(ə)tta ɣir áššar. ‘All right, just tell us something.’ B. mátta hamə́mləɣ? sə́stən matta təɣsə́d dnə́tš amžáwbəɣ. ‘What shall I tell you? Ask what you like and I will answer (you).’ A. (ə)mbəlḥə́q ṃṃan ssqiʕ əbzayə́d a? (Note typical ‘displacement’ of accents in interrogative sentence.) d(ə)s(a)ʕa s(á)ʕa ytəggəz ḥ(ə)tta (ə)ttə́lž a? ‘Is it true what they say that the cold is intense? And that sometimes there are even snowfalls (lit. snow comes down)?’ B. wətšá s(á)ʕa s(á)ʕa bə́ss! díma ttəlž! (An intonational fall on di-, whereafter low level monotone.) dəsmánis atatəf tážrəst al(ə)mm(i) atə́ffəɣ nəšnin nəggúr (There seem to be two forms of ‘present tense’ corresponding to past yugúr, namely yəggúr (habitual) and (ə)ttúgur (continuative).) ɣir afə́ttəlž dəwnətṭáṣəl tíddart əggíḍ 157

al(ə)mm(i) ánaf ə́ttəlž yʕə́bbəd afikəbbaḍə́nnəɣ. ə́dž ʕad ə́ssqiʕ dwə́nẓaṛ! ánẓaṛ áyu ass yəkmə́l yxə́ṛṛəḍ dayə́qqim abšəhřín nətta yxə́ṛṛəd. t(ə)ssə́nəd s(á)ʕa s(á)ʕa anəqqim šəhṛ wənẓə́ṛṛš təffuit. wnəssínš la smanis ttə́ffəɣ w la máni ttúṭṭa. ‘Not just sometimes! There’s always snow – you walk in it (lit. we walk on it) from one end of the winter to the other (lit. from when winter comes to when it goes), and it is thick on your overcoat when you get home at night. Don’t talk about cold and rain! It pours with rain all day long for a couple of months (on end). Do you know that sometimes you don’t see the sun for a month – you can’t tell where it rises or where it sets.’ A. kay(u) mámak iziɣ tnə́žžməm atə́drəm (ə)gway(u) ntə́ṃuṛṭ!? ‘So how possibly (Note intial k- to male addressee) can you live in that country (or town)?’ B. ééé(h), ay(u) dšáṛa wəllíš səhlis (Note intonational falling tone on -líš, whereafter low level monotone on səhlis.) glə́wwəl madʕílək yuʕə́ṛ, lákən bəʕdín ɣir áyfat šəhṛ amə́zwar dšə́hṛ (ə)ttáni atṛáhəd swá swá, amšə́mm amwadin n(ə́)lxəlq kmə́lən la zzátəm. ‘Well, there’s nothing simpler! At first you think (= madʕílək) it is difficult, but later on after the first and second month (lit. when the first and second month have passed) you get used to it just like all the other people there (lit. like those creatures who are (there)).’ 2 (Two semi-educated speakers talk of political and daily events) A. B. A. B.

ṣbaḥ əlxír. ‘Good morning.’ ṣbaḥ əlxír. ‘Good morning.’ matta dís gəlžarídət ássu? ‘What’s in the paper today?’ wəssínəɣ, səddíɣ wəttẓṛíɣ (ə)nkiɣ ídžən sibušírən, yəflá hattyáɣəd. ‘I don’t know. I haven’t seen it yet. I’ve sent a boy (he has gone) to get it.’ A. iziɣ (ə)lžarídət nwaṣṣ(ə)nnáṭ mátta dís? nətš ɣə́ri aš(a) ə́rṛbəʕ iy(y)ám wəẓṛíɣ la žarídət w la šáṛukan mallik isiɣ (ə)lbáṛṛa. ‘Then what was in yesterday’s paper? I haven’t seen a paper or anything for four days or so because I’ve been away.’

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B.

(ə)lžarídət nwaṣṣ(ə)nnáṭ tarmáni tisí ttəmláwaḥ dəhánit, aləmmi ɣír wənqərdə́sš dis šáṛa iziɣ wəttyə́wyi ḥədd (or wəttyəwyíš ḥə́ddukan), xxul ak(ə)ttáfəɣ. ‘Yesterday’s paper was lying around here somewhere. Unless we have wrapped something up in it or someone has taken it away, I’ll find it for you right away.’ A. ḥəwwmíttət, bəlláhi ʕlík, atígəd (ə)lmə́ʕṛuf. ‘Please (= bəlláhi ʕlík) do me the favour of looking for it (lit. Look for it, etc.).’ B. la wəttufíɣ, m(ə)ʕalásaf, tarṃáṃṃu yəwyít. ‘I can’t find it, I’m sorry. Someone has taken it.’ A. ya xṣáṛa! báhi, dis ša sáṛa dis dtəmṛə́t (or should it be əttəmṛət) a? ‘Pity! Never mind, was there anything worthwhile in it?’ B. mátta dís, wəldisš šáṛukan. aitu áfṛux žay səlžarídət nwássu. xxul atə́ẓṛəd matta dís dmatta wəldísš. ‘What was in it, not a thing. Here comes the boy with today’s paper. Now you will see how things are (lit. what there is and what there isn’t).’ A. əlžarídət nwássu wəldisš šárukan dáždid. dis áitu ɣir ay(u) nlə́ḥzab ttəmṭaḥánən, kúll ḥədd yənna nə́tš dyənnáyas (ə)ttánəy šə́kk (ə)dmátta d(ə)dṃáṃṃu šə́kk? dís əlmútmər yənki lʕaṛíḍ(ə)t ilwáli yinnáyas ləžmáʕ(ə)t la qabə́lnak aṣṣ(ə)nnáṭ wəttməttlə́nš ḥə́ddukan dəttutláyən afimán(ə)nsən bíss, ddis ḥə́zb listiqlál yənkə́y ḥ(ə)tta n(ə́)tta yənnáyas ə́lwəfd la yqáblak aṣṣənnáṭ yttmə́ttəl (ə)gtəmuṛt təkmə́l d(ə)lmútmər n(ə)tta la wəyttmə́ttəl ḥə́dd. ‘There’s nothing new in today’s paper – only the political parties attacking each other. Each one says it (lit. I) (i.e. is the only true party) and asks of the other what and who it (lit. you) (i.e. represents). The Congress Party has sent a petition to the Governer telling him that the people who met him (lit. you) yesterday do not represent anyone and speak only for themselves, whereas the Independence Party has also sent word (to the effect) that the delegation which met him yesterday represents the whole country and it is in fact (= nətta) the Congress Party which represents nobody.’ B. ya ṛážəl, ay(u) nləxlábəṭ la kull ḥə́dd yənna mamak yə́ɣs. əlmə́sələt təkmə́l dəlfə́wḍa wəldisš ḥə́ddukan sísən yəssən íɣfis siḍaṛṛnis. wuhánit la haywáta ayig ə́lḥəzb dakə́yməl nə́tš dəṛṛáyəs. ‘Oh, these turmoils (in) which everybody says what he likes! The whole matter is (one of) disorder. No one among them can tell his head from his feet. Whoever wants (can) set up a party and say to you “I am the leader”.’

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A. middə́nnəɣ wəssinə́nš əlmə́ʕna nlə́ḥzab lakən dáyu ámyu mamak təṃṃíd. ṃaṃṃu wəttáfš matta háyig áyməl áyy(a) adigəɣ ə́lḥəzb. madʕílhəm kul lə́ḥzab ədšáṛa la təzhə́l iziɣ dtáḥnuyt áswən dis ššáhi dəlkakawí yət daḍiṛáṛən dis əlkáṛṭət, lákən ay(u) yəkmə́l wətša sísən nə́tnin, ay(u) yəkmə́l sləḥkúmət, əlbáqi wətša kúll ṃaṃṃu addyás asə́yməl ɣsəɣ əṛṛə́xṣət hafə́tḥəɣ ə́lḥəzb as(ə)tməl báhi. ‘Our people don’t know the meaning of party (politics), but it is as you say. Anyone who can’t find anything to do can say “Look, I’ll form a party!”. They all think politics (lit. a party) is something easy, (like) a shop to drink tea with peanuts and to play cards in. But all this is not their fault (lit. from them), it is all down to (lit. from) the Government; otherwise, not anyone (you like) could come and say to it “I want a permit to start (lit. open) a party” and (have) it say “yes” to him.’ B. lakən báhi, ləḥkúmət mátta t(ə)ɣsədtət átig? ləḥkúmət wətnəžžə́mš atməl yahá, mallik kull ḥə́dd ḥə́ṛṛ. aləmmi ɣir ttigə́dš šaṛa la yxál(ə)f əlqánun ig ay(u) la təɣsə́d, wbəʕdín ləḥkúmət ámyu dbáqi wtəxlíṣš. tuša əṛṛə́xṣət il(ə)žmáʕət nlistiqlál baš afə́tḥən dtuša ilžmáʕ(ə)t nəlkúlət (ə)dkúll ṃaṃṃ(u) asə́yməl ɣsəɣ əṛṛə́xṣ(ə)t asətməl báhi. (ə)dbáqi míddən nnán (ə)lmútmər tṣəṛṛəf f(ə́)llas l(ə)ḥkúmət dtigí l(ə)ḥkúmət. mámak ʕad! lukan átuš əṛṛə́xṣət ɣir ilžmáʕ(ə)t nəlmútmər dádin mani míddən kmə́lən asə́ḍḍqən la (ə)lmútmər nləḥkúmət dləḥkúm(ə)t la tṣə́ṛṛəf fə́llas mbə́lḥəq. ‘That’s all very well but what do you want the Government to do? It cannot refuse, since everyone is free. Unless you act against the law, (you can) do what you want, yet nevertheless the Government is still not in the clear. It gave permission to the Independence people to set themselves up and to the National Bloc and to anyone telling it they (lit. I) want permission, they say OK. Yet people (still) say the Government is financing the Congress and (that) the Government established it. How can that be!? If it only sanctioned Congress, then everyone will believe that Congress belongs to (lit. is of) the Government and that the Government really does finance it.’ A. lakən šə́kkin middə́nnəɣ wəntəssin(ə́)d a? middə́nnəɣ, əməl mátta təɣsəd, dlukan attáɣəd ḥ(ə)ttá ə́nnbi gfúsik wakəttṣəḍḍqə́nš dig mátta t(ə)ɣsə́d, la búdda hámlən áita dwaita middə́nnəɣ. ṃaṃṃu hayḥə́kkəṛ awalə́nsən wəyrəbbə́ḥš. aləmmi hatḥə́kkṛəd awal nmiddə́nnəɣ nnán əlmútmər tṣə́ṛṛəf fə́llas ləḥkúmət dəlkútlət yṣə́ṛṛəf fə́llas ḥəddíḍən dlistiqlál yṣə́ṛṛəf fə́llas ḥəddíḍən báqi. ‘But don’t you know our 160

people? Say what you will, even if you bring the Prophet himself (lit. in your hand), they will not believe you, and do what you will (i.e. either good or bad for them), they will still have to criticize (lit. say this and that). Anyone who pays attention to what they say, is not going to benefit. If you need what they say, (it is that) Congress is paid by the Government, the National Bloc by someone else, and the Independence Party by someone else again.’ B. báhi, day(u) dnə́tta la háyədž ləḥkúmt atig ámyu mallik middə́nnəɣ, ig mátta təɣsə́d dbáqi hadutláyən m(ə)ʕnák, ʕád ɣir atig šaṛa ʕəryán a? dádin mani məʕádš assúsmən dkúll ṃaṃṃu áysəl áyməl mbə́lḥəq. ‘Yes, that’s what makes the Government behave so, since (with) our people, do what you will and they will still talk – what are you up to if you do something in the open (lit. naked)? That is when they would never stop talking and anyone who listens would believe them.’ A. lákən manis n(ə́)tnin hadutláyən hadutláyən aṃṃi tigíd aṃṃi tigídš, aṃṃi mbə́lḥəq aṃṃi dtikə́rkaš, ddíma hámlən áita dwáita, ig áy(u) la təɣsə́d də́džin aləmmi ɣsənn məʕádš abə́ṭṭlən. ‘But since they will go on talking in any case, whatever you do or don’t do, whether (what they say is) true or false (lit. lies), and (since) they will (always) criticize, do as you (criticize).’ B. lá, ayu dáwal yəbʕə́d, wəyttəkkə́dš. šəkkin dəlḥákəm, ṃaṃṃu yənbə́ṛak? míddən igə́nak dəlḥákəm, daləmmi hatígəd tiɣusíwin aṃwáyu wəddamídš mallik akqə́llʕən gəddqíqət. ‘No, that is wrong, it’s not possible. You are the ruler (but) who made you so? People made you Governor, and if you are going to do things like that, you won’t last, because they’ll have you out in a twinkling (lit. a minute).’ A. ɣərk ə́lḥəq. ayya báhi, fukkánəɣ səssyásət, ya ṛážəl. wətša dššəɣlə́nnəɣ. mlíyid matta yṣaṛ bə́ʕdiw gtə́ṃuṛt gway(u) nə́ṛbəʕ iyám. ‘You’re right. Oh, well, let’s drop politics, old man. It’s not our job. Tell me what has happened in Zuara while I’ve been away (lit. after me) these (last) four days.’ B. wyṣárš šáṛukan, mamak tədžíttət təqqím, tfátak əlḥə́flət (ə)nnádi bə́ss. ‘Nothing has happened. It has stayed (just) as you left it. You’ve only missed the Club party.’ A. lá, waitfátš, nə́žžməɣ atḥə́ḍṛəɣ íḍu. ‘No, I didn’t miss it, I can go tonight.’ 161

B.

A. B.

A. B. A. B.

A.

lá, adin dərriwáyət, iḍíḍən tisi dis əlḥə́flət diḍ(ə)nnátt tisi dis ərriwáyət la hattʕáwdən íḍu dhattʕáwdən ḥ(ə)ttá iḍnəffú bálək. ‘No, that’s the play. The party was the night before last, and last night was the play which they are repeating tonight and may even repeat again tomorrow night.’ yaxṣáṛa! wəɣríš lə́xbəṛ, lbáqi lliɣ wsə́dəɣ. báhi, mámak tisi lḥə́flət? ṃaṃṃu yutláy? ‘What a pity! I didn’t know, otherwise I would have come. OK, (so) how was the party? Who spoke?’ əlḥə́flət tisi dtáṣbiḥt. míddən bzáyəd dkúll ḥədd (ə)lkúrsis m(ə)ʕṛúf, ddaltúlat tnə́ḍḍəm ʕla kíf kífək. əlʕə́mṛis ənnádi wyigi lḥə́flət dinə́ḍḍmit amtuhánit, middən kmə́lən ffə́ɣən fəṛḥanín. ‘The party was fine. A lot of people and everybody knowing his seat. (And) It was extremely well organized this time. The Club has never had a party and organized it as well as this one. Everyone went away in high spirits.’ dáṣbiḥ əbzáyəd, dṃáṃṃu yutláy? ‘That’s very good, and who spoke?’ áwwəlma yutlay əṛṛáy(ə)s wbəʕdín utláyən əlmuʕallmíya kmə́lən. ‘The president spoke first and then all the teachers.’ yutláy ša ḥə́dd sləžmáʕ(ə)t iməqqarə́n a? ‘Did any of the old folk speak?’ aaa, yutláy ššix ṣáləḥ dəššix ṛə́ṃḍan lákən ə́ḥsən wáḥəd giməqqárn (NB gg- acceptable) dəggiməškúnən nətta d(ə)smə́ʕʕan. yiga (ə)lxúṭbət atətmə́nnid ɣír matta ttṣə́nntəd. yəqqím aš(a) ázgən nəssə́ʕʕət n(ə)tta yttútlay dyəkmə́l síɣfis la d(ə)lkáḍ wla dšáṛukan. ‘Yes indeed, Sheikh Saleh and Sheikh Ramadan spoke, but the best of both the old and the young was Isma’il. He gave a speech you could listen to forever (lit. you hope you could listen to nothing else). He stayed speaking for about half an hour, extempore, without notes (lit. paper) or anything.’ aaa, smə́ʕʕan məʕṛúf! smə́ʕʕan yttútlay dáṣbiḥ (ə)bzáyəd. tikə́rkas aṛahuk ay(u) la nnán dis ə́lbəʕd nləžmáʕət, nnának smə́ʕʕan awális (w)yṣəllə́ḥš mallik yttútlay bzáyəd mən ɣir (ə)ttə́ṃṛət, yəkmə́l də́lḥəsd. (ə)lbáqi smə́ʕʕan wəllíš ṃaṃṃu ynə́žžəm ayutlay amnə́tta wətša gtə́ṃuṛt bíss bal ḥəttá gəḍṛábləs, wakənníɣš wəlliš ṃaṃṃ(u) ayútlay amnə́tta lakən al(ə)mmi llán tlat ə́ṛbəʕ ttutláyən dáṣbiḥ, n(ə)tta dídžən sísən. ‘Ah, yes, Isma’il (to be sure) is a well known speaker. It is not true, mind you, what some people say, that his speeches are no good because he talks a lot but to no point. This 162

is all envy. The fact is, no one can speak like Isma’il not only in Zuara but also in Tripoli. I’m not saying there is nobody who can speak like him but (rather) that, if there are three or four good speakers, he is one of them.’ B. ya wə́ddi, (ə)lḥə́qq yttútlay! ddáyu dṃaṃṃu yəɣs ayútlay iziɣ bláš dis ṃáṃṃu yttʕə́kkəl ukan yttutláyš kul xír. nətš wəttslíɣ qəbl yttútlay, sə́lləɣ nnán yttútlay dáṣbiḥ lakən nə́tš lə́wwəl mə́ṛṛa attə́sləɣ (or slíɣti). də́lḥəqq isíɣš ttḍúnnuɣ dis ámyu. dis lfəṛq əbzáyəd žaráyas džar əttányin. ‘Oh, yes, he can really speak! And that’s how someone who wants to speak (should be) or he should not bother (= iziɣ bláš). There are those who stumble and (it) would be better if they didn’t speak at all. I had not heard him speak before – I had heard them say that he was a good speaker but this was the first time I (had actually) heard him, and, to tell the truth, I hadn’t thought he was so good. There’s a great difference between him and the others.’ A. kmaɣar n(ə)tta dítša nətẓəṃṃít a? ṃaṃṃ(u) áddyas ayadə́l a? əlmə́sələt dtíɣri, smə́ʕʕan yəɣra ktəṛənsən kúl dswáss la yəffə́ɣ alləxxúl wibəṭṭə́lš tíɣri. amləžmáʕ(ə)t (ə)ttanyín a, la dis (or disən) ṃáṃṃu swáss la yəkkər ə́lḥəṛb alwássu wyənẓíɣš (NB not [-χʃ]; verb is yənẓəɣ) dis lə́ktab wbəʕdín akə́mlən nəssə́n dadárən imawə́nnsən dadutláyən. ‘Do you think it is (as simple) as eating ‘taẓemmit’? Anyone can come and start in? It is a matter of study (and) Isma’il has studied more than all the others. From childhood (lit. the day he came out) till now he has not stopped studying. Do you think he is like the others, some of whom from the day war broke out to today have not brought out a book (NB dis ‘in it’, i.e. in that period), but still tell you they (lit. we) know, and (just) open their mouths and talk.’ B. áywa, day(u) də́lḥəqq. ‘Yes, that’s the truth.’ A. ayya də́lwəqt džánəɣ ədž anə́kkər. ‘Hullo, it’s getting late, we’d better (lit. let’s) go.’

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3 (Two male speakers wishing to go from Zuara to Zhmil) A. ʕafyət dwár(ə)zg. ‘Good morning (lit. health and wealth).’ B. ddár(ə)zg assik dám(ə)bruk. ‘Good morning to you (lit. and wealth and may your day be blessed).’ A. íyya (a)l(ə)mmi wáti (ə)dž ánfəl. nʕəṭṭəl (ə)bzáyəd. ‘Come on, if you’re ready, let’s go! We’re very late.’ B. n(ə)tš wátəy al(ə)mmi t(ə)ɣsəd ánfəl lakən afmátta məstəʕlín wɣərnə́ɣš tiɣusíwin bzáyəd an(ə)ttnə́qḍa ay(u) n(ə)tɣúsa iziɣ sə́nt ləmmi anáṣəl danṛə́wwəḥ, dšáṛa iḍən wɣərnə́ɣš anə́ttnig. ‘I am ready if you want us to go but why are we in a hurry. We haven’t a lot of things to see to (NB yəqḍá in isolation = to make purchases, e.g. in market, for the home). The few things we have to do (lit. this thing or two) we can do when we arrive, and (still) get home (i.e. there is plenty of time to do what we have to do and return home even if we go later), and we have nothing else to do.’ A. báhi, lakən manis nə́šnin mašyín mašyín, wətša xír wkan ánfəl bəkrí a? anḥə́kkər matta dis gə́ssug danḥə́kkər ləswám danḥə́kkər ṃaṃṃu yəllá danə́qḍa tiɣusiwə́nnəɣ danṛə́wwəḥ gə́ḍḍu. ‘All right, but since we’re going in any case, isn’t it better if we go early? We shall see what there is in the market, what prices (sing. ə́ssum) are, and who is there, do what we have to do (lit. our things) and get home in daylight.’ B. ləmm(i) ánfəl anáṣəl. ɣərnəɣ ə́lwəqt (ə)bzáyəd. əlḥámdu lláh ay(u) wətšá mašyín afiḍaṛṛə́nnəɣ, ay(u) mašyín gəlkə́ṛhəbət. ‘Whenever we go, we shall get there (in time). We’ve lots of time. Thank God we’re not going on foot but by transport.’ A. lá, lakən al(ə)mmi nʕə́ṭṭəl məʕádš anḥə́ṣṣəl (ə)lkə́ṛhəbət mallik tamə́zwart tfát dəttánya al(ə)mmi wnəʕžílš imánnəɣ wnəttḥəṣṣə́lš dis áṃkan. t(ə)lla ʕammál tətšúṛ. ‘No, but if we are late, we won’t catch the ‘bus’, because the first has gone and we shan’t find a place in the second if we don’t hurry ourselves up. It must be (= təlla) almost full.’ B. təssə́nəd anfəl anḥə́kkəṛ bə́druš, bál(ə)k yəlla mášəy gəlkəṛhə́btis (NB With yəlla included, the speaker does not know whether Bidrush is going or not; without yəlla, he is definitely going but perhaps 164

not in his car). al(ə)mmi mášəy dwəldidə́sš (NB This is negative form of didəs ‘with him’) ḥəddukán (Note unusual accentuation), anfəl dídəs. anə́ftəkk səlkuṛṛyíṛət (Cf. Italian corriere) dwgúbbu (agubbu < ygubb ‘he pushed, jostled’). ‘You know, we could go and see Bidrush. Perhaps he’s going in his car. If so, and there’s nobody with him, we could go with him. We would avoid the bus and the jostling.’ A. n(ə)tš madʕíli dəzzáyəd. ánfəl gəlkuṛṛyíṛ(ə)t wəxláṣ! mallik ḥ(ə)ttá (a)l(ə)mmi mášəy, t(ə)lla tətšúṛ. (High level tone on -ta, low level on ma- rising to mid on -šəy, and low fall on -tšuṛ.) ‘I don’t think that’s any use. Let’s go in the bus and have done! Since even if he’s going, it (i.e. his car) will be full.’ B. báhi, n(ə)šnin mátta nəxṣáṛ? (NB nəxṣar = nəxsəṛ, with vowel in second syllable lengthened to mark an interrogative sentence. The form may be optionally pronounced here on a low level monotone, with a falling tone on preceding matta.) anəqdəʕ fə́llas gwəbridə́nnəɣ (Cf. plural (gg)ibridnə́nnəɣ) nufí dnufá lkəṛhə́btis fáḍya dyəṃṃa báhi akənnə́wyəɣ xír w xír (NB The omission of aləmmi before nufí has implications for the length of -i in nufi, which in nufi xir w xir is protracted in contrast with al(ə)mmi nufi xir w xir. Typically, aləmmi is omitted when the verb is repeated, as again in, say nufí xir w xir, wn(ə)ttnufíš anfəl ggəlkuṛṛyíṛət ‘if we find him, well and good, if we don’t, we’ll go by bus’.), yəṃṃa šáṛa iziɣ dšáṛa anfəl l(ə)lkuṛṛyíṛ(ə)t, (ə)lkuṛṛyíṛ(ə)t díma t(ə)lla (Note intonational fall on di- of dima, with təlla on a low level monotone.) ‘All right, what have we to lose (i.e. by going to Bidrush)? We can call him on our way. If we find (lit. have found) him and find his car empty, and he agrees (lit. has agreed) to take us (lit. has said ‘OK, I’ll take you (pl.)’), well and good, (but) if he objects (lit. has said, i.e. says, anything and anything), we’ll go to the bus. There’s always the bus.’ A. yaḷḷa báhi. lakən n(ə)tš ttaggáḍəɣ ánfəl wn(ə)ttáfš bídruš, dánfəl (lə)lkuṛṛyíṛ(ə)t anə́ttnaf tfát, anə́qqim lana ssyá lana ssyá. ‘OK, but I’m afraid we shall go and not find Bidrush, and that we shall go to the bus and find it gone, (when) we shall end up without either.’ B. ánig šaṛá iḍ(ə)n. šəkk (ə)f(ə)l ṭúl lə́ssuq (ə)dnə́tš (Note inclusion of vowel when accented) adályəɣ af(ə)lbə́škliṭ dáfləɣ lbə́druš. ufíɣtid dyəṃṃá (a)kənnə́wyəɣ akəddásəɣ nšídəs gəlkə́ṛhəbət wəttufíɣ iziɣ 165

dšáṛa, akəddásəɣ ṭúl zzər lkuṛṛyíṛ(ə)t, ádžəɣ (ə)lbə́šklit (ə)gtə́ḥnuit dánfəl gəlkuṛṛyíṛ(ə)t wəxláṣ. ‘Let’s do something else (, then). You go straight to the market, and I’ll take the bicycle and go to Bidrush. If I find him and he says he’ll take us, we will come to you together (lit. he and I) in the car, (and) if I don’t find him or anything, I will come on straight to you at the bus-stop, leave the bicycle at the shop, and we’ll go in the bus without further ado.’ A. ʕál, day(u) də́ṛṛay, iyyá (ə)kkər! báhi, iziɣ n(ə)tš aksúggməɣ gəlqə́hwət la zzər lkuṛṛyíṛ(ə)t, (ə)lqə́hwət nəṣṭá ʕ(ə)li (= əṣṭa ʕəli; əṣṭa refers to any artisan, here to one who makes the coffee and is proprietor of the café), ɣir wəttʕṭṭə́lš. ‘Excellent, that’s the idea, off you go! Right, then I will wait for you in the café near the bus terminal, Ali’s café. Just don’t be late!’ (Later, when they meet in the café) A. ááá, mátta? tufíd bədrúš a? ‘Hullo, then, what now? Did you find Bidrush?’ B. ə́səl, bə́druš ufíɣtid (Note that the order is ‘complete’ in contrast with ufiɣ bədruš, which requires complementation with e.g. gtiddartis ‘in his house’) dmášəy gəlkəṛhə́btis dwəldidə́sš ḥə́ddukan lákən yəṃṃa mášəy mwə́xxəṛ áššar mallik mášəy yəɣs ayqábəl əlmutṣə́ṛṛəf, dɣərs áššar nə́ššɣəl yəɣs attəykə́mməl qə́b(ə)l mamak háyfəl. (mamak hayfəl, in contrast with qəbl la hayfəl or qəbl, wbəʕdin hayfəl, implies that completion of the work is absolutely essential before his going.) yəṃṃá (a)l(ə)mmi haitsúggməm akənnə́wyəɣ dídi. ‘Look, I found Bidrush, he’s going in his car and there’s no one with him but he said he’s going (to be) a little late because he’s going to see the Commissioner and he has some work he wants to finish before he can go. He said if we wait for him (lit. (in direct speech) ‘if you (pl.) wait for me’) he will take us with him (lit. ‘I will take you (pl.) with me’). A. lá, (a)ɣənnyʕə́ṭṭəl (no pause after la, whence elision of following initial a-), ya ṛážəl, wənnəžžə́mš anəttənsúggəm, ánfəl gəlkuṛṛyíṛ(ə)t wəxláṣ. ‘No, he’ll make us late, man. We can’t wait for him. Let’s go in the bus and finish with it.’ B. báhi, yáḷḷa iziɣ ə́kkər! aita lkuṛṛyíṛ(ə)t tbə́dd ʕəmmál hat(ə)ssə́qqəd. ‘OK, then come on! The bus is here (standing), about to go.’ 166

A. š(ə)kk mátta ɣərk hatígəd gə́ssuq iziɣ ɣír hatwə́ttəd (ə)ḍḍúṛ(ə)t. ‘What have you got to do in the market, or are you just having a look around (lit. beating a turn)?’ B. waḷḷáhi šáṛa la dis (ə)ttə́ṃṛət wəɣríš ɣsəɣ aḥə́kkṛəɣ əssuq bə́ss, iziɣ ɣə́ri (ə)lb(ə)ʕḍ nləžmáʕət ɣsəɣ an(ə)tḥə́kkrəɣ al(ə)mmi ḥə́ṣṣləɣ sɣə́rsən š(a) áššar niflús(ə)n dal(ə)mmi twatáyid (Cf. past ywata) ša šáṛa dtáṣbiḥt attə́sɣəɣ. ‘Frankly (= waḷḷahi here), I haven’t anything important. I’m just going to look around the market, except that (= iziɣ) I’ve some people I want to see if I can get some money from (i.e. that they owe me; one does not speak of going to someone to borrow) and if I chance upon something (lit. something chances upon me) good, I shall buy it.’ A. šaṛa nmátta la dtáṣbiḥt, ya wəddi məʕad dís la matta ittwásɣa, la mátta ittwazə́nza. (ə)ssuq yəṭṭə́ṣ, ayázzəl ḥə́dd al(ə)mmi ayə́dhəš ɣir áddyas l(ə)lmə́ṣwaṛ wittáf la šáṛa. ə́ttʕəb mən ɣír (ə)lfáydət. ‘What do you mean by a good thing? (lit. a thing of what which is good.) Good heavens (ya wəddi is somewhat stronger than waḷḷahi), there’s no longer anything to be bought or sold (i.e. there is no profit in buying and selling – both A and B are shopkeepers). The market is dead (lit. asleep). One can run till one is out of breath, (but) when one comes (to look at) the profit (Note əlməṣmaṛ = daily proft, əlməksəb = annual profit), one finds nothing. Pointless fatigue! B. mbə́lḥəq, lakən ḥə́dd matta háyig? wbəʕdín wtəssinə́dš afə́ssuq – s(a)ʕa s(á)ʕa atwáta tɣúsa wəllíš əṛx(ə)sis, attísəɣ ḥə́dd dattyə́ḥrəz, áddyas (ə)lwə́qtis la búdda idžəṃṃás sidžəṃṃásat attwáḍləb. ‘True, but what can one do? And then you don’t know with the market – sometimes something very cheap (lit. a thing there is no cheaper than) comes along (= atwáta), one buys it and hangs on to it. Its time will come and one (fine) day it must be in demand.’ A. lákən ay(u) nətɣúsa la hattə́sɣəd dattḥə́rzəd s(a)ʕa s(á)ʕa (a)təqqim ḥ(ə)tta gtəkṛúmtik wakyssəstúnš f(ə)llas ḥə́dd (ə)lmúddət ma (a)tə́qqim ɣə́rk. aṭṭə́ṛṛəd bəʕdín attzə́nzəd datxə́ṣṛəd dís (Refers to tɣusa) ləxṣáṛ(ə)t dtamə́qqart. ‘But the thing you buy and keep sometimes stays around your neck. Nobody asks you for it as long as you have it, then later you are compelled to sell it and take a considerable loss.’

167

B.

lákən ay(u) qlíl ləmm(i) áyṣaṛ, bə́ss ḥədd yə́lz(ə)m ayákəz tɣúsa la háysəɣ. tšá (Cf. wətšá elsewhere) tiɣusíwin kmə́lnət ttwasɣánat dəttwaḥráznat. ‘But that rarely happens. One just has to recognize the thing to buy (lit. that one is going to buy). Not all things can be bought and sold (or should be bought and sold; note gerundive sense of passive, i.e. are worth buying and selling) (i.e. because of risk involved).’ A. ya ṛážəl, əddə́wwət fárɣa! n(ə)tš ámləɣ kúllši də́lbəxt la d(ə)ššṭáṛ(ə)t w la dšáṛukan. ttmítid gwádin n(ə)ššə́ryət n(ə)ssúkər sɣíɣtət səṛbʕín fṛánk, wbəʕdín yəɣlá (a)l(ə)mmi yuṣə́l xəmsa wṛbʕín dátətməm də́gi (ə́)zzənz ə́zzənz wəqqíləɣ attzə́nzəɣ. wbəʕdín aita yudəl gə́ṭṭyaḥ al(ə)mmi yuṣə́l tlatín daqə́ll daššar la zənzə́ɣti mallik madʕíli məʕádš ayə́ɣla. afməṛṛtín tláta hattzə́nzəɣ wbəʕdin ṃṃíɣ iyya hattḥə́kməɣ d(ə)nšaḷḷa (a)yə́ḍḍ(ə)l ḥ(ə)tta sbuʕə́šrin. bəʕd sə́nt nəlḥáfḍat aita mamak t(ə)ssə́n(ə)d – (ə)ṭṭaṛíf(ə)t wtəffíɣš dəyttwaʕə́ṭṭəl (ə)ssúkər sə́lɣəṛb, (ə)ssúkər yudəl gəzzyádət, yfát əṛbʕín dxəmsín dsəttín, adin la ɣə́ri yəkmə́l zənzə́ɣti ḥ(ə)tta sxəmsa wsəttín. ‘That’s nonsense, man! In my opinion (lit. I shall say), it is all luck, there’s no acumen or anything. Do you remember that purchase of sugar I made at 40 mals and which then went up (lit. reached) 45 and you were (all) urging me to sell (lit. ‘sell, sell!’) and I refused to sell it. Then it began falling until it reached thirty and less and I almost sold it, because I thought it would not go up again. I was on the point of (lit. two or three times, i.e. I was 99% convinced) selling and then I said (to myself) ‘Come on, I’ll keep it, even if it becomes worth less than a farthing’ (Note that the inclusion of dənšaḷḷa is strongly emphatic – his mind was inflexibly made up, in contrast with the simple ḥətta aləmmi ayəḍḍəl sbuʕəšrin. A ‘buʕəšrin’ was a brass coin, 10 of which made a lira; before Italian times in Libya, money was Turkish-based and 20 ‘baṛa’ was worth one-tenth of an Italian lira, whence the name ‘buʕəṣrin’ ‘(worth) 20’ for the coin in question.) Two weeks later, as you know, the ration(s) didn’t come and the sugar from Tunisia (lit. the west) was held up, (so) sugar started going up. It passed forty (mals), then fifty, sixty, and I sold all I had, (some) even at sixty-five.’ B. lákən šaṛa (a)mẉáyu wynəžžə́mš ḥədd ayə́ʕtməd fə́llas dáyməl yṣáṛ dyṣáṛ mallik ləḥkáy(ə)t amṃayu as(ə)tṣaṛ íškəlt bíss ibnádəm gəlʕə́mṛis yəkmə́l, dwádin níškəlt ɣír yiga ṛə́bbi (ə)ssúkər yttwaʕáṭṭəl 168

sə́lɣəṛb dwt(ə)ffíɣš (ə)ṭṭaṛíf(ə)t, (ə)lbáqi (ə)ssúkər məʕadš ayəɣl(a) ábadan. (Note elision of final vowel of ayəɣla before strongly accented initial vowel of the Arabic loan abadan.) mallik təẓṛíd ḥ(ə)ttá manis yəɣlá wyəqqímš (ə)bzáyəd, s(ə)tta sə́bʕ iyám al(ə)mmi t(ə)ffə́ɣ (ə)ṭṭaṛíf(ə)t wbəʕdín yədwəl swá swa mamak yisí. dwətšá dayu bə́ss, dis ṃáṃṃu yəkka (ə)lxə́bḍət (ə)gwadin n(ə)ssúkər la lʕə́mṛis wəttyəkkí (or wəttyə́kki) mallik yəsɣa (ə)ssúkər ss(ə)ttín madʕíla uší hayə́ɣla, (ə)lwaitšá yṛaḥas səṛbʕín. ‘But one cannot rely on a thing like that (Notice the usual pattern of foregrounding in Berber what to us is the object of the sentence, i.e. lit. ‘a thing like that one cannot rely on it’, with the use of the so-called resumptive pronoun as in Arabic) and say that it’s the whole story (lit. that it happened and it happened), because a matter (lit. story) like that happens to a man once only in all his lifetime and on that occasion it was only because (lit. only God brought it about that) the sugar was held up from Tunisia and the ration(s) didn’t arrive. Otherwise, (the) sugar would never have gone up again, because you saw that when it went up, it didn’t last long – six or seven days until the ration(s) came and then it went back just as it was. And that isn’t all! There were some (Note singular, ‘someone’) who suffered a blow (i.e. financial loss) over that sugar such as they had never suffered (lit. which in his life was not (i.e. had not been) suffered), because they (lit. he) bought sugar for sixty (mals) in the belief it was going up and next day found it (lit. it became for him) at forty.’ A. báhi, n(ə)tš dayu la nníɣak – ṣaṛ lmə́sələt t(ə)kmə́l də́lbəxt. dal(ə)mmi ttwáryak ša šáṛa hattḥə́ṣṣləd, al(ə)mmi wakəttwaríš wkan atázzləd ṣə́bḥ wʕšíyya wəttḥəṣṣlə́dš šáṛukan. ‘OK, that’s what I’m telling you – the whole question is (one of) luck. If something is written for you (i.e. by God), you will obtain it; if not, no matter whether you run around all day long (lit. morning and evening), you won’t get a thing.’ B. n(ə)tš wakənníɣš wəllíš ə́lbəxt iziɣ dšaṛá iḍ(ə)n, lákən wáḷḷa ḥ(ə)tta (ə)ššṭáṛ(ə)t wɣə́rk matta (a)tə́mləd dís. nə́šnin aitu nẓə́ṛṛ wəllíš ṃaṃṃu yxə́ddəm dyttḥəṣṣəl giflúsən (Notice the use of continuative/habitual g completely in parallel with the use of fi in local Arabic.) kan ləžmáʕət la šaṭṛín d(ə)ssə́n(ə)n mamak axə́ddməd wbəʕdín ɣərk šaṛá iḍ(ə)n – iflúsən. al(ə)mmi ɣə́rk iflúsən bzáyəd, tnə́žžməd atxə́ddməd mamak təɣsə́d – at(ə)sɣə́d (NB The ‘shift’ of accent from 169

atə́sɣəd elsewhere implies condition as with aləmmi ‘if’; cf. bracketed comment on lengthened final vowel of nufi on p. XX above) ay(u) ntɣúsa wəttafə́dš dis ə́ssum, (ə)džit atə́ṭṭəṣ almm(i) áddyas lwə́qtis, lákən almm(i) iflúsnik drús, mbəssíf fəllak atəzzə́nzəd. ‘I’m not saying to you that there is no luck (involved) or anything (else), but you cannot deny that acumen too is important (lit. even acumen, too, there is nothing you have to say about it). As we can see, there is no one working and making money except those (people) who are shrewd and know how to (go to) work. And besides, there is another thing – money! If you have a lot of money you can work just as you like (i.e. do what you like, e.g. without regard to native wit). You can buy this item, (and) if you don’t find any profit (lit. price) on it (i.e. there is no demand for it), let it bide (lit. sleep) till its time comes, but if your funds are limited, you are compelled to sell.’ A. áywa, dáy(u) d(ə)lḥəqq. ‘Yes, that’s true.’ B. iyyá (ə)ggiz, aitu nuṣə́l. ‘Off you get, we’ve arrived.’ A. tənkə́ḍəd ša lbuliṭát (sing. (ə)lbuliṭ) a (the interrogative particle is omissible here) iziɣ anəttənxə́lləṣ gwími? ‘Did you get (lit. cut) the tickets or shall we pay him (i.e. the conductor) at the door?’ B. ɣír (ə)ggəz bə́ss, aitu attxə́llṣəɣ nə́tš. ‘Just get off, I will pay him. (aitu and accented nətš combine to give emphasis).’ A. báhi, iziɣ (ə)f(ə)l ḥə́kkəṛ ləžmáʕtik didáwərd. aitu aksúggməɣ (ə)gtə́ḥnuit nṣúlḍan, ánsu (ə)ššáhi wbəʕdín ánfəl ánwətt (ə)ḍḍúṛ(ə)t gə́ssuq žmíʕ. ‘OK, then go and see your people (i.e. the people you want to see) and come back (here). I (NB aitu inomissible, though nətš may be substituted for it) will wait for you in Sultan’s shop, we’ll drink tea and then go and look round the market together.’ B. báhi. ‘Fine.’ 4 ísɣa nəlbáṣmət d(ə)lkə́ttan ilə́ʕyal ‘Buying clothes (in the suq) for the family’ A. (ə)mlíyid, ɣərk ša (ə)lkə́ttan daṣbíḥ a? ‘Tell me, have you any good linen.’ (Note that salutation is unnecessary after morning.)

170

B.

A. B.

A.

B.

A. B.

A.

B.

ɣəri kúllši, ay(u) la t(ə)ɣsə́d tfə́ḍḍəl. mátta lkəttan la t(ə)ɣsə́d (ə)dmə́nit t(ə)ɣsád? (Note interrogative lengthening of vowel in final syllable.) ‘I’ve everything, please take your pick. What sort of linen do you want and how much?’ al(ə)mmi ufíɣ ‘ḥə́yy ynə́ggəz’ ɣsəɣ áššar n(ə)lmitrúwat. ‘If I (can) find ‘Hayy Ynəggəz’ (= brand of linen so-called because of its trademark of fish ‘alive and kicking (lit. jumping)’) ‘ḥə́yy ynə́ggəz’ wəɣríš, dg(ə)ššə́kk attáfəd (ə)gtə́ṃuṛt təkmə́l, lákən ɣəri ‘ə́ṣṣid’ ḥ(ə)ttá n(ə)tta daṣbiḥ bzáyəd, amḥə́yy ynə́ggəz dyáxi xír. ‘I haven’t any ‘Hayy Ynəggəz’, and it’s doubtful whether you’ll find it in the whole of Zuara, but I have ‘The Lion’ (brand) and that, too, is very good, like ‘Hayy Ynəggəz’ and probably better (cf. yaxi ‘probably’, dbálək ‘perhaps’, dbáqi ‘certainly’).’ ya wəddi ə́ṣṣid wətšá yəkməl daṣbiḥ. dís (ə)lb(ə)ʕḍ nləmqádəʕ diṣbíḥən mbə́lḥəq lakən lṃə́ktəṛ yɣúšš. ‘No (politely), the ‘Lion’ make is not uniformly good. True, some rolls (sing. əlməqdəʕ; d corresponds to Arabic ṭ) are good but most deceive (i.e. deliberately mislead).’ lá, wu(h) la ɣə́ri dalə́ṣli dšəkk afmátt! wəllíš xir níẓṛi – ak(ə)ddáɣ(ə)ɣ lmə́qd(ə)ʕ dḥə́kkəṛ af(ə)lkífik. al(ə)mmi yəʕžə́bak báhi dal(ə)mmi wakyəʕžíbš (ə)dž ayə́qqim. ‘No, the one I have is genuine. You can see for yourself (lit. there is nothing better than seeing) – I’ll bring you the roll and look carefully for yourself. If you like it, fine, if not, (then) leave it.’ (Having felt the cloth) báhi, əlkəttan dáṣbiḥ. wəɣríš matta hámləɣ dís, də́ssum mə́nit? ‘OK, the cloth is good. I’ve nothing to say against it. How much is it?’ (ə)ssum ʕad muhu t(ə)ssnə́dtid? mátta harənyəɣ f(ə)llák a? xə́msa wətlatín fṛənk ilmítru. ‘You know the price, don’t you? (A polite way of telling the customer that he knows he has been all over Zuara pricing the goods.) Why will I put the price up for you? 35 mals the metre.’ lá, lá wn(ə)ttfíqš. kaṣṣ(ə)nnátt (Note k- particle of address to male interlocutor.) n(ə)tta yənza gəddlál(ə)t s(ə)tmánya wʕəšrín, d(ə)lkə́ttan mamak atə́mləd. ‘No, no, we aren’t (lit. haven’t) agreed. It was auctioned (lit. sold by auction) yesterday at 28, and excellent cloth.’ lá, təɣlə́ḍ(ə)d. adin wətšá d(ə)ṣṣid dḥ(ə)ttá (a)l(ə)mmi d(ə́)ṣṣid, wətšá (a)mwuh. (ə)lkə́ttan la yənz(a) aṣṣ(ə)nnátt gəddlál(ə)t ɣə́ri sis, 171

al(ə)mmi t(ə)ɣsə́d akúšəɣ sxəmsa wʕəšrín bə́ss. ‘No, you’re wrong. That wasn’t ‘The Lion’ (make), and even if it was, it wasn’t like this one. I have some of the cloth that was auctioned yesterday, and if you like, I’ll give (it) to you at only 25.’ A. ə́səl, n(ə)tš ɣsəɣ (ə)lkə́ttan dáṣbiḥ, dal(ə)mmi haitsə́ʕʕdəd ɣsəɣ ásɣ(ə)ɣ sɣə́rk (ə)bzáyəd, wətša (ə)lmítru iziɣ sə́nn, dal(ə)mmi haitsə́ʕʕdəd mbə́lḥəq, aita (or aitu) ẓə́ṛṛəɣ ɣə́rk ḥ(ə)tta g(ə)lbáṣmət nind bəllíri. ásɣəɣ sɣə́rk šə́kk xir nm(atta)áfləɣ (ə)lḥəddíḍən. ‘Listen, I want good linen and, if you are going to help me, I want to buy from you in quantity, not (just) a metre or two, and if you truly help me (i.e. go a long way to meet my price), I see you (also) have dress material. I would rather buy from you than go to someone else.’ (Note the telescoping of (n)matta and (h)afləɣ into the form (m)máfləɣ. This is not possible with forms other than matta, and another example is ə́fəl tígəd (= aorist proper) šáṛa, xir nm(atta)atḍə́yyʕəd (< iḍəyyəʕ) (ə)lwə́qtik ‘Go and do something – it’s better than wasting your time.’) B. n(ə)tš (ə)ṃṃíɣak sləwwə́l (Note that word-order and the unusual accentuation of sləwwəl is emphatic, as opposed to slə́wwəl n(ə)tš (ə)ṃṃíɣak. It is possible for the accent alone to indicate emphasis, as in e.g. slə́wwəl / sləwwə́l n(ə)tš ss(ə)nə́ɣtid hattilə́wwəḥ ‘I know from the beginning that he was going to lose it’.) ay(u) la təɣsə́d ɣə́ri, dwəllíš ṃaṃṃ(u) akis(ə́)ʕʕəd amnə́tš, al(ə)mmi waksəʕʕdə́ɣš šə́kkin iziɣ ṃáṃṃ(u) as(ə́)ʕʕdəɣ? ‘I told you from the beginning that I have whatever you want, and there is no one who will meet you as I (will). If I didn’t help you, then who shall I help?’ A. lakən ya wəddi n(ə)tš wəẓṛíɣš ə́ssʕad. haits(ə́)ʕʕdəd dhaitə́mləd sxəmsa wtlatín a? ay(u) kúl haits(ə́)ʕʕdəd, iziɣ ukán waits(ə)ʕʕidə́dš, mámak? ‘Upon my soul, I have seen no help (yet). Is it meeting me to ask me 35? If all this is helping me, would not helping me (be), then?’ B. ukán wɣisə́ɣš aks(ə́)ʕʕdəɣ, akə́mləɣ ssə́bʕa wtlatín d(ə)tmánya wtlatín mamak zzənzíɣ dís kúl yum. nə́tš sləwwə́l bádi džíɣak ẓúẓ frənk afmíddən (ə)ttányin (ə)dbáqi ntš ṃṃíɣak ssúmiw, dšə́kkin ə́ḥkəm lqə́drik, túšəd (= aorist) ay(u) la t(ə)ɣsə́d. ‘If I didn’t want to help you, I would say 37 or (lit. and) 38 as I sell it (at) every day. From the start I have deducted two mals for you in comparison with (= af) other people (Note the use of badi. Cf. ṃaṃṃu 172

A. B.

A.

B.

A.

B. A.

dlbádi? ‘Who started?’ e.g. fighting, as in n(ə)tta la dəḍḍáləm, mallik n(ə́)tta la dlbádi ‘He’s the one to blame because he started (it)’.), but, anyhow, (though) I have told you my price, you keep your dignity and give what you will.’ (‘Keep your dignity’ = ‘I respect you as a man and as a friend’. ‘I have stated my price’, i.e. beyond which there is no advantage for me. This is a sign, reinforced by əḥkəm əlqədrik, that he will not go much further. ‘Give what you will’ means that the price could be only one or two mals less and that he would never accept, say, 25. Shopkeepers are seemingly honest in the use of the linguistic formulae.) an(ə́)ttnig stlatín bahí a? ‘Shall we make it 30, then?’ š(ə)kkin wətɣisə́dš atə́sɣəd, d(ə)lḥə́qqis lliɣ igíɣak bíʕ wəšra nmudáyən dəṃṃíɣak səṛbʕín baš mə́nit atṣə́nkẓəd (= causative or s-form of yənkə́ẓ) at(ə)kkdəd šəkkin d(ə)lḥəqq swá swa. ‘You don’t want to buy. I should have done better to do business (lit. selling and buying) the Jewish way, and to have asked you 40, so that whatever you took off, you would end up at exactly the right price.’ lákən ḥ(ə)tta n(ə́)tš ukan tigídid biʕ wəšra nmudáyən lliɣ sawəmɣak mamak ttsawáməɣ gudáyən – aitə́ml(ə)d (ə)ṛbʕín akə́mləɣ ʕəšrín. ‘But I, too, if I had done business the Jewish way, would have bargained with you as I do with the Jews – you would say to me 40, (and) I would say to you 20.’ n(ə)šnin imátta n(ə)ttkə́ttəṛ gəddə́wwət. n(ə)tš ṃṃíɣak (ə)ssúmiw dšəkkin ə́fəl (ə)nnəḍ (ə)ssuq af(ə)lkífik – ṃaṃṃ(u) atáfəd ɣərs (ə)lkə́ttan amwuh (ə)ssúm la hakəttyə́ḍləb, (ə)ḥkəm sis ẓúẓ fṛə́nk. t(ə)ɣsə́d šá (ə)ktəṛ nwayú a? Why are we wasting time? I’ve told you my price. Go around the market as you will and whoever you find with linen of this quality (lit. like this), take two mals off the price he asks you (i.e. I will give it to you at 2 mals less than what he asks). Do you want more than that?’ lá, xláṣ! báhi iziɣ áitu mə́ṣṭfa gəlžə́nbik ɣərs (ə)lkə́ttan də́ṃṃas nwuh swá swa. yəḍl(ə)bíyid sə́tta wtlatín. ‘No, fair enough! Well then, Mustapha next door (to you) has exactly the same cloth as this (lit. it is its mother). He asked me 36.’ báhi (ə)ḥkəm ẓuẓ fṛə́nk mamak ṃṃíɣak. ‘OK, take two malls off as I told you.’ (Note that in the early 50s to which the passage relates, 5 mals were the equivalent of 1 girsh or piastre.) ṭə́yyəb, ya si. kəttəṛ xír(ə)k. yáḷḷa kə́yyliyid. ‘Fine (,sir). Thank you. Start measuring (it) for me.’ 173

B. mə́nit təɣsə́d? ‘How much do you want?’ A. ɣsəɣ sə́tta mítru, sə́nn nimə́ryal dɣəri (i)bušír(ə)n iḥ(ə)škún(ə)n. z(ə́)ʕma (a)s(ə)nfə́ṣṣləɣ ḥ(ə)tta n(ə́)tnin (ə)lkə́ttan dáfləɣ iziɣ as(ə)nnígəɣ (ə)lbáṣmət, mátta (ə)ṛṛáyik? ‘(I want) 6 metres, (enough for) 2 shirts (NB əməryal is a white linen shirt with collar and buttons normally worn by ‘men’ from about 13 years on. takmist is generally without collar and buttons and as a rule worn by children, though adults may sometimes wear it. It is coloured or striped and of any material other than linen. takmist, with very wide sleeves, may also be worn by women; it is more like a blouse, with the parts showing under the ‘ərdá’ coloured), and I have 2 small children. I wonder, should I order (to be cut) linen for them, too, and have done (lit. and go) or should I make it calico for them? What do you think?’ B. n(ə)tš (ə)ṛṛáyiw (ə)lbáṣmət xír iyibušír(ə)n iḥəškún(ə)n. iḥəškún(ə)n (w)ytts(ə)ʕʕdínš (ə)lkə́ttan. ‘I think calico is better for small children. Linen doesn’t suit (lit. help) them.’ A. ḥ(ə)tta n(ə́)tš ámləɣ (ə)lbáṣmət xír. iziɣ (ə)nkḍíyid sinn nimə́ryal dsənn niṣṛawlíyən wb(ə)ʕdin anḥə́kkəṛ matta (a)sə́nnig ittányin. ‘I, too, would say that calico is better. Then cut me out 2 shirts and 2 (pairs of) trousers, and we’ll see afterwards what to do for the others.’ B. báhi, ḥáḍəṛ. ‘Good, certainly.’ (Later) B.

ay(u) dimə́ryal dway(u) diṣṛawlíyən. xxul (ə)lbáṣmət nmátta la t(ə)ɣsə́d? ‘Here are the shirts and here the trousers. Now what kind of calico do you want?’ A. (ə)lbáṣmət la t(ə)ssnə́dtət dtáṣbiḥt, nə́ṣṣis, dáṣbiḥ dtə́ṣḥiḥ atə́ḥkəm gibušírən, dwtəɣlíš bzáyəd. ‘One you know to be good, of good make, strong enough for children, and not too dear.’ B. matta (a)tə́mləd (ə)gtúh? ‘What do you think (lit. say) of this one?’ A. dtáṣbiḥt madʕíli. (ə)ssum wɣisə́ɣš aksə́stnəɣ kúl smə́nit, ay(u) la hatə́mləd báhi. yáḷḷa kə́yyəl. ɣsəɣ tákmist iwə́fṛux lʕə́mṛis ṭnáš dtə́kmist iwə́fṛux lʕə́mṛis ʕə́šṛa didžtíḍənt iwə́fṛux səddiɣ isə́ff (< yəsfa). ‘It’s all right, I think. I don’t at all want to ask you how much it is. Whatever you say, goes. Go ahead and measure up. I want a 174

B.

A.

B.

A. B.

A. B. A.

shirt for a boy of 12, (and) one for a boy of 10, and another for a baby.’ báhi, wuh n(ə)ṭnáš dwúh nʕə́šṛa (a)sənnə́nkəḍ stúh duḥə́škun asənḥə́wwəm idžtíḍənt l(a) ə́ṛḍəb áššar. ‘OK, we’ll cut from this one for the 12-year-old and 10-year-old, and we’ll look out something rather softer for the little one.’ íg (ə)ššə́ɣlik, db(ə́)ʕd wáyu ɣsə́ɣak aitḥə́wwməd lbáṣmət nind b(ə)llíri. ɣsəɣ sə́nn nind b(ə)llíri báss (NB bəss cannot be used here), ɣsəɣ (ə)lbáṣmət la dtáṣbiḥt (NB la is omissible here; its inclusion makes for emphatic predication). ‘I leave it to you (lit. do your work). Afterwards I want you to look me out some dress material (calico). I want two dresses and want the material to be good.’ (ǝ)lbáṣmǝt la ɣǝ́ri t(ǝ)kmǝ́l dtáṣbiḥt dwtǝggáyǝd kan šáṛa la (a)kt(ǝ́)ʕžǝb dakúšǝɣ (ə)lbáṣmət la (a)tə́nnḍəd (ə)ssuq yəkmə́l wəttaf(ə)dtə́tš. mággisint t(ə)ɣsəd akúšəɣ? ‘All my material is good and you won’t take anything you don’t like. (And) I will give you material you won’t find it(s like if) you go round the whole market. Which (roll) do you want me to give you?’ tṛa (ə)skníyid ay(u) lmə́qd(ə)ʕ nənnə́wwaṛ (s. tanəwwart, pl. tinəwwaṛin). matta (ə)ṛṛáyik g(ə)lb(ə)llíri swuhánit? ‘Just show me that flowered roll. What do you think of a dress from that?’ af(ə)lkífik – (ə)lbáṣmət la t(ə)ɣsə́d akúšəɣ sís. (ə)lbáṣmət t(ə)kmə́l d(ə)šškəll (Note geminated -ll and cf. ššə́klis and šškəllə́nsən) ídžən, dtəkmə́l d(ə)ssuum ídžən. wb(ə)ʕdín akrə́nyəɣ šaṛá iḍ(ə)n, (ə)lbáṣmət la hak(ə)ttúšəɣ ə́wyit də́sknit. al(ə)mmi was(ə)nt(ə)ʕžíbš ə́rrit dak(ə)ttbə́ddləɣ. ‘It’s up to you – I will give you (from) whatever material you want. All the material is the same and all the same price. I will add another thing for you. The material I’m going to give you, take it and show it (i.e. to your wife). If she doesn’t like it (lit. if it doesn’t please her), bring it back and I will change it.’ báhi, (ə)nkḍíyid bəllíri swúh dbəllíri s(ə)lmə́qd(ə)ʕ (ə)ttánəy la sə́nnžis. ‘All right, cut me a (dress) length from this one and one from the other roll above it.’ mə́nit t(ə)ɣsəd antígəɣ, səbʕa w nə́ṣṣ iziɣ sə́bʕa? ‘How long do you want me to make them, seven and a half (metres) or seven?’ lá, igin səbʕa w nə́ṣṣ xír. mallik sə́bʕa madʕili ákkd(ə)n diḥ(ə)škún(ə)n, wbəʕdín uši hattwasírd(ə)n dadátfən. ‘No, better you make

175

B. A. B. A. B. A. B.

A. B.

them seven and a half. I think seven would turn out too small and, then, they will still have to be washed and will shrink.’ af(ə)lkífik. ‘As you will.’ báhi, mə́nit l(ə)ḥsábik yəkmə́l? ‘OK, how much is your total bill?’ s(ə)tt míya w t(ə)sʕa w t(ə)sʕín fṛənk žə́mla. ‘699 mals all told.’ smə́nit t(ə)ḥsə́bəd (ə)lbáṣmət nibušírən d(ə)lbáṣmət (ə)ttánya? ‘How much did you charge for the boys’ material and for the other one?’ (ə)lbáṣmət nibušírən s(ə)tmánya w ʕəšrín dəttánya sxə́msa w (ə)ṛbʕín. ‘The boys’ at 28 and the other at 45.’ wətša bzayə́d a? ‘Isn’t that a lot?’ lá, waḷḷa s(ə)ʕʕə́dɣak ə́ssʕad la wakytts(ə)ʕʕdíš ḥə́ddukan, dbáqi uš s(ə)tmiya w(ə)tmanyín tə́fləd. ‘No, I have truly helped you (i.e. made a reduction for you) in a way that nobody (else) would, but nevertheless give 680 only (lit. go on. NB təfləd here is the aorist proper).’ báhi, ya si. k(ə)ttəṛ xírək. (ə)ssalámu ʕalíkum (NB women usually say sslám ʕlíkəm). ‘All right, sir, thank you. Goodbye.’ ʕalíkum (ə)ssalám. tə́lbəs wətšə́ṛṛək bəlhná, ya si. ‘Goodbye. May you wear and tear (it) with pleasure, sir.’

(Lexico-grammatical note with reference to təṣḥiḥ atəḥkəm gibuširən in A’s speech at end of p. 174, following ‘(Later)’: yəḥkəm usually has sense of ‘looking after’ and elsewhere ‘restraining’. The following sentences illustrate this as well as the forms or absence of g-: (1) (ə)mlas atə́ḥkəm ibušírən ttadžittə́nš áffɣən ‘Tell her to keep the children (inside), not to let them go out’; (2) (ə)mlas atə́ḥkəm gibušírnis (or, without -is, (g)gibušírən) tthə́ṛṛžən gmíddən ‘Tell her to look after her children, they are annoying people’; (3) as on p. 174, where gibuširən occurs without e.g. -is and where gg- is inadmissible, presumably because the form concludes a sentence, though this has not been verified.)

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5 (Two acquaintances meet in London) A. ahlən slíman! ‘Hullo, Sliman!’ B. ahlən[n]! (Note length of final n indicates that B has not seen A for some time.) mamak t(ə́)llid? ‘Hullo there! How are you?’ A. mamak t(ə́)llid? ma bík ša. ‘How are you? All well I hope.’ B. (ə)lḥámdullah, mamak t(ə)llid šə́kkin, ma bík ša. ‘Yes, thank you. How are you? Well, too, I hope.’ A. dləmmi tusə́d(ə)d? ‘When did you arrive?’ B. usə́dəɣ gšə́hr la yfát. ‘I got here last month.’ A. šə́hṛ la yfát (with falling-rising tone on -fat). ‘Last month!?’ B. mmm ‘Yes.’ A. mámak llan l(ə)žmáʕət ɣádi? ‘How are folks (back) there (i.e. at home)?’ B. la, ma bihə́mš kúl. ttsə́llmən f(ə́)llak. ‘All fine (Note untranslatability of ‘la’). They send you their greetings.’ A. mamak yəllá (ə)ššíx ḥážži? ‘How is Sheikh Hajji?’ B. waḷḷá ita (< waḷḷahi aita) (a)məlʕádtis swá swa. ybə́rrəz ɣádi gwáṃṃas ntə́muṛt. ‘Quite the same as ever (lit. In truth, just like his custom). He has an easy time (of it) there in (the midst of) Zuara.’ A. iziɣ ʕə́ṃṃaṛ. ‘And Ommar?’ (This is not at first heard by B, who continues talking about Sheikh Hajji.) B. ynə́ffəx ayta (a)mə́lbaff. ‘As proud as a peacock.’ (lit. he struts or is puffed up like a turkey. There is no plural form of aməlbaff, and the ‘dark’ (emphatic) quality of the final syllable is noteworthy, as is the length of the final labio-dental consonant.) A. iziɣ ʕə́ṃṃaṛ? ‘And Ommar?’ B. ʕəṃṃaṛ yəlla gəḍṛábləs xxul. ‘Omar is in Tripoli now.’ A. yəlla gəḍṛábla[a]s (Note exclamatory or ‘echoing’ interrogative lenghthening of vowel of final syllable)!? B. gəḍṛábləs, a (a indicates assent). ‘In Tripoli, yes.’ A. áá, ṣaṛ y(ə)ʕməṛ g(ə)ḍṛabləs díma. ‘Ah, so he lives all the time in Tripoli.’ B. y(ə)ʕməṛ g(ə)ḍṛábləs dyxə́ddəm ɣádi maɣə́llik. ‘He lives there because he works there.’ (Cf. the question y(ə)ʕməṛ gəḍṛabləs maɣar yxəddəm ɣadi a? ‘Does he live in Tripoli because he works 177

there?’. (Here the questioner does not know whether Ommar is living or working in T., but if he uses mallik for maɣar, then he alreadys knows that Ommar works in T. The form maɣəllik, presumably related to maɣar, is at present puzzling as to the form (< maɣar lik?) and sentence position.) A. dšə́kkin mamak t(ə́)llid? ‘And how are you?’ (The customary repetition of greetings.) B. (ə)lḥámdullah, aytu (ə)ṣṣə́ḥḥət yəʕni ma bináš. ‘Very well, thank you.’ (Cf. gəṣṣəḥḥət ma binaš ‘not too badly’. The puzzling word yəʕni, often puzzling in spoken Arabic, too, is essential in the text in the company of aytu (ə)ṣṣəḥḥət.) A. iziɣ mátta hatígəd dəhanit. ‘What are you going to do here?’ B. dəhánit nusəd hánẓəṛ ... amyu adinháh ... (ə)lbúṣṭət nlə́ngliz dəhanit. matta ttígən dmatta ttigə́nš, hanəttə́nẓəṛ ida kan nnə́žžəm š(a) ánig ša šáṛa ɣádi gtəṃuṛtə́nnəɣ. ‘We’ve come here to look at ... what’s its name? ... the English post (services), what they do and what they don’t. We’re going to see if we can do anything (similar) there in our country.’ (Note: All orders are possible between (ida kan nnəžžəm) ša anig ša šaṛa / anig ša šaṛa / ša anig šaṛa. Cf. iyya físəʕ al(ə)mmi nnə́žžəm ša náṣəl qəbl awə́ṭṭu nt(ə)ffuit ‘Hurry up (to see) if we can get there before sunset.’ Positional variation between ša and ḥədd is illustrated by: ḥəkkəṛ al(ə)mmi ša yəlla ḥədd din / yəlla ša ḥədd din / ša ḥədd yəlla din / yəlla ḥədd ša din ‘See if anyone is there.’ *yəlla ḥədd din a? is an inadmissible rendering of ‘Is anyone there?’, which must be yəlla (or dis) ša ḥədd din a? yəlla din a? is a confirming question (so, he’s there) but in case of yəlla ša din a? it is not known where ‘he’ is and you are asking whether he is there. Order is fixed here. Elsewhere, there is no apparent difference between the inclusion or not of ša. Thus, yusəd (š(a)) argaz a?, təflid (ša) mani ṃṃiɣak a?, ɣǝrk (ša) iflusǝn a? tǝṃṃidas (ša) matta ṃṃiɣak a? ‘Did you tell him what I told you?’ In the case of tufid ša šaṛá a? ‘Have you found anything?’, ša is essential as with ša ḥədd above.) A. mamak xxul šəkkin t(ə)llid gəlbuṣ(ə́)ṭt a? (NB The first four words are rapidly uttered on low level monotone; syllable -buṣ- also low and level but with increasing stress and tenseness, which is perceptible at its peak in the phase -ṣṭt-. The vowel which would ‘normally’ bear the accent is elided in the sequence of voiceless consonants.) ‘How so? Are you in the Post Office now?’ 178

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aa, n(ə)tš xə́ddməɣ ɣadi gəlbúṣṭ(ə)t xxul. ‘Yes, I work in the Post Office there now.’ aa, xxul txə́ddməd gəlbuṣṭá[a]t? (Note lengthening of vowel in final syllable to mark the ‘echo interrogative’.) slə́mmi? ‘Really! (One cannot in English repeat the same words.) Since when?’ mmḿ, susəggaṣṣənnátt! ‘Yes, from last year.’ susəggaṣṣənnátt! a, kwáyy(ə)s, dáṣbiḥ! iziɣ ... mámak ... matta hatígəd xxul dəhanit, a, iziɣ tə́ṃṃid hat(ə)fl(ə)d l(ə)lbúṣṭ(ə)t. ‘So! That’s good, excellent ... then, er ... what are you going to do now? Oh, yes, (A remembers) you said you were going to the Post Office.’ nisí n(ə)ffəɣ lbə́ṛṛa nẓə́ṛṛ gəlbúṣṭət la lbə́ṛṛa. ng(ə́)ʕməz aša šə́hṛ wb(ə)ʕdín n(ə)dwəl dəhanit ltə́ṃuṛt. ‘We have been out (of London) seeing the provincial posts. We stayed about a month and have now returned here to town.’ ltəṃuṛt dəhanít a? ‘(You mean) This town (i.e. London)?’ áywa, nudəl nxə́ddəm ... gwadinháh ... guməqqarə́nsən máni dís ... ayunhah ... (ə)rryastə́nsən, yəʕni la ɣádi xə́ddmən dis gəlbúṣṭət. ‘Yes, we’ve started working in their ... er ... what’s-its-name ... head office, where there is their ... what do you call it ... their headquarters, I mean where they work.’ iziɣ máni təflím? bəṛṛá a. ‘Where did you go? Away (, I mean)?’ nəflá ltə́ṃuṛt nnanas ‘bráitun’. ‘We went to a town called ‘Brighton’. təflím lbráitun!? ‘You went to Brighton!?’ af(ə)ššə́ṭṭ níləl. ‘At the seaside.’ tʕəžbáwən ša braitún a? ‘Did you like Brighton?’ waḷḷa dtáṣbiḥt, taṃuṛt təzʕə́m. ‘Yes, indeed, a lovely town.’ xír ndəhánit. ‘Better than here.’ lá yəʕni, taṃuṛt n(ə́)ttat wətšá dtamə́qqart amdəhánit, lakən ... yəʕni ... tus(ə)d n(ə́)ttat afíləl, dtə́nḍif disqáqnis ... yəʕni ... diməqqárən, lakən dəhánit ddúnyət t(ə)kmə́l də́zzṭaṭ áss yəkmə́l dwə́nẓaṛ ... (Note that if the last form had been danẓaṛ, then ass yəkməl would have accompanied it). ‘Not really, it isn’t a big town like this, but it is at the seaside, it is clean, its streets are ... er ... wide, whereas here it’s mud everywhere all day long and the rain ...’ t(ə)ẓṛíd ay(u) ddunyə́t la t(ə)kməl tutəf gb(ə)ʕdís a? ... ‘Have you seen all this chaos everywhere?’ (lit. entered itself, i.e. all in con-

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fusion) (A was going on to speak of all the people, traffic, etc. in London rushing here, there, and everywhere pele-mele.) dway(u) n(ə)tʕəfrítin la ggúrnət ttazzə́lnət gwaṃṃas nisqáqən. ‘And these cars are rushing and dashing about the streets ... .’ (tʕəfritt / tiʕərfritin is seemingly obsolete in the sense of ‘car’.) wt(ə)ssin(ə́)dš la smánis atátfəd la smánis at(ə́)ffɣəd. ‘You don’t know which way to turn.’ (lit. you don’t know where to start, e.g. crossing the road (in London) nor where to leave (it).)’ wyttafš bnádəm ḥ(ə)tta smanis ayátəf. ‘One doesn’t know what to be about.’ la smánis atátfəd w la smanis at(ə́)ffɣəd. iziɣ bráitun wəldisš ləkṛáhəb bzáyəd amdəhanít a? ‘Neither where to begin nor where to leave off. I suppose there aren’t as many cars in Brighton as here.’ la, dís yəʕni, lakən tšá (a)mdəhanit. ‘There are, of course, but not like here.’ tša (a)mdəhanit, la, bráitun dtaḥə́škunt yəʕni. ‘Not like here, no, Brighton is small, of course.’ dtaḥə́škunt. ‘Small, yes.’ iziɣ ... aa ... dmáni t(ə)ʕmə́ṛəm gəbraitun? ‘Well ... er ... and where did you (pl.) live in Brighton? waḷḷáahi n(ə)ʕmə́ṛ did ... adinháh ... nufá ɣadi lʕilt d(ə)llə́ngliz y(ə)ʕni. ‘We lived with ... er ... we went to an English family.’ (waḷḷahi, ɣadi, and yəʕni untranslated.) d(ə)llə́ngliz? ‘English?’ d(ə)llə́ngliz, aywa. ‘English, yes.’ míddən ndəhánit kmə́l(ə)n d(ə)llə́ngliz. wəldísš la dwə́llul w la dáṛab. ‘The people here are all English. There aren’t any Berbers or Arabs.’ la wəllíš, ʕad kmə́ln dis(ə)ṭṭáfən. ‘No, there aren’t, they are all Europeans (lit. black men), of course (= ʕad).’ (Cf. la wəlliš ʕad, kmələn disəṭṭafən ‘No, there aren’t any of course, they are all Europeans.’, which says much the same thing.) kmə́l(ə)n dis(ə)ṭṭáfən, áywa. ‘They’re all Europeans, yes.’ wəllíš aṛábən dwadinháh wəllíš. s(á)ʕa s(á)ʕa, waḷḷa n(ə́)tta kullsəʕa bnádəm ayaf ídžən gwə́brid ɣir aɣi yəggúr gwə́brid iziɣ dšaṛa, áyaf idžən yttútlay swáwal nilíntan. ‘No Arabs and no thingummies (i.e. Berbers). (B is addicted to ‘thingummy’ and the like.) A person may now and again (NB nətta refers to bnadəm) find one in the 180

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street, while walking in the street or something (More vagueness!) find someone talking Arabic.’ (Notes: Another example of invariable aɣi, which occurs in this ‘speech’, is ḥədd ɣir aɣi (or ɣir ayəḍḍəl) wittaggíḍš, ayig kullši ‘When(ever) anyone is without respect (for others), he will do anything (bad).’ The sentence would have been more coherently expressed as waḷḷa nətta kullsəʕa bnadəm, ɣir aɣi yəggur gwəbrid, ayaf idžən yttutlay swawal nilintan. línti (s.) / ilíntan (pl.), though strictly meaning ‘nonBerber’, is always specialised to refer to Arabs. ‘Jews’ were known as ind bab n(ə)tmə́ḥəṛmin ‘people in (bab lit. = owning, like Arabic (a)bu) scarves or turbans’. Cf. yusə́dak bab n(ə)tmə́ḥrəmt ‘A Jew is coming’. Other secret terms have special reference to the police, e.g. ind bab niyyisan ‘policemen’, ayu sizizawən ‘customs inspector’ (lit. the one from the greens).) tufím l(ə)žmaʕ(ə)t ttutláyən swawal nilintán a? ‘Have you found people talking Arabic?’ ááá, llán s(a)ʕa s(a)ʕa. ‘Yes, (they are) sometimes.’ lakən wəllíš ṃaṃṃu yttútlay máziɣ. ‘But there isn’t anybody who speaks Berber.’ lá, wəllíš. ‘No, there isn’t.’ ya wə́ddi, gə́ššək. ‘Indeed, it’s doubtful.’ lá, wnufíš awal nimazíɣən, wəllíš ṃaṃṃu yttútlay dis dəhanit. ‘No, we haven’t heard any Berber, there isn’t anyone who speaks it here.’ t(ə)ssə́n(ə)ḍ n(ə)tš qqíməɣ dəhanit ʕamín, wfíɣš ḥə́ddukan yttutlay máziɣ. ‘You know, I’ve been here two years and have not heard anyone speak Berber.’ máni ʕad! wəttasdə́nš dəhanit. ‘Where (would you expect to find them)! They don’t come here.’ lá, wəttasdə́nš, íškəlt bə́ss aita muḥə́mməd. ‘No, they don’t. Just once only when Muhammad came.’ ááá, yusəd dəhanít a? ‘Ah, did he come here?’ muḥə́mməd, áywa, yusəd dəhánit, n(ə)ʕyá n(ə)ttútlay nšíd(ə)s. ‘Muhammad, yes, he came here. We talked a lot together.’ (NB Not all pronouns combine in the manner of nšídəs. Thus əffɣət ssyəhanit šəkk dnətta ‘Get out, you and him’ – not *šəkkidəs, nor *nəttaidək.) š(ə)kkin təṃṃídid muḥə́mməd. mággəsin? ay(u) la yttárəy gəlkaẓíṭt a? ‘You say (lit. said) Muhammad. Which one? The one who 181

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writes in the newspaper?’ (NB əlkaẓiṭət (s.) / əlkaẓiṭat (pl.), from It. gazetta.) lá, muḥə́mməd ttánəy, wúh la gəlbúliṣ, muḥəmməd amənṣúri (Note the common prefixation of a- to surnames, cf. also aʕəzzabi, aʕəṭṭuši, etc.) ‘No, the other Muhammad, the one in the police, Muhammad Mansuri.’ ááá, ay(u) nwzəgrár a? ‘Ah, the tall one.’ áá, muḥə́mməd azə́grar, áywa. ‘Yes, the tall Muhammad, that’s right.’ məmmis ... nwuhánit ... amənṣúri. ‘The son of ... what’s-‘is-name ... Mansuri.’ muḥə́mməd amənṣúri, áywa. ‘Muhammad Mansuri, yes.’ nətt(a) as(ə)ggaṣṣ(ə)nnátt usədən ldəhánit. ‘It was last year they came here.’ ááá, as(ə)g(g)aṣṣ(ə)nnátt. yusə́d baqi ḥ(ə)tta (ə)ttánəy. ‘Yes, last year. Another one came here, too (= baqi).’ ṃáṃṃu? ‘Who?’ yus(ə)d mílud. ‘Milud (came).’ milud nyəḥyá? (Note the interrogative accentual ‘shift’) Milud Yahya.’ milud nyə́ḥya. ‘Yes.’ ééé (to express surprise), ay(u) xxúl ʕad n(ə)tta d(ə)lḥákəm gtə́ṃuṛt. ‘Ah, he’s the Governer of Zuara now, you know.’ (ʕad = ‘you know’) mílud nyəḥyá (a)?! ‘Milud Yahya?!’ ááá, ɣərs sə́nt nwadinháh ntazárin (NB -a- remains in the first syllable). ‘Yes, he has two ... thingummies ... pips.’ (i.e. he is a lieutenant in the police) (tazart / tazarin lit. ‘dried fig’.) milud nyə́hya xxul dəẓẓáb(ə)ṭ ṣaṛ swá swa. ‘So Milud Yahya is a real (= swa swa) officer now.’ ááá, dəẓẓáb(ə)ṭ xxul, dsə́nt. ‘Yes, he’s an officer now, and a two (-pipper).’ dids ša (essential here) (a)nglizí a? ‘Is here any Englishman with him?’ lááá, laa, muhu lə́ngliz ʕad ffə́ɣən stəṃuṛt? xxul məʕádš dis ḥə́ddukan. ‘No, no, didn’t you know that the English have left the town? There are no longer any there now.’ xxul lə́ngliz kməl(ə)n ffəɣə́n a?! ‘The English have all gone now (, have they)?!’ 182

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áywa, xxul adinhah (ə)lmutṣə́ṛṛəf dáṛab, dadinhah (ə)lqaymáqam (Note accentuation in contrast with Arabic oxytone) ḥ(ə)tta n(ə)tta dáṛab, dḥ(ə)tta (ə)lḥakəm (ə)lbúliṣ kul daṛábən. ‘Yes, now the Comissioner is an Arab, the Mayor is an Arab, and even the Chief of Police – they’re all Arabs.’ ṣaṛ xxúl ləḥkúm(ə)t t(ə)kmə́l daṛabən. ‘Then now the whole governorate is Arab.’ kúl, ʕad múhu xxul məʕádš adinhah məʕadš isəṭṭáffən. ‘Completely, don’t you know there are no more foreigners now?’ məʕadš isəṭṭafə́n a? ‘No more foreigners, eh!?’ xxul táṃuṛt təḥkəm gimánis. ‘The country now governs itself.’ dis ... a ... dəqqímən uš(i) is(ə)ṭṭafən gəḍṛabl(ə́)s a? ‘Are there ... er ... and are there still foreigners in Tripoli?’ dís, ddə́rən ɣádi, aita xə́ddmən gwadinhah ḥ(ə)tta n(ə́)tnin gləḥkúm(ə)t saddəw ləḥkúm(ə)t nwaṛábən. ‘There are some (who) (lit. and they) live there, they are working in the ... you know ... working also in the Government, under the Arab government.’ lakən əṛṛáy(ə)s nləḥkúm(ə)t n(ə)tta dáṛab. ‘But the head of the Government is Arab.’ ááá, əṛṛay(ə)s nləḥkúm(ə)t ʕad dáṛab, dwuhánit adinhah (Open vowel quality in this ‘filler’ varies freely between front and back) ə́ṛṛəy(y). ‘Yes, he is Arab to be sure, and he is (also) the ... what’s-it ... King.’ (i.e. King Idris in the days before Col. Gaddafi.) ṣaṛ (l)lə́ngliz xul məʕadš ḥə́kkmən. ‘So the English don’t govern any more.’ lá, (l)ləngliz wəllíš, yəʕni xəddmən did l(ə)ḥkúm(ə)t bə́ss. ‘No, there are no English, that is, they only work for the Government.’ dis l(ə)žmáʕ(ə)t xəddmən did l(ə)ḥkúmt a? ‘There are some, then, who work with the Government.’ áywa, qqímən xəddmən did l(ə)ḥkúm(ə)t. ‘Yes, there still are.’ (Notice how, as in Arabic, the Berber speaker tends to repeat whole sentences and phrases, where his English counterpart uses one of the many auxiliaries available to him.) iziɣ š(ə)kkin mə́nit uši hat(ə)qqiməd dəhánit? ‘And for yourself, how much longer are you going to stay here?’ n(ə)tš aḍunni wəḷḷáhi təqríbən aša tlat (NB təlt is better) šhuṛ íḍ(ə)n. ‘I think about three more months.’

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A. tlát šhuṛ íḍ(ə)n! bəlláhi ida kan tṛəwwḥəd wak(ə)ẓṛíɣ, səllmí(y)yid af(ə)lžmáʕət. ‘Three more months! If you go home and I don’t see you, remember me to everyone.’ B. áywa, ḥáḍəṛ. ‘Yes, of course.’ A. səllmí(y)yid af(ə)ššix ḥážži dəššix ṣáləḥ, dl(ə)žmáʕət kmə́l(ə)n səllmí(y)yid f(ə)llásən. ‘Remember me to Sheikh Hajji and Sheikh Salih, and to everybody.’ B. lázəm asənbə́llɣəɣ. ‘I will definitely tell them.’ A. la búdda (a)t(ə)fl(ə)d alʕə́bza dast(ə)ml(ə)d yttsə́lləm f(ə́)llak. ‘You must go to Abza and give him my regards (lit. tell him that he, i.e. speaker A, sends his regards to you).’ B. ééé! ʕad ʕə́bza adin! kull yum nəffal lɣadi gtəḥnúytis. ‘Yes, of course! Don’t worry about Abza! (or there is no need to specify Abza. If this reassuring phrase were omitted, A might have said lakən ərrbalik atəttud ‘but don’t forget’.) We go to his shop there every day.’ (l could replace g here). A. t(ə)qqím(ə)d t(ə)ffalam ɣadi (NB Not lɣadi) tsə́ssəm gəššahí a? ‘Do you still go there drinking tea?’ B. nsə́ss gəššáhi ɣadi dn(ə)tthə́dr(ə)z. ‘We drink tea there and talk.’ A. t(ə)ẓṛid adin n(ə)tthədrizát (Verbal Noun) la n(ə)ttig disn(ə)t ɣadí a? ‘Do you recall those talks we used to have there?’ (NB There is a sense of pleasant recollection in təẓṛid. Accentuation of pl. nətthədrizat is interrogative.) B. waḷḷá xxul n(ə)tta ʕad d(ə)lmuʕə́lləm. ‘He is a teacher now, you know.’ (B might also have said xxul yṛaḥ dəlmuʕəlləm adin ʕabza.) A. ááá, ʕabza d(ə)lmuʕəllə́m a?! ‘Abza a teacher?!’ B. aywa, yəssə́ɣra (or iss-) xxul. ‘Yes, he’s teaching.’ A. slə́mmi. ‘Since when?’ B. ee sus(ə)ggaṣṣ(ə)nnátt. ‘Yes, from last year.’ A. (k)kənnə́btis taṃuṛt t(ə)kməl ttwaɣə́yyər smanis usə́dəɣ n(ə)tš alləxxúl. ‘It seems that Zuara has totally changed between when I came (here) and (up to) now.’ (NB (k)k- to male addressee; to a female, the corresponding form is ṃṃayu nnəbtis, not *mənnəbtis. kkayu nnəbtis is an alternative form of (k)kənnəbtis.) B. lá y(ə)ʕni yəḥfə́ḍ, y(ə)ʕni n(ə)tta dmúɣri. ‘Well no, he is an educated, well-read man.’ A. áywa. ‘Yes.’ B. y(ə)ḥfə́ḍ dyəfla (d is essential here) lləmdín(ə)t dyutlay (d omissible here) n(ə)tta dl(ə)žmáʕət nləmʕárəf. ‘(Since) he is an educated 184

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man, he went to the city (i.e. Tripoli) and talked to the people of the Education Department.’ ləžmáʕət nləmʕárəf qəblə́ntid d(ə)lmuʕə́lləm. ‘The Education people accepted him as a teacher.’ igə́ntid d(ə)lmuʕə́lləm. ‘They’ve appointed him.’ ṣaṛ yəggə́z d(ə)lmuʕə́lləm. ‘So, he’s become a teacher!’ (NB yəggəz lit. ‘he came down’ is used to refer to service appointments in education, the police, the army, etc.) yəggə́z d(ə)lmuʕə́lləm xxul yəssə́ɣra. ‘Yes, he’s now teaching.’ (Note again the repetition, unacceptable in English but widespread in Arabic.) yiga ləmtiḥán iziɣ wyigíš ləmtiḥan? (Notice the accentuation of the elsewhere paroxytonic ləmtíḥan.) ‘Did he take the examination or not?’ waḷḷáhi muhu n(ə)tnin gway(u) nʕamín ggayən (< yəggay) ammídin bla ləmtiḥánat, maɣə́llik ɣə́rsən (omissible here) məlzumín gəlmuʕə́llmin, ggáyən mən ɣir ləmtiḥánat. ‘As you know, for the last two years they are taking (them) like this without examinations, because they are short of teachers (they are taking (them) without examinations) (more repetition).’ ááá, ggáyən mən ɣir ləmtiḥanát a?! lakən t(ə)ssə́n(ə)d ʕabza dáṣbiḥ. ‘So they’re recruiting without examinations!? But, you know, Abza is good.’ ááá, yəssə́n. ‘Yes, he’s competent.’ dáṣbiḥ, yəssə́n, ayta ḥ(ə)tta zmán yttarəy gəldumándat dyttig kúll ši. ‘He’s efficient and competent. As you know, even before he was (writing) applications and doing everything.’ áá, smanís n(ə)šnin nəssə́ni, smánis nəšnin diməškún(ə)n n(ə)tta yttárəy. ‘Yes, all the time we have known him, since we were boys, he has been writing.’ wbəʕdín nə́tš smanís lúləɣ alləxxúl, n(ə)tš sə́lləɣ dís nnánas lústad ʕábza yəʕni m(ə)ʕnaha dárgaz yəssə́n. ‘And then, from the time I was born till now, I have heard them calling him “Doctor Abza”, meaning he is a learned man.’ lá, dmúɣri. ‘Yes, he is.’ dəxxul ṃaṃṃu d(ə)lmúdir n(ə)lmə́drəst ntə́ṃuṛt? ‘Who’s the headmaster of the Zuara school now?’

185

B. A. B. A. B. A.

B.

A.

B. A. B. A. B. A.

máni? ɣadí a? ááá, məmmis nwəmsəlláti. ‘You mean in Zuara? (lit. Where? There?) Msillati’s son.’ (Note there is a village nearby called Msillata.) yəqqim məmmis nwəmsəlláti alləxxúl a? sliɣ ṃṃán hayḥə́wwəl. ‘Is Msillati’s son still there? I heard tell he was moving.’ wəssínəɣ kanš (or kunši) b(ə)ʕdma ... (This was an unfinished sentence on the recording. Add e.g. usə́dəɣ). ‘I haven’t heard. Unless it was after ... (I came).’ ṣaṛ š(ə)kk almanís tusə́d(ə)d n(ə)tta yəqqím ɣadi. ‘So he was still there till you came there.’ almanis nusə́d n(ə)tta yəllá ɣadi. (Note yəlla, not *yisi, here. Cf. e.g. manis (When) nusəd nətta yisi ɣadi). ‘Up to when we (= I) came, he was there, yes.’ a wə́ddi ḥ(ə)tta n(ə́)tta dafṛux dáṣbiḥ. ‘You know, he’s a good chap, too.’ (a wəddi not substitutable by or for waḷḷahi, cf. e.g. waḷḷahi ḥ(ə)tta n(ə́)tta mamak atə́mləd, a stronger form of asseveration.) báhi, dáṣbiḥ, wətšá xáṭəy. ‘Yes, he’s good. He isn’t (the) dissatisfied (type).’ (xaṭəy refers to someone who does not do his job properly, not from incompetence but from resentment of some kind.) middən bzáy(ə)d nnan wyṣəllə́ḥš, lakən n(ə)tta dáfṛux dáṣbiḥ, wətšá xáṭəy. (ə)lḥəqq yəʕni ... (ə́)lḥəqq ḥə́dd ayməl (ə́)lḥəqq, aṃṃi í(y)yih la nnə́k iziɣ wətšá nnək. (ə́)lḥəqq ḥə́dd yažəb (Arabism; wážəb also possible) attíməl (better, attə́yməl). ‘Many say he’s no good, but he’s a good sort, not resentful. To tell the truth ... One should tell the truth whether on behalf of one’s friends or not. One must tell the truth.’ (Somewhat tedious repetitiveness) wyṛəggílš s(ə)lḥəqq ḥə́ddukan. ‘No one escapes the truth.’ dəxxul ṃáṃṃu d(ə)lmutṣə́ṛṛəf iziɣ? ‘And who’s the Comissioner now?’ (Is iziɣ here curiously reminiscent of the German interrogative use of ‘oder’?) ááá, məmmis nwuhánit ... məmmis nslíman ns(ə́)ʕid sžádu. ‘Ah, the son of ... what’s-his-name ... Sliman Sa’id from Jadu.’ ááá, sžádu. ṣaṛ ḥ(ə)tta n(ə́)tta dmáziɣ. ‘Ah, from Jadu, so he’s Berber, too.’ a, dmáziɣ. ‘Yes, he’s Berber.’ dáṣbiḥ, kwáyyəs. ‘Good, fine!’

186

B.

xxul babis d(ə)lʕəḍw gəlbəṛləṃán. ‘His father is now a member of Parliament.’ A. ṃáṃṃu bábis? ‘Who is his father?’ B. babis n(ə́)tta, awə́ssar amə́qqaṛ. ‘His father, the very old man (, Sliman Sa’id).’ (A. ṃaṃṃu babis? B. awəssar aməqqaṛ, sliman nsəʕid.) (The bracketed exchange is best omitted, since the conversation had become very confused) A. ááá, slíman ns(ə́)ʕid. sə́lləɣ sis nnan ... ‘Ah, Sliman Sa’id, I have heard them say of him that ...’ B. áá, árgaz ʕáqəl, dwə́rgaz ... (The record ends here and might be completed as follows:) mamak atə́mləd. ‘Yes, he’s a wise man, just what you would want.’ A. dárgaz m(ə)ʕṛúf. xxul ə́səl. n(ə)tš háfləɣ, samḥí(y)yid, ɣəri áššar nə́ššɣəll, lakən aitša idawərdí(y)yid ltíddart an(ə)tɣə́dda gmíʕ dankə́mməl ləḥdit(ə́)nnəɣ. ‘Yes, he is well known. But listen, excuse me, I must go. I have some work (to be doing), but when I get home, we’ll lunch together and finish our talk.’ B. báhi. ‘Fine.’ A. ssəlámu ʕəlíkum. ‘Goodbye.’ 6 (Conversation in Zuara, one interlocutor having returned from abroad.) A. ʕəsláma. ‘Greetings!’ B. áhlən. ‘Hullo!’ A. mamak t(ə́)llid? kkayu máni ay(u) nʕamín kul? wəlt(ə)llid gtə́ṃuṛt. ‘How are you? Where have you been all these two years? You haven’t been in Zuara.’ B. mani (i)síɣ!? maɣar š(ə)kkin wt(ə)slídš a? ‘Where have I been!? Haven’t you heard, then?’ A. máni t(ə)flid? ‘Where did you go?’ B. muhu fliɣ ltə́ṃuṛt nway(u) nis(ə)ṭṭáf(ə)n. ‘I went to the country of these Europeans (i.e. the ones in Libya) (, didn’t I = muhu corresponds to the non-standard use of the ‘tag’ in English, and is Arabic in origin).’ A. máni? ‘Where?’ 187

B. l(ə)žmaʕtə́nnəɣ yihánit xxúl. ‘These bosses (lit. folk) of ours now.’ A. ay(u) niždid(ə́)n a? ‘These new ones?’ (i.e. in contrast with the earlier Italians.) B. wáy (? French ouais), taṃúṛt (Note unusual accentuation) la nnánas lundṛa. ‘Yes, to a town called London.’ A. alɣádi iwáman, ɣádi iyíyəl (= i + iləl), ayu? ‘On the other side of the water, beyond the sea, isn’t it?’ B. ɣadi iyíyəl, tláta iziɣ ə́ṛbəʕ nilə́lat (This shows influence of Arabic 3-10 numeration, frequently involving a noun plural in -at), wətšá idžən bə́ss. ‘Beyond the sea, not just one sea but three or four.’ A. mátta nnánas taṃuṛtənsən yəʕni. ‘I meant what do they call their country?’ B. nnánas taṃuṛt nlə́ngliz. ‘They call it England (lit. the country of the English).’ A. áá, íí, ay(u) la llan xxúl dəhánit gtəṃúṛt a? ‘Oh, you mean those who are now in (our) country.’ B. áywa, l(ə)žmaʕtə́nnəɣ yihanit. ‘Yes, these folk of ours here.’ A. ṃṃan (NB Not [-m]) middən diṣbíḥən gtəṃuṛtə́nsən. ‘They say they are nice people in their own country.’ B. wəḷḷáhi dmidd(ə)n diṣbíḥən mamak atə́mləd. lakən ɣir addásən dəhanit ltəṃuṛtə́nnəɣ, aita mamak t(ə)ssnədtən š(ə́)kkin. ‘Indeed, they are as nice as you could wish. But when they come here to our country, well, you know how they are.’ A. áxta, áxta (or axətti or xətti), abəddlə́n a? ‘Oh (lit. my brother), do they change?’ B. abə́ddlən. ə́səl, nəšnin, nnán middən bnádəm yttwaɣəyyírš (< yttwaɣə́yyar) lakən ɣir at(ə́)ẓṛəd middən la ɣádi dmiddən la dəhánit atəml(ə)d ṣəbḥán aḷḷáh mamk míddən ttwaɣəyyárən. ‘They do. Listen, for our part, people say a man doesn’t change, but when you see the people there and the people here you would be amazed at how they do.’ A. wbəʕdín, mámak taṃuṛtə́nsən y(ə)ʕni? xxul amləmdintə́nnəɣ taṃuṛt taməllált a? ‘And now, what is their town like? Is it like Tripoli (lit. our city, the white town)?’ (NB yəʕni which concludes the first sentence is inomissible in the sense that mamak taṃuṛtənsən is incomplete and may be completed in a number of ways, e.g. mamak taṃuṛtənsən yəʕni ‘what sort of place is it?’ mamak taṃuṛtənsən əlkəbris ‘how big is it?’ mamak taṃuṛtənsən əṛṛəhdis ‘what does it look like?’. Similarly elsewhere, mamak tusədəd 188

B.

A. B. A. B. A. B.

A. B. A.

B.

‘how did they arrive?’ is incomplete without e.g. sləxxul ‘so early’. On the other hand, gmatta tusədəd? ‘How (i.e. by what means) did you arrive?’ is complete, as, too, is mani taṃuṛtənsən? ‘where is their town?’. yəʕni is thus omissible in the case of, say, argaz maggisin yəʕni? ‘which man do you mean?’. The matter belongs rather to the syntax of the interrogatives than to the distribution of yəʕni.) láá, mámak amtə́ṃuṛt tamə́llalt, dis əbzáyəd (ə́lfəṛq has been omitted). t(ə)ssə́n(ə)d atafəd ləbnáyət səbʕ kiṭán, (ə)lkaṭ af(ə́)lkaṭ. (Note the absence of ‘article’ before kiṭan, but with the numeral modified to include the Arabic -a suffix, then n + ‘article’ appear in səbʕa nlkíṭan [ll-], where the accentual difference is also noteworthy. səbʕ kiṭan and səbʕa nlkiṭan are interchangeable. Cf. xəms ḥyaṛ ‘5 x 4’ but xəmsa n(ə)tməllalin ‘5 white stones (?)’; ḥyaṛ is plural of ḥaara.) ‘No, how could that be? There’s a lot of (difference). Do you know you (can) find a seven-storey building, one floor on top of another.’ sə́bʕa!? sə́bʕ!? ‘Seven (, you don’t say).’ səbʕ kiṭán. ‘(Yes,) Seven storeys.’ idžən afídžən amyu. ‘One on top of the other like that?!’ áá, idžən afídžən. ‘Yes, on top of one another.’ iziɣ mámak ttaləynás (-as refers to earlier ləbnayət) ayu (ayu completes mamak)? mamak ttígən, igən(n) (ə)ssəllúm a? ‘Then how do you get up there? How do they do (it)? Do they take a ladder?’ láá, láá, dis əssə́nduq, əssə́nduq dis (ə)lkúrsi. bəss atg(ə́)ʕmzəd datə́ttkid aftə́zmamt, waidabíh atṣə́bḥəd gwžə́nna. ‘No, no, there is a lift (lit. box) with a seat in. You just sit down and press the button, and suddenly you’re up aloft.’ ayáləy lənnə́ž a? iziɣ ay(u) la nnanas (ə)lkurrínti (or əlkərrinti) (It. corriente). ‘Does it go up? Then it is what they call electricity.’ aywa, dadin dnə́tta, t(ə)ẓṛítti madʕili (ə)lkurrínti. ‘Yes, that’s it. You’ve seen electricity, I believe.’ la, (ə)llamúši, la ɣərnəɣ llamúši ayta yttig dís. ‘No (= I haven’t seen a lift but know electricity), we have Lomuschio (Italian engineer then living in Zuara) who (here = ayta) supplies (the town) with it.’ (ə)llamúši ɣərnəɣ. lakən ə́səl, (ə)lkurrínti la ɣərsən ɣádi yttig gə́ḍḍəww ḥ(ə)tta n(ə)tta, lakən ay(u) n(ə)ssə́nduq wəldisš ə́ḍḍəww, ay(u) n(ə)ssə́nduq dis tázmamt bə́ss, atə́ttkəd f(ə)llas dšəkk wətẓəṛ189

A.

B. A. B.

A. B. A. B. A. B.

ṛídš šaṛukan. šəkk wətẓəṛṛədš, šárukan, atə́mləd ša ... ‘Yes, we have Lomuschio, but listen! They have electricity there producing light too, but there’s no light in the lift, just a button and you see nothing, you see nothing at all, as if ...’ ayu ʕad dáyu amwayu la nnánas ləbṣaṭ nsídna slíman. ‘Then, this must be like the so-called carpet of Sidi Sliman.’ (Note the repetition of ayu and its occurrence in the full form ayu versus ay(u).) amlə́bṣaṭ nsidna slíman swá swa. atə́ttkid af(ə)ltə́zmamt ... ‘Exactly like Sidi Sliman’s carpet. Just press the button and ...’ atg(ə́)ʕmzəd f(ə)llas ʕad n(ə)tta datqə́bbsəd tiṭṭawínik n(ə)tt(a) akyúṣəl mani t(ə)ɣsə́d. ‘You sit on it and close your eyes, and it takes you where you want.’ aywa, swá swa. b(ə)ʕdin ɣir attásəd lwadin n(ə)ddúnyət, ləkṛáhəb dmíddən, (ə)lxə́lq (Cf. ə́lxəlq elsewhere) ay(u) ttafə́dš mani atugúrəd, mani atə́nbṛəd tissə́gnit swadin n(ə)ddúnyət la t(ə)tšuṛ nmíddən. ‘Yes, that’s it. And that apart, when you get there (lit. to that world), (there is) the traffic and people, crowds such that you can’t find where to walk or where to put a needle because it’s full of people everywhere.’ ɣərsən ḥ(ə)tta n(ə)tnín (ə)ssuq amyu am(ə)ssuqənnə́ɣ d(ə)tḥúna d(a) ... (unfinished). ‘Do they too have a market like our market and shops and ...’ ḥ(ə)tta nə́tnin ɣərsən ə́ssuq, lakən wɣərsə́nš (ə)ssuq am(ə)ssuq nə́žžmil iziɣ (ə)ssuq n(ə)lʕə́ssət. ‘They also have market(s), but not one like the Ijjmil or Asset markets.’ tš(a) ámyu, wɣərsə́nš y(ə)ʕni, zzənzánš ... (interrupted here) ‘It’s not like that, they haven’t that sort of thing, they don’t sell ...’ láá, kul yúm d(ə)ssuq. ‘They have the market every day.’ zzənzánš (or zzənzínš) gilə́ɣṃan d(ə)lḥíwan d(ə)tɣáṭṭən. ‘They don’t sell camels, (and) sheep, and goats.’ láá, la, ɣadi kúllši d(ə)lkurrínti, ayu la nnánas (ə)lkurrínti. wəttafə́dš lá iyis w láɣyul w la šáṛukan. (Note accentuation *í(y)yis is inadmissible; cf., say, la írdən w la tímẓin. Should iyis be interpreted as əyis on the grounds of the elision of i- here?). ‘No, everything there is what they call automatic (lit. electricity). You won’t find a horse, a donkey, or anything.’

190

A. ay(u) wətrənnáttən (or wətrənníttən) ɣir tamə́ttant. (The verb is yərna / yrənna ‘to defeat’). ‘Nothing will defeat them (lit. these) except death.’ B. áywa, day(u) bə́ss, waḷḷa uší ʕad. ‘Yes, that alone, nobody has yet done that (or ‘indeed, that is still (to do)’). A. uši ɣír wəxliqə́nš bnádəm attígən dasígən ə́ṛṛuḥ wəxláṣ daɣi yəggúr. ‘The only thing they haven’t yet done is create a man, give him a soul and start him off walking (lit. they make him a soul and have done, and he starts walking).’ (A further example of aɣi is: xxul ɣir ayugur aššar aɣi yttəẓẓəf ‘now when he walks a little, he starts to cry’.) B. láá, ə́səl, sliɣ g(ə)lžara(y)ədə́nsən, (ə)lkaẓiṭtə́nsən (old word used in amplification), nnan ḥ(ə́)tta bnádəm nə́žžmən attáṛṛən yəddə́r. ‘No, listen, I’ve read in their papers they can bring a person (lit. a person they can bring him) back to life.’ A. ááá. ‘Really?’ B. təẓṛíd a? ‘Have you seen it?’ A. láá, la, ayu ʕad tuhánit ay(u) dətɣusa nṛə́bbi, wynəžžəm ḥə́dd ayʕánəd dis ṛə́bbi. ‘No, the fact is this is God’s concern, nobody can emulate God in it.’ B. lá, lakən ukan atə́fləd ltəṃuṛtə́nsən dat(ə́)ẓṛəd, yəʕni atṣə́ḍḍqəd kullši, at(ə)ml(ə)d ay(u) dmidd(ə)n nə́žžmən kúllši. ‘No, but if you go to their country and see, you will believe everything. You will say (that) these people can (do) everything.’ A. n(ə)tš zman yəḥkayánəɣ idžən yəflá ltə́ṃuṛt nis(ə)ṭṭáf(ə)n im(ə)zwárən. ‘Someone told me some time ago that he went to the country of our earlier Europeans (i.e. the Italians).’ B. is(ə)ṭṭáf(ə)n im(ə)zwarə́n a? ‘The previous ones?’ A. (ə́)lbəṛṛ n(ə)ṭṭə́lyan. yəʕni bnádəm ɣir ayəḍḍəl (this verb seemingly inomissible here) ysə́ll dís(ə)n, yəʕni wynəžžəmš ayṣə́ḍḍəq. (Both examples of yəʕni may be omitted here). ‘(Yes, to) Italy (lit. the country of the Italians). When one listens to them, one can’t believe (them).’ B. ya wəddi mbə́lḥəq. ‘It’s certainly true.’ A. awalə́nsən yəʕni wynəžžə́mš attyṣə́ḍḍəq. ‘I mean, one can’t credit what they say.’ B. ya wəddi mbə́lḥəq. ‘True again.’ A. awadinhá(h) ɣir aṃṃi (? < am wih) dtínfas. ‘Like what-do-theycall it, like a fairy story.’ 191

B. A. B.

A. B. A. B. A. B. A.

B. A.

B.

ya wəddi mbə́lḥəq, ɣir aṃṃi dtínfas. ‘Absolutely right, just like a fairy story.’ b(ə)ʕdín, y(ə)ʕni mátta tisid ttigíd ɣadi? t(ə)qqar(ə́)d a? ‘What were you doing there, then? Studying?’ isiɣ qqárəɣ, lakən ya wəddi ḥə́dd ynəžžəmš áyɣər ɣadi. t(ə)ssə́n(ə)d ɣadi taṃuṛtə́nsən təkmə́l dway(u) n(ə́)lxəlq kmə́lən wəldisə́nš ídžən dimə́sləm. ayu kmə́lən kan diṛúmyən. ‘I was studying, but, heavens, nobody can study there. Do you know (in) all that country and (with) all those people, there isn’t one Muslim. They are all just Europeans.’ (Far from the present case, of course.) kúl diṛumyə́n a? ‘All Europeans?’ kməl(ə)n diṛúmyən. ‘All of them.’ mámak, yəʕni, təɣrid xxul ɣadí a? ‘How, then, did you study there?’ ɣríɣ lakən bəṛṛúmi. ‘I studied in their language (lit. in European).’ ááá, bəṛṛúmi. ‘Ah, in their language.’ ɣriɣ bəṛṛúmi, ḥfə́ḍəɣ yəkmə́l bəṛṛumi. ‘I read and learned everything that way.’ ə́səl, n(ə)šnin zmán n(ə)sla ləfqí ʕ(ə)li yənná, yəʕni bnadəm ɣir áyɣər bəss dayə́ḥfəḍ (Note pause potentially made after dayəḥfəḍ, not after bəss) (Note also that aorist form yəḥfəḍ may replace ayəḥfəḍ), swá swa. ‘Listen, some time ago we heard Sheikh Ali (ləfqi refers to a man learned in Sharia law) say (that) if a man just studies and learns, it doesn’t matter (i.e. which language he does it in).’ ááá! ‘Ah!’ y(ə)ʕni xə́lli (an invariable form) lumur (or lúmur) nə́ddin, ayta bnádəm an(ə)tyə́ḥfəḍ swawális dan(ə)tíɣər afləmšáyəx, lakən ə́lʕəlm yəṃṃá yəʕni swá swa – kul(l) míddən, əlmə́llat (sing. əlmə́llət), dwádin ttutláyən swá swa, yəʕni gə́lʕəlm. ‘That is, leave aside religious matters, which (= ayta) one must learn in one’s own language and will study under sheikhs, but knowledge, he said, is all the same (= swa swa) – all peoples, races, etc. (= dwadin) speak the same (language), that is as far as science is concerned (lit. in science).’ ya wəddi n(ə)tš akə́mləɣ ə́lḥəqq, ə́lḥəqq al(ə)mmi ṃáṃṃu yəɣs áyɣər ə́lʕəlm, attíɣər (or attə́yɣər) bəṛṛumi mallik ida kan attásəd at(ə́)ẓṛəd, ə́lʕəlm yəlla gtə́ṃuṛt niṛúmyən. ‘To tell you the truth, it is that if anyone wants to study, he must (= a-) do so in a European 192

A. B.

A.

B.

A. B. A. B. A.

language (lit. in European) because if you come to see (the facts of the matter), knowledge is in Europe (lit. the country of the Europeans).’ n(ə)tta ṃṃán, nnán yəʕni. ‘So it (= nətta) has been said, and is still said.’ ə́lʕəlm dkúllši ɣə́rsən, dway(u) n(ə)ddúnyət la igə́ntət t(ə)kmə́l duṣə́l(ə)n kullši yəkmə́l sə́lʕəlm. ‘They have knowledge and everything, and all the things (əddunyət, lit. the surroundings, environment) they have made and achieved (lit. reached), it is all due to (lit. from) science.’ sə́lʕəlm, aaa, ay(u) lázəm, xxul míddən udələn qqárən. ʕad ə́lḥəqq xxul ibušírən ... ‘From knowledge, yes. Now people have necessarily started to learn. Truth to say, children now ...’ (This is an incoherent, unfinished ‘speech’.) dšə́kkin mátta txə́mm(ə)məd? hatnə́kkyəd š(a) áfṛux lb(ə)ʕd (NB Not əlbəʕḍ here, for whatever reason) n(ə)tṃúṛa ayɣə́r a? ‘And for your part, what do you think? Are you going to send the boy to any of the(se) countries to study?’ (Note. There may be some difference of form between əlbəʕd and əlbəʕḍ, though I doubt it. Translation varies between ‘any’ as above and ‘some’ as in e.g. əlbəʕḍ nibuširən ‘some children’ but equally əlbəʕḍ occurs in dis šá lb(ə)ʕḍ nibuširən dəhanít a? ‘Are there any children here?’. Perhaps əlbəʕd implies a single member of a group.) ya wəddi ʕad n(ə́)tta səddíɣ damə́škun xxul, səddíɣ háyɣər, aytu yəqqár (... uši). ‘But he is still small, he still has to study (here), he is already learning ...’ yəqqar gəsskúlt iziɣ gətməzgída? ‘In the Secondary or the Quranic School?’ láá, yəffal lwádin ... (hesitation) ... n(ə)lmə́ktəb ləṛṛəšdíyya. ‘No, he goes to the ... er ... Turkish school.’ (The old Turkish school, which is no longer used.) a, yəffál ləṛṛəšdíyya (ṣaṛ occurs here almost inaudibly, followed by dəɣsəɣ, which seems to have no sense). muh(u) əlʕəmṛis ṭnáš? ‘Isn’t he 12 years old?’ íí, ʕad muh(u) uš(i) (or səddiɣ) ykəmmə́lš ʕad gtə́ṃuṛt, ub(ə)ʕdín han(ə)ttnə́nkəy ltə́ṃuṛt tamə́llalt, ayfəl ɣádi ltə́ṃuṛt tamə́llalt, l(ə)ḍṛábləs, ayɣər dís (ə)ttanawíyyit la igəntət dtáždidt. (An alternative conclusion would be dis (ə)ttanawiyyət taždidt la igəntət.) ‘Yes, but he still has (lit. but hasn’t he still) to finish in Zuara. Later 193

on, we are going to send him to Tripoli (lit. the white town). He will go (there) to study in Tripoli where (lit. in it) they have built (lit. made) the new secondary school.’ B. a, (ə)ttanawíyyət la igəntət dtáždidt. n(ə)tta mbə́lḥəq ɣir attasəd at(ə́)ẓṛəd, ḥədd aykə́mməl dəhánit qəbl dáyfəl l(ə)ttanawíyyət, ub(ə)ʕdín ayfəl ɣádi, mallik ɣir áyfəl ɣadi ayaf imánis wátəy, lakən ida kan ayfəl ámyu ayttwaʕə́kkəl aššar. ‘Ah, the new secondary school. (Contrast, in addition, (ə)ttanawiyyət taždidt la igəntət ‘the new school that they built’ with igənn (ə)ttanawiyyət dtaždidt ‘they have built a new school’.) It (= nətta) is right, when you come to think, one should finish here before going to the secondary school, and then going (on) there (i.e. to Europe), because when he goes there (to Europe) he finds himself prepared. But if he goes (just) like that (i.e. without going to school), he will be in some difficulty (This verb only occurs in the yttwaform.).’ A. ṃṃán y(ə)ʕni yəɣs (omissible) lázəm bnádəm ɣir áyfəl, ayfəl yəḥfə́ḍ, y(ə)ʕni wətšá hayfəl ɣádi hayə́ḥfəḍ ɣadi. ‘They say (lit. have said) that when someone goes he must go already instructed (lit. having learned), that is, he isn’t to go there in order to study there (i.e. from scratch).’ B. dwə́fṛux yəqqár ša xxul gəllúɣ(ə)t nis(ə)ṭṭafə́n a? ‘And is the boy now learning a European language?’ A. láá, xxul gəṛṛəšdíyyət wəqqarə́nš, lakən ɣir áflən ləttanawíyyət qqárən ṃṃan ... adinhah ... awal nlə́ngliz dəqqárən ḥ(ə)tta yíh, kkáyu la zzə́rnəɣ, ayu la gtún(ə)s, ləfṛánsis. ‘No, they don’t learn (one) now in the Rashdiya, but when they go to secondary school, they say they learn ... er ... English (lit. the language of the English) and even the one – you know, those who are near us in Tunis ... er ... French.’ B. áywa, áá, ṣaṛ qqár(ə)n dáṣbiḥ dšəkkin (ə)nnáwəy y(ə)ʕni (omissible) t(ə)ɣsəd mə́mmik aykə́mməl tiɣrí (Verbal Noun) a? ‘Ah, yes, then their studies are worth while, and do you intend your son to round off (lit. to finish) (his) studying (i.e. at all centres home and abroad)?’ A. áá, lázəm, xxul bnadəm yukə́z (ə)lfáydət ntiɣri. š(ə)kkin ayta təẓṛíd məmmis nwuhánit ... ibušír(ə)n nləfqí s(ə)núsi dmə́mmis nləfqí ʕ(ə)lí, ayta ṃaṃṃu ... (unfinished) ... kull idžən sísən gwə́ṃkan. ibušir(ə́)nnəɣ han(ə)ttnədž haqqímən amyu, wyttəkkə́dš (= it is im194

B.

A.

B. A. B. A. B.

A. B. A.

possible), laz(ə)m áɣrən ḥ(ə)tta n(ə́)tnin ḥáfḍən (aorist). ‘Oh, I must. Nowadays people have realised the advantage of studying. You must have seen the son of ‘what is his name?’, the children of Sheikh Sinusi and Sheikh ‘Ali’s son. Some are (such-and-such), (and) every one of them is established (lit. in place). It is impossible for us to let our children stay as they are (lit. so). They, too, must study and learn.’ (With reference to the unfinished sentence above beginning ayta ṃaṃṃu, cf. e.g. ayta ṃaṃṃu d(ə)lmuʕəlləm d(ə)lmuʕəlləm, ṃaṃṃu d(ə)katəb d(ə)lkatəb ‘Now some are teachers, some secretaries, etc.’) láá, la, ussáni yəžəb kúll ḥədd áyɣər, mallik kúll ḥədd yəžəb áyɣər (This appears to be pointless repetition) mallik tíɣri ussani tṛaḥ la búdda ibnádəm aləmmi yəɣs ayə́ddər. ‘No, nowadays everyone has to study since to study has become essential for anyone who wants to live.’ áá, ə́məl y(ə)ʕni, ɣádi, xxul əlmə́ṣṛuf ntíɣri yandṛa (introduces alternative question) l(ə)ḥkúm(ə)t ttitšák gəlməṣṛúf iziɣ tṣə́ṛṛfəd sɣə́rk? ‘Tell me then, over there, did the goverment pay your fees or did you pay your own?’ (Another example of yandṛa is: yandṛa t(ə)flid mani ṃṃiɣák (Notice question accent) dtusədəd iziɣ wt(ə)flidš kul? ‘Did you go where I told you and come back or didn’t you go at all?’) láá waḷḷa, ṣə́ṛṛfəɣ sɣə́ri. ‘No indeed, I paid my own (lit. from myself).’ sɣə́rak? (Note length of vowel a in question) ‘Really?’ ṣəṛṛfəɣ sɣə́ri lakən l(ə)ḥkúm(ə)t ttʕáwan də́gi. ‘I paid (some) myself but the government helped (lit. was helping) me.’ ḥíbik yn(ə́)kkyak? ‘Did your father help you?’ ḥíbi yn(ə)kkə́yid aššar, lakən ḥətta l(ə)ḥkúm(ə)t l(ə)ḥqíq(ə)t tʕawnə́yid, ttitšə́yid s(a)ʕa s(á)ʕa glə́ṃʕaš. ‘Yes, he did to some extent, but in truth the government, too, helped me (and) gave me allowances from time to time.’ ttsuddúnak (apparently ‘present’ tense) y(ə)ʕni iflúsən. ‘The money was enough, then.’ ttsuddunə́yid, l(ə)ḥkúm(ə)t ttitšə́yid. ‘Yes, with the government grants.’ wt(ə)ḥtažə́dš (< yəḥtaž / yttəḥtaža (negative yttəḥtažiš). Cf. argaz məḥtaž ‘a needy man’) y(ə)ʕni ɣadi. ‘You weren’t poor there, then.’ 195

B. A.

B. A.

B.

A. B. A. B. A. B.

A.

la wəḥtažə́ɣš, ḥtažəɣ íškəlt iziɣ məṛṛtín bə́ss, nkíɣas i(w)wə́ssar yənkə́yid aššar niflúsən. ‘No. I felt the pinch once or twice, (but) I sent to my father (who) sent me some money.’ yənkə́yyak, la wyənníš šáṛukan ʕad, (ə)lḥə́qq n(ə́)tta, xṣúṣən ləmma š(ə)kkin t(ə)flid hatə́ɣrəd, wyənní šáṛukan. ‘Of course, he wouldn’t say anything, being him (lit. (that is) truly him), especially since you had gone to study (, he wouldn’t say anything).’ (xṣuṣən ləmma seem to form one grammatical piece, and bəlaxaṣṣ is not substitutable here for xṣuṣən (ləmma).) bnádəm dáɣrib ɣadi gtə́ṃuṛt nmíddən, smanís yəɣs ayḥə́ṣṣəl iflúsən. ‘A man is a stranger there in (other) people’s country, (so) where will he get money (i.e. save from his father)?’ lá, wynəžžə́mš, wynəžžə́mš. ɣádi ay(u) (omissible or insertable after bnadəm or before ɣadi) bnádəm, ḥə́tta (a)l(ə)mmi yufiš buʕə́šrin attyə́ṣṛəf af(ə)lḥális, ayə́mmut sə́ššəṛṛ – wəllíš ṃaṃṃu asyuš tázbit. ‘No, he simply can’t. There anybody, even if he can’t find a penny to spend on his needs, he’ll die from hunger without anyone giving him a crust.’ dɣádi tša (a)mdəhánit. ɣadi ə́məl “ya krimtʕáḷḷa” (< Arabic ya krim mtaʕ aḷḷah ‘O noble one of God’, a beggar’s saying), wəllíš ṃaṃṃ(u) akə́ysəl. ‘It’s not like here. If you beg there, no one will listen to you.’ wəllíš ṃaṃṃ(u) ákyuš. ‘No one will give you (anything).’ wəllíš ṃaṃṃ(u) akə́ysəl iziɣ ákyuš. ‘Either.’ ɣərsən midd(ə)n ḍə́llbən y(ə)ʕni a? (yəʕni omissible here.) ‘Do they have beggars (there)?’ ya wəddi wəẓṛíɣš midd(ə)n ḍə́llbən. ‘In fact, I didn’t see any beggars.’ y(ə)ʕni middən kúl ɣərsən (y(ə)ʕni) iflúsən. ‘So everybody has money.’ ya wəddi middən kúl ɣərsən iflúsən, wəttafə́dš ḥə́ddukan ḥəfyán wəttafədš ḥə́ddukan ʕəryán, middən kmə́l(ə)n ɣərsən iflúsən, middən ssə́nən ma(ma)k (sic) áddrən. ‘Yes, indeed, that’s a fact. You won’t find anyone barefooted or in rags. They’ve all got money and know how to live.’ túqzin tdə́nnət z(ə)ʕmá iziɣ uší? (ə)ssaʕa mə́nit? ɣərk ša (ə)ssaʕə́t a? ‘Has the Tuqzin (5 p.m. prayer) sounded yet or not, I wonder? What time is it? Have you got a watch?’

196

B.

(ə)ssaʕa xə́msa, swallin áššar mamak tdə́nn(ə)t. ‘It’s five o’ clock. It (i.e. the prayer) has just been called.’ A. (ə)ssəlámu ʕalíkum, iziɣ n(ə)tš háfləɣ tẓállit haítfat. ‘Goodbye, then. I’m going or I shall miss the prayer.’ (-i- of haitfat has 1st person singular reference – ‘(will pass) for me’.) B. ʕalíkum (ə)ssəlám, anəmláqa iškəlt íḍ(ə)nt. ‘Goodbye, we will meet again.’

197

IV. FERHAT [1] ɣádi gə́žžmil1 zzər táṃuṛt nwatwə́llul2 dis ižə́nni damə́qqar. gwáṃ­ ṃas nižə́nni dis tíddart. ayu nižə́nni dwayu ntíddart nwə́rgaz ismis s(ə́)ʕid. s(ə́)ʕid wúh wəɣṛə́sš ḥə́ddukan – yádžis dbábis mmútən. bábis yʕə́qqbas áššar nwárəzg. ɣir yuṣə́l (ə)lʕə́mṛis ṭəṃəṇṭáš, yxə́mməm baš áyaɣ tamə́ṭṭut. ɣəṛs yə́llis nʕə́mmis ísmis zʕíma. yəflá lʕə́mmis yəxḍə́bit sɣə́ṛs. ʕə́mmis wasyəṃṃíš šáṛukan yušás yə́llis. yuɣá yə́llis nʕə́mmis dyəʕmə́ṛ sis gwayu ntíddart. s(ə́)ʕid ɣəṛs aššar n(ə)lḥíwan d(ə)tláta ni­lə́ɣ­ṃan. yig(a) amə́sraḥ ilḥiwánis dwxə́mmas3 i(y)iləɣṃánis. s(ə́)ʕid ayə́kkər tálži, b(ə)ʕd la hayə́fḍaṛ daysəw (ə)ššáhi áyfəl lə́ssuq. ayə́q­qim dís alwə́zgən (ə)nwás. áysəɣ aššar n(ə)ləḥwáyəž dayṛə́wwəḥ sísnət ilʕíl­tis4. b(ə)ʕd la ay(ǝ)tɣə́dda daysǝw (ǝ)ššáhi ayǝ́kkǝr ayúgur aššar gi­­žə́n­nis ayḥə́kkəṛ matta dís dmatta wəldísš alḷə́ggiḍ. ɣir at(ə)stúl­ləs tallast ayə́dwəl ltiddártis, ay(ə)tʕə́šša daysəw (ə)ššáhi dayqə́ṣṣəṛ íḍ aššar n(ə́)tta d(ə)lʕíltis dwxəmmásis. b(ə)ʕdín ákkrən áṭṭsən. (ə)lʕí­l­tis zʕíma atə́kkər tálži, b(ə)ʕd la hátig lə́fḍuṛ dəššáhi iwərgázis dwxəm­ másis dkúll ḥə́dd áyfəl ləššúɣlis, atə́kkər n(ə́)ttat atxə́mməl irukánis – atə́fṛəḍ tazə́qqas datsírəd irukanís datxə́mməl aṃṃális al­wə́zgən ənmás. bəʕdín átig amə́kli. təqqím ayu lʕíl(ə)t ámyu.

[2] bəʕd sən(n) nišəhṛíyyən təwyá zʕím(a) ára. yəfṛə́ḥ argázis dtəfṛə́ḥ n(ə́)ttat, madʕílhəm kúl ayu nwára dáfṛux. qqímən ammídin al(ə)m-­ m(i) ylúl yúris. idžəṃṃás sidžəṃṃásat tḥúss áššar nwʕə́ddəm, təṃ­ ṃá­yas iwərgázis5. yəflá yttázzəl ynadáyas ilqábla dynáda dyádžis nəl­­ʕíl­tis dtsə́tmas. yəṃṃayásən ‘ə́kkrət! zʕíma hatáṛəw.’ usə́dən kmə́­ l(ə)n ttázzlən. bəʕd amə́šwaṛ tuṛə́w zʕíma. fṛə́ḥən kmə́l(ə)n la turá tiṭṭawínis la sú la swíya lakən (wə)fṛəḥə́nš bzáyəd mallik áras yəkkəd dtáfṛuxt (ə)dnə́tnin ɣsə́nti(d) dáfṛux. bəʕd tə́lt əyyám təkkə́r yádžis nzʕíma tnáda iwə́rgaz nyə́llis dtəṃṃáyas ‘mátta t(ə)ɣsəd as(ə)nsə́mma

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[1] In Zhmil near Zuara (of the Berbers) there is a large orchard in the middle of which is a house. The orchard and house belong to a man called Sa’id. He has no relatives (lit. nobody), (since) his mother and father died, his father having left him some property. On reaching the age of eighteen, he thought he would take a wife. He had a cousin called Za’ima (and) went to his uncle to ask for her from him. His uncle raised no objection (lit. said nothing to him) and gave him his daughter. (So) he married his cousin and settled down with her in the house. Sa’id had some sheep and three camels, (and) arranged for a shepherd for his sheep and an attendant for his camels. He would get up in the morning and, after breakfasting and drinking tea, he would go to the market and stay there until midday, buying a few things and returning with them to his wife. After he had lunched and taken tea, he would go off to inspect (lit. walk around a little in) his orchard until nightfall to see what had been done or not (lit. what there is and what there isn’t). When it became dark he would return home, dine and drink tea, and while away the evening (a little) (i.e. talking, playing cards, drinking more tea, etc.) with his wife and servant (i.e. the camel-herd). Then they went off to bed. His wife Za’ima would get up in the morning, and after she had given breakfast and tea to her husband and the servant, everyone would go to their work, (and) she would set about doing her housework. She would clean her room, wash up, tend to her kitchen until midday, then prepare lunch. Such was the regular life of the family (lit. this family continued thus). [2] After two months Za’ima conceived a child. Her husband was happy, and she, too, both of them fully believing it would be (lit. is) a boy. They remained so until her time came (lit. her new moon was born). One day she experienced (labour) pains and told her husband, (who) went running to call his midwife. He also called his wife’s mother and sisters, telling them to hurry (lit. get up), that Za’ima was about to give birth. They all came running. After a while, Za’ima gave birth, (but, though) they were all glad that she came to herself (lit. opened her eyes) without mishap (lit. without harm and without even small harm), they were not greatly happy because her child had turned out (to be) a girl and they wanted a boy. After three days Za’ima’s mother went and called her daughter’s husband to ask what he wanted them 199

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iyə́llik?’ yəṃṃáyas ‘šə́mm səmmáyas, mátta t(ə)ɣsə́d as(ə)tsə́mmid səm­máyas’. təṃṃáyas ‘nətš ɣsə́ɣ assə́mmiɣ (ə)llúlu afyə́mma mallík ɣsə́ɣtət gwə́ṃkan nyə́mma’. yəṃṃáyas ‘báhi, nə́tš madʕíli hassə́mmiɣ tláitmas6 afyə́mma nə́tš mallik ɣsə́ɣtət gwə́ṃkan nyə́mma, lakən mánis t(ə)ɣsə́d as(ə)tsə́mmid (ə)llúlu səmmáyas. áyyuš ṛə́bbi (i)džtíḍ(ə)nt dattsə́mmiɣ afyə́mma’. (ə)kkə́rən səmmánas iwáyu ntə́fṛuxt (ə)llúlu.

[3] təmɣə́ṛ ayu ntə́fṛuxt tṛáḥ (ə)tmə́rrəd yəfṛəḥ sís bábis dyádžis. bəʕd sə́n(n) nisəggásən dšəhṛín zʕíma təwy(a) ára íškəlt íḍ(ə)nt. təṃṃáyas iwərgázis, yəfṛə́ḥ argázis dyəṃṃáyas ‘anə́ḍləb ṛə́bbi nšáḷḷa (a)yə́kkəd dáfṛux ddaltúlat’. bəʕd tə́sʕ šhúṛ tḥuss zʕíma (a)ʕə́ddəm. təṃṃáyas iwər­gázis, yəkkə́r yəflá lənnásən yəṃṃayásən dyəflá ləlqábla yna­dá­ yas. usə́dən kmə́l(ə)n əlɣə́ṛs dbəʕd amə́šwaṛ tuṛə́w. fṛə́ḥən amtíkəlt tamə́zwaṛt, madʕílhəm kúl dáfṛux, lakən báqi yəkkə́d dtáfṛuxt. yusə́d árgaz yssə́stun matta tuṛə́w (ə)lʕíltis. ṃṃánas ‘(ə)lʕíltik tuṛə́w táfṛuxt’. yəflá yqə́lləq al(ə)mmi ndádin. b(ə)ʕd t(ə)lt əyyám nadánti dəṃṃánas ‘mátta (a)s(ə)nsə́mma iyə́llik?’. yəṃṃayásən ‘səmmátas (or səmmítas) mátta t(ə)ɣsə́m dwáyu la (a)kənyə́ʕžəb, af(ə)lkifə́nwən’. təkkə́r yádžis nzʕíma, təṃṃáyas ‘ááá, ddaltúlat as(ə)nsə́mma tláitmas mallík šə́kkin təṃṃídid tíkəlt tamə́zwaṛt ɣir ayə́tlul táfṛuxt íḍ(ə)nt assə́mmiɣ tláit­ mas afyə́mma’. səmmánas tláitmas. b(ə)ʕd ússan təkkə́r zʕíma la sú la swíya af(ə́)llas dtudə́l ttʕə́wwəl. lakən zʕíma m(ə)ʕádš t(ə)fṛə́ḥ amqə́bəl mallík kúl(l) yum argázis ayátəf yqə́lləq dayə́ffəɣ yqə́lləq ddíma tẓə́ṛṛ dís n(ə)tta (omissible) yttxə́mməm. idžəṃṃás tədží al(ə)mmi yutə́f tu­ sə́­das dtəṃṃáyas ‘b(ə)lláhi ʕlík wait(ə)nnídš áš bik, ussáni díma tqə́ll­ qəd ddíma šə́kkin ttxə́m(mə)məd, údmik dáwraɣ7, tṛáḥ(ə)d t(ə)šyá­ n(ə)d ámmi dlə́xyal8. axə́mməm hákyətš dwqə́lləq hákyənɣ. áš bik?!’. yəṃṃáyas ‘b(ə)lláhi džíy(y)id gwáyu la yušíy(y)id ṛə́bbi9. (ə)m­líy­(y)id imátta w(ə)ttxəm(mə)mə́ɣš n(ə)tš ʕəmmál hawə́srəɣ (< yusǝr or yǝw­sǝr) dall(ə)xxúl ṛə́bbi waiyərzíqš áfṛux. ṛə́bbi yrəzqíy(y)id ɣir gət­bu­šírin. ɣir ammútəɣ, ṃaṃṃu haiyúrət? wt(ə)ssinə́dš ɣir ammútəɣ ayə́mmut lə́smiw səddunyə́t a? arə́zgiw dləmlákiw diž(ə)nwániw yək­

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to call his daughter (lit. she said to him ‘What do you want us to call your daughter?’). He said to her ‘You name her, call her whatever you wish to call her’. She replied (lit. said to him) ‘I want to call her Lulu after my mother because I want her in place of my mother’. ‘All right’, he said, ‘I was thinking of calling her Tlaitmas after my mother, but since you want to call her Lulu, you do so. God will give me another to call after Mother’. So they called (lit. stood up and called) the girl Lulu. [3] The girl grew older and began to crawl, and her father and mother were delighted with her. Two years and two months later Za’ima again became pregnant. She told her husband, who was delighted, saying to her ‘I will pray God and hope (lit. God willing) it will be a boy this time’. After nine months Za’ima went into labour. She told her husband, and he went off to tell her family and to call the midwife. They all came to her at home and after a while she gave birth. They were as happy as the first time, quite sure that it was a boy, but it once turned out to be girl. The husband came to ask what his wife had borne. They said to him ‘Your wife has borne a girl’, (and) went away greatly distressed. After three days they called on him and asked what name they should give his daughter, (but) he said to them ‘Call her what you will, whatever you like, just as you please’. Za’ima’s mother spoke out and said ‘Ah, this time we’ll call her Tlaitmas, since you told the first time that if another girl is born, you (lit. ‘I’ of reported speech) will call her Tlaitmas after your (lit. my) mother’. So they called her Tlaitmas. Some days later Za’ima rose unharmed and began working (in the house). But she was no longer happy as before, because every day her husband comes and goes dejectedly and she sees him all the time fretting. One day she let him come in, (then) went up to him and said ‘Why for heaven’s sake don’t you tell me what’s the matter with you? These days you’re always miserable and worrying. You’ve a poor colour (lit. your face is yellow), and you’ve come to look like a ghost. Worry will eat away at you and sorrow kill you. What is the matter with you?’. He replied (lit. said to her) ‘For God’s sake leave me (alone) in what God has bestowed on me! Tell me why I should not fret. I shall soon be getting old and till now God has not blessed me with a boy but gives me only girls. When I die, who will inherit from me, do you not realize that, when I do, my name will (also) disappear from the world. My money, my animals and land, and my orchards, 201

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mə́l attə́wyən míddən. imátta w(ə)ttxəm(mə)mə́ɣš? nətš wəssinə́ɣš mat­ta hadígəɣ ida kán wai(y)ylúlš áfṛux’. təṃṃáyas (ə)lʕíltis ‘ay(u) la t(ə)nníd dís d(ə́)lʕib (a)f(ə́)llak. kšə́kkin atʕandəd (ə)lqúdrət nṛəbbí a? ə́ṛla (< yǝṛla) swayu la yušák bábik ṛə́bbi! xxul áyḥinn (a)f(ə)llánəɣ ́ bi (ə)lxiris bzáyəd. (ə)lḥámdu lláh ya ṛə́bbi, (ə)lḥámdu lláh ya – ṛə́b ṛə́b­bi! (ə)ggə́tak nwxə́mməm dəggə́tak nwqə́lləq, ayu nwxə́mməm dwayu nwqə́lləq akənf(ə́)ʕš šáṛukan. lukán xxúl ɣir atxə́m(mə)məd da­tqə́llqəd ayə́nf(ə)ʕ, xxul anxə́mməm nəkmə́l danqə́lləq nəkmə́l lá­kən ayu yn(ə)ffíʕš, áyu la yəɣs ṛə́bbi áyṣaṛ, aṃṃi tqə́llqəd iziɣ t(ə)fṛə́­ḥəd’. yəṃṃáyas ilʕíltis: ‘ɣə́ṛm (ə)lḥəqq. daru yəkmə́l (w)ynəf­ fə́ʕš. (ə)lqúdrət (ə)ṛṛə́bbi (w)yttarrittə́tš šáṛukan’. swáss din sə́ʕid yəd­wə́l məʕádš yttxə́mməm bzáyəd dyttqə́lləq amqə́bəl lákən báqi yəqqím yqə́lləq áššar dyttxə́mməm. mɣə́ṛnət adin n(ə)tbuširin áššar dtudə́l tamə́qqartə́nsən ttútlay. ɣir áddyas babis sə́ssuq as(ə)tʕáṛəḍ das(ə́)t­məl ‘bába man(i) tisíd, mátta tuɣ(ə)dí(y)yid sə́ssuq?’ asə́yməl ‘aytu (u)ɣə́dɣam (ə)lḥə́lwət’, dɣir aygə́ʕməz as(ə́)ttas datə́qqim ttíṛaṛ fə́llas. [4] kúll yum ammídin dkúll yum ammídin al(ə)mmi idž(ə)ṃṃás (< idžǝn nwas(s)) zʕima tǝwy(a) ára. mánis yǝdwǝ́l argázis sə́ssuq təṃṃáyas ‘(ə)lḥifḍət la tfát wyiɣ ára d(ə)nšáḷḷa ddaltúlat aɣ(ə)nyə́kkəd dáfṛux’. yəṃṃáyas argázis ‘nətš (wə)ssinə́ɣš mátt(a) adígəɣ lukán ayə́k­kəd ḥ(ə)tt(a) ára wúh dtáfṛuxt. la bə́dd(a) adátfəɣ lə́xla10 iziɣ án­ɣəɣ imániw mallík məʕádš nə́žžməɣ aqábləɣ ḥə́ddukan smíddən’. təṃṃáyas ‘imátt(a) ay(u) (yə)kmál?! wənníš ámyu iziɣ xxúl ṛə́bbi (w)aɣənnittítš afṛux. ttḥə́ššməd atqábləd míddən mallik árak yəkkə́d tafṛúxt a? kmáɣar ayu d(ə)lʕib f(ə́)llak, ayu d(ə)lʕíb damə́qqaṛ, aṛa­ huk. ama xír dšə́kkin la ɣə́ṛk tibušírin iziɣ dṃáṃṃu wəɣṛə́sš kúl? (ə)m­lí­(y)yid tṛá! wb(ə)ʕdín wt(ə)ssinə́dš ay(u) nwáwal lá t(ə)nnid dís akyáṣəl sís abəkkáḍu dayu yəkmə́l ḥṛam f(ə́)llak?! stə́ɣfəṛ ḷḷáh, stə́ɣ­fəṛ ḷḷah!’ yəṃṃáyas ‘ɣə́ṛm (ə)lḥəqq lakən bnádəm dim(a) ámyu, ynəžžə́mš ayə́ḥməl’. yəkkə́r sə́ʕid yəflá l(ə́)ssuq af(ə)lḥális dtəkkə́r zʕíma liru­ kánis. b(ə)ʕd (ə)lmúddət yusə́das aʕə́ddəm izʕíma, tənkə́y ttnáda gənnásən. flə́nn nadan ilqábla dnádan iwərgázis, ṃṃánas ‘(ə)lʕíltik hatáṛəw’. yusə́d argázis ysúggmit al(ə)mmi tuṛə́w. usə́dnas ṃṃánas ‘(ə)lʕíltik turá tiṭṭawínis la sú la swí(y)ya, (ə)lḥámdu lláh, lakən tuṛə́w táfṛuxt dway(u) ntə́fṛuxt təmmút’. yəṃṃayásən s(ə́)ʕid ‘ṭə́yyəb, (ə)l­ḥámdu lláh, manis ɣir turá tiṭṭawínis dtəkkə́r libušírnis la sú la swí­-

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(other) people will take it all. Why should I not worry? I do not know what I shall do if a boy is not born to me’. His wife said to him ‘What you are saying is shameful. Is it for you to usurp the power of God!? Be satisfied with what God your father has given you! Now he will be kind to us, (for) God’s goodness is great. Praise be to God, praise be to God! Stop this worrying and sorrowing, they do you no good at all. If worry and gloom were any good, then we should all be worrying and gloomy, but is is fruitless. What God wills, will be, whether you are ancious or content’. He said to his wife ‘You are right, this is all pointless. Nothing can deflect the power of God!’. From that day Sa’id was no longer greatly anxious and worried as before, yet to some degree he remained disturbed and brooding. The girls were getting bigger and the elder began to talk. When her father came (home) from the market, she would go to meet him and ask him where he had been and what he had brought her from the market. (And) he would reply ‘Look, I’ve brought you (some) sweets’, and when he sat down, she would come to him and stay playing with him. [4] And so they continued every day until one day Za’ima (again) became pregnant. When her husband came back from the market, she said to him ‘Last week I conceived and, God willing, it will be a boy this time’. Her husband replied ‘I don’t know what I shall do if this child turns out to be a girl, too. I shall have to leave for the desert or kill myself because I shall not be able to face anyone again’. ‘Why all this?’, she said, ‘Do not speak so or God will not give us a boy. You are frightened of meeting people because your child turned out to be a girl?! Look, take heed, this is (a matter of) shame, great shame on you. Who is better off, you who have girls or he who has nothing? Tell me, then! And then don’t you know that this talk of yours will bring sin on you and (that) all this is forbidden? God forgive you, God forgive you!’. He said to her ‘You are right but so it is with mankind – one cannot endure’. Sa’id (then) went off to the market on his own, and Za’ima got on with her housework. After a while the labour pains came to her, (and) she sent to call her family, (who) went and called the midwife and (then) her husband, telling him that his wife was about to give birth. He came and waited until she produced the child. (But) they came to him saying ‘Your wife is all right, praise God, but she bore a girl and the girl was stillborn’. Sa’id said ‘Good, thank God that she has come to and risen for her children without harm’. Sa’id 203

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(y)ya’. yəflá s(ə́)ʕid ližə́nnis yqə́lləq amqə́bəl dyudə́l yttxə́mməm lə́mmi ṛə́bbi hasyə́rzəq áfṛux, dyəṃṃá gənnə́fsis ‘ida kán áraw la háddyas yə́kkəd baqi dtáfṛuxt, adáɣ(ə)ɣ tamə́ṭṭut íḍ(ə)n, bálək wəɣṛiš (ə́)lbəxt did wáy(u) n(ə)tmə́ṭṭut túh dbálək (ə)lbə́xtiw gətmə́ṭṭut idžtíḍ(ə)nt. ṃaṃṃu yəssán?’ [5] yəqqím s(ə́)ʕid díma yttxə́mməm ddíma yqə́lləq. idžəṃṃás n(ə)t­ta yṛə́wwəḥ ltiddártis (ə)lwəqt nwmə́kli tušás (ə)lʕíltis amə́klis dtušás haysír(ə)d ifáss(ə)nis11 lakən wyəqqíl á(y)ətš dyəṃṃáyas ‘wɣisə́ɣš ass(u) útšu’. təṃṃáyas ‘kkayu áš bik ussani?! yədwəlák axə́m(mə)mik nqəbə́l a? axə́m(mə)mik (ə)nnə́btis amlə́hbal, áyfəl áyfəl dayə́dwəl. knə́tš (aytu) la dtamə́ṭṭut wəttxəm(mə)mə́ɣš am šə́kk mallík ay(u) dtɣúsa nṛə́bbi wətšá n(ə)lʕəbd, dəbnádəm wəɣṛə́sš (ə)lžúhəd. matt(a) asyqə́ddər ṛə́bbi dadin dnə́tta’. yhúzz s(ə)ʕid íɣfis dwyəqqíl ásyərr ḥ(ə)ttá tawalt ídžət. təṃṃáyas ‘áš bik wəttutlayə́dš?’ yəṃṃáyas ‘wǝɣṛíš matta hámlǝɣ.’ tǝṃṃáyas šǝ́kkin tíṭṭik xáyba ussani12 dwǝssinǝ́ɣš f(ǝ́)llak.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘mámak? mátta (ə)lm(ə́)ʕnam?’ təṃṃáyas ‘(ə)l­m(ə́)­­naw tarmátta ttxə́m(mə)məd dáždid. axə́m(mə)mik m(ə)ʕadš am­ qǝ́bǝl. qǝbǝl tisíd ttxǝ́m(mǝ)mǝd lakǝn ttásdǝd ltiddartík dí­ma dǝttǝ́ttǝd gwutšúyik lakǝn ussáni tarmáni tṛáḥǝd t(ǝ)ffál(ǝ)d m(ǝ)ʕádš ttǝ́ttǝd dəhánit bzáyəd. bálək tarmátta tigíd gəlfə́krik’. yəṃṃáyas ‘máɣar d(ə)l­ʕib f(ə́)llam, a tamə́ṭṭut. nətš (d)árgaz ʕammál hawə́srəɣ. matta ɣsəɣ adígəɣ gəlfə́kriw? wb(ə)ʕdin yərni ɣə́ri sə́nt n(ə)tbušírin. mámak ɣsə́ɣ as(ə)ntígəɣ iziɣ máni han(ə)tlə́wwḥəɣ13? ə́ggəḍ ṛə́bbim dlə́wwəḥ ay(u) s(ə)lfə́krim. nətš ttxə́m(mə)məɣ af(ə)lmáliw dwarə́zgiw diž(ə)n­wániw, ṃáṃṃu yəɣs an(ə)tyár(ə)t b(ə)ʕd l(a) ammútəɣ?’ təṃṃáyas ‘láá, lakən nə́tš ḍúnnəɣ (ə)nnə́yytik wətṣəllə́ḥš dayu nwqə́llqik dwxə́m­ (mə)mik la díma wətšá blaš’.

[6] yəqqím s(ə́)ʕid ammídin dtəqqím (ə)lʕíltis amqə́bəl. mɣə́ṛnət ti­ bu­širínis dtədwə́l ḥ(ə)ttá tamə́škunt ttútlay dtəggúr. addásnət kull yúm lbabítsənt daqqímnət t(t)iṛáṛnət f(ə́)llas dəttutláynət lɣə́ṛs dnə́tta wyttəqqə́lš ayútlay (ə)lɣə́ṛsənt (ə)bzáyəd. idžəṃṃás n(ə)ttá yṛə́wwəḥ tusə́das (ə)lʕíltis təṃṃáyas ‘mátt(a) akə́mlaɣ? nətš ássu xəms šhúṛ uyiɣ

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went off to his orchards as sorrowful as before and began to wonder when God would bless him with a boy, saying to himself ‘If my next child (lit. my child which will come) turns out a girl again, I shall marry another woman. Perhaps I am unlucky with this one and my luck lies with another. Who knows?’. [5] Sa’id continued to worry and fret all the time. One day he came home at lunchtime, his wife gave him his lunch and (the means) to wash his hands, but he refused to eat and said to her ‘I don’t want (any) food today’. She said to him ‘What is the matter with you these days? Have your earlier thoughts come back to you? Your brooding is like an obsession, going and coming, coming and going. I who am a woman do not think like you, for this is something that belongs to God, not to man, and man has no power (in the matter). Whatever God ordains for him, that is it’. Sa’id shook his head and declined to say a single word in reply. (So) she said to him ‘What’s the matter with you that you do not speak?’ but he replied that he had nothing to say. She said ‘You have a bad look about you (lit. your eye is bad) these days, and I don’t know what to make of you (lit. about you)’. He said ‘How (can that be)? What do you mean?’ and she said ‘What I mean is that you are thinking of something new, not as before. Then you were worrying but you always came home and ate your food, whereas nowadays you have formed the habit of going somewhere and you don’t eat much here any more. Perhaps you have got some idea in your head (lit. perhaps you have put something in your mind)’. He said to her ‘The shame is on you, woman. I am a man who is getting old, what will I carry in my head? Moreover, I have two daughters. What would I do with them, and where would I hide (lit. lose) them? Fear your God and cast this from your mind! I am thinking about my money, my property, and my orchards. Who will inherit them after I die’. She replied ‘No, but I thought your intentions were bad and this perpetual sorrow and gloom is not without (reason)’. [6] Sa’id and his wife carried on as before. His daughters grew older and even the young one began to talk and walk. Every day they would come up to their father and stay playing with him and talking to him, but he didn’t want to talk to them very long. One day he returned home and his wife came to him and said ‘What shall I say to you? Today I have been bearing a child for five months and have not wanted to tell 205

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ára dəqqíləɣ akə́mləɣ lakən ássu aytu ṃṃíɣak, dnə́tš al(ə)mmi ssə́nəɣ áraw wuhánit dáfṛux’. yəṃṃáyas ‘mámak tukə́zad? iziɣ ṃaṃṃu yəṃ­ ṃá­yam? təžžúžfəd sis ggíḍ a?’ təṃṃáyas ‘láá, wəžžužfə́ɣš. la dažúžəf la dšáṛukan. báss áraw wuhánit yətqə́l gəddístiw dyttḥə́rrək bzáyəd, wətšá amim(ə)zwárən’. yəṃṃáyas ‘báhi, (ə)nšáḷḷa (a)yə́kkəd dáfṛux’. [7] yəkkə́r s(ə́)ʕid sluɣə́ddin yədwə́l díma yḍə́ṣṣ ddíma yəfṛə́ḥ. kul(l) yúm aysə́stən lʕíltis lə́mmi dyúris. b(ə)ʕd áṛbaʕ šhúṛ yusə́das aʕə́ddəm ilʕíltis. tənkə́y innásən dtənkə́y ilqábla dtənkə́y iwərgázis. yusə́d yttáz­ zəl lakən mánis yuṣə́l tíddart, yttwakə́ddəṛ bzáyəd mallík yufa lʕíltis dtmáḍunt al(ə)mmi ndádin dəṃṃánas gəššə́kk uší atə́kkər. [8] yəqqím stizzárnin altúqzin14 n(ə)tta15 ysúggam dís. b(ə)ʕd túqzin áššar ylul áfṛux, kkə́rnət tililíwin16 gwáṃṃas ntzə́qqa dusə́d(ə)n ttáz­ zlən lbábis ttbə́ššrən dís, ṃṃánas ylúlak áfṛux. yəfṛə́ḥ s(ə)ʕid al(ə)mmi ndádin dyəkkə́r yəflá lə́ssuq, yuɣəd (ə)ssúkər dləḥšíš(ə)t d(ə)lkakawí (y)yət dyəṃṃayásən ‘yáḷḷat ə́ḍəṛẓ(ə)t utšu dúdi17 duštásən imíddən átšən.’ lwaitšá yuɣəd ízmər yəɣrə́si dyəṃṃayásən ‘íg(ə)t amə́kli iṃaṃ­ ṃ(u) áddyas’. yəqqím ammídin t(ə́)lt i(y)yám, kul(l) yúm addyaɣ ízmər attyə́ɣrəs daynáda míddən an(ə)tysə́tš mallik ylúlas áfṛux.

[9] áss n(ə)ttál(ə)t yúm usə́d(ə)n índbab ntíddart kmə́l(ə)n gə́ʕ(ə)mzən díd báʕḍhəm dəṃṃán ‘íyyat! mátt(a) as(ə)nsə́mma iməmmítnəɣ?’ t(ə)k­kə́r yádžis nzíma təṃṃayásən ‘t(ə)ɣsə́m attsə́mmim nə́knim iziɣ aitə́džəm attsəmmiɣ nə́tš?’ yəṃṃáyas sə́ʕid ‘mlánəɣ ssmíy(y)tim la t(ə)ɣ­sə́d astsə́mmid wb(ə)ʕdín anḥə́kkəṛ. ida kan t(ə)ʕž(ə)bánəɣ, aita dádin dnə́ttat wida kán waɣənt(ə)ʕžíbš amə́nməl das(ə)nḥə́wwəm ssmiy(yə)t íḍ(ə)n’. təṃṃáyas ‘awálik wuhánit wəɣṛíš matta hámləɣ dís. manis ámyu, afṛuxə́nnəɣ ylul gšə́həṛ ntfáṣka, as(ə)nsə́mma “ʕə́yyad”’. yəṃṃáyas ‘lə́s(ə)m wuhánit dáṣbiḥ bzáyəd, lakən nə́šnin wətšá nəfṛə́ḥ nəkmə́l mallik ylulánəɣ ay(u) nwəfṛux a? imátta was(ə)nttsəmmíš “fə́ṛḥ ­ at”? nətš ámləɣ “fə́ṛḥat” xir n “ʕə́yyad”’. təṃṃáyas yadžis nzʕíma

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you, but there it is, today I’ve told you, and, if I know anything, this (child) is a boy’. He said to her ‘How do you know? Who told you, then? Did you dream of him one night?’ She said ‘No, I have had no dream or anything. (It is) just (that) this child of mine is heavy in my stomach and moves around a lot. He is not like the earlier ones’. He said to her ‘Fine, it will, God willing, be a boy’. [7] From that time Sa’id was always laughing and happy. He would ask his wife daily when she was expecting. After four months her pains started, (and) she sent for her family, the midwife, and her hus­ band. He came running but when he reached his house, was greatly troubled because he found his wife extremely ill and they told him it was doubtful if she would get up again. [8] He waited for her (news) from the tizzarnin to the tuqzin prayers. Shortly after the tuqzin a boy was born and ululation started up inside the room. They came running to his father to give him the good news that a son had been born to him. Sa’id was overjoyed, and, going off to the market, returned with sugar, tea, and peanuts, and told them (i.e. at the house) to come along and prepare utshu dudi for all and sundry (lit. to give to the people to eat). Next day he brought back a lamb and slaughtered it, telling them to make a meal for anyone who should come. And so he went on for three days; every day he would bring a lamb and slaughter it, inviting people to eat (from) it because a son had been born to him. [9] On the third day (i.e. after the birth) the whole household (i.e S’s and Z’s relatives) sat together and said ‘Come now! What shall we call our son?’. Za’ima’s mother spoke up and said to them (i.e. to S and Z) ‘Do you want to name him or will you let me (name him)?’ Sa’id replied ‘Tell us the name you want to give him and then we will see. If we like it, then that is that. And, if we don’t, we will tell you and shall look for another name for him’. She said to him ‘I have no objection (lit. nothing to say) to what you say (lit. this speech of yours). Since it is so, (and) our boy was born in a festival month (i.e. that of Big or Little ‘Id), we’ll call him ‘Ayyad’. He said ‘That is a very good name, but aren’t we all happy that this boy has been born to us? Why don’t we call him Ferhat? I should say Ferhat is preferable to ‘Ayyad’. Za’ima’s mother said ‘Well and good, since you both want 207

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‘bá­hi, manis nə́knim isnín təɣsəm as(ə)tsə́mmim “fə́ṛḥat”, səmmátas “fə́ṛḥat”. ḥ(ə)tta “fə́ṛḥat” ləsəm dúgnin, wəɣṛíš matta hámləɣ dis’. ttə́fqən baš assə́mman “fə́ṛḥat” dsəmmánas “fə́ṛḥat”. [10] təhwə́n zʕima dyəmɣə́ṛ adin nwə́fṛux dfṛə́ḥən sís bábis dyádžis al(ə)mmi ndádin. yṛáḥ ymə́rrəd dyttútlay áššar yəssǝ́n bába dyə́mma wb(ə)ʕdin yṛaḥ yttúgur yddádaš abáššar abáššar, dyəḥfə́ḍ aššar nwawal ə́ktəṛ. yəqqím kull yúm ammídin. idžə́ṃṃas yádžis (tisí) t(ə)ssífaf (ə)ggár(ə)n, tədžá (a)r(ə)n gwə́glim dtəkkə́r hatig amə́klis. b(ə)ʕd lá ti­g(a) amə́kli dyusə́d argázis, tɣə́ddan dtudəl hatig (ə)ššáhi. yəẓṛá fəṛ­ hat ar(ə)n gwə́glim yugúras abbáššar al(ə)mmi yuṣə́li. yənẓə́ɣ aglim dykúbb ar(ə)n la gwammáṣis. tḥə́kkəṛ yádžis tufá (a)r(ə)n ykúbb. təṃ­ ṃáyas iwərgázis ‘ḥə́kkəṛ mə́mmik mátta yttig’. yḥə́kkəṛ yufí yttkubbu ggár(ə)n, yəqqím yḍə́ṣṣ yḍə́ṣṣ al(ə)mmi ndádin, dyəṃṃáyas ilʕíltis ‘áxti! yəssən áykubb ḥ(ə)tt(a) arə́n a! ay(u) də́ttərr damə́qqaṛ ay(u) nwə́fṛux!’ təkkə́r yádžis təkkə́sas áglim. yəqqím afṛux yttʕə́yyəḍ. yəṃṃáyas s(ə́)ʕid ‘mmášbim didas?! ə́džas matta yáɣs! al(ə)mmi ykubb ár(ə)n, mat­ta dís?!’ wb(ə)ʕdín yəṃṃáyas imə́mmis ‘idáwərd ɣəṛ́i, a fə́ṛḥat! yad­žik wətṣəllə́ḥš (ə́)mlas yənʕən wáldik, (ə́)mlas!’

[11] təqqím ay(u) lʕílt ámyu təfṛə́ḥ smə́mmis, argaz d(ə)lʕíltis di­ma fəṛḥanín, ttətmə́nnan ɣir (ə)nšaḷḷa ṛə́bbi ayḍə́wwəl gəlʕəməṛ nməm­ mítsən. lákən idžənníḍ yuḍə́n fə́ṛḥat duhə́g(ə)n f(ə́)llas al(ə)mmi ndádin dəqlə́q(ə)n bzáyəd. tálži yəkkər árgaz yəflá lwʕə́zzab yəṃṃáyas ‘nətš ɣə́ṛi mə́mmi iḍ(ə)nnáṭ yuḍə́n. tr(a) arí(y)yid f(ə́)llas lə́ktab18. yurá (a)ʕəzzab lə́ktab yəṃṃáyas ‘ttəggíḍš! mə́mmik wəldíš šáṛukan, dtíṭṭ bə́ss. bəss áitu akúšəɣ ayu ntibrátin19, bəxx(ə)rástən s(ə)lžáwi d(ǝ)lfá­ sux20, kúll yum ídžǝt d(ə)nšaḷḷa b(ə)ʕd təlt i(y)yám ayə́hwən. d­b(ə)ʕd l(a) ayə́hwən mə́mmik asígəɣ lə́ḥžab. m(ə)ʕadš áyaɣ dis šáṛukan.

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to call him Ferhat, call him so. Ferhat, too, is a nice name. I have no objection to it’. (So) they agreed to call him Ferhat and adopted the name (lit. called him Ferhat). [10] Za’ima recovered, and (as) the boy grew older, his father and mother were delighted with him. He started to crawl and talk a little, learning (to say) ‘Daddy’ and ‘Mummy’, and later on bit by bit he began to walk, toddling (the first few steps), and (at the same time) his talking increased (lit. he learned some more speech). So he continued day by day. One day his mother was sieving flower (and) left the flour on the skin (i.e. sheep’s or goat’s) while (lit. and) she went off to prepare (her) lunch. After she had made the meal and her husband arrived, they lunched and she started to make tea. Ferhat saw the flour on the skin (and) walked step by step towards it until he reached it. He pulled the skin and tipped off the flour on (the middle of) it. His mother looked and saw (lit. found) the flour had been spilled, and said to her husband ‘Look at what your son is doing!’. He looked and found him tossing up the flour, (and) laughed and laughed uproariously, and said to his wife ‘He even knows how to toss flour! This is a very bright boy, this one!’. His mother went and took the skin away from him. The boy started (lit. remained) to cry. Sa’id said to her ‘Look, what have you done to him (lit. what is the matter with you and him)? Let him (do) what he wants! If he tosses flour around, what does it matter (lit. what is in it)?’. And then he said to his son ‘Come to me, Ferhat, your mother is no good, go on, execrate her (lit. say to her ‘A curse on your parents!, say (it)!’. [11] And so the family continued happily with their son, the man and his wife always content, just hoping that God would make their son’s life a long one. But one night Ferhat fell ill, and they were desperately afraid for him and greatly anxious. The following morning the husband went off to the Quranic teacher and said to him ‘I have a son who was taken ill last night. Please open the book (i.e. medical text) for him!’. The teacher opened the book and said ‘Don’t be afraid! Your son has nothing (wrong). It is just the (evil) eye. I will just give you these tibratin (i.e. strips of paper). Hold them for him (i.e. while he bends over them) in the smoke of jawi and lfasukh, one a day and, God willing, he will be cured in three days. And after your son is better I will make him an amulet. Nothing will harm him again. Even the 209

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ḥ(ə)t­­ta tɣardəmt ɣir attə́qqəs yttáɣš dis. yəɣl(a) áššar lakən nə́tš ak­ s(ə́)ʕ­ʕdəɣ. yəṃṃáyas s(ə́)ʕid ‘nə́tš (ə)nšáḷḷa ɣir ayəhwən mə́mmi bə́ss, wb(ə)ʕdín aitígəd ləḥžab dakúšəɣ ayu la t(ə)ɣsə́d’. yṛə́wwəḥ ilʕíltis, yušás adin ntəbrátin dyəṃṃáyas ‘kull yúm astbə́xxər ídžət’, mámak yəṃṃáyas aʕə́zzab. fát(ə)n t(ə)lt i(y)yám dkəmmə́lnət tibrátin lákən wyənfíʕš šáṛukan. məmmítsən yəqqím dmáḍun. yufíš mamak háyig s(ə́)ʕid dyqə́lləq bzáyəd dḥ(ə)tta lʕíltis tqə́lləq ál(ə)mmi ndadin afmə́mmis. m(ə)ʕád la tə́ttən la sə́ssən. áss yəkmə́l ḥkə́mən íɣəf(f) nməmmítsən dg(ə́)ʕmzən zzə́rs wəxláṣ. [12] tutə́f f(ə)llásən íškəlt tam(ə́)ṭṭut təṃṃayásən ‘ayu áš bih a ḥənnána məmmítun? matt(a) aʕə́ddmis iziɣ mámak?’ ṃṃánas ‘wn(ə)ssínš šáṛukan’. təṃṃayásən ‘ə́slət! n(ə)tš akənnə́mləɣ tɣusá idžət. ida kán hatáɣəm (ə)ṛṛáyiw, la bədda məmmítun ayə́hwən, mallík ay(u) ntɣúsa la hak(ə)nttə́mləɣ tnə́ff(ə)ʕ gwʕə́ddmət kmə́lən. ḥəwwə́mtas íɣəf nlə́ɣṛab daṣ(ə́)ṭṭaf də́g(ə)nyət f(ə́)llas áglim nizə́rzər dag(ə)ltástid. b(ə)ʕdín ə́flət l(ə)txə́rwəʕt21 ə́wyət aššar ntə́mẓin əmbṛə́ttən sáddwəs də́kksət sís áššar n(ə)twə́rqin. ɣir atə́kksəm tiwə́rqin ə́m(ə)ltas “xdə́na mən ʕándək əddwá w xəllənálək əddá”. b(ə)ʕdín ḥžə́mtas íɣfis iwə́fṛux dsáḥmat tiwə́rqin dəmbəṛtást(ə)n f(ə́)llas. idžəṃṃás bə́ss, lwaitšá (ə)uyə́ttid əẓáṛət sis lwəmṛábəḍ, xxúl b(ə)ʕd yumín ayə́ṣbəḥ ma bíhš, swá swá’.

[13] igə́nn ay(u) la təṃṃayásən adin ntmə́ṭṭut yəkmə́l lakən báqi məmmítsən wyəhwínš. áxi yərní f(ə)llas aʕə́ddəm b(ə)ʕd la ḥžə́mnas íɣfis. yufíš mamak háyig s(ə́)ʕid. mə́mmis kull yúm yrə́nni f(ə)llas aʕə́ddəm. hayə́mmut žar ifássnis dnə́tta wyəssínš matta hásyig. ydáwa dyṭə́bbəb22 lakən (ə)nnáf(ə)ʕ áḷḷa. yəqqím ammídin gwáṃṃas ntiddártis áss yəkmə́l yttʕə́yyəḍ n(ə́)tta d(ə)lʕíltis. idžəṃṃás yut(ə)f f(ə)llásən árgaz sim(ə)ddúkalə́nsən yəṃṃáyas ‘s(ə́)ʕid, mámak yəlla məmmik ássu?’ yəṃṃáyas ‘yəllá dṃáḍun bzáyəd.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘ya s(ə́)ʕid, atáɣəd ša ṛṛayíw a? ə́kkər ə́fəl ltə́ṃuṛt nadáyas iwə́ḍbib áyẓəṛ áfṛux’. yəṃṃáyas ‘b(ə)llahi ʕlík matta ttxə́ṛṛfəd? wyənfíʕš aʕə́zzab

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scorpion if it stings him will not affect him. It is rather expensive but I will help you (i.e. make you a reduction)’. Sa’id said to him ‘I only hope my son will get well, and then you can (lit. will) make me an amulet and I will give you anything you want’. He went home to his wife, gave her the tibratin and told her to burn one every day for him as the teacher had told him. Three days passed and the tibratin were all finished but it was no good at all. Their son remained ill. Sa’id didn’t know (lit. find) what to do and was very worried and his wife, too, was desperately anxious over her son. They no longer ate nor slept. All day long they just held their son’s head and stayed close to him. [12] Once a woman came to them and said ‘What is this (that has happened to) my dear one, your son? What is his illness (lit. his pain, where does he feel it), and how (does it take him, i.e. with or without coughing, for example)?’ They said to her ‘We know nothing (about) it’. She said ‘Listen! I will tell you one thing. If you take my advice, your son will undoubtedly get better, because the thing I am going to tell you about is good for all illnesses. Find for him the head of a black cow, sew a gazelle skin around it, and hang it on him. Afterwards go to a Palma Christi tree, take some barley with you and put it (lit. them) under the tree. Then remove it from a few leaves, and while you are taking the leaves off, say to it “We have taken the medicine from you and left you the sickness”. Then nick (e.g. with razor blade) (along) the boy’s forehead (lit. head), heat the leaves and put them on him. Just (do this) one day, (and) the day after take him to (lit. take him and visit with him) the saint’s shrine, then after two days he will wake up with nothing wrong with him, perfectly well’. [13] They carried out all that the woman told them but their son still did not recover; indeed, he got worse (lit. illness was added on him) after they cut his forehead. Sa’id didn’t know what to do. His son grew worse every day. He was going to die before his eyes (lit. between his hands) while he had no idea (lit. didn’t know) what to do for him. He treated him internally and externally, but God (alone) is the healer. And so he remained all day long within the house, weeping, him and his wife. One day one of their friends came to them and asked Sa’id how his son was that day, (to which) he replied that he was very ill. (His friend) said to him ‘Sa’id, will you take my advice? Get off to Zuara and call the doctor to see the boy’. He replied ‘Good God, what 211

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dwəmṛabəḍ, hayənf(ə́)ʕ aḍbíb a? n(ə́)tš m(ə)ʕádš hadígəɣ šáṛukan. attə́džəɣ žaráyas džar wúh la yəxlə́qi. nə́tš ttaggáḍəɣ anádiɣ áḍbib ai(y)ə́yməl “mə́mmik hattə́wyəɣ l(ə)ssbíṭaṛ gǝḍṛáblǝs” dnǝ́tš ssǝ́nǝɣ ɣir áyfǝl mǝ́mmi l(ə)ssbíṭaṛ, aittə́nɣən iḍbíbən dwaittadžínš attə́ẓṛəɣ ḥ(ə)ttá iẓṛa23. n(ə)tš ɣsəɣ mə́mmi ayəqqim dáh zzə́ri, ḥ(ə)ttá ida kan hayə́mmut, ayə́mmut žar tiṭṭawíniw’. yəṃṃáyas adin nwə́rgaz ‘ay(u) dáwal yəbʕə́d, a s(ə)ʕid. áyžudd f(ə́)llak iḍbíbən hanɣən məmmík a? iḍbíbən madabíhəm adawan mə́mmik dayə́hwən (or datsáhwnən) wət­š(a) attə́nɣən dnə́tš akə́mləɣ ssbíṭaṛ xír ndáhanit səbzáyəd. t(ə)ssə́­n(ə)d gəssbíṭaṛ wəllíš ḥə́ddukan ɣir iḍbibə́n a? wə́lliš ṃáṃṃu haydə́bbər ámyu ižiɣ ámyu, mállik aṛahuk dtikə́rkas, wəllíš ṃaṃṃu yəssə́n áṭṭan ɣir áḍbib, la daʕə́zzab w la damṛábəḍ. aɣ ṛṛáyiw xírak də́kk(ə)r əfəl nadáyas iwə́ḍbib áyẓəṛ mə́mmik dida kán yəṃṃáyak atdáwiɣ də́h, báhi. ida kán yəṃṃáyak attə́wyəɣ l(ə)ssbíṭaṛ xír w xír (ə)dž attydáwa dayə́hwən’. yəṃṃáyas s(ə́)ʕid ‘báhi, nətš akwáfqəɣ, m(ə)ʕlíš. lakən yádžis ssə́nəɣ wətqəbbə́lš dəttəqqə́lš atədž mə́mmis attə́wyən l(ə)ss­ bíṭaṛ’. yəṃṃáyas ‘yádžis wətšá mamak tə́ɣs dṃáṃṃ(u) ayaɣ ṛṛay ntsə́dnan, aṛáhuk yrəbbə́ḥš. šə́kkin m(ə)ʕlíš, idáw(ə)rdas stə́ṣbiḥt. ida kán təqbə́l, báhi, wa ida kán wtəqbílš, idáwrdas stm(ə́)ʕfunt də́wəy áfṛux mbəssif f(ə́)llas, tə́ɣs iziɣ tɣísš’.

[14] yəkkə́r s(ə́)ʕid yəfla lʕíltis b(ə)ʕd la yəffə́ɣ árgaz dyəṃṃáyas ‘t(ə)ssə́n(ə)d nətš xə́m(mə)məɣ šaṛá iḍ(ə)n’. təṃṃáyas ‘mátta? nšaḷḷa ɣír wətša hatə́wyəd mə́mmi l(ə)ssbíṭaṛ’. yəṃṃáyas ‘dádin dnə́tta’. təṃ­ ṃáyas ‘lá, lá ya kə́bdi, nətš wn(ə)žžmə́ɣš an(ə)kyəɣ mə́mmi l(ə)ssbíṭaṛ. ɣir (ə́)nnəṣṣ niḍbíbən dwə́ɣbəɣə́nsən b(ə)ṛṛúmi yssúfaɣ (ə́)ṛṛuḥ ḥ(ə)ttá nṃaṃṃu yəṣḥíḥ. aiyə́nɣən mə́mmi ɣádi dnə́tš wẓəṛṛəɣtíš. n(ə)tš ɣsəɣ mə́mmi ayəqqim də́h. ida kan ayə́mmut, ayə́mmut žar ifássniw w ida kan ayə́kkər, ayə́kkər’. yəṃṃáyas ‘ə́səl wəttkəttə́ṛš awal bzáyəd! nə́tš

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nonsense are you talking?! (When) the teacher and the marabout have been of no avail, what use is the doctor going to be? I am not going to do anything more. I shall leave him in the hands of His Creator (lit. between him and who created him). I am frightened (that if) I call the doctor, he will tell me he is going to take my son to hospital in Tripoli, (and) I know that if they take him (lit. my son) to hospital, they will kill him (for me) and I won’t even see him. I want my son to stay here next to me, (and) even if he dies, he will die in my sight (lit. between my eyes)’. The man said to him ‘This is nonsense (lit. this speech is far, i.e. from sense), Sa’id. Do you believe that the doctors will kill your son? Doctors prefer to treat and cure your son, not to kill him, and I tell you that hospital is better than here by far. Do you know that in hospital there are only doctors? There isn’t anybody who will advise any old thing (lit. thus or thus), because, mind you, it is all exaggeration (lit. lies, i.e. the quack remedies people advise), no one knows about disease except doctors, neither the teacher nor the Marabout. It is better for you to take my advice, go right away and call the doctor to see your son. If he says he’ll cure him here, well and good, (and) if he says he’ll take him to hospital, better still. Let him treat him and cure him (lit. and he will be cured)’. Sa’id said to him ‘All right, never mind, I agree with you, but I know his mother will not agree and will refuse to let them take her son (lit. let her son (that) they take him) to hospital’. He (i.e. his friend) said to him ‘It is not what his mother wants (that counts), and, look, whoever takes women’s afvice will lose out. You don’t mind (i.e. that is what counts), (so) approach her gently (lit. with good). If she accepts, fine, and if she does not, then treat her (lit. come to her) brusquely and take the boy against her will, whether she likes it or not’. [14] After the man took his leave, Sa’id went straight off to his wife and said to her ‘You know I’ve thought of something else’. She replied ‘What? I only hope you’re not going to take my son to hospital’. He told her that was it. ‘No, no, on my life (lit. my liver, since children held to be part of one’s liver)’, she said, ‘I cannot send my son to hospital. Just the sight (lit. shape, figure) of doctors and their weird European languages draws out the soul of even the healthy man. They will kill my son there without my seeing him. I want my son to remain here. If he dies, he does so in my sight (lit. between my hands), and if he is to recover, he will recover’. He said to her ‘Listen, and don’t talk so 213

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ɣsəɣ áfləɣ anádiɣ iwə́ḍbib d(ə)nšáḷḷa ayməl wn(ə)ggayíš l(ə)ssbíṭaṛ. nšáḷḷa (a)ttydáwa dəhánit dayə́hwən’. təṃṃáyas ‘ida kan hattydáwa dəhánit, báhi, amma ida kán hattə́ywəy l(ə)ssbiṭáṛ was(ə)ttəqqləɣš’. [15] yəfla s(ə́)ʕid lwə́ḍbib ynadáyas. yusə́d áḍbib. ɣir yəẓṛá (a)fṛux yufi dṃáḍun bzáyəd. yəṃṃáyas ittə́ržman ‘ə́mlas mə́mmik dṃáḍun bzáyəd dwn(ə)žžmə́ɣš atdáwiɣ dəhánit. la bə́dda yəɣs íwya l(ə)ssbí­ ṭaṛ. yəɣs ayə́qqim ɣádi šə́həṛ iziɣ šəhṛín, daṛáhuk ida kan attə́džəd dəhánit, ayə́mmut. dšə́kk af(ə)lkífik, mámak t(ə)ɣsə́d’. yufíš s(ə)ʕid matta háyig. úlis yɣísš ayədž áwyən məmmis l(ə)ssbíṭaṛ dnə́tta yuhə́g swawal nwə́ḍbib la yəṃṃayásti. lakən áḍbib yəṃṃáyas ‘ə́səl, a s(ə́)ʕid! áfṛux dmáḍun bzáyəd dšə́kk ida kan t(ə)ɣsə́d an(ə)ttə́nwəy s(ə)l­xírtik, báhi, w ida kan tɣisə́dš dtəṃṃíd ya há, nə́šnin ha­n(ə)t­tə́n­ wəy aṃṃi b(ə)lxíṛa (a)mmi mb(ə)ssíf, d(ə)xxúl nətš áfləɣ addáyəɣ (ə)lkə́ṛ(ə)hbət dattə́mbṛəɣ gwaṃṃásis dattə́wyəɣ. m(ə)ʕádš nə́žžməɣ asúggməɣ ḥ(ə)ttá idžəṃṃas ídžən’. yəffə́ɣ áḍbib dyəflá haddyaɣ (ə)lkəṛ(ə)hbət. ɣír yəffə́ɣ tusə́d zʕíma ls(ə́)ʕid dtudə́l ttʕə́yyəḍ. təṃṃáyas iwərgázis ‘ay(u) yəkmə́l ssə́kk šə́kk dnə́tš mə́mmi wɣisə́ɣš iwyas l(ə)ss­bíṭaṛ diḍbíbən. attə́nɣən ɣir subúžžu ntissigníwin. mə́mmi, wkan ufíɣ iziɣ al(ə́)mmi mamak ɣsəɣ nə́tš, ayə́qqim ɣír d(ə)hánit gəlʕúbbiw žaráyas džar wuhánit la yəxlə́qi. wəllíš áḍbib (ə)ktəṛ (ə)ṛṛə́bbi. ida kán uši ɣəṛs ússán gəddúnyat, ayʕána (a)din la yttwáryas dayə́kkər, w ida kán ussánis qṣə́ṛən, ayə́mmut žar ifássniw’. yəṃṃáyas argázis ‘xxul xláṣ, ádin la yqəddər ṛṛə́bbi, dadin dnə́tta. áḍbib yəfla háddyaɣ lkə́­ṛ(ə)h­bət dnə́šnin an(ə)ssúsəm xír, mallik nə́tta hattə́ywəy hattə́ywəy aṃṃí nəṛlá aṃṃí nəṛlíš. attə́wəy s(ə)lxirt(ə́)nnəɣ xír nmatt(a) at­ tə́ywəy mbəssíf, d(ə)xxúl ɣir ayədwəl áḍbib asə́mləɣ nə́tš ida kan yəq­q(ə)lá­nəɣ ámyədž at(ə)fləd dídəs’. nə́tnin səddíɣ ttutláyən anḍ(ə)ḷḷák d(ə)l­kə́ṛ(ə)hbət nwə́ḍbib ttzúffu. ɣir t(ə)ẓṛá zʕíma lkə́ṛ(ə)hbət təṃṃáyas iwərgázis ‘ṣṣlát ʕalə́nnbi! ɣir ə́ṛṛəhḍ nway(u) lkə́ṛhbət d(ə)lḥísis ggə́tt. ṃaṃṃ(u) áyfəl gway(u) lkə́ṛ(ə)hbət uši ayədwə́l a?’ tbə́dd lkə́ṛ(ə)hbət, yəggə́z sis áḍbib dyíh la dídəs, utə́fən ltíddart, ṃṃánas is(ə́)ʕid ‘íyya mani mə́mmik? wátəy (i)ziɣ uší?’ yəṃṃayásən ‘məmmi wátəy lákən ɣsəɣ adutláyəɣ did wə́ḍbib gətɣúsa ida kan attyə́hda ṛə́bbi dayə́qqəl. máni (y)ləll(a) áḍbib?’ skə́nnas áḍbib yəṃṃáyas ‘(n)tš ɣsəɣ aktṛə́žžiɣ

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much! I am going to call the doctor and I hope they will not take him to hospital. God willing, he will treat him here and he will get better’. She said ‘If he treats him here, that’s fine, but if they are going to take him to hospital, I shall not agree (with him)’. [15] Sa’id went and called the doctor, (and) the doctor came. As soon as he saw him he realized he was (lit. found him) gravely ill. He said to the interpreter ‘Tell him his son is seriously ill and I cannot treat him here. He must be taken (lit. he undoubtedly wants taking) to hospital. He will stay there for a month or two, and, (tell him to) mark my words, if he leaves him here, he will die. It is up to him, as he likes’. Sa’id didn’t know what to do. His heart didn’t like that his son would be taken to the hospital and he was afraid about what the doctor had said. But the doctor said to him ‘Listen Sa’id! The boy is very sick and if you want we will take him with your consent, fine, and if you don’t want it and say no, we will take him anyway but with force. Now I’ll go to bring the car and I’ll go inside and take him. I can’t even wait one more day.’ The doctor went out to take the car. When the doctor had gone out, Za’ima came in to Sa’id and she started crying. She said to her husband. “All this is because of you and I don’t like taking him to the hospital and to doctors. They will kill him with stings of needles. My son, if I had anything to say, my son would stay on my lap. This is between him and His Creator. There is no doctor greater than God. If he has more days in life, he’ll be safe and he’ll get up. If his days are short, he will die between my hands.” Her husband said ‘It’s enough, (if) that’s what God wants, (then) that’s it. The doctor has gone out to bring the car and we have to shut up, it’s better, because he will take him whether we agree or not. So it’s better if he takes him with our consent than without it. Just when the doctor comes in, I’ll say to him, if he will agree you’ll go with him. While they were talking the car of the doctor was making noise. When Za’ima saw the car she told her husband ‘It’s done. Only the color of this car and the sound is bad. Who will go in this car and come back?’ The ambulance drew up (and) the doctor got out, together with others with him (who) went into the house (and) said to Sa’id ‘Come along, where is your son? Is he ready or not (yet)?’. He said to them ‘My son is ready but I want to talk to the doctor about something, if he doesn’t mind (lit. if God predisposes him to accept). Where is the doctor?’. They pointed out the doctor to him (i.e. where the doctor was) and he (Sa’id) said to him ‘I just have 215

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gətɣúsa ídžət báss. wkan ufíɣ yádžis nwə́fṛux atf(ə)l dídəs l(ə)ssbíṭaṛ. áfṛux damə́škun, mə́nhu bíh ɣadi?’ yəṃṃáyas áḍbib ‘ɣádi g(ə)ssbíṭaṛ wətšá dšəɣlik šə́kkin. nə́šnin an(ə)ttḥə́kkəṛ dɣə́ṛnəɣ tisə́dnan bə́ddnət ɣír iy(y)ibušírən, lákən af(ə)lxáḍṛik šə́kkin, m(ə)ʕliš. yádžis tnə́žž(ə)m atf(ə)l dídəs’. yəṃṃáyas ‘tigíd lm(ə́)ʕṛuf damə́qqaṛ də́gi dkəttəṛ xírk bzáyəd’. ysúli áḍbib áfṛux dyádžis gəlkə́ṛǝhbət dyəfla sísən l(ə)ssbíṭaṛ. ysúggəz áfṛux dín dáttmən ddáwan dís kull yúm kull yúm al(ə)mmi ṛáḥ ʕəmmál hayə́hwən.

[16] s(ə́)ʕa s(ə́)ʕa yttásdas bábis l(ə)ssbíṭaṛ dkullə́mmi asə́ddyas áyaf lḥáltis xír amqə́bəl. yəqqím adin nwə́fṛux aša šə́həṛ dwə́zgən gəssbíṭaṛ al(ə)mmi ṛáḥ yəhwə́n swá swá. dáss la yəɣs ayə́ffəɣ yusə́das bábis lɣádi yufa áḍbib zzə́rs yəṃṃáyas áḍbib is(́ə)́ ʕid ‘təẓṛíd məmmik mamak yṛáḥ xxúl, muhú? xxúl yṛaḥ xír nmanis yəṣḥíḥ qəbəl la hayáḍ(ə)n, wkan nədžák af(ə)lfə́krik šə́kkin dtədžíd afṛux ɣádi bla ddwáwat, t(ə)l­líd təẓṛíd matt(a) asə́yṣaṛ. aitu ɣír baš atákzəd báss. ɣir ak(ə)n­­ yáḍ(ə)n iškəlt íḍ(ə)n ḥə́dd, wəttaɣə́dš lá ṛṛay nwúh w lá ṛṛay ntúh. ə́flət ṭúl lwə́ḍbib diflúsən ida kan tnə́žžməm atúšəm, báhi, w ida kan diẓawalí(y)yən iziɣ wɣəṛwə́nš, bláš’. yəṃṃáyas ‘awálik yəkmə́l gluṣúlis dəxxúl mə́nit t(ə)ɣsəd akúšəɣ azəl n(ə)ddwáwat?’. yəṃṃáyas ‘atúšəd Ɂálf fṛə́nk, (ə)ddwáwat ədkúll ši’. yənẓə́ɣ yušás ədsə́llmən afwə́ḍbib dulə́yən gəlkəṛhə́btis dṛə́wwḥǝn əltiddart(ə́)ns(ə)n fəṛḥanín.

[17] yəmɣə́ṛ adin nwə́fṛux al(ə)mmi yuṣəl lʕə́mris sətt snín. ɣir yu­ṣə́l sətt snín yəwyi bábis l(ə)tməzgída baš áyɣər lqúran. yəwyí l(ə)t­məz­ gída dyəṃṃáyas iwʕə́zzab ‘aitu mə́mmi uɣədɣákti! ɣsə́ɣak attə́rrəd sis lbálik dwəttadžiš ibušírən attwə́ttən iziɣ asxə́nbən ləḥwážis’. yə­ṃ­ ṃá­yas aʕə́zzab ‘ə́dži dəhánit dbə́ṛṛa, kun məthə́nni f(ə́)llas, m(ə)­ʕádš atə́ggḍəd f(ə́)llas. ynəžžə́mš ḥə́ddukan ayútlay lɣə́ṛš iziɣ atty­nába. aitu 216

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one request to make of you. If possible (lit. if I found), could the boy’s mother go with him to hospital)? The boy is little (and) who will look after him (lit. who will be with him) there?’. The doctor replied ‘You need not concern yourself with (what goes on) there in the hospital. We will take care of him and have women whose responsibility is exclusively with children. But never mind, for your sake, his mother can go with him’. He (Sa’id) said ‘You have done me a great favour and thank you very much indeed’. The doctor got the boy and his mother up into the ambulance and took them to the hospital. (Once) there he removed him (from the ambulance) and they set about treating him every single day until he was on the way to recovery (lit. became he was going to get better). [16] Sometimes his father would come to the hospital to see him, and every time he came he found him better than before. The boy stayed in the hospital for about a month and a half until he was (lit. became) completely cured. The day he was going to leave hospital his father came for him there (and) found the doctor with him. The doctor said to Sa’id ‘You see how your son is now, don’t you? He’s better now than when he was well before he fell ill. If we’d let you persist with your view and left the boy there without medicines, you would have seen what would have happened to him. This is just to make you realize. When another time someone (of yours) falls ill, don’t take the advice of this one and that one (i.e. of any old Tom, Dick, or Harry). Go at once to the doctor, and, as to money, if you are able to give, well, and good, but if you are poor or have nothing, never mind’. He replied ‘Everything you say is right (lit. in its place), and now how much do you want me to give you as the price of the treatment (lit. medicines)?’. (The doctor) said ‘You should pay 1000 liras, medicines and everything’. He took out (his wallet) and gave over (the amount), and they took leave of the doctor, mounted in the ambulance (lit. his car), and returned happily home. [17] The boy grew older till he became six, (and) when he did so, his father took him to the mosque (i.e. the Quranic school) to study the Quran. (There) he said to the teacher ‘This is my son I have brought to you. I want you to take charge of him and not to let the boys bully (lit. beat) him or steal his things’. The teacher replied ‘Leave him here and go. Relax and fear no more for him. Nobody can talk or dispute with 217

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asígəɣ aṃkánis (ə)zzə́ri dayə́qqim dəhánit díma zzəri nə́tš’. yəflá bábis dyədži dín. [18] yəkkə́r aʕə́zzab yḥə́wwmas ə́lluḥ dáṣbiḥ, yuší iyídžǝn sibušírən yəmḥayásti dyuryásti dayə́ttəm yss(ə)ḥfáḍas iwadin nwə́fṛux24. yəqqím fə́rḥat ammídin, ayə́kkər kúll yum tálži áyfəl l(ə)tməzgíd(a) áyɣər alwə́zəl, wb(ə)ʕdín ayṛə́wwəḥ ayətɣə́dda daysəw ššáhi dayə́dwəl ayə́q­ qim altúqzin wb(ə)ʕdín ayṛə́wwəḥ. yəqqím aša ʕamín ámyu. yəḥfə́ḍ alif(ə)lbá, alíf la ší ʕlíh, alíf b(ə)lxə́fḍa, dyəḥfə́ḍ ayárəy səṛṛšímət da­ yárəy abə́lḥəṛf dyttárəy ḥ(ə)tt(a) áššar abəlmə́llət. b(ə)ʕd ʕamín yəd­wə́l yttárəy abəlmə́llət swá swá25, dyəqqár mbə́lḥəq. ayə́kkər bábis kul(l) yúm síbhaṛ ənwáss attysə́kkər. ayə́kkər ayfəl l(ə)tməzgída. b(ə)ʕd ma (a)y(ə́)ʕṛəḍ (ə)llúḥis dattyə́mḥa26, ayṛə́wwəḥ llə́fḍuṛ. ayə́fḍəṛ dayə́dwəl ayárəy llúḥis dattiɣər áššar wb(ə)ʕdín ayṛə́wwəḥ ɣir attwasə́rrḥən ibušírən. b(ə)ʕd la (a)y(ə)tɣə́dda daysəw ššáhi ayə́dwəl l(ə)tməzgídas ayə́ḥfəḍ llúḥis dattyə́ʕṛəḍ wb(ə)ʕdín ayádəl yəqqár gətsurratínis al­b(ə)ʕd túqzin, attwasə́rrḥən dayṛə́wwəḥ.

[19] yəqqím fə́ṛḥat kul(l) yum ámyu kul(l) yum ámyu lakən fí­s(ə)ʕ ma yəkrə́h taməzgída dyədwə́l yrə́ggəl sís mallik áss la wyḥəffə́ḍš llú­ḥis wəttadžittíš aʕə́zzab ayṛə́wwəḥ allə́fḍur dáss la (a)sytə́bbəʕ ti­ surratínis dáttyaf yəttúttən attyə́ḥbəs altimmútšu ds(ə́)ʕa s(ə́)ʕa (a)s­yig tafə́lqit27. yədwə́l fə́rḥat yrə́ggəl s(ə)tməzgída. ayə́kkər tálži áy­ fəl ayúṛaṛ állwəqt nwsərrəḥ nibušírən wb(ə)ʕdín ayṛə́wwəḥ. b(ə́)ʕd la (a)yətɣə́dda daysəw ššáhi ayə́dwəl báqi dayúṛaṛ altúqzin wb(ə)ʕdín ayṛə́wwəḥ. yəqqím ámyu aša lḥífḍət (ə)dbábis madʕíla kúl yǝqqár. ass nlǝ́xmis28 tam(ǝ)ddít yǝffǝ́ɣ aʕǝ́zzab lǝ́ssuq yǝmláqqa n(ǝ)tta dbábis. yəṃṃáyas ‘máni mə́mmik? ussáni yəkmə́lən m(ə)ʕádš yttásəd? bálək ɣír tẓəṛṛə́dš dís. kúl(l) yum yənnáyid ffáləɣ’. yəṃṃáyas aʕə́zzab ‘xxúl

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him. Look, I’ll make his place here next to me and he will always stay here (next to me)’. (So) his father went and left him there. [18] The teacher found him a good board (and) gave it to one of the boys to clean for him. Then he wrote on it for him and began to teach the boy. Ferhat continued so, getting up in the morning to go to the mosque to study until noon, then going home to lunch and drink tea, and (then again) returning. He would stay until the tuqzin prayer and then go home. He went on in this manner for about two years. He learned the alphabet, the dotting of the letters, and the vowelling of the letters, and he learned to write rashima and joined letters, and he even wrote a little dictation. After two years he came to write dictation perfectly and to study seriously. His father would rise every day at first light to wake him, (when) he would get up and go to the mosque. After (learning and) reciting his board and cleaning it, he would go home to breakfast. He would breakfast, then return to write up his board and study it for a time, whereafter he would go home when the boys were released. After eating his lunch and drinking tea, he would return to his mosque (i.e. his particular one of the several in being), learn his board, recite it, then start to learn his suras (i.e. the ones he had erased earlier but must remember) until after the tuqzin. They would then be released and he would go home. [19] Ferhat continued thus day after day but he soon (came to) hate the mosque and started to play truant from it because whenever he doesn’t learn his board, the teacher doesn’t let him go home to breakfast and whenever he has him recite his suras and finds he has forgotten them, he keeps him in till sunset and sometimes gives him the bastinado. Ferhat would go (lit. went) back to playing truant from the mosque. He would get up and go out to play until the time of the boys’ release, then he would go home. After his lunch and tea (lit. he lunched and drank tea), he would go back to playing until the tuqzin, when he would return home. He went on like this for about a week and all the time his father thought he was studying. On Thursday afternoon(s) the teacher went to the market and (there) he met his (i.e. Ferhat’s) father, and said to him ‘Where is your son? All these days he doesn’t come any more’. Sa’id said to him ‘How (can that be), that he doesn’t come any more? Perhaps you just don’t see him. He tells me every day (that) he’s been (lit. I went)’. The teacher said to him ‘It’s now getting 219

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ayə́kkəd aša lḥífḍət wəddyusíš. nə́tš madʕíli kúl dṃáḍun iziɣ tarmáni tənkyə́mtid’. yəṃṃáyas ‘la dmáḍun wla dšáṛukan wla ɣə́ṛnəɣ abadə́n mani han(ə)ttnə́nkəy. lukán nəɣs an(ə)ttnə́nkəy iziɣ nəɣsi ayə́xdəm wənnəbbṛíš gətməzgída. nə́šnin nigí gətməzgída nəɣsí ayɣər báss. wa­ snəṃṃíš ig šáṛukan íḍ(ə)n, lákən nə́tš xxúl attḥə́kkṛəɣ dwáss nsə́bbat ak(ə)ttáɣdəɣ lɣádi’.

[20] ɣir yṛə́wwəḥ s(ə)ʕid sə́ssuq ynád(a) afmə́mmis yəṃṃáyas ‘fəṛḥát! tṛa mlí(y)yid matta t(ə)ḥfə́ḍ(ə)ḍ gətməzgída ussáni’. yəṃṃáyas fə́ṛḥat ‘ḥfəḍəɣ áššar n(ə)tsurrátin, ḥfə́ḍəɣ alidazulzílati’. yəṃṃáyas ‘báhi, tṛa ɣrí(y)yid matta t(ə)ssə́nəd’. yudə́l háyɣər lakən wynəžžə́mš áyɣər ḥ(ə)ttá idžət mallik kmə́lnət yəttútən. yəṃṃáyas bábis ‘ə́ɣər tsúrrət la t(ə)zhə́l dtuhánit la t(ə)ḥfḍə́ttət bzáyǝd’. yudə́l hayɣər báqi lakən wynəžžə́mš. yəṃṃáyas bábis ‘ə́səl, a fə́ṛḥat! mlí(y)yid š(ə)kkin t(ə)f­fá­l(ə)d l(ə)tməzgidá iziɣ m(ə)ʕádš t(ə)ffál(ə)d. wb(ə)ʕdín ida kan haitə́mləd lḥəqq, báhi, w ida kán atskə́r(ə)ksəd, t(ə)ssə́nəd mamak akí­gəɣ’. yəṃṃáyas ‘nə́tš kul(l) yúm ffáləɣ ɣir tisurratíniw ttə́ttuɣ dísnət, dmúhu ḥ(ə)tta šə́kk tẓəṛṛəd də́gi kul(l) yúm? wb(ə)ʕdín múhu dšə́kkin la t(ə)ss(ə)kkárəd də́gi talži bə́kri?’ yəṃṃáyas bábis ‘nə́tš mbə́lḥəq ssəkkárəɣ də́kk talži bə́kri dəttə́ffɣəd ssyəhánit lakən w(ə)ssinə́ɣš mani t(ə)ffál(ə)d b(ə)ʕdín. nətš aitšá (ə)fləɣ lwʕə́zzab dasə́mləɣ. ida kan yəṃṃáyid m(ə)ʕadš yttásəd l(ə)tməzgidá, b(ə)ʕdín ɣəṛi dídək l(ə)ḥ­sábat. ə́kkər iṛaṛ’. yəkkə́r fə́ṛḥat ssyin yttəržížəy yəflá lwəṃkánis dyəṭṭə́ṣ altálži. tálži yəkkə́r yəfḍə́ṛ dyəswa ššáhis wb(ə)ʕdín yəfla lḥə́nnas mallik yəggə́ḍ ɣir áyfəl bábis lwʕə́zzab dasə́yməl m(ə)ʕádš yttásəd attíwət(t) iziɣ attíwəy l(ə)tməzgída (a)syig aʕə́zzab taf(ə)lqit.

[21] ɣir yuṣə́l ḥə́nnas ygə́ʕməz zzə́rs dyəqqím yttʕə́yyəḍ. təṃṃáyas ḥə́nnas ‘áš bik? mlí(y)yid aš bik ttʕə́yyḍəd. ṃámṃ(u) ywə́ttək?’ yəṃ­ ṃáyas ‘lá, waiəywə́ttš ḥə́ddukan. bass bába yəɣs aiə́ywətt mallik wə­ flíɣš l(ə)tməzgída. yəṃṃáyid xxul asə́mləɣ iwʕə́zzab ida kán yəṃ­ ṃáyid wyttasə́dš haiə́ywətt izíɣ yəɣs aiə́ywəy lwʕə́zzab háiyig ta-

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on for (lit. touching) a week that he hasn’t come. I was quite sure he was ill or that you had sent him off somewhere’. He replied ‘He isn’t ill or anything nor shall we ever have anywhere to send him off to. If we wanted to send him away or wanted him to work, we would not have enrolled him in the mosque. We put him there only (because) we wanted him to study. We didn’t tell him to do (lit. do! (impve.)) anything else, but now I shall see him and on Saturday bring him to you there (i.e. at the mosque)’. [20] When Sa’id returned from the market, he called his son and said to him ‘Ferhat, tell me then what you have learned these days at the mosque’. Ferhat said to him ‘I’ve learnt some suras up to the Azzalzalah sura’. He said ‘Good, then recite to me what you know’. He began reciting but was unable to recite a single one because he had forgotten them all. His father said to him ‘Recite an easy sura and one which you have learned well’. He started to recite again but could not. His father said ‘Listen, Ferhat! Tell me! Do you go to the mosque or not any more? Then if you tell me the truth, fine, and if you tell lies, you know what I’ll do to you’. He replied ‘I go every day, I just forget my suras, and don’t you even see me go every day? And don’t you yourself wake me up early in the morning?’. His father said to him ‘I do indeed wake you early in the morning and you go off from here, but I don’t know where you go afterwards. Tomorrow I shall go to the teacher and tell him (i.e. about you). If he tells me you don’t go to the mosque any more, then I shall have an acount (to settle) with you. Go off and play!’. Ferhat left (there) trembling and went to his bed and slept till morning. He rose on the following day, had breakfast and tea, then went to his grandmother (i.e. mother’s mother), because he was afraid that, when his father went (lit. will go) to the teacher and he tells him that he (i.e. Ferhat) isn’t coming any more, he would beat him or would take him to the mosque for the teacher to give him the bastinado. [21] When he reached his grandmother(ʼs), he sat next to her and started to cry. His grandmother said to him ‘What’s the matter? Tell me what is making you cry. Who has hit you?’. He said ‘No, nobody has hit me. It is just that father will beat me because I haven’t been to the mosque. He’s just told me he’s going to talk to the teacher. If he tells him (lit. me, i.e. Ferhat is reporting Sa’ids words) I (lit. you) 221

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f(ə́)l­qit. nətš ida kan áfləɣ l(ə)tməzgída, áss la wḥ(ə)ffḍə́ɣš (ə)llúḥiw aiə́ywətt aʕə́zzab dwaiyəttadžís áfləɣ la (a)llə́fḍuṛ wla lwmə́kli. áiyədž áss yəkmə́l blá utšu w ida kán wəflíɣš aiə́ywətt bába. nətš wfíɣš mamak hadígəɣ’. dyudə́l yttʕə́yyəḍ zzat ḥə́nnas. təṃṃáyas ḥə́nnas ‘ssúsəm imə́m­mi ssúsəm. ggə́tt nl(ə́)ʕyaḍ, m(ə)ʕádš atʕə́yyḍəḍ xxúl akkrəɣ áfləɣ nšídək lbábik. aʕə́zzab wynəžžə́mš ayə́kkəd də́kk ḥ(ə)tta íkkad. dšə́kk af(ə)lkífik, mámak t(ə)ɣsə́d, ida kán t(ə)ɣsəd atə́ɣr(ə)d ə́ɣər, w ida kán wətɣisə́dš, bláš. tam(ə)zgída lqəlbət áttwətt!’

[22] təkkə́r ḥə́nnas t(ə)flá n(ə)ttatídis lbábis lakən wəttufín gtíddart. təqqím dín tsúggmi al(ə)mmi yusə́d. ɣir yusə́d, t(ə)kkəras dtəṃṃáyas ‘áš bik a s(ə́)ʕid did fə́rḥat? yəṃṃáyid baba haiə́ywətt dhaiə́ywəy lwʕə́zzab haiyig tafə́lqit. imátt?’ yəṃṃáyas ‘n(ə)tta yəssǝ́n imatt. n(ə)tš mbṛə́xtid gətməzgída. ɣsə́ɣtid áyɣər báss. la ṃṃíɣas ə́krəz w lá mžər w la kúbər. wb(ə)ʕdís n(ə)tt(a) ayə́ffəɣ kull yúm ssyəhánit áyfəl ayíṛaṛ altimmútšu dáddyas aiə́yməl “isíɣ gətməzgída”. n(ə)tta yiga sə́nt lʕə́mlat, ídžət m(ə)ʕádš yəffál ltməzgída dəttánya yəskə́rkus fə́lli’. təṃṃáyas ḥə́nnas nfə́ṛḥat ‘yáḷḷa yáḷḷa gg(ə)táwən nlə́hbal. íɣəff ənwə́fṛux n(ə)tta kúl gtíddart wb(ə)ʕdín kull yúm attxə́ẓǝṛṭəm. hattsítfəm gəlʕə́qlis dhattsúfɣəm. šəkk sídəs dwʕə́zzab sídəs! imátta (a)y(u) kúl? nəšnin (m)məmmítnəɣ wn(ə)tt(ə)nɣís la dlḥákəm w la haygə́ʕməz afləkrási. ayáwəḍ (ə)ṣṣə́nʕət nbábis džə́ddis bə́ss, ggə́tas. maɣar bábis džə́ddis la wssinə́nš áɣr(ə)n əṃṃut(ə́)n a? iziɣ wəddirə́nš? nəšnin ušánəɣ ayə́ddər ambábis əggát!’ yəṃṃáyas s(ə́)ʕid ‘ay(u) dáwal m(ə)ʕádš ɣsəɣ attə́sləɣ. nətš dbábis dnə́tta dmə́mmi, ssə́nəɣ matta (a)yə́ṣləḥ sə́gi dmatta (a)yə́ṣləḥ sís. nətš mbṛə́xtid gətməzgída ɣsə́ɣtid baš áyɣər, mallík áitu nə́tš ẓṛíɣ imániw la wəɣríɣš. al(ə)mmi yə́ɣs ayú­ gur mamak asə́mləɣ, báhi, dal(ə)mmi wɣí(s)š, adə́bbrəɣ did(ə)s íɣfiw’.

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haven’t been (to the mosque) he will beat me or take me to the teacher for him to give me the bastinado. And if I go to the mosque, the day(s) I haven’t learnt my board, the teacher beats me and he doesn’t let me go to breakfast or dinner. He leaves me without food all day, and if I don’t go, father will beat me. I don’t know what I’m going to do’. And he began to cry again before his grandmother. She said to him ‘Hush, my son, hush! Stop crying, don’t cry any more! I’ll get up and go straight away with you to your father. The teacher can’t touch you at all (lit. even a touch), and you (can do) as you like, just how you want. If you want to study, study, and if you don’t want to, it doesn’t matter. Drat the mosque! (lit. may the mosque be struck and fall down)’. [22] His grandmother went off with him (lit. she went off, she and him) to his father but they did not find him at home. She stayed there waiting (for him) until he came. When he did, she went up to him and said ‘What’s the trouble, Sa’id, with Ferhat? He told me father is going to beat me and take me to the teacher to get the bastinado. How can this be?’. He replied ‘He knows why. I placed him in the mosque (because) I just wanted him to study. I didn’t tell him to plough or harvest or dig (i.e. in my orchards around the trees where the plough cannot reach). And after that he leaves here every day, plays until sunset, and comes back to tell me he (lit. I) was in the mosque. He did two things (i.e. made two mistakes), first he doesn’t go to the mosque and more and, second, he lies to me (about it). Ferhat’s grandmother said ‘Hey, hey, stop this nonsense! He (lit. the boy’s head) is the only one in the house (i.e. he is the only boy in the house) and yet every day you frighten him. You’re going to turn his mind inside out (lit. make him come in in his mind and make him come out). You on one side and the teacher on the other! Why all this?! We do not want our son to be governor or one who sits on seats (i.e a leading administrative light as the mudir). He will just follow his father’s and grandfather’s business, that’s sufficient for him! And his father and grandfather who didn’t know how to read, are they dead or have they survived? Let him live (lit. give us that he may live) like his father, that is enough!’. Sa’id said to her ‘I don’t want to hear any more of this talk. I am his father and he is my son. I know what is good for me and what is good for him. I placed him in the mosque with the intention that he should study, since I realized that I myself did not study (i.e. am ignorant). If he wants to do (lit. go along) as I tell him, well and good, and if he doesn’t, I will turn my attention 223

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təṃṃáyas ‘ya s(ə́)ʕid, ə́səl ə́səl, akə́mləɣ. mə́mmik səddíɣ da­ḥ(ə́)š­kun duší yəssínš tam(ə)zgída dmatta hayə́ṣləḥ sís. idáwrdas sə́ssʕad, xír tzə́lbḥi, ddaltúlat la hattwə́ttəd w la hatə́kkdəd dís. xxúl aitu asnádiɣ da­sə́mləɣ bábik wakyttšátš dháyfəl dídək lwʕə́zzab asə́yməl ḥ(ə)tta n(ə́)t­ta wakyttšátš, lákən išk(ə)lt iḍ(ə)nt rr(ə)lbálik atṛəwl(ə)d s(ə)tməz­gída’. yəṃṃáyas s(ə́)ʕid ‘báhi. ddaltúlat af(ə)lxáḍrim was(ə)tti­ gə́ɣš šáṛukan’. nadánas ifə́ṛḥat dyəṃṃáyas bábis ‘tik(ə)ltúlat af(ə)lxáḍər nḥə́nnak aksámḥəɣ wakəttšatə́ɣš dwaitšá áfləɣ dídək lwʕə́zzab lákən íšk(ə)lt íḍ(ə)nt atṛə́wləd s(ə)tməzgída iziɣ at(ə)skə́rksəd gšáṛa ukán, ṛə́bbi yəssə́n mamak akígəɣ b(ə)ʕdín’.

[23] təkkə́r ḥə́nnas tṛə́wwəḥ dyəkkə́r fə́ṛḥat yttíṛaṛ. tálži b(ə)ʕd la yəf­ḍə́ṛ dyəswa ššáhi yəflá n(ə)tta dbábis l(ə)tməzgída. yəṃṃáyas s(ə́)ʕid iwʕə́zzab ‘aitu (u)ɣə́dɣak fə́ṛḥat lakən ddaltúlat ɣsə́ɣak attsám­ ḥəd wəttšatəttíš díšk(ə)lt íḍ(ə)nt áss la wyttasə́dš ɣir nkə́y(y)id. nə́tš áfləɣ attḥə́wwməɣ ma(n)i yəllá dattáɣdəɣ. wb(ə)ʕdín ásnuš am(ə)zwár dwn(ə́)ʕqab. t(ə)slíd, a fə́ṛḥát a?’ yhúzz fə́ṛḥat íɣfis. yəṃṃáyas aʕə́zzab ‘ə́huzz íɣfik y(ə)ʕdə́l, a (a)yə́ɣyul. watnəžžmə́dš atə́mləd “nʕə́m”? bá­ lək ayšə́rrək ímik’. yəffə́ɣ bábis dyəqqím afṛux dín. yəwyá llúḥis dyu­ də́l yəqqáṛ dyəffál kull yúm l(ə)tməzgída.

[24] aʕə́zzab yədwə́l yəɣsi bzáyəd dm(ə)ʕádš yttígas gətfə́lqit ábadan, ḥ(ə)ttá (a)ss la wyḥffə́ḍš (ə)llúhis, dyttádža dís áyfəl lə́fḍuṛ dyttsə́rrəḥ dís did ibušírən, mallik fə́ṛḥat yttḥə́ṣṣəl giflús(ə)n bzáyəd sbábis dyádžis dḥə́nnas dkullə́mm(i) áddyaɣ lliṛə́bʕa iziɣ d(ə)lxə́tmət iziɣ t(ə)sríḥət29 sbábis, ayə́rni afwáyu l(a) ásyuš bábis das(ə)ttyáɣəd iwʕə́zzab. ɣir as­ə́y­məl aʕə́zzab “ṃámmu yušák ay(u) niflúsən kúl?”, asə́yməl “bába yuší(y)yid áššar dwáššar uɣdə́ɣtən sɣə́ṛi nə́tš” ds(ə́)ʕa s(ə́)ʕa asə́ddyaɣ iflús(ə)n iwʕə́zzab ḥ(ə)ttá mən ɣir šáṛukan, la d(ə)lxə́tmət w la dt(ə)s-

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to him (lit. I will manage my head with him, i.e. I shall know what to do with him)’. She replied ‘Listen, Sa’id, listen, and I’ll tell you! Your son is still small and doesn’t yet know the mosque and what he will get from it. It is better to treat (lit. come to) him gently and with guile. This time don’t beat him or touch him (at all). Now I’ll just call him and tell him his (lit. your) father is not going to beat him and will go with him to the teacher to tell him (i.e. the teacher) that he too is not to beat him, but another time woe betide him if he plays truant from the mosque’. Sa’id said to her ‘All right, this time for your sake, I won’t do anything to him. They called Ferhat and his father told him that this time for his grandmother’s sake he would forgive him and not beat him, and that the following day he would go with him to the teacher, but that following day he would go with him to the teacher, but that if he truanted again from the mosque or told lies about anything at all, God knew what he would do to him after. [23] His grandmother went off home and Ferhat went out to play. In the morning, after he had breakfast and tea, he went with his father to the mosque. Sa’id said to the teacher ‘Here I’ve brought you Ferhat but this time I want you to excuse him and chastise him, but (lit. and) another time, the day he doesn’t come, just let me know. I will go and find him wherever he is and bring him. Then we will give him the first punishment (i.e. the one he has just been let off) and the last (i.e. the latest, the one he will collect if he transgresses again). Do you hear, Ferhat?’ Ferhat nodded, and the teacher said ‘Nod your head, then, donkey! Can’t you say “Yes”, or maybe that would hurt (lit. tear) your mouth’. His father left and the boy stayed there. He took his board and began to study and go daily to the mosque. [24] The teacher came to like him greatly and doesn’t ever give the bastinado again even when he doesn’t learn his board. And he lets him go to breakfast and releases him with the (other) boys, because Ferhat gets a lot of money from his father, mother, and grandmother and whenever he brings the Wednesday fee or the khatmat or the tasriḥat (contributions) from his father, he adds to what his father gives him and brings it (all) to the teacher. When the teacher would ask him who had given him all this money, he would say to him ‘My father gave me some and I have added (lit. brought) some of my own’, and sometimes he would bring money for the teacher without any cause, 225

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rí­hət. yṛáh (a)ʕə́zzab yəɣs fə́ṛḥat bzáyəd dyənnáyas ḥ(ə)ttá imla ‘áss la wətɣisə́dš attásəd, bláš, báss ɣir akə́yməl bábik “təflíd” (ə́)mlas “wáy” dɣir aiəysə́stən nə́tš, asə́mləɣ “yusəd”. [25] idžə́ṃṃas fə́ṛḥat wəddyusíš l(ə)tməzgída. ʕla ɣə́fla bábis yutə́f wyufíš məmmis din. ysə́stən aʕə́zzab ‘máni fə́ṛḥat?’ yəṃṃáyas ‘xxul báss mamak yṛə́wwəḥ zzátək. y(ə)ʕṛə́ḍ llúḥis dyṛə́wwəḥ. ussáni yədwə́l fáləḥ bzáyəd, wəllíš idžəṃṃas ayə́qqim (də)ddə́rguz dtsurratínis kmə́lnət y(ə)ḥfḍínt am(ə)ššə́ṛbət nwáman.’ yəffə́ɣ bábis s(ə)tməzgída fəṛḥán al(ə)mmi ndádin, madʕíla kul mbə́lḥəq mə́mmis yḥə́ffəḍ (ə)bzáyəd ma­mak yəṃṃáyas aʕə́zzab. yəfla lə́ssuq yəsɣás tákmist dtáždidt d(ə)l­bə́lɣət dyṛə́wwəḥ sisnət. ɣir yuṣə́l tíddart ynáda (a)ffə́ṛḥat yəṃṃáyas ‘idáw(ə)rd ussáni mallik tədwə́ləd tḥə́ffḍəd (ə)bzáyəd gətsurratínik d­m(ə)ʕádš ttɣímid əddə́rguz kúl, áitu sɣíɣak tákmist d(ə)lbə́lɣət, d(ə)xxul matta təɣsə́d akə́sɣəɣ, akə́sɣəɣ.’ yəfṛə́ḥ fə́ṛḥat stəkmə́stis d(ə)lbə́lɣətis dwaitšá tálži yiṛəḍ takmístis d(ə)lbə́l(ə)ɣtis dyəflá sí­s(ə)nt l(ə)tməzgída dyə́wyas xəmsa fṛə́nk iwʕə́zzab. ɣir yuṣə́l tam(ə)z­gída yušás adin niflús(ə)n iwʕə́zzab dyəṃṃáyas ‘bába yəsɣí(y)yid ay(u) ntə́kmist dway(u) lbə́lɣət dyəṃṃáyid “sɣiɣákt(ə)n mallik təd­ wə­ĺ əd tḥə́ffḍəd (ə)bzáyəd.”’ yəṃṃáyas aʕə́zzab ‘adin aṣṣ(ə)nnát ba­ bik yusə́d ldəhánit dyəsní(y)yid f(ə́)llak mallik wakyufí. ṃṃíɣas yu­ sə́d y(ə)ḥfə́ḍ llúḥis dyṛə́wwəḥ. išk(ə)lt íḍ(ə)n(t) al(ə)mmi wətɣisə́dš attásəd idáw(ə)rd (ə)mlí(y)yid mani hatə́fləd, baš ɣir áddyas daysə́stən f(ə́)llak, aknə́kyəɣ idžən sibušírən akynáda. bálək s(ə)ʕa s(ə́)ʕa ntt(a) áddyas bə́kri qəbl ə́lwəqt nwsə́rrəḥ.’

[26] yəqqím fə́ṛḥat ammídin yəffál l(ə)tməzgída lakən wyəqqáṛš yt­ tí­ṛaṛ báss. ayə́ʕṛəḍ (ə)llúḥis afwʕə́zzab zzát(ə)s dáyfəl attyə́mḥa30. ámmən tisurratínis, yəṃṃáyas aʕə́zzab ‘ə́ḥfəḍ xə́msa iziɣ sə́tta y(ə)ʕ­-

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neither khatmat nor tasriḥat. The teacher became very fond of Ferhat and went as far as saying to him ‘(Any) day you don’t want to come, don’t bother, only if your father asks “Did you go?”, tell him “Yes”, and if he asks me, I will tell him you (lit. he) came’. [25] One day Ferhat didn’t arrive at the mosque. His father came unexpectedly and didn’t find his son there. He asked the teacher where Ferhat was, and (the teacher) said ‘He has just this minute gone home to you. He recited his board and went home. He has become very good these days, there is never a day he spends like dunderhead (i.e. without learning and reciting (his board)), and he has learned all his suras perfectly (lit. like drinking water)’. His (i.e. Ferhat’s) father left the mosque extremely happy, absolutely sure that his son was learning a lot as the teacher had told him. He went to the market and bought him a new shirt and shoes and took them home. When he got to the house he called Ferhat and said ‘Come! Because you have begun to learn your suras (so) well these days, and no longer carry on like a dunce (i.e. refusing to learn your board), I have bought you here a shirt and shoes, and now whatever you want me to buy for you, I will’. Ferhat was very pleased with his shirt and shoes and the following morning put them on and went to the mosque, taking five mals (= Military Authority Lire (eds.)) for the teacher. When he reached the mosque, he gave the money to the teacher and said ‘My father has bought me this shirt and these shoes and told me that he (lit. I) bought them for me (lit. you) because I (lit. you) have started to learn properly’. The teacher said to him ‘This is because yesterday your father came here and asked me about you because he didn’t find you here. I told him you (lit. he) came, learned your (lit. his) board, and went home. Another time if you don’t want to come, come and tell me where you are going, so that when he comes asking about you, I will send one of the boys to call you. He may sometimes come early before the time of release’. [26] And so Ferhat carried on going to the mosque but he was not learning, just playing. He would recite his board for the teacher (with it) in front of him (i.e. instead of turning it round so that he could not see the text), and (then) go off to clean it (i.e. contrary to rule by which text cannot be cleaned off before being properly learned). As for his suras, the teacher told him to learn five or six thoroughly and to recite 227

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də́l dkullə́mmi akə́yməl bábik “(ə)ɣrí(y)yid tisurratínik” (ə)ɣrást(ə)n.’ s(ə́)ʕa s(ə́)ʕ(a) asə́yməl bábis ‘tṛá idáw(ə)rd, (ə)ɣrí(y)yid matta t(ə)ḥfə́ḍəd’ as(ə)ntíɣər. yəfṛəḥ bábis madʕíla kúl mbə́lḥəq mə́mmis yəd­wəl yḥə́ffəḍ əbzáyəd mamak yəṃṃáyas aʕə́zzab, dyəṃṃa iy(y)i­mánis “kúllši sṛə́bbi, amma lbáqi31 yəkmə́l tikə́rkas. ṃaṃṃu ayə́f­ təḥ f(ə́)llas ṛə́bbi fís(ə)ʕma hayə́ḥfəḍ, ədṃaṃṃu asyttárš ṛəbbi íɣfis, ləw kán hayázzəl díma, wyn(ə)ff(ə́)ʕš”, dyədwə́l yəfṛəḥ smə́mmis al(ə)m­mi ndádin. kull yúm asə́ysəɣ šaṛa dáždid ədkull yum asə́ddyaɣ šáṛa sə́ssuq.

[27] idžəṃṃás sidžəṃṃásat s(ə́)ʕid usə́dnas im(ə)dukkális starmánis. yəkkə́r yigás(ə)n (ə)ḍḍíf(ə)t dynáda ḥ(ə)ttá iwʕə́zzab díds(ə)n. b(ə)ʕd la tɣə́ddan d(ə)swə́n ššáhi, ynád(a) affə́ṛḥat. yəṃṃáyas ‘sə́lləm afmíd­ dən!’ lákən fə́ṛḥat wykúbbš afifassə́nsən. yəṃṃáyas aʕə́zzab ‘dáyu amyu ttsə́llmən afmidd(ə́)n a? muhu atkúbbəd afifassə́nsən32 iziɣ yáha.’ yəkkə́r fə́ṛḥat ykúbb afifassə́nsən wb(ə)ʕdín yəṃṃáyas bábis ‘g(ə́)ʕməz dəhánit ládday! nəɣsák aɣəntə́ɣrəd aššár smátta t(ə)ḥfə́ḍəd.’ yəɣrásən tsúrrət dyudə́l háyɣər (ə)ttánya. ṃṃánas adin (n)míddən ‘báhi, ggə́tt! nšáḷḷa ṛə́bbi ayə́ftəḥ f(ə́)llak!’, dənẓə́ɣən ušə́nas iflúsən, idžən lə́fṛənk, idžən zúz, idžən tláta. yəṃṃáyasən aʕə́zzab ‘ay(u) nwə́fṛux d(ə)lfáləḥ əbzáyəd dɣir ayə́ḥfəḍ m(ə)ʕádš ayə́ttu. al(ə)mmi təddə́rəm atə́ẓṛəm lməstə́qblis.’ ṃṃánas adin (n)míddən iwʕə́zzab ‘ya wə́ddi, ḥ(ə)tt(a) asə́ɣri dis (ə́)lfəṛq. lb(ə́)ʕḍ niʕəzzábən áyɣər f(ə)llásən afṛux ʕə́šṛ əsnín wyḥ(ə)ffə́dš šáṛukan də́lb(ə)ʕḍ ɣir áyɣər ɣə́ṛsən áfṛux ʕám iziɣ ʕamín ayəḥfəḍ kúllši.’ yəṃṃayásən aʕə́zzab ‘ya wə́ddi, ḥ(ə)tta ibušírən di­ s(ə)n ə́lfəṛq. nə́šnin nənna (a)ʕə́zzab ədkúllši afwʕə́zzab lákən ḥ(ə)t­ta ibušírən dis(ə)n ə́lfəṛq əbzáyəd. s(ə́)ʕa s(ə́)ʕ(a) atáfəd (ə)lb(ə)ʕḍ ni­bušírən iɣfawə́nsən qqə́sən dnə́tnin dimṣə́ttkən. ləw kán hayə́ḍḍəl aʕə́zzab dmátta n(ə́)tta dləw kán has(ə)nyə́ḥšəw iɣfawə́nsən díḥšaw, wf(ə)hhmə́nš šáṛukan.’ yəṃṃáyásən s(ə́)ʕid ‘akənnə́mləɣ ə́lḥəqq. kúllši sṛə́bbi. ida kan ṛə́bb(i) ayə́ftəḥ afwə́fṛux fís(ə)ʕma hayə́ḥfəḍ wida kan

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them whenever his father asked him to recite. Sometimes his father would say to him ‘Come then and recite to me what you have learned’ and he would recite them (i.e. from the five or six, knowing that his father was insufficiently versed in the Quran to spot the deception). His father was content, quite convinced that his son had begun to learn well as the teacher told him and saying to himself that all is from God, and that all else is false, that whoever (’s mind) is opened by God will learn quickly and that whoever remains with closed mind, even if he is forever running (to survive), will not be any good. And he became very pleased with his son. Every day he would buy something new for him and he would bring him something daily from the market. [27] One day some friends of Sa’id came to (see) him unexpectedly (lit. from somewhere, i.e. from another village or from pasturing their animals). He made them welcome (i.e. slaughtered an animal and prepared a large meal) and also invited the teacher (with them). After they lunched and had taken their tea, he called Ferhat in and told him to greet the gathering (lit. people). But Ferhat did not kiss their hands and the teacher said to him ‘Is that how you (lit. they) greet people? Shouldn’t you kiss their hands or not?’. (So) Ferhat kissed their hands and then his father said to him ‘Sit down here! I want you to recite something from what you have learned’. He recited a sura to them and began reciting another. The gathering said to him ‘That’s fine, but enough! May God make you clever (lit. open you up)!’. And they took out (their wallets) and gave him money, one a mal, another two, and another three. The teacher said to them ‘This boy is very clever and when he learns (something) he doesn’t forget (it). If you live, you will see the future he has’. They said to the teacher ‘Oh no, there is a difference in teaching. A boy can study ten years (with) some teachers without learning a thing, but (with) others (lit. some) a boy can study a year or two and learn all (there is)’. The teacher said to them ‘No, there is a difference between boys, too. We talk (only) of the teacher and say that everything depends on the teacher, but there is great divergence among boys themselves. Sometimes you find boys whose minds are closed and they are stupid. If the teacher is (lit. becomes) the best ever (lit. what he is) and if he really stuffs their heads full (lit. a stuffing), they understand nothing’. Sa’id said to them ‘I’ll give you the fact of the matter (lit. tell you the truth). All is from God. If God opens the boy’s mind, he will learn quickly and if He does not, nothing 229

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ṛə́bbi wyf(ə)tt(ə́)ḥš f(ə́)llas wyn(ə)ff(ə́)ʕš šáṛukan. kúllši d(ə)zzáyəd lákən ḥ(ə)ttá iʕəzzábən dis(ə)n ə́lfəṛq mbə́lḥəq. ṛə́bbi damə́zwaṛ wb(ə)ʕ­dín daʕə́zzab.’ ṃṃánas adin (n)míddən ‘ɣə́ṛk əlḥəqq, day(u) dá­ wal.’ tɣə́ddan adin (n)mídd(ə)n d(ə)swə́n ššáhi wb(ə)ʕdin ffə́ɣən. [28] yəqqím s(ə)ʕid ammídin al(ə)mmi (i)džəṃṃás sidžəṃṃásət yəfla ltməzgída baš áyẓəṛ mə́mmis lákən wyufíš la mə́mmis w la (a)ʕə́z­zab. yufá ɣir ibušírən qqárən wəḥdə́nsən. ysə́s(ə)tnin ‘máni aʕə́z­zab?’ ṃṃánas ‘all(ə)xxúl wəddyusíš.’ yəṃṃayásən ‘iziɣ máni fə́ṛḥat?’ ṃṃánas ‘wn(ə)ssínš f(ə́)llas. ássu aša xə́msa iziɣ sə́tt i(y)yám wəddyusíš.’ yəṃṃayásən ‘mamak?! mə́nit ɣəṛs nyúm wəddyusíš!’ n(ə)tta (a)mmídin yttútlay yutə́f áʕəzzab, ysə́lləm af(ə́)llas dygə́ʕməz zzə́rs. ysə́stən s(ə)ʕid aʕə́zzab ‘máni fə́ṛḥat?’ yəṃṃáyas aʕə́zzab ‘wəs­ sínəɣ. nətš ássu ttwaʕáṭṭləɣ áššar. ɣəṛi áššar nə́ššɣəl wəssinə́ɣš yusə́d iziɣ wəddyusíš uší.’ yəṃṃayásən iy(y)bušírən ‘yusə́d fəṛḥát a?’ ṃṃánas ‘lá, wəddyusíš dnə́tta assu aša lḥə́fḍət wəddyusíš.’ yəṃṃayásən ‘ssúsmət, a íɣyal! mámak wəddyusíš? aṣṣ(ə)nnát báss n(ə)tta yisí dəhánit.’ ṃṃánas ‘lá, yənʕəm sídi. səzmán wəddyusíš.’ yəṃṃáyas s(ə́)ʕid iwʕə́zzab ‘tṛa skní(y)yid (ə́)lluḥ nfə́ṛḥat attə́ẓṛəɣ.’ yəkkə́r aʕə́zzab yttḥə́wwəm af(ə́)l­luḥ nfə́ṛḥat lákən wəttyufí mallík yusəd áfṛux dáždid b(ə)ʕd fə́ṛḥat dyudə́l yəqqár dis dwʕə́zzab wyəssínš f(ə́)llas. yəṃṃáyas aʕə́zzab is(ə́)ʕid ‘n(ə)tš ə́lluḥ nfə́ṛḥat wəttufíɣ wəssinə́ɣš man(i) yigí, lákən wəɣṛíš (ə)ššə́k swallín báss n(ə)tta yisi də́h. tarmáni yənḥáz saddəw lə́lwaḥ.’ yəṃṃáyas s(ə́)ʕid ‘nətš xxúl ukə́zəɣ kúllši. lm(ə́)ʕnak šə́kkin wt(ə)ssin(ə́)dš afmə́mmi kúl, la yttásəd la yttasə́dš dwt(ə)ssin(ə́)dš ḥ(ə)tt(a) af(ə)llúḥis ma(ni) yəllá, dwáyu la t(ə)nnídid dis qə́bəl yəkmə́l dlə́h­wa.’ dyəffə́ɣ ssyín yqə́lləq al(ə)mmi ndádin. yəkkə́r aʕə́zzab yná­ d(a) afwádin nibušírən kmə́lən ídžən ídžən dyigás(ə)n tafə́lqit dyəṃ­ ṃayásən ‘íškəlt íd(ə)n ɣir akənnysə́stən ḥə́dd, ə́m(ə)ltas wn(ə)ssínš šáṛukan. wətšá dššəɣlə́nwən nə́knim la ṃáṃṃu yusə́d la ṃaṃṃu wəd­dyusíš, dídžən wkán uši áyməl ə́rrbu ntáwalt, asə́ṛẓəɣ iḍáṛṛnis.’

[29] s(ə́)ʕid ɣir yəffə́ɣ stməzgída yəfla yttḥə́wwəm afmə́mmis. b(ə)ʕd la yḥə́wwəm amšwár gtiddárin, yəfla lə́ssuq yutə́f idžət stḥúna yufí

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will avail. Everything is (then) useless, but it is also true that there are teachers and teachers (lit. a difference between teachers). God (comes) first and then the teacher’. The company said to him ‘You are right, those are (the) wise words’. Then they had lunch, drank tea, and then left. [28] Sa’id went on like this until one day he went to the mosque to see his son but found neither the boy nor the teacher. He discovered only the boys working on their own. He asked them where the teacher was, and they told him he hadn’t come yet. (Then) he asked where Ferhat was, and they said they didn’t know about him, that he hadn’t come for five or six days. He said to them ‘What!? He hasn’t been for how many days!?’. While he was talking the teacher came in, greeted him, and sat down by him. Sa’id asked the teacher where Ferhat was and the teacher replied ‘I don’t know. I am rather late today. I am rather busy, and I don’t know whether he has come or not (yet)’. He asked the boys whether Ferhat had come. They answered that he hadn’t and that he hadn’t been for about a week. He said to them ‘Be quiet, you donkeys! What is this about him not coming? He was here just yesterday’. ‘No, (honoured) sir’, they answered, ‘he hasn’t been for some time’. Sa’id said to the teacher ‘Show me then Ferhat’s board (I would like) to see (it)’. The teacher got up to look for Ferhat’s board but didn’t find it, because a new boy had come (lit. came) after Ferhat and begun using it (for study) and the teacher didn’t know about it. The teacher said to Sa’id. ‘I haven’t found Ferhat’s board and don’t know where he’s put it but I’ve no doubt that it was here just a little while ago. It is hidden under the boards somewhere’. Sa’id said to him ‘Now I understand everything. You mean you know nothing at all about my son, whether he comes or not, and you don’t even know where his board is, and what you were telling me before was all wind (i.e. lies)’. And he left there exceedingly angry. The teacher called all the boys out one by one and gave them the bastinado, saying to them ‘Another time when anyone asks you, tell him you don’t know anything. It’s not your business either who comes or who doesn’t, and if any (of you) at all says just a syllable (lit. a quarter of a word), I’ll break your legs’. [29] When Sa’id left the mosque he went in search of his son. After looking a while among the houses (where he might be) he went to the market and, entering one of the shops, found him there (lit. in the 231

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gwaṃṃásis. yəḥkə́mi swfúsis dyuɣə́di díd(ə)s ltíddart. ysítfi ltzə́qqa dyəqqə́s f(ə)llas ə́lbab dyəṃṃáyas ‘ə́səl, assu haitə́ml(ə)d ə́lḥəqq, kamma­háḍa akə́nɣ(ə)ɣ dəhánit. mlí(y)yid t(ə)ffál(ə)d ltməzgída iziɣ wt(ə)ffal(ə́)dš, dmáni t(ə)ffál(ə)d kúll yum al(ə)mmi t(ə)ffal(ə́)dš (ə)lt­məz­ gí­da?’ yəqqím fə́ṛḥat yttʕə́yyəḍ dyttəržíži amtə́zit dyəṃṃáyas ibábis d(ə)lʕúbṛət təggay dís ‘akə́mləɣ ə́lḥəqq. n(ə)tš ɣə́ṛi aša lḥífḍət wəflíɣš lakən aʕə́zzab n(ə́)tta la yəṃṃáyid “lə́mmi t(ə)ɣsəd attásəd idáwrd dlə́mmi wətɣisə́dš, bláš.” yəḥkə́m s(ə́)ʕid mə́mmis yušás ṭṭṛíḥ(ə)t al(ə)mmi ndádin dykə́ttfi stə́zra dyəṃṃáyas ‘la búdd(a) akə́džəɣ tə́lt i(y)yam tkə́ttfəd dəhánit la dútšu la dtíssi.’ dyəqqás f(ə́)llas tazə́qqa dyədží. b(ə)ʕdín yəflá lwʕə́zzab yigás lʕə́rkət alwžə́nna dyəṃṃáyas ‘lukán ɣir wətša hámlən míddən “d(ə́)lʕib”, ássu la búdd(a) axə́lṣəɣ sɣə́ṛk33 lákən m(ə)ʕlíš. nə́tš la búdd(a) akə́kkdəɣ də́ssbəb baš aksnə́ṭṭṛəɣ tazbítik syə́h. təzzəlbáḥəd də́gi kull yúm wəttḥə́ššmə́dš la bzáyəd wla drús. tənnidid mə́mmik mə́mmik mə́mmik fáləḥ bzáyəd. wətšá dlʕib f(ə)llák a? dnə́tš mə́ʕtməd34 f(ə)llak madʕíli kúl mbə́lḥəq. wb(ə)ʕdín gə́lʕuḍ la hatkúššəd afwə́fṛux datwə́ttəd ass la wəttasə́dš, astə́mləd šə́kkin ass la t(ə)ɣsə́d attásəd idáw(ə)rd dwass la wətɣisə́dš, bláš.’ dyig(a) ámyu yəffə́ɣ yədží.

[30] yttwaḥə́ššəm aʕə́zzab dyufíš matta háyməl dyukə́z fə́ṛḥat yəṃṃá­ yas ibábis skúllši dmadʕíla kúl yəṃṃáyas aʕə́zzab yəggay sɣə́ṛi ḥ(ə)tta gəflúsən. yufíš aʕə́zzab la mámak wla m(á)tta háyig mallik yəssə́n al(ə)mmi yəflíš yṣə́ṛla s(ə́)ʕid, s(ə́)ʕid yəɣs áyfəl as(ə)nnə́yməl imíddən smátta yṣáṛ dṃə́ṃkən attẓúṛṛən ssyin. b(ə)ʕd la ysə́rrəḥ ibušírən ɣəṛs im(ə)ddukális yəflásən yəṃṃayásən ‘usədɣáwən aftɣúsa akəntṛə́žžiɣ dís aittə́qḍim.’ ṃṃánas ‘báhi, ida kán ɣir ɣə́ṛnəɣ lžúhəd, wn(ə)ttqəṣṣə́ṛš.’ yəṃṃayásən mámak yṣáṛ yəkmə́l dyəḥkayásən ləḥkáyət sləww(ə́)llis all(ə)ʕqábis, lákən was(ə)nyəṃṃíš “ggáyəɣ sɣə́ṛs gəflúsən d(ə)nníɣas ləmmi təɣsəd attásəd, idáw(ə)rd.” yəṃṃayásən ‘nníɣas ləmmi təɣsəd attásəd, idáw(ə)rd, mallik afṛux daḥ(ə́)škun dmadʕíli ɣsəɣ attzə́lbḥəɣ sws(ə́)ʕʕad xír, mallik ida kan swáss am(ə́)zwaṛ atə́ggzəd afwə́fṛux

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middle of it). He grasped him by his arm and brought him home with him. He took him into the room and closed the door on him, then said ‘Listen! Today you are going to tell me the truth, otherwise I will kill you on the spot. Tell me whether you are going to the mosque or not, and where do you go every day if you don’t go to the mosque?’ Ferhat started to cry and tremble like a (palm-) leaf and said to his father between sobs (lit. while the sobbing is taking him) ‘I will tell you the truth. I haven’t gone for about a week but the teacher told me to come when I wanted to and not to bother if I didn’t’. Sa’id grasped his son, gave him a sound beating, and tied (his hands behind) him with a rope, and said ‘I am resolved to leave you tied up here for three days without food or water’. And he locked him in the room and left him. Then he went to the teacher and upbraided him to high heaven and said to him ‘If only people would not say it is shameful, I would today certainly settle accounts with you, but never mind, I will certainly be the reason for you getting sacked from here. You have been (lit. are) deceiving me every day and you are utterly without shame (lit. neither much nor little, neither more nor less). You have been telling me time and time again how bright my son is. Are you not ashamed?! While I was counting on you, thinking it was true. And then instead of threatening the boy that you will beat him when he doesn’t come, you tell him to come when he wants to and not when he doesn’t’. So saying (lit. he did so), he went out and left him. [30] The teacher was ashamed and didn’t know what he was going to say. He realized that Ferhat had told his father about everything and he felt sure that he had told him (i.e. Sa’id) that the teacher even takes money. The teacher was at a complete loss to know (lit. didn’t know either how or) what he was going to do, because he knew that if he did not go to placate Sa’id, he would (lit. will) go and tell people what (had) happened and perhaps they would dismiss him (from there). After dismissing the boys he went to some friends of his and said to them ‘I have come to you about a matter to ask you to deal with it for me’. They said ‘All right, if we have the power, we will not withhold it’. He told them how everything had come about, relating the story from beginning to end, but he did not tell them he (lit. I) was taking money from him (i.e. Ferhat) while telling him to come when he liked. He said to them ‘I was (lit. am) telling him to come when he wanted, because he is a little boy and I thought it would be better to deceive 233

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stṛə́ṭṭa, wyḥəffə́ḍš šáṛukan dayə́krəh tam(ə)zgída. wliháda ɣsɣáw(ə)n at(ə)fləm dídi ls(ə́)ʕid dattsə́ṛlim.’ ṃṃánas ‘dayu bə́ss a? m(ə)ʕádš at­xə́m(mə)məd afšáṛukan. íḍu asənfəl žmíʕ dnə́šnin la búdda an(ə)tt(ə)nsə́fhəm dan(ə)tt(ə)nṣə́ṛla. g(ə́)ʕməz šə́kkin tʕášša dídnəɣ, xxul ʕammál d(ə́)lwəqt ənmə́ssi wb(ə)ʕdín asə́nfəl žmiʕ.’

[31] yəqqím aʕə́zzab díds(ə)n al(ə)mmi yəḥḍə́ṛ amə́ssi. tʕə́ššan dəkkə́rən kúl žmiʕ. ufə́nn s(ə́)ʕid əgtiddártis. yəfṛə́ḥ sísən dyəṃṃayásən ‘tfə́ḍḍlət átfət lə́žžaž! anig ššáhi iziɣ damə́ssi?’ ṃṃánas ‘ə́səl! amə́ssi n(ə)tʕášša dwəḷḷáhi35 wtigíd šáṛukan, mallik mámak nəlḥə́s ifassə́nnəɣ ɣír xxul36, dida kan hanátəf nəɣs ɣír ššáhi bə́ss. lákən nəšnin n(ə)džúll wn(ə)t­ta­tə́fš lə́žžaž ə́lla m(a) aɣəntúš(ə)d táwalt, aɣəntə́qḍid tɣusánnəɣ.’ yəṃ­­ṃa­yásən ‘báhi, lakən ɣir əm(ə)ltí(y)yid mátta tɣusánwən. bálək wn(ə)žžməɣš attəqḍiɣ iziɣ wətšá gfusiw.’ ṃṃánas ‘lá la, ay(u) dšáṛa wəl­ líš səhlis, dnə́ttat gfúsik šə́kk, wətša gwə́fus nḥə́ddukan íḍ(ə)n.’ yəṃ­ ṃa­yásən ‘báhi, ida kan ámyu, átfət lə́žžaž dnə́tš akənnúšəɣ táwalt akənttəqḍiɣ. nətš tssənmí(y)yid wkán aitqə́ṣḍəm ḥ(ə)tta gmə́mmi baš attɣə́rsəm wakənttarriɣš ǝbláš.’ utə́fən adin míddən dyudə́l s(ə)ʕid yttigásən gəššáhi. b(ə)ʕd la ysír(ə)d lʕál(ə)t dywə́ll(ə)ʕ lkánun dyʕə́m­ məṛ abə́rrad am(ə́)zwar, yəṃṃáyas ídžən swadin nirgázən ‘ə́səl, a s(ə́)ʕid! tɣusa la haknə́ḍləb dís wəllíš səhlis. nəšnin nukə́z š(ə)kkin dwʕə́zzab wətšá diṣbíḥən dwənɣísš áyṣaṛ žarayáwən šárukan. lə́fqi muḥámməd yəɣlə́ḍ lɣə́lḍət tam(ə́)qqart la yttádža gmə́mmik af(ə)lkífis, lákən aṛáhuk, aʕə́zzab úlis damə́llal dmadʕíl(a) asə́ʕʕəd nwə́fṛux xír, dšə́kkin təɣlə́ḍəd b(ə)ʕdín ə́ktris uši, la t(ə)flíd ltməzgída tsə́sl(ə)das awal dtsə́sl(ə)das ḥ(ə)tta lwə́sx ntməẓẓuɣínis zzát ibušírən. wəɣṛə́kš (ə)lḥəqq! xxúl adin la yfát yfát ʕala kull ḥál, daṛábən nnán “(ə)lli fát mát”. n(ə)ɣsáwən xxúl atəmṣálḥəm dmə́mmik atə́rrəd ltməzgída

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him with kindness and if from the first day you give a boy the stick, he will learn nothing and hate the mosque. Therefore I want you to go with me to Sa’id to placate him’. They said to him ‘Is that all? Don’t worry about anything any more. We will go together tonight and we will certainly make him understand and calm him. Sit here and sup with us, it will soon be supper time and then we will go to him together’. [31] The teacher stayed with them till dinner came. They dined and then rose together. They found Sa’id in his house, and he was pleased to see them, saying ‘Do come along inside! Shall we prepare tea or dinner?’. They replied ‘Listen, we have dined and, by Heaven, you shall not prepare anything for us (to eat) because we have just licked our hands (i.e. just eaten), and if we are going to come in, we only want tea. But we have sworn that we won’t come in unless you give us your (lit. a) word that you will gratify us (in) the matter concerning us (lit. our thing)’. He said to them ‘Fine, but just tell me what your concern is. Perhaps I am unable to satisfy (you) or it isn’t in my gift (lit. hand)’. They said ‘Oh no, there’s nothing easier. It is in your gift and in no one else’s’. He said to them ‘All right, if that’s so, come in and I give my word I will accede to your (request). You know me, even if you intend to ask me to slaughter my son, I shall not send you away empty-handed’. The group came in and Sa’id began to make them tea. After he cleaned the tea-things, lit the brazier, and prepared the first pot (i.e. with tea and sugar put in the boiling water, as opposed to the second pot, which has more sugar and water added, and the third, which incorporates more tea, with or without the addition of mint), one of the men said to him ‘Listen, Sa’id! The thing we are going to ask you, there’s nothing simpler. We understand (lit. understood) that you and the teacher are on bad terms and we don’t want anything to happen between you. Teacher Muhammad made a big mistake in leaving your son to his own devices, but, mark you, the teacher’s heart is in the right place (lit. is white). He thought it best to treat the boy gently, and you were in even graver error than him in going to the mosque shouting at him and making his ears sizzle (lit. you made him hear even the wax (lit. dirt) of his ears) in front of the boys. You are at fault! Now, in any case, what has passed has passed or (lit. and) (as) the Arabs say, the past is dead (i.e. there is no second chance). We want you (both) now to be reconciled and you to send your son back 235

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dw­ʕə́zzab swáss(u) ayərr sis lbális ə́ktər nkúll ḥədd. dkánna wyṣáṛš šáṛukan.’ [32] b(ə)ʕdín yənnə́ḍ lwʕə́zzab dyəṃṃáyas ‘ə́səl, a l(ə́)fqi! ay(u) ds(ə́)ʕid day(u) dšə́kkin swássu áfṛux wuhánit atə́rrəd sis lbálək əktər nkúll ḥədd dastsáḥfḍəd əktər nkúll ḥədd. m(ə)ʕadš attə́džəd la hayúṛaṛ wla hayḍə́yyəʕ wla dšáṛukan.’ yəṃṃayás(ə)n aʕə́zzab ‘ə́slət! akənnə́mləɣ ə́lḥəqq. nə́tš fə́ṛḥat səzman ttarríɣas gəlbáliw dssḥfə́ḍɣas ə́ktər nkúll ḥədd, lákən nníɣas lə́mmi təɣsəd attásəd, idáw(ə)rd, dlə́mmi w(ə)t­ɣisə́dš, bláš, madʕíli ɣsəɣ atts(ə́)ʕʕdəɣ mallik ssʕad ibúšir xír ntṛə́ṭṭa.’ yəṃṃáyas s(ə́)ʕid ‘a l(ə)fqí! ay(u) dšə́kk day(u) dl(ə)žmáʕət, n(ə)tš nkə́yɣak mə́mmi ɣsə́ɣtid baš áyɣər wətšá baš a(y)íṛaṛ dwə́fṛux ɣir astə́mlid ámyu, wyəqqáṛš mallik wy(ə)ssínš lmənf(ə́)ʕtis. áfṛux ida kan təɣsə́dtid áyɣər iziɣ ayə́ḥfəḍ was(ə)ṛəxxíš mámak yəɣs ṭúla w ṭúl ʕṣáta, mallik áfṛux la yttəggídš wyḥ(ə)ffə́ḍš. mə́mmi madʕíli kúl yəqqaṛ. sabʕ iyyám dnə́tta yttə́nnəḍ ggisqáqən dt(ə)xríbin də́ssuq. kúll yum ayṛə́wwəḥ dd(ə)bášiš ymə́zzəq, yšə́ltət, ywə́ssəx dúdmis yḥə́mməm. ay(u) d(ə)lḥə́qq f(ə)llák a?! dnə́tš manis flíɣak l(ə)tməzgída, sə́s(ə)lɣak áwal mbə́lḥəq dəṃṃíɣak áwal la w(ə)ɣṛíš əlḥəqq baš attə́mləɣ, lakən yəkmə́l ssə́kk šə́kk. šə́kk də́ssbəb. nə́tš ʕala kúll ḥál, af(ə)lxáḍəṛ ll(ə)ž­máʕət, amṣálḥəɣ dídək, lákən baš uší akə́rrəɣ mə́mmi attsə́ɣrəd, ay(u) dáwal yəbʕə́d.’ yəkkər ídžən yəṃṃáyas is(ə́)ʕid ‘ya s(ə)ʕíd, ya s(ə)ʕíd! ə́səl báss! awal yəbʕə́d iziɣ yəqṛə́b swá swa. nəšnin nusə́dak nəɣsák baš atəmṣálḥəd šəkkin dwʕə́zzab, də́ššəṛḍ am(ə́)zwar atə́rrəd mə́mmik l(ə)tməzgída swaitšá, daʕə́zzab háyərr sis lbális ə́ktər nkúll ḥədd, wə­ xláṣ! day(u) dáwal, m(ə)ʕádš dis šáṛukan íḍ(ə)n. la hatutláyəd w la hatə́mləd šáṛa.’ ṃṃánas adin l(ə)žmáʕət kmə́lən ‘xláṣ! m(ə)ʕadš atə́mləd ḥ(ə)tta táwalt, a s(ə)ʕid!’ yəṃṃayásən s(ə́)ʕid ‘nə́tš wakənnəníɣš ɣír əlḥəqq dwn(ə)žžməxš akənnúšəɣ táwalt wb(ə)ʕdín adə́wləɣ dís. nətš mə́mmi baš hatə́rrəɣ l(ə)tməzgída ay(u) dáwal yəbʕə́d mamak (ə)ṃṃi­ɣáwən. ḥ(ə)ttá lukán hayə́qqim bla tíɣri íškəlt, lákən nə́tš mamak

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to the mosque, and from today (on) the teacher will look after him more than anyone (else). Let it be as if nothing had happened’. [32] Then he turned to the teacher and said to him ‘Listen, sir (lit. Islamic teacher)! Here (lit. this) is Sa’id and here are you (i.e. I am speaking frankly in the presence of you both), from today you will take care of this boy more than any other and will teach him likewise (lit. more than anyone). Do not allow him any more to play or waste his time or anything (like that). The teacher said to them ‘Listen! I will tell you the truth. I have been looking after Ferhat and teaching him more than anyone (else), but (when) I was telling him to come when he wanted and not when he didn’t, I thought I would help him because kindness to a child is better than the stick’. Sa’id said to him ‘Sir (lit. teacher)! Before (lit. this is) you and before this gathering, I sent you my son (because) I wanted him to study, not to play about, and if you tell a boy what you did (lit. so), he will not study because he doesn’t know what is good for him. If you want a boy to study or learn, don’t leave him free on his own terms (lit. his height as the height of his stick, i.e. when at the age of ca. 15 a boy becomes free), because a boy who is not afraid (i.e. of chastisement) will not learn. I was absolutely sure my son was studying, (but) he was wandering around in the streets and rubbish dumps and the market. Every day he would come home with his clothes torn, in tatters, dirty, and his face black. Does this put you in the right? And when I went to you at the mosque, it is true I upbraided you and said things I was wrong to say, but it is all your fault. You are the cause. Anyway, for the sake of the people here, I will be reconciled with you, but that I should again send my son for you to teach, that is ridiculous (lit. far talk, i.e. far from sense)’. One (of the group) said to Sa’id ‘Sa’id, Sa’id, just listen! No matter whether it is ridiculous or not (lit. far or near)! We came (to you) to reconcile you and the teacher, and the first condition is for you to send your son back to the mosque from tomorrow, and the teacher is going to take special care of him, that’s all (there is to it)! There you are, then (lit. this is the speech), there is nothing more (to say). Don’t speak or say anything!’. The gathering said to him as one ‘It is all over! Don’t say another word, Sa’id!’. Sa’id said to them ‘I will tell you only the truth and cannot give you (my) word and then go back to it. For me to send my son back to the mosque is absurd as I have told you. Even if he were going to remain (there) for good without studying, 237

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t(ə)ssə́nəm nə́knim, lḥífḍət la háttas ɣsəɣ aḥə́wwləɣ ltə́ṃuṛt slə́ʕyal. isiɣ əttxə́m(m)əməɣ afižənwániw d(ə)lḥiwániw ṃáṃṃu háyərr lbá­ lis sísən, dəxxúl ufiɣ ídžən ss(ə)nə́ɣtid səzmán d(ə)ssnə́ɣtid hai(y)əy­hə́nna. qqə́nəɣ nšíd(ə)s. ʕála kull ḥál nə́tš aʕə́zzab attṣálḥəɣ af(ə)lxa­ ḍə­ṛə́nwən, lákən mamak ṃṃiɣáwən.’

[33] qqímən adin nmíddən ttəmxəṣámən n(ə́)tnin ds(ə́)ʕid n(ə́)tnin nnánas ‘nəɣsák at(ə)qqíməd dəhánit datə́rrəd mə́mmik l(ə)tməzgída’ dnə́tta yənnayásən ‘yahá’. yəkkər ídžən swadin nirgázən yəṃṃayásən ‘ə́slət! ggə́tət nl(ə)xṣúmət la bla ttə́mrət! əslət sɣə́ṛi tawalt tan(ə́)ʕqabt! s(ə́)ʕid nəkmə́l n(ə)ssə́ni wətšá yəɣs ayḥə́wwəl mallik yənnúɣɣ n(ə́)tta dwʕə́zzab iziɣ af(ə)lxáḍəṛ nmə́mmis, dnəssə́n nəkmə́l yəɣs ayə́ṛḥəl səzmán qəbəl la hátṣaṛ ay(u) nləḥkáyət tuhánit. nə́šnin ʕala kull ḥál wn(ə)žžə́mš asənttʕə́ṛṛəḍ iziɣ asə́nməl wr(ə)ḥḥə́lš mállik n(ə)tta yəssə́n lməṣlə́ḥtis ə́ktər (ə́)nnəɣ, lakən n(ə́)tta mamak yəṃṃá yəɣs ayə́ṛḥəl lḥifḍət la háttas iziɣ lḥífḍət la b(ə́)ʕdis. aitšá ntt(a) áyərr mə́mmis l(ə)tməzgída alwáss l(a) ayə́ṛḥəl, wb(ə)ʕdin af(ə)lkífis.’’ ṃṃán adin nl(ə)žmáʕət ‘ay(u) dáwal m(ə)ʕqúl, wəllíš matta hanməl dís.’ s(ə)ʕid yəssúsəm, yxə́mməm áššar wb(ə)ʕdín yəṃṃayásən ‘báhi ya si. manis təkmə́ləm təṃṃim ámyu, dádin dnə́tta. wyttə́ffəɣ s(ə)lwáṣṭət ɣir ara nlə́ḥṛam.’ yəkkə́r s(ə́)ʕid yəmṣáləḥ n(ə́)tta dwʕə́zzab dəqqímən adin nmíddən tthə́dərzən alwə́zgən níḍ dsə́ssən gəššáhi, wb(ə)ʕdín sə́llmən afs(ə́)ʕid dṛə́wwḥən. s(ə́)ʕid yəkkə́r lwəṃkánis dyəṭṭə́s. tálži yəkkə́r, b(ə)ʕd la fḍə́ṛən d(ə)swə́nn ššáhi, yəflá ntta dmə́mmis l(ə)tməzgída. ɣir uṣə́lən tam(ə)zgída, ylaqqáttən aʕə́zzab dyəsg(ə́)ʕməz fə́ṛḥat zzə́rs. dyəṃṃáyas ‘ay(u) wuhánit díma daṃkánik wəttg(ə)ʕmə́zš zzər ḥə́ddukan sibušírən. g(ə)ʕməz díma zzə́ri nə́tš bə́ss, də́səl! ə́rr (ə)lbálik! swássu m(ə)ʕadš attxə́llfəd ḥ(ə)ttá idžəṃṃas ídžən. áss la wəttasdə́dš aknə́knəɣ ibušírən akḥə́wwmən mán(i) t(ə)llid dakəddáɣən wb(ə)ʕdín akúšəɣ taf(ə)lqit.’ yəṃṃáyas s(ə́)ʕid iwʕə́zzab ‘ay(u) dmə́mmi žar ifáss­ nik. áss la wyttasə́dš n(ə́)kyas ibušírən attḥə́wwmən máni yəlla iziɣ (ə)nkə́y(y)id inə́tš bə́ss, dɣir ayáṣəl ifássnik, ə́ggaz afw(ə)glímis stṛə́ṭṭa

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but, as you know yourselves, I am moving next week to Zuara with the family. I have been thinking about my orchards and animals, (about) who is going to take care of them, and I have just found someone I have known for a long time and who I know will free me from worry. We have come to an agreement (lit. I have tied, I and him). Anyhow, I will make it up with the teacher for your sakes, but it is as I have told you (i.e. I cannot undertake to send the boy back)’. [33] They all carried on thundering at each other, Sa’id and the visitors (lit. people), with them saying to him that they wanted him to stay there and to send his son back to the mosque and him telling them no. One of the men spoke up to say ‘Listen! Stop this pointless shouting! Let me have (lit. listen from me to) the last word! We all know Sa’id is not going to move because he has quarrelled with the teacher or in account of his son, and we all know that he has been wanting to go for a long time before this palaver arose. At all events, we cannot gainsay him or tell him not to move because he knows his own interests better than we do, but, as he has said, he is going next week (i.e. not before) or the week after, (so) tomorrow he could send his son back to the mosque until the day he moves, and thereafter it’s up to him’. They all said ‘That is reasonable. There is nothing there we (can) object to (lit. say)’. Sa’id was silent. He thought for a while, then said ‘All right, (my friend,) since you have all spoken to this effect, so be it. Only the sinful man goes back on an agreement’. He rose and shook hands with the teacher, and they all remained chatting and drinking tea until midnight. Then they all took their leave of Sa’id and returned home. Sa’id, for his part, went off to his bed and slept. In the morning he got up, and after they had breakfasted and drunk tea, he and his son went to the mosque. When they arrived, the teacher (came to) meet them and made Ferhat sit next to him, saying to him ‘This is always (to be) your place and you are not to sit next to any of the boys. Always only sit next to me, and listen! Take care! From today you are not to stay away for even one day. (Any) day you don’t come, I shall send the boys to find out where you are, and when they bring you back I’ll give you the bastinado’. Sa’id said to the teacher ‘My son is in your hands (lit. this is my son between your hands). The day he absents himself, we send the boys to search out where he is (i.e. Sa’id is repeating the teacher’s words to impress Ferhat), or just send for me, and when you get hold of him (lit. when he reaches your hands), 239

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dw(ə)tšá hatḍúnnəd gəlfə́krik ak(ə)ddásəɣ iziɣ akə́mləɣ imatt(a) ámyu iziɣ mámak. n(ə)tš afə́ṛḥəɣ ass l(a) ayə́ddyas mə́mmi iḍáṛṛnis nfə́xən dass l(a) ayə́ddyas dai(y)ə́yməl iwəttí(y)yid aʕə́zzab, asrə́nyəɣ ṭṭríḥ(ə)t íḍ(ə)n dashə́ššməɣ iɣsánis.’ yəṃṃáyas aʕə́zzab ‘ṭə́yyəb! kún məthə́nni, dm(ə)ʕádš atxə́m(mə)məd f(ə́)llas.’ yəslá fə́ṛḥat adin nwáwal yəkmə́l la žar bábis džar wʕə́zzab, yuhə́g sis məskin al(ə)mmi ndádin. s(ə́)ʕid yəṃṃáyas imə́mmis ‘t(ə)slíd ay(u) nwámal, muhú? ígi yəkmə́l gəlfə́krik də́rr lbálik!’ aššar áššar ysə́lləm s(ə́)ʕid afwʕə́zzab dyṛə́wwəḥ. ynád(a) aʕə́zzab ídžən sibušírən yəṃṃáyas ‘xṭáṛas (ə́)lluḥ dáṣbiḥ ifə́ṛḥat də́fəl (ə)mḥayástid.’

[34] yəqqím fə́ṛḥat assdín yəkmə́l gətməzgída dyədwə́l yttásəd kúll yum, m(ə)ʕadš ytt(ə́)ɣab ḥ(ə)ttá idžəṃṃas ídžən mallik yttə́ggaḍ s(ə)tf(ə́)lqit, lakən yufá lḥil(ə)t íḍ(ə)n. kúll b(ə)ʕd yumín iziɣ tláta, áyərr imánis dṃáḍun. ɣir as(ə́)ttas yádžis tálži attsə́kkər dastməl ə́kkər (ə)fəl ltməzgída, yttʕə́yyəḍ dasə́yməl “n(ə́)tš tadístiw (iziɣ díɣfiw) assu ytt­ ʕə́ddəm wnžžmə́ɣš afləɣ ltməzgída lakən aʕə́zzab xxúl aiyig taf(ə́)lqit b(ə)ʕdin.” atg(ə́)ʕməz zzərs yádžis das(ə́)tməl ‘lá la, wəttəggíḍš imə́mmi37. xxúl n(ə)tš asə́mləɣ ibábik ɣir ayə́ffəɣ ayə́qd(ə)ʕ afwʕə́zzab dasə́yməl.’ átfəl yádžis asə́tməl ibábis. áddyas bábis attə́yẓəṛ, áttyaf yttʕə́yyəḍ asə́yməl ‘ssúsəm wəttʕəyyə́dš. xxúl n(ə)tš aqə́dʕəɣ afwʕə́zzab dasə́mləɣ.’

[35] idžəṃṃás sidžəṃṃásat tus(ə)das yádžis talží dtəṃṃáyas ‘ə́kkər, al(ə)mmi hatfl(ə)d l(ə)tməzgída, d(ə́)lwəqt f(ə́)llak!’ yəqqím yttʕə́yyəḍ dyəṃṃáyas ‘tadístiw ttʕə́ddəm bzáyəd assu’, dayə́ttəm yttəbʕúqqu dyərra imánis haytqə́yya. tg(ə)ʕməz zzə́rs yádžis dtəṃṃáyas ‘ssúsəm, imə́mmi, ssúsəm! s(ə́)ʕʕəd imánik abbáššar! ssúsəm wəttʕəyyə́ḍš! smát­ ta ttəggáḍaḍ aʕə́zzab wakyttšátš dtməzgída lḥə́rqət attə́ḥṛəq lqə́lbət attə́qləb.’ t(ə)fla lbábis dtəṃṃáyas ‘məmmi dṃaḍun bzáyəd assu!! yttəbʕúqqu dyttətqə́yya, atqáyyis daʕə́lbub d(ə)lḥáltis d(ə)lḥál(ə)t.’ yusə́das bábis ‘áš bik, a fə́ṛḥat?’. yəṃṃáyas ‘tadístiw ttʕə́ddəm’, dyəq­

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give him a good hiding (lit. come down with the stick on his skin), and don’t imagine I shall come to you to ask the why or the wherefore (lit. why so or how so). I will be happy if my son comes home with his legs swollen or he comes and tells me that the teacher has beaten me. I will give him another beating on top and I will break (lit. crush) his bones for him’. The teacher said to him ‘Good! Don’t worry! Don’t concern yourself about him any more!’. Ferhat listened to all the words that passed between his father and the teacher, and was utterly terrified, poor boy. Sa’id said to his son ‘You’ve heard this, haven’t you? Bear it all in mind, and have a care!’. Shortly afterwards Sa’id said goodbye to the teacher and returned home. The teacher called one of the boys and told him to pick a good board for Ferhat and to clean it for him. [34] Ferhat remained all that day in the mosque and started coming daily, no longer absenting himself for a single day, because he was afraid of the bastinado. But he found another trick! After every two or three days he pretends to be ill. When his mother comes to get him up in the morning and tell him to be off to the mosque, he cries and tells her that his stomach or his head is hurting him that day and he cannot go to the mosque but the teacher will still give the bastinado later on. His mother sits next to him and says ‘There, there (lit. no, no), don’t be afraid, my son. I’ll tell your father right away and when he goes out he’ll call on the teacher and tell him’. (And) his mother would go and tell his father. His father would come to see him, would find him weeping and would (then) say to him ‘Hush, don’t cry! I shall go to the teacher straight away and let him know’. [35] One day his mother came to him in the morning and told him to get up if he wanted to go to the mosque, and that it was late (lit. it is time for you). He burst into tears and said ‘My stomach is aching terribly today’, and he started to retch and pretended he was going to be sick. His mother sat down next to him and said ‘Hush, my son, hush! Just take things quietly (lit. be kind to yourself slowly)! Hush, don’t cry! What are you afraid of? The teacher will not beat you, and, as for the mosque, blast it and drat it (lit. may fire consume it and devastation turn it upside down)!’. She went to his father and said to him ‘My son is very ill today! He’s retching and vomiting, his vomit is thick (i.e. she prevaricates to impress Sa’id) and his condition is serious’. His father came to him and asked him what the matter was. He said that 241

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qím yttʕə́yyəḍ. yəṃṃáyas ‘ssúsəm, a ə́lḥəfq, wəttʕə́yyəḍš! matta hak­ ə́y­ṣaṛ? wakyttṣáṛš šáṛukan. xxúl atḥə́wn(ə)d’. t(ə)ṃṃáyas yádžis nfə́ṛḥat iwərgázis ‘ayu yəkmə́l ssə́kk šə́kk. məmmi hattsítfəm gəlʕə́qlis dha­tt­súfɣəm. yaḥlíli, ya ṛə́bbi!38 šəkkin sídis dwʕə́zzab sídis! n(ə)tš məm­mi wɣisə́ɣš ayə́ḥfəḍ šáṛukan, ɣir dž aɣənyə́mɣəṛ báss. mamak ayə́k­kəd ayə́kkəd. nə́šnin ṛaḍyín sis ḥ(ə)ttá bla tíɣri. mə́mmi kull yúm dṃáḍun dkull yúm aqə́ll dšə́kkin trənnídas. ttxə́ẓ(ə)ṛṭəd dís. imátt?’ yəṃṃáyas argázis ‘tša ṃṃíɣam səzmán ddə́wwət amwáyu m(ə)ʕadš attʕəwdə́d a? iziɣ tsəllə́dš tawalt ídžət? ṃṃíɣam səzmán šáṛa la wətša d(ə)ššəɣlim w(ə)ttutláyš dis. day dšáṛa wətšá mamak t(ə)ɣsəd šə́mm. m(ə)ʕádš atrə́nyəd ḥ(ə)ttá táwalt dwáwal amwáyu m(ə)ʕádš ɣsəɣ attə́sləɣ.’ dyig(a) ámyu yəffə́ɣ yədžít.

[36] t(ə)ssúsəm zʕíma dtəkkə́r t(ə)fla tuɣə́das imə́mmis áššar nə́ẓẓhəṛ ts(ə)srástid did áššar nwáṃan dwáššar nsúkər dtəṃṃáyas ‘ax ə́swi! xxúl akysə́brəd tadístik, mádum ak(ə)sḍə́yybəɣ áššar n(ə)šš(ə́)ʕal.’ b(ə)ʕd la yəswí t(ə)sḍə́yybas (ə)šš(ə́)ʕal dtušástid yəswí ḥ(ə)tta n(ə́)tta. aššar áššar tut(ə)f f(ə́)llas tam(ə́)ṭṭut s(ə)lžíṛan təṃṃayas ‘matta ttígəd, a zʕima? áš bih fə́ṛḥat yəṭṭáṣ?’ təṃṃáyas ‘lá, ɣir tadístis ttʕə́ddəm áššar. sḍəyyə́bɣas aššar n(ə)šš(ə́)ʕal dušiɣástid yəswí.’ təṃṃáyas ‘bálək (a)ʕə́ddmis wətšá dtádist. bə́xxras áḍuṣ nšáṛa dáglas lə́ḥžab, iziɣ na­ dá­yas iʕámtim “ššə́ṛwət”, aittu dəhánit zzərm təqṛə́b, as(ə)tsún(ə)ḍ39. xxúl ayə́kkər la bíh l(ə)ʕlíh. aitu áfləɣ asnádiɣ.’ t(ə)flá adin n(ə)ṭmə́ṭṭut tnadáyas. tusə́d (ə)ššə́ṛwət tuɣ(ə)d áššar nmáṃan dwáššar n(ə)lfásux dwáššar n(ə)ṭṭə́bdil. tbə́xxras adin n(ə)lfásux dwadin n(ə)ṭṭə́bdil d­tbúx­xi swadin nwáṃan dtəṃṃáyas iy(y)ádžis ‘dž ayə́rṭaḥ áššar, xxúl ayə́straḥ’, dtəkkə́r tṛə́wwəḥ. b(ə)ʕd la t(ə)ffə́ɣ adin n(ə)tmə́ṭṭut, təkkə́r zʕíma lirukánis. fə́ṛḥat yəqqím yḍə́ṣṣ f(ə)llásnət mallik n(ə)tta wəldísš

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he had a stomach ache and set about crying. He (i.e. Sa’id) said to him ‘Quiet, you weakling! Don’t cry! What is going to happen to you? Nothing (will happen to you)! You’ll soon be better’. Ferhat’s mother said to her husband ‘This is all your fault. You’ll drive my son crazy (lit. make his mind go in and out). God protect (us), you on one side and the teacher on the other! I don’t want my son to learn anything. Just let him grow up for us, nothing more! He will be(come) what he will be(come). We are pleased with him even without knowledge (lit. studying). My son is ill every day and gets worse every day, and you just add to it (for him). You are frightening him. Why?’. Her husband said to her ‘Didn’t I tell you a long time ago not to repeat talk like this? Or don’t you hear a single word? I told you long ago not to talk of what doesn’t concern you. This is something not for you to act upon as you like (lit. this is something not as you wish, i.e. it is none of your business). Don’t say another word and I don’t want to hear any more such talk’. And so saying he went off and left her. [36] Za’ima kept her peace and went off to take her son a little lemon water, mixing it for him with water and sugar and saying ‘Take (this) and drink it! It will soon cool your stomach, while I prepare you some sha’al (i.e. bitter herb from Jebel Nafousa, sometimes crushed and eaten, sometimes drunk as infusion). After he drank it, she prepared the sha’al for him and gave it to him to drink also. After a while a woman from among the neighbours came in (to her) and said ‘What are you doing, Za’ima? What’s the matter with Ferhat, why is he sleeping?’. She replied ‘No, it’s just his stomach hurting him a little. I’ve prepared him some sha’al and given him to drink (lit. and gave him it and he drank it)’. (The woman) said to her ‘Perhaps the pain is not the stomach. Make him inhale the scent of something and hang a charm on him, or call Mother Sharwat (lit. your aunt Sharwat, i.e. no relative but an old woman versed in these matters), she is just here near you. She will turn something for him, and he will soon be quite all right. I’ll just go off and call her’. (So) the woman went off and called Mother Sharwat (lit. her). She came and brought some water, together with some fasukh and tabdil (i.e. incense agents). She burned the fasukh and tabdil for him and sprinkled him with the water, telling his mother to let him rest a while and that he would soon be fine. She (then) went home, and after she (lit. this woman) left, Za’ima got on with her housework. Ferhat spent his time laughing at them because 243

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šáṛukan, ɣír yərra imánis dṃáḍun dyádžis madʕílha kúl dṃáḍun mbə́lḥəq. yəkkə́r swəṃkánis dyəfla lyádžis gwə́ṃṃal, təṃṃáyas ‘imátta təkkə́rəd, imə́mmi, swəṃkánik? mátta t(ə)ɣsəd mlíy(y)id ak(ə)ttáɣdəɣ nə́tš ldín.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘lá, wɣisə́ɣš šáṛukan. tadístiw t(ə)hwə́n, m(ə)ʕádš ttʕə́ddəm. ɣsəɣ áfləɣ aḍuṛáṛəɣ ggími ntíddart.’ təṃṃáyas ‘lá, wəffálš! atáḍnəd b(ə)ʕdin, akiwət(t) (ə́)ssqiʕ dšə́kkin t(ə)ḥmíd.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘lá, yahá! ɣsəɣ áfləɣ, wəllíš ssqíʕ’, dyədʕə́s yttázzəl. n(ə)tta yudə́l yttíṛaṛ anḍ(ə)ḷḷák (ə)dbábis žay sə́ssuq. yufí yttnə́ggəz yəɣs áyḍəṛ. wyəssínš af(ə́)lhəmm al(ə)mm(i) ybə́dd f(ə́)llas.

[37] y(ə)ḥkə́mi swfúsis dyəṃṃáyas ‘áḷḷa yʕáwən, a əššix fə́ṛḥat! mat­ ta ttígad?! day(u) dšə́kkin la dṃaḍún a?! máḷḷa wáḷḷa daṭṭan wúh! ay(u) múhu ɣir swallín yisi ṛṛúḥik ʕəmmal hayə́ffaɣ?!’ yttwáxl(ə)ʕ fə́ṛ­ ḥat dyədʕəs yttázzəl lwəṃkánis. yəwwə́ḍi bábis dyəṃṃáyas ‘wəllíš ṃáṃṃu yəssə́n ṭṭə́bbik d(ə)lkə́fṛik kán nətš. ukə́zəɣ n(ə)tš xxul. ttárrid gimánik dṃáḍun baš wt(ə)ffal(ə́)dš l(ə)tməzgída. dṃáḍun ɣír ida kan hatfl(ə)d l(ə)tməzgid(a) amma ida kan hatuṛáṛəd dhatə́ḍṛəd alwžə́nna, wətšá dṃaḍun.’ yəqqím fə́ṛḥat yttʕə́yyəḍ dyəṃṃáyas ibábis ‘swallín tadístiw tisi ttʕə́ddəm, lákən b(ə)ʕd la tušíy(y)id yəmm(i) áddwa t(ə)h­wə́n, m(ə)ʕádš ttʕəddəm də́gi.’ yəṃṃáyas bábis ‘ooo! (ə)nnə́btis (a)ʕə́ddmik dihwánik af(ə)ssə́blət. aʕə́ddmik wəllíš s(ə)hlis, dihwánik wəllíš s(ə)hlis, lákən m(ə)ʕlíš! ddaltúlat yfát. díškəlt íḍ(ə)nt nšáḷḷa (a)yig ṛə́bbi ɣir ákkrəɣ tálži aitə́mləd dṃáḍun dɣir addásəɣ akáfəɣ ttiṛáṛ(ə)d.’

[38] zʕíma tisi gwə́ṃṃal dt(ə)slá adin nwáwal yəkmə́l lákən wətnəž­ žə́mš attas lwərgázis datútlay lɣə́ṛs mallik ttággaḍ sis aykušš f(ə́)llas, múhu yəṃṃáyas qə́bəl “iškəlt íḍ(ə)nt m(ə)ʕádš atutláyəd dwayu wətša d(ə)ššə́ɣlim šə́mm.” lákən b(ə)ʕd la yutə́f s(ə́)ʕid l(ə)tzə́qqa ttánya tə­

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there was nothing the matter with him, he was just pretending to be ill, whereas his mother was quite convinced he was. He got out of bed and went to his mother in the kitchen, (and) she said to him ‘Why have you got out of bed, my son? Tell me what you want and I will bring it to you there’. He said to her ‘No, I don’t want anything. My stomach is better, it doesn’t hurt any more. I want to go and play in front of (lit. at the entrance to) the house’. She said ‘No, don’t go (out), you’ll be ill afterwards, you’ll catch a chill (lit. the cold will strike you) while you are hot’. He said ‘No, not at all! I want to go out, it isn’t (lit. there isn’t) cold’, and he ran out. He had just started playing when his father came (back) from the market. He found him jumping and almost flying (i.e. he was as lively as a cricket). He (i.e. Ferhat) was unaware of the trouble (ahead) until he (i.e. Sa’id) stood over him. [37] He seized him by the arm and said to him ‘God help you, Sheikh Ferhat! What are you up to (lit. doing)? So you are the one who is ill! What a terrible illness this is! Wasn’t it just now that you were almost giving up the ghost (lit. that your spirit was almost departing)! Ferhat was frightened and ran off to bed. His father followed him and said ‘Nobody knows how to treat you (i.e. give you medicine) and your tricks except me. Now I realize (that) you are only pretending to be ill so as not to go to the mosque. You are only ill when you are going to the mosque but if you want to play and jump about (lit. fly to the sky) you aren’t ill’. Ferhat started and went on crying and said to his father ‘My stomach was aching but when mother gave me medicine it got better, (and) it is not hurting me any more’. His father said ‘Oh, really! Apparently with you illness and recovery (lit. your illnesses and recoveries) are an easy matter (lit. on any pretext). There is nothing simpler than your illness, nor than your recovery, but never mind! This time has gone by (i.e. I will overlook it), (but) another time God grant that I get up in the morning and you tell me you are ill and then that I come back and find you playing (i.e. you will see what will happen to you)!’. [38] Za’ima was in the kitchen and heard all that was said, but she couldn’t go to her husband and speak to him from the fear that he would shout at her, since had he not already told her to say no more another time and that it wasn’t her business. But after Sa’id went into the living-room (lit. the other room), she waited a while then went to 245

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d­ž(a) áššar wb(ə)ʕdín t(ə)flás. təṃṃáyas ‘b(ə)lláhi ʕ(á)lik mlíy(y)id! xxul ay(u) d(ə)lḥəqq f(ə)llák a? kúll yum afṛux attxə́ẓəṛṭəd. m(ə)ʕád la ytə́tt la ysə́ss dm(ə)ʕádš yttə́ṭṭ(ə)ṣ ḥ(ə)ttá iḍ(ə)ṣ. ʕád ḥ(ə)tta al(ə)mmi dṃaḍún wəttadžidtíš ayəṛṭaḥ a? kkáyu ɣír wəttẓṛid swallín. swallín yisi gəlḥálət wəttətmənnittədš ɣir il(ə́)ʕdu. údmis das(ə́)ṭṭaf dṭiṭṭawínis am(ə)ššhábat dnə́tta yl(ə́)hhəf dl(ə́)ḥmu la dís, yá laṭif. yḍ(ə́)lləb ɣir gwáman. mámak yəstráḥ ɣir xxul zzátək bə́ss, wəttəkkə́dš ḥ(ə)ttá (a)m(ə)šwar. ɣir b(ə́)ʕd la flíɣ nadíɣas iʕəmtik (ə)ššə́ṛwət dtusəd tṣúnḍas máni yəstráḥ, d(ə)ʕyíɣ dis “wəttəkkə́rš swəṃkánik” wyəqqíl. yəṃ­ ṃáyid “tadístiw m(ə)ʕádš ttʕə́ddəm” wb(ə)ʕdín al(ə)mmi (yə)straḥ áššar dyəkkə́r hayúṛaṛ, as(ə)ttásəd dáttməd txuzúqud dis – imátta? nətš ámləɣ ay(u) kúl wətšá lázəm. áfṛux daḥ(ə́)škun. s(ə́)ʕʕdi abbáššar abáššar dzə́lbḥi s(ə)tɣusíwin mádum ayə́mɣəṛ wb(ə)ʕdín ayɣər wə́ḥdəs.’ yufíš s(ə)ʕid matta háyməl dyufá (a)wal nlʕíltis d(ə́)lḥəqq. swassdín yədwəl m(ə)ʕádš yttkušš(u) afmə́mmis bzáyəd dyədwəl yttsáʕad dís dyənnáyas ‘áss la wətɣisə́dš atfl(ə)d l(ə)tməzgída, bláš’, lákən yṛáḥ yzzə́lbaḥ dís. s(ə́)ʕa s(ə́)ʕa (a)səysəɣ šáṛa dasə́yməl ‘ay(u) kúl mallik tṛáḥ(ə)d t(ə)qqárəd.’ idžəṃṃás s(ə)ʕid yəflá ltməzgída dyəṃṃáyas iwʕə́zzab ‘nadáyas ifə́ṛḥat aiyə́skən (ə)llúḥis.’ ysə́knas fə́ṛḥat (ə́)lluḥis ibábis. ɣir yǝẓṛá s(ǝ)ʕid (ǝ́)lluḥ nmə́mmis yəfṛə́ḥ bzáyəd mallík yufa mə́mmis ḥáltis xír nqə́bəl. lxáṭṭis yttwaṣə́lləḥ d(ə)llúḥis yʕábba stíra. yəṃṃáyas aʕə́zzab is(ə́)ʕid ‘ussáni fə́ṛḥat (ə)lḥáltis dtáṣbiḥt əbzáyəd. m(ə)ʕádš yttɣíma (də)ddə́rguz40 kúl, dtisurratínis t(ə)kmə́ln(ə)t y(ə)ḥ­fḍín(ə)t.’ yəṃṃáyas s(ə́)ʕid ‘ay(u) nwáwal slíɣti sɣə́ṛk ḥ(ə)ttá qə́bəl, lákən nšáḷḷa ddaltúlat ayə́sdəq.’ s(ə́)ʕid yəfṛə́ḥ mallik yukə́z mə́mmis ddaltúlat yəqqár mbə́lḥəq dm(ə)ʕádš yttíṛaṛ amqə́bəl. yəṃṃáyas iwʕə́zzab ‘ə́səl! zzátək aitu nə́tš asə́mləɣ lfə́ṛḥat kúlləmm(i) ayə́ḥfəḍ tsúrrət dtáždidt, asúšəɣ lə́fṛənk.’ yəqqím fə́ṛḥat gətməzgída dyədwəl yəqqáṛ mbə́lḥəq. bábis s(ə́)ʕa s(ə́)ʕa (a)səysəɣ tákmist, íškəlt asə́ysəɣ lbə́lɣət

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him and said ‘For Heaven’s sake, tell me, do you think you are right in this? Every day you frighten the boy. He doesn’t eat or drink any more, and no longer sleeps at all (lit. sleeps even a sleeping). Won’t you let him rest even when he’s ill? This is just (because) you didn’t see him a little while ago. Just then he was in a condition you would only wish for (lit. you wouldn’t wish except for) your enemy. His face was black (i.e. of an unhealthy colour) and his eyes were bloodshot (lit. like sticks no longer alight but smouldering brightly), and he was panting, and the fever he had, O my God! He was asking just for water. He’s only improved now just before you came, one can’t even say just a little while (i.e. he got better just a few seconds before your arrival). It was only after I went and called Mother Sharwat and it was when she came and made circles about his head that he improved. I told him many times (lit. I got tired of telling him) not to get out of bed but he refused. He told me his stomach didn’t ache any more, and then when he felt rather better and went out to play, you came upon him and started to grab him. Why? All that is unnecessary. The boy is young. Treat him gently and lead him on with things (i.e. promise him things if he behaves himself) until he grows older when he will study on his own (i.e. without prompting)’. Sa’id didn’t know what to say and thought (lit. found) that his wife was right. From that day on he no longer scolded his son much and began to help him, telling him he needn’t go to the mosque on days he didn’t want to. (Not only that but) he began to offer him blandishments. Sometimes he would buy him something and say to him ‘All this is because you have begun to study’. One day Sa’id went to the mosque and asked the teacher to call Ferhat so that he could show him his board. Ferhat showed his board to his father, (who,) when he saw it (lit. his son’s board), was very pleased because his son’s level (lit. condition) was better than before. His hand(writing) had improved and his board was full of writing. The teacher said to Sa’id ‘Ferhat’s state (of learning) nowadays is very good. He is no longer in any way a dunce, and he has learned all his suras’. Sa’id said ‘I have heard this before from you, but I pray that this time it will be true’. Sa’id was pleased because he realized that his son was studying properly this time and was no longer playing about as before. He said to the teacher ‘Listen! In front of you (i.e. with you as a witness) I am going to tell Ferhat that every time he learns a new sura I will give him a mal’. Ferhat stayed in the mosque and continued studying seriously. His father would sometimes buy him 247

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íšk(ə)lt taṣə́drit, dyənnáyas ‘ɣír ay(u) la t(ə)ɣsəd bə́ss mallík tṛáḥ(ə)d t(ə)qqárəd.’ fə́ṛḥat yədwə́l yəqqar amn(ə́)tta (a)mibušír(ə)n ttányin kmə́l(ə)n. la yṛə́ggəl la yttíṛaṛ gibríd(ə)n la dšáṛukan, stiddártis al­ tməzgída ds(ə)tməzgída altíddart. s(ə́)ʕid ḥ(ə)tta yisí yəɣs ayḥə́wwəl ltə́ṃuṛt, ɣir yufa mə́mmis ammídin, yəṃṃá manis áfṛux yədwə́l yəhdátti ṛə́bbi, wɣə́ṛ(i) imatta ttḥə́wwləɣ. dž aqqíməɣ ḥ(ə)tta dəhánit al(ə)mmi y(ə)ḥfə́ḍ afṛux (ə)lqúran wb(ə)ʕdín yámənʕaš.’

[39] idžəṃṃás yəfla s(ə́)ʕid l(ə)tməzgída ysə́stən afmə́mmis báqi. yəṃṃáyas aʕə́zzab ‘(ə)lḥáltis dtáṣbiḥt əbzáyəd dkull yúm xír.’ qqímən tthə́drzən did b(á)ʕḍhəm táwalt atə́nẓəɣ táwalt al(ə)mmi uṣə́l(ə)n ddə́wət nwḥə́wwəl. ysə́stən aʕə́zzab s(ə́)ʕid ‘lə́mmi hatḥə́wwləd?’ yəṃ­ṃáyas s(ə́)ʕid ‘waḷḷáhi wssínəɣ. səddíɣ ttxə́m(mə)məɣ. s(ə)ʕa s(ə́)ʕa nniɣ aḥə́wwləɣ xxúl ds(ə)ʕa s(ə́)ʕa nníɣ manis áfṛux yədwəl y(ə)hdátti ṛə́bbi, aqqíməɣ ḥ(ə)ttá dəhánit al(ə)mm(i) ayə́ḥfəd lqúran wb(ə)ʕdín aḥəwwləɣ íškəlt.’ yəṃṃáyas aʕə́zzab ‘t(ə)ɣsə́d at(ə)sl(ə)d awalíw iziɣ ahá? awáliw ak(ə)ttə́mləɣ daknə́ṣḥəɣ d(ə)nnṣíḥət ludəm nṛə́bbi dn­šáḷḷa (a)l(ə)mmi n(ə)ddə́r atbə́ddəd afwawáliw ámyu iziɣ ámyu datə́mləd yəṃṃáyid aʕə́zzab. mə́mmik lḥámdu lláh yədwə́l yəqqár dʕammál hayə́xtəm ázgən dnšáḷḷa (a)ttyʕáwən ṛə́bbi dayə́xtəm əlqúran yəkmə́l. al(ə́)mmi t(ə)ɣsəd mə́mmik ayə́ḥfəḍ lqúran mbə́lḥəq, wəllíš xir ndəhánit daṛáhuk ɣir attə́wyəd ltə́ṃuṛt áyḍaʕ. áfṛux səddíɣ daḥ(ə́)škun, wy(ə)ssínš mátt(a) ayəṣləḥ sís. háyfəl lɣádi hayaf (ə́)ssuq dibušírən d(ə)lbəšklíṭat wb(ə)ʕdín izufríy(y)ən nə́ssuq mamak t(ə)ssnə́dtən šə́k­ kin. baš ayə́hlək dantytə́bbəʕ wəllíš səhlis. n(ə)tš ṃṃíɣak dšə́kkin af(ə)l­kífik dwətšá (a)təml(ə)d aṛáhuk ɣír aʕəzzab yəxsí ayə́qqim ɣə́ṛs dayə́ḥfəḍ lqúran af(ə́)llas nə́tta. n(ə)tš ɣə́ṛi swá swa. ayə́ḥfəḍ lqúran af(ə́)lli iziɣ af(ə)lɣíriw, yəkmə́l didžən. iʕəzzábən kmə́l(ə)n swá swa. dšə́kk af(ə)lkífik.’ yəṃṃáyas s(ə́)ʕid ‘waḷḷáhi wəɣríš matta hámləɣ. nə́tš ləšɣáliw bzáyəd dəɣsə́ɣ aḥǝ́wwlǝɣ lakən ɣir ammítiɣ ay(u) ntɣu-

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a shirt, another time shoes, and sometimes a waistcoat, and would tell him he could have anything he wanted because he had begun to study (in earnest). Ferhat (really) did begin to study (seriously) like all the other boys. He neither truanted nor played in the streets nor anything, from his house to the mosque and back again. Though Sa’id had intended to move to Zuara, when he saw his son (behaving) like this, he said (to himself) that since God had started to help the boy, he had no reason to move. ‘I will (lit. let me) stay here till the boy has learned the Quran and then I will see’. [39] One day Sa’id went to the mosque and asked about his son again. The teacher said to him ‘His progress is very good and improves by the day’. They stayed talking together of one thing and another (lit. one word pulls out another word) till they came to the matter of moving. The teacher asked Sa’id when he was going to move, to which Sa’id responded (lit. Sa’id said to him) ‘By Heaven I don’t know. Sometimes I say I will move now and sometimes I say that since God has begun to help the boy, I will stay here until he has learned the Quran and then move once for all’. The teacher said to him ‘Will you listen to my advice or not? I will tell you what I think (lit. my words) and advice you sincerely before the face of God (i.e. gratis) and I hope that if we live, you will stand on my words, (seeing whether they are) true or not (lit. thus or thus), and will say the teacher told me so. Your son, praise God, has begun (sincerely) to study and he is soon going to finish half, (then,) all being well, God will help him to complete the whole Quran. If you want your son to learn the Quran properly, there is nowhere better than here, and, beware, if you take him to Zuara, he will be lost. The boy is still small (and) he doesn’t know what is good for him. He’s going to get there, find the market and the boys and the bicycles (i.e. all sorts of distraction), and then the wild boys of the market as you know (lit. know them, i.e. and you know what they are). There is nothing easier for him to go astray and follow them. I have had my say (lit. I have told you) and it is up to you, (so) don’t say, mind you, that the teacher only wants him to stay with him and to learn the Quran from him. It’s all the same to me, he will learn the Quran from me or from someone else, it is all one. All teachers are the same. So it is up to you’. Sa’id said to him ‘Indeed, I understand what you say (lit. I have nothing to say, i.e. you are right). I have a lot of work and I want to move but when I remember these things and the temptations of the 249

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s­ íwin dəttʕáskir ntə́ṃuṛt dwzúfər nizufríy(y)ən, ámləɣ aqqíməɣ dəhá­nit al(ə)mmi y(ə)ḥfə́ḍ lqúran dyigá (a)ššar nl(ə́)ʕq(ə)l wb(ə)ʕdín yá­mən­ ʕaš. áfṛux səddíɣ daḥ(ə́)škun mbə́lḥ(ə)q dibušír(ə)n nlə́ḥṛam bzáyəd. ya haqqíməɣ kúll yum ttšatəɣ dís dnə́qqəɣ dís ya hayə́hlək. ḥ(ə)ttá ntš ṛṛáyiw aməṛṛáyik šə́kkin dswássu ddə́wwət nírḥal m(ə)ʕádš attnə́ẓɣ(ə)ɣ. aqqíməɣ dəhánit wəxláṣ. ɣír aykə́mməl fə́ṛḥat tíɣris dayə́mbəṛ (ə́)lluḥ, b(ə)ʕdín arə́ḥləɣ. kúnš(i) al(ə)mmi yəḥ(ə)dtíy(y)id šaṛa dáždid mbəssíf f(ə́)lli, adin ḷḷa ɣáləb.’

[40] yṛə́wwəḥ s(ə́)ʕid ləlʕíltis yəṃṃáyas ‘ássu fliɣ lwʕə́zzab dyəṃ­ ṃáyid fəṛḥat yədwə́l faləḥ bzáyəd dukan attə́džəd dəhánit al(ə)mm(i) ayə́mbəṛ (ə́)lluḥ daykə́mməl xír, dḥ(ə)ttá ntš day(u) d(ə)ṛṛáyiw. anə́q­ qim dəhánit al(ə)mm(i) aykə́mməl məmmítnəɣ tíɣris dayə́mɣər áššar dáyig l(ə́)ʕqəl wb(ə)ʕdín anḥə́wwəl baš ḥ(ə)tt(a) anád(ə)l anxə́mməm f(ə́)llas41. təṃṃáyas lʕíltis ‘af(ə)lkífik, mámak t(ə)ɣsə́d, n(ə)tš mámak aitə́mləd báhi. al(ə)mmi t(ə)ɣsəd anḥə́wwəl, anḥə́wwəl, al(ə)mmi t(ə)ɣsəd an(ə́)qqim, an(ə́)qqim.’ ‘lá,’ yəṃṃáyas, ‘iziɣ an(ə́)qqim.’ s(ə́)ʕid swássdin ybə́ṭṭəl swḥə́wwəl dyədwə́l díma ntta fəṛḥán – yḍə́ṣṣ dytthə́drəz dḥ(ə)tta fə́ṛḥat yədwəl yḥə́ffəḍ əbzáyəd dyəffál l(ə)tməzgída kúll yum. m(ə)ʕád la yṛə́ggəl la yttáɣəd gəssbáli mallik bábis yttsə́ʕʕad (or ytts(ə́)ʕʕəd) dis sídis dwʕə́zzab yttsə́ʕʕad dis sídis.

[41] yəxtə́m fə́ṛḥat ázgən wb(ə)ʕdín yəxtə́m t(ə)lt əṛbáʕ dyṛaḥ ʕammál hayə́xtəm (ə)lqúran. kúlləmm(i) ayə́xtəm áyig bábis ḍḍífat day(ə́)ʕzəm afmíddən das(ə)nnə́yməl (ə)ḍḍíf(ə)t tamə́qqart ɣir ayə́xtəm fə́ṛḥat lqú­ ran dəḍḍíf(ə)t la kul ə́kbəṛ áss la (a)yəmbəṛ (ə́)lluḥ. ɣir yəxtə́m fə́ṛḥat lqúran, yəfṛə́ḥ bábis al(ə)mmi ndádin dy(ə)ʕzə́m afmíddən mən kúll žíha. yigás(ə)n ḍḍíft dtamə́qqart əbzáyəd dyə́sɣas (ə́)lkaṭ n(ə́)lməlf imə́m-

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town (i.e. cinemas, cafés, etc.) and the wickedness of the market-boys, I say I will stay here until he has learned the Quran and has developed mentally, and then see. It is true that the boy is still young, and there are many wicked boys (there). Either I shall be beating him and (half-) killing him every day or he will become no good. My opinion, too, is the same as yours, and from today I shall not bring any more (lit. pull out) the question of moving. I shall stay here, and that’s all there is to it! When Ferhat finishes studying and completes the Quran (lit. puts away the board), then I shall move. Only if something unexpected (lit. new) happens to me against my will, then I shall not be able to help it (lit. that (will be a case of) God the winner)’. [40] Sa’id went home to his wife (and) said to her ‘I went to the teacher today and he said to me that Ferhat has become very proficient and that it will be better if I leave him here until he puts away his board (i.e. having finished the Quran), and I too am of this opinion. We will stay here until our son completes his study and grows up a little and develops mentally, then we will move, and I can start thinking about him (i.e. about his marriage)’. His wife said to him ‘As you will, as you like, I will agree with whatever you say. If you want to move, we’ll move, if you want to stay, we’ll stay’. ‘Agreed (lit. no)’, he said, ‘then we stay’. Sa’id from that day gave up the idea of moving and was always happy, laughing and talking away, and Ferhat, too, continued to learn well and to go daily to the mosque. He no longer plays truant or finds excuses because his father, on the one hand, is kind to him, and likewise the teacher, on the other. [41] Ferhat completed the half-way and then the three-quarter (stages) and reached the point of finishing the Quran. Whenever he completed (a stage) his father would give a lunch-party and invite people and tell them that the big party (would be) when Ferhat finished the Quran and the biggest of all on the day he put away his board (i.e. leaves the mosque. The pupil goes through the Quran three times, with his board increasing in size progressively in order to hold more material; for the second time, pupils begin at the end, where suras are shorter and better known.). When Ferhat finished the Quran (i.e. for the first time), his father was delighted and invited people from all sides. He put on a very large party for them (i.e. lunch at which meat in particular was served) and bought his son a complete suit of cotton 251

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mis dtə́kmist dwəṣṛáwil diždíd(ə)n dyəṃṃáyas ‘áss la hatə́mbṛəd (ə́)lluḥ akə́sɣ(ə)ɣ (ə)lkaṭ íḍ(ə)n xír nwúh dakə́sɣ(ə)ɣ aḥúli nlə́ḥrir d(ə)lkə́nṭṛət dakə́sɣ(ə)ɣ kúll matta t(ə)ɣsə́d.’ b(ə)ʕd la tɣə́ddan adin nmíddən dəswə́nn (ə)ššáhi yəṃṃayásən s(ə́)ʕid ‘ay wássu dəzzə́rdət nfə́ṛḥat mal­lik yəxtə́m (ə)lqúran d(ə)nšáḷḷa zzə́rdət tamə́qqart akənttígəɣ ɣir ayə́mbəṛ (ə́)lluḥ mámak ṃṃiɣáwən qə́bəl.’ hə́d(ə)rzən adin nmíddən al­ tmə́ddit wb(ə)ʕdín ṛə́wwḥən. s(ə́)ʕid lwaitšá yəflá ntta dfə́ṛḥat l(ə)tməzgída ušə́nas lxə́tmət42 iwʕə́zzab dyəṃṃáyas s(ə́)ʕid ‘ɣsə́ɣak atsə́rr­ ḥəd ibušír(ə)n tt(ə)sriḥət dtamə́qqart’ yəṃṃáyas aʕə́zzab ‘báhi’, dyigá (a)myu ysərrəḥ ibušir(ə)n. fə́ṛḥat yṛə́wwəḥ ltíddart ds(ə́)ʕid yəqqim ytthə́drəz n(ə)tta dwʕə́zzab áššar wb(ə)ʕdín flə́nn lə́ssuq. lwaitšá tál­ ži təkkə́r zʕíma tǝḍṛə́z utšu dúdi iwərgázis dmə́mmis dixəmmásnis. b(ə)ʕd la fḍə́ṛən dudələn sə́ssən gəššáhi, təṃṃáyas zʕíma iwərgázis ‘matta tigíd gəddə́wwət nírḥal? anəṛtáḥ dan(ə)thə́nna w(ə)xláṣ a? iziɣ uší atxə́m(m)əməd? šə́kk mallik wakyttakə́zš ḥədd, atɣə́yyrəd ṛṛáyik xəmsín alf mə́ṛṛa gəssáʕət.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘múhu swass(ə)nat ṃṃíɣam táwalt, iziɣ han(ə́)qqim kúll yum nə́ḥ(ə)rtu w (ə)nʕáwdu.’ təṃṃáyas ‘lá, báhi. ɣir madʕíli yəxḍə́ṛak (ə́)ṛṛay dáždid. manis tbə́ṭṭləd írḥal matta ṛṛáyik ukan ánfəl asəggásu lə́ṛṛbiʕ43, əddúnyət də́lxir də́ṛṛbiʕ bzáyəd d(ə)lḥíwan ɣə́ṛnəɣ matt(a) an(ə́)ẓẓəg, (ə)lḥámdu lláh. imátta wn(ə)ffálš anə́ẓẓəg ləḥlibə́nnəɣ danláyəm tlussínnəɣ wəḥdə́nnəɣ danə́šb(ə)ʕ ḥ(ə)tta ɣir síẓṛa nsəwwət, də́lxir la xxul mə́nit w mə́nit nʕám wn(ə)ttnəẓṛí dḥ(ə)tta l(ə́)ʕwin iziɣ dirúkan aita ɣə́ṛnəɣ yih la nwəttáttən i(y)írḥal qqímən. wɣə́ṛnəɣ la matta haɣənnysə́tʕab la dšáṛukan.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘waḷḷáhi mbə́lḥəq! ḥ(ə)tta wuhánit də́ṛṛay! lakən fə́ṛḥat mámak hásnig iziɣ máni hayə́qqim dal(ə)mm(i) áyfəl dídnəɣ aylə́wwəḥ tíɣris dáyədž (ə)llúḥis dwáy(u) la yəḥfə́ḍi yəkmə́l áyḍaʕ.’ təṃṃáyas ‘ay(u) dšáṛa yəshə́l. al(ə)mmi t(ə)ɣsəd ánədž tibušírin dəhánit ayə́qqim n(ə)tta dtsə́tmas gtiddart(ə́)nsən, was(ə)nnyttṣárš šáṛukan, dal(ə)mmi t(ə)ɣsə́d tibu-

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(? worsted; ? serge) as well as a new shirt and new pair of trousers and told him that when he (finally) put away his board he would buy him a better suit and a silk jerd with a pair of shoes, and (in fact) would buy him all he wanted. After the guests (lit. people) had lunched and taken their tea, Sa’id told them ‘Today (lit. this day) is Ferhat’s party because he has finished the Quran and, God willing, I will give the big party for you when he puts away his board, as I told you before’. They talked until afternoon, then returned home. On the following day Sa’id went with Ferhat to the mosque and gave the khatmat to the teacher and Sa’id said to him ‘I want you to give the boys a long holiday’. The teacher agreed and released the boys. Ferhat went home and Sa’id stayed talking with the teacher for a while, then they went to the market. On the following morning Za’ima rose, made (lit. mixed) utshu dudi for her husband, her son, and her servants. When they had breakfasted and had just started taking tea, Za’ima said to her husband ‘What have you done about moving? Shall we settle down (lit. rest, i.e. here) and not bother about it any more? Or will you still think it over? Because nobody can understand you (i.e. knows where they are), you change your mind fifty thousand times an hour’. He said to her ‘I told you my decision (lit. one word) yesterday, didn’t I, or do we have to spend all day going up and down the same furrow (lit. ploughing and returning)’. She said ‘All right, I just thought a new idea had struck (lit. happened to) you. Since you have given up the idea of moving, what do you think of going (lit. if we go) (outside) for the spring this year? Everything (i.e. grass, rain, etc.) is plentiful and there is good (lit. much) pasture (lit. spring), and we have (enough) sheep and goats to milk (i.e. enough to justify our going), praise God. Why don’t we go to get (lit. milk) our buttermilk and collect our butter ourselves, and (also) be happy (lit. satisfied) just with the sight of the countryside. There is plenty which we have not seen for so many years, and also (as for) food and utensils, we have these here which we are preparing with a view to (lit. for) moving still, (so) we have nothing at all to worry about’. He said to her ‘By Heaven, you’re right! That is an idea (too)! But Ferhat, what are you going to do with him and (lit. or) where is he going to stay, and if he goes with us, he will throw away his studies, leave behind his board and all he has learned will be lost’. She said ‘That’s an easy matter. If you like, we could leave the girls here and he could stay with his sisters in the (lit. their) house and nothing would happen to them. Or (lit. and) if you prefer the girls to go with 253

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šírin af(ə́)lnət dídnəɣ, ayə́qqim lḥə́nnas džə́ddis. ásnədž tažə́ḥšit s(ə)lliṛə́bʕa (a)llirə́bʕa b(ə)ʕd l(a) ayttwasə́rrəḥ aɣə́nddyas al(ə)mmi n(ə)llá nəqrə́b. ayəqqim dídnəɣ lə́xmis dwass nlžúmʕa taməddít b(ə)ʕd l(a) aytɣədda daysəw ššáhi, ayṛə́wwəḥ.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘báhi. fə́ṛḥat ayə́qqim lḥə́nnas džə́ddis xír, mallík ɣir aḍḍə́lnət tibušírin dəhánit wn(ə)ttət­ hənníš f(ə)llásnət dwb(ə)ʕdín ass nliṛə́bʕa fə́ṛḥat ynəžžə́mš aɣə́nddyas dáyədž tisə́tmas wəḥdənnə́snət dyə́ʕni m(ə)ʕadš an(ə)ttə́nẓəṛ al(ə)mm(i) anṛə́wwəḥ, dwyttəkkə́dš wənẓəṛṛínš al(ə)mm(i) anṛə́wwəḥ mallik n(ə́)tnin astáḥšən dnə́šnin an(ə)stáḥaš dɣir aḍḍə́lnət tibušírin dídnəɣ amʕawə́nnət. daitu xxúl nə́tš aḥə́kkṛəɣ mani n(ə)ɣs ánfəl wb(ə)ʕdín amə́mləɣ.’

[42] ynáda s(ə́)ʕid afwxə́mmas yəṃṃáyas ‘tṛá (ə)fəl ḥə́kkəṛ lḥiwánnəɣ máni sərrə́ḥnət ddís ša ṛṛəbiʕ bzáyəd gwayu nidisan la qṛə́bən dsə́stən im(ə)sráḥən mátta ṛṛayə́nsən ɣsən aṛə́bbʕən ə́ṛṛəbiʕ yəkmə́l dəhánit, ddís (ə́)ṛṛəbiʕ dwáman áysudd ilḥíwan gwáyu nidísan la qṛə́bən iziɣ ṛṛayə́nsən yttsuddúš haḥə́wwlən b(ə)ʕdin.’ yulə́y axə́mmas aftə́ɣyult dyəflá. s(ə́)ʕid yəffə́ɣ lə́ssuq. tam(ə)ddít ɣir yṛə́wwəḥ ysə́stən lʕíltis ‘axə́mmas yədwə́l šá?’ təṃṃáyas ‘lá, uší.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘ay(u) nnə́btis lḥí­wan bʕə́dnət.’ təṃṃáyas ‘xxúl anḥə́kkəṛ ʕad.’ t(ə)stúlləs tállast d­trə́kkəb zʕím(a) amə́ssis. b(ə)ʕd la tʕə́ššan udə́lən ttígən gəššáhi n(ə)tnin uší wəsḍəyybə́nš abə́rrad amə́zwar anḍ(ə)ḷḷák daxə́mmas xášš. ss(ə)lxír ʕalíkum ssíkum ʕala xír44. ‘á, mátta iziɣ mátta?’ yəṃṃayásən ‘mátt(a) akənnə́mlaɣ ddúnyət təkməl də́ṛṛəbiʕ də́lxir yttáləy alwžə́nna. flíɣ ufiɣ lḥíwan dəhánit qṛəbnát, zzər ssbíxət45 bə́ss disíɣ haddásəɣ fís(ə)ʕ lákən ḥkəmníy(y)id im(ə)sráḥən dədžullníy(y)id46 ṃṃaníy(y)id (or ṃṃánid) ‘wəttquss(ə)d txúḍift al(ə)mmi (t)tʕə́ššid dim(ə)sráḥən ṃṃán ə́ṛṛəbiʕ bzáyəd gkúlləmkan asəggásu, ukán aḥúššən middən stálži allə́ggiḍ, wyttkəmmə́lš (or yttkəmməlš). wɣə́ṛnəɣ matt(a) aɣənn­ yḥə́wwəl ssy(ə)hánit.’ qə́ṣṣṛən íḍ áššar db(ə)ʕd la kə́mmlən ššahínsən,

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us, he could stay with his grandmother and grandfather. We would leave him the donkey (lit. young she-donkey) and every Wednesday (lit. from Wednesday to Wednesday) after he has been released he could come to us if we are near by. He could stay with us on Thursday and on Friday afternoon after lunch and tea, he could go back’. He said ‘All right. It will be better if Ferhat stays with his grandmother and grandfather, because if the girls are here, we shall worry (lit. shall not be peaceful in our minds) about them and, moreover, on Wednesdays Ferhat cannot come to us and leave his sisters on their own, and that means we shall not see them again until we come back and that cannot be, because they and us will feel lonely. And if the girls are with us, they can help you. Now I am going to find out where we shall be going (i.e. via his servant) and I will talk to you (again) later’. [42] Sa’id called his servant and said to him ‘Go (now) and find out where our flocks are grazing and if there is good pasturage near by (lit. in these near places). And ask the shepherds what they think about spending (lit. if they want to spend) the whole spring near at hand if the pasture and water in these parts will be sufficient, or whether they think it will not be enough and (therefore) are going to move again later’. The servant mounted a donkey and left, (and) Sa’id went to the market. When he returned in the afternoon he asked his wife whether the servant had returned. ‘Not yet’, she said, to which he replied ‘It seems the animals are a way off’. She said ‘We shall see’. Darkness fell and Za’ima prepared (her) dinner. After they had dined, they started making tea, and had not yet made ready the first pot (i.e. they were at the stage when the water had boiled in the big pot and been put with tea and sugar into the small one, which had been put back on the fire to boil again), when the servant came in. They exchanged greetings (lit. ‘Good-evening to you’, ‘And (also) to you’) and (Sa’id said) ‘Well, what about it (lit. what or what)?’.He said to them ‘What shall I tell you? There is excellent pasturage everywhere up to the sky (i.e. grass as high as the sky). I went and found the animals close by, just near Sbixa, and I was going to come (back) early but the shepherds kept me and took an oath saying to me “By God, you will not even take a small step before you have dined (with us)”. The shepherds said the pasturage is (so) lush everywhere this year that, even if people cut down from morning to night, it would not be exhausted (lit. finished), (and) we have no cause to move from here’. They whiled away the time 255

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kúll ḥə́dd yəkkə́r lwəmkánis yəṭṭə́ṣ. talží, b(ə)ʕd la yəfḍə́ṛ s(ə́)ʕid dyəswá ššáhi n(ə)tta ʕammál hayəffəɣ lə́ssuq yusə́das áfṛux ismis ṣáləḥ yəṃṃáyas ‘ya ʕámmi s(ə́)ʕid, bába yəṃṃáyak baš attásəd ássu lə́ssuq hantɣə́dda žmíʕ.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘(ə)mlas báhi. aššar áššar addásəɣ.’ yəffə́ɣ s(ə́)ʕid stíddart yiga ḍḍúṛ(ə)t giž(ə)nwánis wb(ə)ʕdín yədwə́l ltíddart yəṃṃáyas ilʕíltis ‘waissugamə́dš gwmə́kli’ dyəflá.

[43] yufá l(ə)žmáʕət əgtə́ḥnuyt (ə)nmə́sʕud ttígən gəššáhi dətthə́d(ə)r­zən – “sslám ʕalíkum, ʕalíkum sslám. haya tfə́ḍḍəl, hayya tfə́ḍḍəl”. yu­tə́f yg(ə́)ʕməz dídsən. yəṃṃáyas mə́sʕud ‘nkíɣak ṣáləḥ, yusə́dak muhú?’ yəṃṃáyas ‘wáy, yus(ə)díy(y)id.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘báhi, izíɣ aita xláṣ, mətt(ə)fqín.’ qqímən adin l(ə)žmáʕət tthə́d(ə)rzən állwəqt (or alə́lwəqt) nwmə́kli. ə́lwəqt nwmə́kli flə́nn hatɣə́ddan. ysə́stən ídžən sləžmáʕət s(ə́)ʕid yəṃṃáyas ‘ya s(ə́)ʕid, mbəlḥə́q nəslá ṃṃan hatṛaḥə́ld a (for hatṛaḥlə́d a)?’ yəṃṃáyas s(ə́)ʕid ‘isiɣ zman ttxəm(m)əməɣ lákən xxúl ɣə́yyrəɣ əṛṛáyiw. xxúl ttxə́m(mə)məɣ háfləɣ lə́ṛṛəbiʕ wb(ə)ʕdín yámənʕaš.’ ṃṃánas adin ləžmáʕət ‘mátta mátta! ay(u) tɣə́yyrəd əṛṛá(y)ik baqí a? kšə́kk zmán tisíd hatṛáḥləd dnə́šnin zmán tisíd hatṛáḥləd dnə́šnin n(ə)ttṛə́žža də́kk baš at(ə)qqíməd wt(ə)qqíləd, wb(ə)ʕdín mat­ ta yṣáṛ?’ yəṃṃayásən ídžən sləžmáʕət ‘nə́tš wətša ṃṃiɣáwən səzmán s(ə)ʕid wyẓəbbə́ṭš, asyə́xḍəṛ gəddqíq(ə)t álf ṛay.’ yəṃṃayásən s(ə́)ʕid ‘lá, waḷḷáhi, la díẓbaṭ la d(ə)lɣíris. báss, ya ṛážəl, ššə́ɣliw bzáyəd dnə́tš dawaḥdáni. kullmán(i) axə́m(mə)məɣ ɣir aḥəkkṛəɣ lídis ttáni attáfəɣ hayə́qqim wə́ḥdəs.’ yəṃṃayás mə́sʕud waḷḷáhi, ḥ(ə)tta nə́šnin madabína baš ánfəl ləṛṛəbiʕ žmíʕ. nə́šnin nəɣs ánqam lliṛə́bʕa la təggúr. al(ə)mmi ḥ(ə)tta nə́knim watyín, ánfəl žmíʕ, mallik amə́zyəd áʕšuš xír.’ yəṃṃáyas s(ə́)ʕid ‘nə́šnin watyín wb(ə)ʕdin múhu ássu səddíɣ dsə́bbat. ḥ(ə)tta lə́mmi ɣəṛnəɣ šáṛa wətšá wátəy, an(ə)tt(ə)nwə́tta. iziɣ xláṣ, dádin dáwal. ass lliṛə́bʕa la təggúr nšáḷḷa, (a)l(ə)mmi ndə́rr, talži bə́kri ánqam baš anáṣəl qəbəl wázəl (or wə́zəl).’

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(lit. they shortened the night) a little, and after they had finished their tea, everyone went to bed and slept. In the morning, after breakfast and tea, Sa’id was about to go to the market (when) a boy called Salih came to him and said ‘Uncle Sa’id, my father has asked you to come to the market today (for you) to have lunch together’. Sa’id said ‘Tell him that’s fine. I shall come soon’. Sa’id left his house, took a turn in his orchards, then returned home and said to his wife ‘Don’t wait for me at lunch’ and went off. [43] He found the gathering in Mis’ud’s shop drinking tea and talking. They (all) greeted one another and they invited him in. He went in and sat down with them. Mis’ud said to him ‘I sent you, did he come?’. He replied that he did. He (i.e. Mis’ud) said to him ‘Good, then it’s all agreed (lit. finished), we are agreed (i.e. about lunch together)’. The group stayed talking until lunch-time, and then went off to eat (lit. at lunch-time they went to lunch). One of them asked Sa’id ‘We have heard tell that you are going to move, is it true?’. Sa’id said to him ‘I was thinking about it one time but now I have changed my mind. I am now thinking of going out for the spring and then I shall see’. The gathering said to him ‘What!? Have you changed your mind again? Some time ago you were moving and we were begging you to stay, (and) you refused. What happened afterwards?’. One of them said ‘Didn’t I tell you some time ago that Sa’id does not know what to do next, he gets a thousand ideas in a minute’. Sa’id said to them ‘No, I swear, it’s neither hesitancy nor anything else. It is just my work, old man, (which) is heavy, and I am on my own. Whenever I turn my attention, when I become aware of another side (of things), I find it being left unattended to (i.e. Sa’id has many interests, trade, orchards, flocks, crops, etc. and, though he is an employer, he finds it difficult to keep his eye on all areas)’. Mis’ud said to him ‘By Heaven, we too were thinking of going outside for the spring together. We are going (lit. lifting, i.e. equipment on to camels) next Wednesday. If you too are ready, we could go together, because the more tents the better (i.e. for enjoyment)’. Sa’id said to him ‘We are ready and, what’s more, today is only Saturday. Even if we have something not ready (now), we can make it so. All right, then, that’s it. Next Wednesday, God willing, if we are still alive, we will load up early in the morning as to arrive before noon’.

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[44] b(ə)ʕd la tɣə́ddan adin nmíddən dəswə́nn (ə)ššáhi, hə́d(ə)rzən al­tmə́ddit dkull ḥə́dd yəkkə́r yṛə́wwəḥ ltiddártis. s(ə́)ʕid yədwə́l ḥ(ə)tta n(ə́)tta ltiddártis yufa lʕíltis ttrə́kkəb gwmə́ssi. b(ə)ʕd la twaḍátti dətʕə́ššan, yəṃṃáyas baš “atwə́ttim imánnwən”47. ‘aita ttə́fqəɣ nə́tš dləžmáʕət lliṛə́bʕa la háttas talži bə́kri ánqam. aitšá (ə)nkəy axə́mmas dídi lə́ssuq asə́qḍiɣ áy(u) (or áyu) l(a) akənyə́lzəm yəkmə́l də́nẓəɣ áʕšuš48 ḥə́kkṛi al(ə)mmi yə́ɣs ša šáṛa. dḥə́kkər ibə́ṛmal adin nílḥam la nəlḥə́min šə́həṛ la yfát yəḥkəm dísən iziɣ ahá. lḥáṣəl, ḥə́kkṛət imánnwən, kúll mátta t(ə)ɣsə́m wəttátti.’ təṃṃáyas lʕíltis ‘báhi.’ lwaitšá tálži b(ə)ʕd la fḍə́ṛən dəswə́nn (ə)ššáhi, yəffəɣ s(ə́)ʕid n(ə́)tta dwxə́mmas lə́ssuq. yəqḍáyas ay(u) la yəlzə́mas yəkmə́l – aṭṭə́mṭam dwúdi difə́lfəl dlə́bẓaṛ dəssúkər dləḥšísət d(ə)lkakawíy(y)ət d(ə)lmakaṛúnət də́ṛṛuz – wb(ə)ʕdín ṛə́wwḥən. zʕíma tnáda ib(á)ʕḍ ntatšíwin səlžiránis dudə́lnət ttwəttánət. ṃáṃṃu yttq(ə́)ʕʕad gəllúsət49 yttq(ə́)ʕʕad, ṃáṃṃu yttá­ ṛəf50 gtə́mẓin yttáṛəf, ṃáṃṃu yttɣə́yyəz ytɣə́yyəz, ṃaṃṃu yəẓẓáḍ yəẓẓáḍ, al(ə)mmi wə́ttan ay(u) la yəlzmásən yəkmə́l.

[45] áss lliṛə́bʕa təkkə́r zʕíma talži bə́kri təḍṛə́ẓ útšu dlə́qli51 i(y)ibu­šírnis dmíddən la usə́dən hasə́llmən f(ə́)llas. b(ə)ʕd la fḍə́rən dəswə́nn (ə)š­šáhi, qqámən afilə́ɣmanə́nsən dəffə́ɣən. tsə́lləm zʕíma afbábis ǝdyádžis (ə)dmíddən la dín kúl dtəflá. nə́tnin səddíɣ (ə)ffiɣə́nš sižə́nwan anḍ(ə)ḷḷák dilə́ɣman nmə́sʕud ṭalʕín ddídsən aša tláta iziɣ árbʕa níʕšaš52 íḍ(ə)n. urə́sən kmə́l(ə)n did b(á)ʕdhəm abbáššar abbáššar al(ə)mmi uṣə́lən amkánnsən. xtáṛən alkan dáṣbiḥ dsúggzən dd(ə)bašə́nsən dəbnán iʕšašə́n­sən dəqqímən. ass dín wəẓẓigə́nš mallík uṣə́lən taməddít53 duṣə́lən taʕ­bín dəqqímən ass yəkmə́l ttq(ə)ʕʕád(ə)n gimánnsən altimmútšu, wb(ə)ʕdín ɣrə́sən izmár(ə)n drə́kkbən am(ə)ssínsən dətʕə́ššan. qə́ṣṣṛən irgázən iḍ did b(á)ʕdhəm áššar wb(ə)ʕdín kull ḥə́dd yəkkər lwəṃkánis

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[44] After they had lunched and drunk tea, they talked through the afternoon, then everyone went home. Sa’id also went home and found his wife preparing dinner. After she had served it (i.e. taken it off the fire, put it onto plates, served it) and they had dined, he told her to get herself ready (i.e. for the spring journey). (He said) ‘I have agreed with our friends (lit. the group) that we will load up early next Wednesday. Tomorrow send the servant with me to the market (i.e. tell him to go with me and tell him what you want) and I will get him all you need. And bring (lit. pull) out the tent and see if it needs anything (doing to it). And look to the water-drums (to see) whether the soldering we carried out last month is holding firm or not. In brief, see to yourselves (i.e. to your own things) and get ready everything you need’. His wife agreed. The following day, after they had breakfasted and drunk tea, Sa’id went with the servant to the market. He got him everything he needed, tomatoes, oil, pepper, spices, sugar, tea, peanuts, pasta, and rice, and then they returned home. Za’ima called in some (black) servant-girls from her neighbours and they set about getting (things) ready, one preparing lusa (i.e. a sauce of tomatoes, pepper, salt, spices, and oil) (lit. ‘the one who is preparing lusa’ prepares lusa), one roasting the barley (i.e. for the breakfast food taẓeṃṃiṭ), one crushing (i.e. the roasted barley in order to get rid of the husks), and one grinding (i.e. the husked barley), until they (had) prepared all that they needed. [45] On Wednesday Za’ima got up early in the morning, prepared (lit. stirred) utshu (i.e. uncooked flour in hot water with salt added) and leqli (i.e. roasted grains; the dish is called utshu dleqli) for her children and the people who came in to say goodbye to her. After they had had breakfast and tea, they loaded up their camels and went off. Za’ima said goodbye to her father and mother and to all the people there and went off (i.e. to catch up with her camel). They had still not left the orchards behind when Mis’ud’s camels (i.e. party) appeared with about three or four more tents. They all drove on (i.e. drove their camels) together slowly until they reached their destination (lit. place). They chose a likely spot, unloaded their kit, set up their tents, and settled down. That day they did no milking because they had arrived in the evening and were tired, and they spent all day (i.e. what was left of it) settling in (lit. preparing themselves) until sunset. Then they slaughtered lambs, cooked their dinner, and ate. The men spent some of the night together talking and then everyone went to 259

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yəṭṭə́ṣ. lwaitšá kull ḥə́dd yudə́l yttəẓẓəg gl(ə)ḥlíbis dyttig gəzə́bdtis. fərḥat ḥ(ə)tta n(ə́)tta yəfla dídsən mallik rḥə́lən ass lliṛə́bʕa. yəqqim dídsən lliṛə́bʕa dlə́xmis dwass n(ə)lžúmʕa b(ə)ʕd la ytɣə́dda, yulə́y af(ə)tžəḥšítis dyṛə́wwəḥ lḥə́nnas džə́ddis. qqímən adin nmíddən ttə́ẓẓgən gləḥlibə́nsən dəttq(ə)ʕʕád(ə)n gətlussínsən. irgázən ass yəkmə́l žmiʕ, idžəṃṃás aflən aṣṭáḍ(ə)n, idžəṃṃás aḍḍə́h(ə)wṛən, idžəṃṃás adə́w­ lən lə́ssuq, šəbʕanín ɣir gizmárən dlə́ḥlib dəzzə́bdət.

[46] fə́ṛḥat yəqqím lḥə́nnas yəqqar gtíɣris s(ə)lliṛə́bʕ(a) alliṛə́bʕa b(ə)ʕd l(a) aysə́rrəḥ (or ayttwasərrəḥ), ayáləy (a)fətžəḥšítis dáyfəl lwaʕ­šu­šə́n­ sən. attláqqa bábis dyádžis dtsə́tmas afə́ṛḥən sis dasɣə́rsən ízmər d­wass nlə́xmis talží (or tálži) astig yádžis útšu dəzzə́bdət. ayəqqim dín al(ə)l­žúmʕa dtməddít b(ə)ʕd l(a) atɣə́dda daysəw ššáhi, ástuš yádžis ti­šə́k­ wət nwə́ɣi də́nnṣib nmísum yḍáb as(ə́)tməl ‘əwyástid iḥə́nnak.’ s(ə)ʕa s(ə́)ʕa asúšən aššar n(ə)zzə́bdət dwáššar nwə́ɣi antə́ywəy iwʕə́zzab. idžəṃṃás ɣir yusə́d fə́ṛḥat hayṛə́wwəḥ ass n(ə)lžúmʕa yəṃṃáyas bábis ‘lliṛə́bʕa la háttas (ə́)mlas iwʕə́zzab “yəṃṃáyak bába baš aɣənttásəd didáw(ə)rtət žmíʕ.”’ yəṃṃáyas fəṛḥat iwʕə́zzab dwáss lliṛə́bʕa ulí(y)ən afíɣyalə́nsən dəflə́nn žmíʕ. ɣir uṣə́lən, yláqqa s(ə́)ʕid aʕə́zzab dyəfṛə́ḥ sís. ššáhi d(ə)lkakawíyyət dtm(ə́)ʕṣuṛt, wb(ə)ʕdín yəɣrə́sas ízmər. yná­da afl(ə)žmáʕət kmə́l(ə)n tʕə́ššan žmíʕ, dáttmən sə́ssən gəššáhi dṣə́hh­ ṛən. ysə́stən s(ə)ʕid aʕə́zzab afmə́mmis matta lḥális? yəṃṃáyas ‘lḥális dáṣbiḥ dmámak t(ə)ssə́nəd yttʕáwad, ʕammál haykə́mməl ázgən dyḥə́f­fəḍ əbzáyəd dnə́tš ámləɣ ɣir attyʕáwəd ddaltúlat dasyə́rn(i) iškəlt íḍənt, xláṣ, ayə́mbəṛ (ə́)lluḥ.’ yəfṛə́ḥ s(ə)ʕid swáwal la yəṃṃáyas aʕə́z­zab. yəqqím aʕə́zzab gíʕšaš lə́xmis d(ə)lžúmʕa dḥəkmə́ntid adin nmíddən ḥ(ə)tt(a) áss nsə́bbat, qqílən asə́ṛxan. nə́tnin ass yəkmə́l ššáhi də­zzrádi, ássu lwúh aitša lwə́ddin, amə́kl(i) ízmər dwmə́ss(i) ízmər.

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bed and slept. Next day everybody began milking and making butter. Ferhat went with them, too, since they had travelled on a Wednesday (i.e. a good day from the standpoint of his studies), stayed with them Wednesday and Thursday, and then after lunch on Friday he mounted his donkey and went back to his grandparents. They (all) carried on (in this way) milking and making ghi, the men together all day long (i.e. amusing themselves). One day they would go shooting, another day they would go walking, and on another they would go back to the market, (all the time) eating nothing but (lit. sated with) lambs and butter and drinking milk (i.e. contrary to their ‘rations’ at home). [46] Ferhat stayed at his grandmother’s getting on with his studies (lit. studying his study). Every Wednesday (lit. from Wednesday to Wednesday) after he had been released, he would get on his donkey and go to their tent. His mother, father, and sisters would meet him, (so) pleased to see him, and they would kill a lamb for him. On Thursday morning his mother would make him utshu with butter. He would stay there until Friday and in the afternoon, after lunch and tea, his mother would give him a goatskin (full) of buttermilk and a lot of cooked meat and tell him to take it to his (lit. your) grandmother. Some times they would give him a little butter and buttermilk to take to the teacher. One day when Ferhat was on the point of going home on Friday, his father told him to tell the teacher that his father has asked him to come (to us) next Wednesday and to come with Ferhat (lit. and come (pl. impve.) together). Ferhat told the teacher and on (the following) Wednesday they mounted their donkeys and set out together. When they arrived, Sa’id met the teacher and was pleased to see him. (They had) tea, peanuts, and cheese, and then killed a lamb for him. He called the whole party in and they dined together, and began drinking tea and passing the time. Sa’id asked the teacher how his son was getting on (lit. after his son, how is his progress?), and he replied ‘He is getting on very well, and, as you know, he is repeating (the Quran) and has almost finished half. He is learning a lot, and I would say (that) when he repeats it this time and (then does it) (lit. adds to it) one more time, (then) it will be over and he can put his board away’. Sa’id was pleased with what the teacher told him. The teacher spent Thursday and Friday in the tents and they kept him even on Saturday, refusing to let him go. All day long it was drinking tea and feasting, one day in the tent of one and the next day in the 261

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ass n(ə́)lḥədd tálži yəkkə́r aʕə́zzab, b(ə)ʕd la fḍə́ṛən dəswə́nn ššáhi yulə́y nə́tta dfə́ṛḥat afíɣyalə́nsən. b(ə)ʕd la tšúṛnas tisnayínis iwʕə́zzab səzzə́bdət dwə́ɣi dm(ə́)ʕṣuṛt dwísum dṛə́wwḥən. qqímən adin nmíddən ɣádi kə́mmlən (ə́)ṛṛbiʕə́nsən ḍḍúmən tlussínsən wb(ə)ʕdín ṛə́wwḥən ližənwánsən. yṛə́wwəḥ s(ə́)ʕid n(ə)tta d(ə)lʕíltis dtibuširínis.

[47] idžəṃṃás sidžəṃṃásat usəd(ə)n(ə)ttásən tatšíwin54 xəṭṭə́bnət lákən ufinə́tš s(ə́)ʕid (ə)gtíddart, ufə́nt ɣír zʕíma. təfṛə́ḥ sísnət dtigás­ nət utšu dtlússi dəššáhi d(ə)lkakawíyyət. b(ə)ʕd la tšə́nt dəswə́nt əš­ šáhi, ṃṃánas ‘nəšnin nusə́d hanə́xḍəb yə́llim. sidítnəɣ buʕžíla yəɣs yəl­lít­wən tamə́qqart imə́mmis.’ təṃṃayásnət zʕíma ‘nə́tš wəɣṛíš áwal did bábis. suggə́mmət al(ə)mm(i) áddyas daf(ə)lkifənnə́kmət b(ə)ʕdín, nəknimatíds.’ nətnínat səddíɣ ttutláynət anḍ(ə)ḷḷák (ə)ds(ə́)ʕid xášš. b(ə)ʕd la yg(ə́)ʕməz lq(ə́)ʕat usə́d(ə)ntas tatšíwin ṃṃántas ‘sidítnəɣ buʕžíla yənk(ə)yánəɣ yəɣs yə́llik.’ yəṃṃayásnət ‘waḷḷáhi wakənnənníɣ ɣir (ə́)lḥəqq, buʕžíla wəɣṛíš ṃaṃṃ(u) axtáṛəɣ f(ə́)llas, lakən yaxṣáṛa, yə́ll(i) yfat də́gi ušíɣ dís táwalt ɣír ussáni la fátən bə́ss. d(ə)lɣə́lṭət wətšá d(ə)lɣəl(ə)ṭtiw nə́tš mallík buʕžíla ẓəṛṛəɣ dís kúll yum gə́ssuq waiyənẓíɣš kúl afway(u) nḍə́wwət. ukan ɣír yəṃṃáyid ə́ṛṛəbu ntáwalt, xláṣ, lakən xxúl kúll š(i) yfát. tawáltiw m(ə)ʕádš nə́žžməɣ adə́wləɣ dís.’ kkə́rnət adin ntatšíwin ṛəwwə́ḥnət dəṃṃántas isidítsənt matta yəṃ­ ṃayásnət s(ə́)ʕid. yəṃṃayásnət buʕžíla ‘mátta hánig xxul. manis yušít yušít. tibušírin bzáyəd das(ə)nḥə́wwəm iməmmítnəɣ tafṛuxt íḍ(ə)nt.’

[48] b(ə)ʕd lḥífḍət uɣə́dnas ləbyan55 illúlu dəṃṃánas iyádžis baš “at­ wə́ttid imánim. šə́həṛ la háddyas nəɣs ansə́nžəf.” twə́tta zʕíma imánis, tigás tilabátin56 iyə́llis, twəttáyas lfə́ž(ə)ṛtis57 dtqə́ʕʕdas adin la yəlzə́mas yəkmə́l. b(ə)ʕd šə́ḥəṛ udə́lən ssənžáfən gəllúlu. tṣáṛ tamə́ɣṛa – (ə́)lltix

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tent of another, with lamb for lunch and lamb for dinner. On Sunday morning, the teacher rose and, after they had breakfasted and taken tea, he and Ferhat mounted their donkeys. They filled the teacher’s saddle-bags with butter, buttermilk, cheese, and meat, and then they went home. The party stayed there, finished their ‘spring’, collected their ghi and went back to their orchards (i.e. after an absence of about three months from mid-March). Sa’id and his wife and daughter returned home. [47] One day some negresses (i.e. servants) visited him and asked for Sa’id’s daughter in marriage, but they did not find Sa’id at home, only Za’ima. She was pleased to see them and made them utshu with ghi, and tea with peanuts. After they had eaten and drunk tea, they said to her ‘We’ve come to ask for your daughter in marriage. Our master Bu’zhila wants your elder daughter for his son’. Za’ima said to them ‘I cannot say without her father (lit. I have nothing to say with her father, i.e. it is up to him). Wait till he comes, and then it is as you will between you and him’. They were still talking when Sa’id came in. After he had sat down, the servants came to him and said that their master Bu’zhila had sent them to ask for his (i.e. Sa’id’s) daughter. He said to them ‘I swear I will tell you only the truth. There is nobody I would choose before Bu’zhila, but sadly (lit. what a pity!), I have already (lit. it has passed in me) promised (her) in just these last few days. The fault is not mine, because (though) I see Bu’zhila evey day in the market, he did not bring (lit. pull) this matter up with me at all. If he had only said (a quarter of) a word, it would have been all right, but now it is too late (lit. it is all over). I cannot go back on my word’. The servants rose and returned home, telling their master what Sa’id had said. Bu’zhila said to them ‘There is nothing we can do now (lit. what are we going to do now?). Since he has given her, so be it (lit. he has given her). There are plenty of girls and we will look around for another one for our son’. [48] A week later they (i.e. the family of Lulu’s betrothed) brought the betrothal gifts for Lulu and told her mother to prepare herself (because) next month they wanted the wedding (lit. to marry him off). Za’ima got herself ready, prepared (the) woollen jerds for her daughter as well as her (silver) jewellery, and busied herself with all the necessary preparations. A month later they started (the process 263

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dl(ə́)ʕḍəṛ58 wb(ə)ʕdín tutə́f táslət. áss n(ə)ttál(ə)t yúm t(ə)flás yádžis təwyás ə́ddəbaš la has(ə)ttíg gətzə́qqas. b(ə)ʕd la tq(ə́)ʕʕdas tazə́qqas dtəqqim díds allə́ggiḍ, tṛə́wwəḥ dtədžít. tkə́mməl tamə́ɣṛa dt(ə)fḍá tíddart nəzʕíma smíddən. kúll ḥə́dd yṛə́wwəḥ ltiddártis, dṛə́wwḥən inəmžárən simə́ndi dudə́lən ttmə́yylən gižənwánnsən. anə́bdu ʕammál haykə́mməl dʕammál hayátəf (ə́)lwəqt nwzə́mmuṛ59. yḍáb azə́mmuṛ xəṛḍə́ntid dfəsrə́ntid ússan wb(ə)ʕdín nəkyə́ntid lm(ə́)ʕṣṛət. ẓḍə́ntid əḍḍúmmən udínsən yəkmə́l. ḥkə́mən mátta ḥkə́mən dl(ə́)ʕqab yzə́nzi s(ə́)ʕid wb(ə)ʕdín ḍábən iɣíwən60. húzzən taɣliwínsən dq(ə́)ʕʕd(ə)n izəgnánnsən kmə́l(ə)n.

[49] fə́ṛḥat yʕáw(ə)d lqúran iškəlt íḍ(ə)nt dyudə́l yttʕáwad dis báqi. ykə́mməl lqúran dy(ə)ḥfə́ḍi swá swa61. áss la yəmbəṛ (ə́)lluḥ yiga bábis zzə́rdət dtamə́qqart əbzáyəd ynadáyas míddən mən kúll žíha dmən kúll mkan dyəɣrə́s aša ʕə́šra nizmárən dynáda ḥ(ə)tta iyibušír(ə)n n(ə)-­ tməzgída km(ə)lən díd wʕə́zzabə́nsən. tɣə́ddan adin nmíddən dətʕə́ššan. b(ə)ʕd la swə́nn (ə)ššáhi dqə́ṣṣrən íḍ, ušə́nas lfátḥa ifə́ṛḥat62 dkull ḥə́dd yṛə́wwəḥ ltiddártis. yəṃṃáyas s(ə́)ʕid iwʕə́zzab baš “atsə́rrḥəd ibušír(ə)n ʕašr iyyám dəbaš attásəd šə́kkin tálži anə́fḍəṛ žmíʕ.” ysə́rrəḥ aʕə́zzab ibušírən dyəqqím aša lḥáfḍət (or lḥifḍət) ytə́tt əgtíddart n(ə)s(ə́)ʕid dytə́tt ɣir ggísum xálli swáyu la yušás nəssúkər dl(ə)ḥšíšət dtə́m­ẓin dírdən dúdi dizmárən.

[50] idžəṃṃás sidžəṃṃásat b(ə)ʕd la t(ə)fḍá ddúnyət t(ə)kmə́l yəṃṃá­ yas s(ə́)ʕid ilʕíltis ‘xxul nnə́žžəm anxə́mməm afwṛə́wwəḥ ltə́ṃuṛt dbaš anád(ə)l anxə́mməm ḥ(ə)ttá (a)ffə́ṛhat. anḥə́kkəṛ ṃaṃṃ(u) ásnaɣ baš gə́ṛṛ(ə)biʕ asənbə́yyən db(ə)ʕd imə́ndi antt(ə)nsə́nžəf.’ təṃṃáyas ‘ə́ṣəl!

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of) Lulu’s marriage. The wedding took place with the eltikh and the la’ḍaṛ and then the bride entered the room (i.e. after the tazeddayt – see Appendix for this and other terms and practices). On the third day her mother went and brought her things to put in her room (i.e. her wedding chamber). After she had arranged her room and remained with her till nightfall, she returned home, leaving her. The wedding was over and Za’ima’s house had emptied of people, everyone going home. The harvesters came back from the harvest and began cultivating their orchards. It (i.e. summer) was drawing to a close and olive time would soon arrive (i.e. September, when the olives are gathered, dried, sent to the presses, etc.). The olive crop ripened, they gathered and dried it (i.e. in the sun) for some days and then sent it to the press. They ground it and collected all their oil. They kept what they needed (lit. they kept what they kept, i.e. for the whole of the year) and Sa’id sold the rest. Later the dates became ripe, (whereupon) they shook their palms and husbanded all their dates. [49] Ferhat again repeated the Quran (i.e. having taken approximately nine months over it) and started repeating it again. He completed the Quran (i.e. for the third time after about another five months, when he would be as a rule 15 or 16 years old) and (had) learned it very well. The day he put away the board his father gave a very big party, inviting people from every side (i.e. near Zhmil) and every place (i.e. Zuara and other villages) and slaughtered about ten lambs. He even invited all the boys from the mosque together with their teacher. After they had drunk tea and talked a while, they wished Ferhat well and everyone returned home. Sa’id asked the teacher to free the boys for ten days and to come himself to take breakfast with them the following morning. The teacher gave the boys a holiday and stayed for about a week eating just meat at Sa’id’s house, not to mention his (i.e. Sa’id’s) gifts to him of sugar, tea, barley, wheat, olive oil, and lambs. [50] One day when everybody had gone (lit. when all the world was empty), Sa’id said to his wife ‘Now I can think about moving (lit. going home, as everybody uses the word in the sense of moving to Zuara) to Zuara, and (, too,) so that we can think about Ferhat (i.e. about his marriage). We will look around for someone to marry him to so that we can announce his betrothal in the spring and (then) after the harvest we will get him married. She said to him ‘Just listen! You’re 265

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ə́səl! la has(ə)tbə́yynəd w la dšáṛukan! wn(ə)ttutláyš ḥ(ə)tta táwalt qə­ bəl ma hasnə́bna tazə́qqas iziɣ t(ə)ɣsə́d antt(ə)nsə́nžəf gətzə́qqa dtáq­dimt zzat míddən! lʕáṛ wərr(ə)zíyya! dáḍḍlən míddən kmə́l(ə)n ttut­ láy(ə)n ssə́gnəɣ. mə́mmi wyn(ə)žžə́fš kán gətzə́qqa n(ə)ssúri dtzə́qqa la wətty(ə)ʕmírš ḥədd qə́blis. ɣir anáṣəl táṃuṛt dan(ə)tthə́nna, ád(ə)l ə́kuṛṛ idɣáɣən də́lžir63 dəbnáyas tazə́qqa mamak ssnə́xtət nə́tš wb(ə)ʕ­dín ánfəl asnə́xḍəb tuh l(a) aɣənt(ə́)ʕžəb.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘maɣar imátta ay(u) kúl? nə́šnin, lḥámdu lláh, lə́ws(ə)ʕʕ ɣə́ṛnəɣ dtiddart(ə́)nnəɣ dta­ mə́qqart – dis áṛbʕa ntzə́ɣwin. imátt(a) anə́kkər anə́rni tazəqqá iḍ(ə)n. zzat míddən “ya m(a)n ṛáni háni”, aitu ɣə́ṛnəɣ iflúsən. nətš ṛṛáyiw tizə́ɣwin tihánit asúddnət. an(ə́)ddnaɣ ṣṣṭáwat alə́bbnən dazə́wwqən64, wəxláṣ.’ təṃṃáyas ‘nə́tš tawalt ídžət ṃṃiɣáktət. lá m(a)n ṛáni háni la m(a)n ṛáni ma haníš – ama xír iziɣ áttmən míddən (ə)nnán dim(ə́)ʕ­fan dytthánš f(ə)llásən ḥ(ə)tta tazə́qqa wxəssṛəntə́tš afməmmítsən, sənžfə́ntid ɣir dl(ə́)ʕqab. kan hatáɣəd ṛṛáyiw, báhi, kan ma háda n(ə)tš áfləɣ lənnánəɣ dšə́kk al(ə)mmi t(ə)ɣsə́d, sənžəf mə́mmik ḥ(ə)ttá gt(ə)xríb(ə)t – wəllíš ṃaṃṃ(u) akə́ysal!’ yəṃṃáyas ‘xláṣ! al(ə)mmi t(ə)flíd lənnáwən, xxul ddúnyət atkə́mməl.’ təṃṃáyas ‘atkə́mməl iziɣ wətt­ kəmmə́lš, n(ə)tš aitu háfləɣ dšə́kkin g(ə́)ʕməz dís.’ tigá amy(u) t(ə)k­kə́r tkúnnəḍ tlabáttis dt(ə)flá. tuṣə́l (ə)nnásən “áš bim iziɣ áš bim”. təṃṃayásən ámyu dwámyu dt(ə)ḥkayásən swádin la yṣáṛ yəkmə́l slə́w­ wlis allə́xris. təṃṃáyas yádžis ‘ə́dži də́gəm! ṭṭə́bbim ə́ktəṛ nwayu!65 ay(u) yəkmə́l ssəgəm šə́mm. ukán ɣir amə́yməl táwalt iziɣ ɣir astə́mləd táwalt dwittáɣš (ə)ṛṛáyim, astə́džəd ibušírnis datə́fləd ddžə́ttid, yəllá wamyttígš amyu. irgázən yəkmə́l(ə)n swá swá dəkmə́l(ə)n wəldisə́nš (ə́)lxir. aṃṃi duššánən – al(ə)mmi təggə́ḍəḍ (or təggə́ḍḍ) sisən dtəṛwə́l(ə)d, ad(ə́)ʕsən gəlžúṛṛtim dalə́mmi tqamdásən taṛə́ṭṭa dtədʕə́səd f(ə)l­lásən, aṛə́wwlən zzátəm. alə́mmi dyə́lli iziɣ dnə́tš la uṛúɣam mbə́lḥəq,

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not going to announce his betrothal or anything! We will not say a word until we have built him a room (i.e. a new one in the courtyard), or is it your idea (lit. do you want) to marry him from an ancient room in front of people! (What) shame and disgrace! They (lit. the people) will all be talking about us. My son will not marry except from a modern room and a room nobody has lived in before him. When we get to Zuara and settle down, see about having stones and mortar brought and build him a room like the best I know (lit. as I know it) and then we will go looking for a girl we like’. He said ‘What is all this for? Thank God we have space and our house is a large one with four rooms. Why should we set about adding another room? It would just be (seen as) showing off (lit. in front of people (it would be a case of) ‘Here I am, look at me’, here we are with money). I think those rooms are sufficient. We will bring workmen to whitewash (the walls) and to paint (the doors and windows), and that’s all’. She said to him ‘I told you my last word, showing off or no showing off, which is better (what you have said and) to have people saying they are mean and won’t spend anything, they will not even spend (lit. lose money) on a room for their son, they married him in an (old) last refuge (i.e. someone else’s left-overs, a ruin, a rubbish dump). If you’ll take my advice, well and good, otherwise I shall go (back) to my parents and you, if you like, can marry your son on a refuse heap. Nobody will gainsay you’. He said to her ‘All right, then! If you go to your family, then that’s the end of the world’. She replied ‘Whether it finishes or not, I am going and you (can) stay here (lit. in it, i.e. the house)’. And so she did, getting up and wrapping her jerd round herself and going off. She reached her family and they asked her what was the matter. She told them eveything (lit. so and so), relating what had happened from beginning to end. Her mother said to her ‘It’s your responsibility (lit. leave it in you). You need stronger medicine than this, for it’s all your own fault (i.e. for not having left Sa’id sooner). Whenever he says a (bad) word to you or when you tell him something and he does not agree (lit. take your opinion), you should leave his children for him and go off and leave him, (then) he would not treat you like this. Men are all the same and there is no good in any of them. They are like jackals, if you are afraid of them and run away, they will chase after you (lit. jump off in your tracks) and if you take up a stick and go after them, they will run before you. If you are my daughter and I am she who truly bore you, you would not set foot in his house again. There 267

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tiddártis m(ə)ʕádš attʕə́fsəd. ádin dnə́tta dádin dibušírnis, af(ə)lkífis, matta yə́ɣs asə́nyig. lʕáṛ ggúdmis nə́tta! šə́mmin mátta yərni f(ə́)llam? dáš m(ə)ʕna t(ə)llíd də́h iziɣ ɣádi? (ə)ṛṛáyim aṃṃi təṃṃíttid aṃṃi wəttəṃṃidš, šáṛa aṃṃi t(ə)ɣsə́ttət aṃṃi wəttɣísəd. n(ə)tta yttíg mátta yəɣs dšə́mmin, al(ə)mmi təɣsə́d at(ə)qqíməd dín, at(ə)qqíməd sádd(ə)w lmə́l(ə)xtis dnšáḷḷa ayə́ṛla f(ə́)llam uší. lákən ay(u) yəkmə́l wətšá sis, ay(u) yəkmə́l ssəgəm šə́mm.’

[51] t(ə)qqím zʕíma tdíqq66 lənnásən. kúll yum astə́tšuṛ yádžis íɣfis swáwal anwáwal la təṃṃayástid ass amə́zwar dkúll yúm astə́rni al(ə)m­mi tṛaḥ ʕammál hatṭə́ṛbəg swqə́lləq. yəqqím s(ə́)ʕid dibušírnis wəḥ­ də́n­sən. la ṃáṃṃu hasənnyrə́kkəb la ṃáṃṃu hasənnyṣúbən ǝdnətta wynəž­žə́mš ayə́ffəɣ la ldə́h la lɣádi, ɣir áddyas ayəffəɣ aqqímən ibu­ šírnis ttʕə́yyḍən. s(ə́)ʕid ɣir wtədwílš lʕíltis b(ə)ʕd tlát aṛb(ə)ʕ iyyám yṛáḥ qáləq. ibušírnis ttʕə́yyḍən d(ə)lḥalt(ə́)nsən ttimmə́rmət(t). yigá (a)myu yəflá lžiṛánis y(ə)ḥkayásən sl(ə)ḥkáyət təkmə́l dyəṃṃayásən ‘atígəm lm(ə́)ʕṛuf, ə́flət l(ə)zʕíma ə́m(ə)ltas “ya wə́ddi, atṛə́wwəḥ libu­ šírnis dtiddártis dwáyu la ttig dís wətšá dl(ə́)ʕməl ntsə́dnan la ʕaqlát, ay(u) dl(ə́)ʕməl ntmə́hbal”. afšáṛa la wəldísš ttə́mṛət átədž ibušírnis dtiddártis.’ ṃṃántas adin ntsə́dnan ‘al(ə́)mmi ɣir af(ə)llánəɣ aitu án­ fəl, lákən bálək wəttəqqə́lš ataɣ ṛṛayə́nnəɣ.’ yəṃṃayásnət ‘báhi, nək­ nim ɣir ə́f(ə)ltas bə́ss, dḥə́kkrət awális matt(a) akəntməl.’ kkə́rnət adin ntsə́dnan flə́ntas, ufə́ntət tg(ə́)ʕməz n(ə)ttat dyádžis. ṃṃántas ‘a zʕíma, nə́šnin swass(ə)nnát n(ə)ttfə́q baš amə́nddnas wb(ə)ʕdín yərní assu tálži yusdánəɣ s(ə́)ʕid dyəṃṃyánəɣ “ə́f(ə)ltas df(ə)hhmə́ttət ay(u) la ttig dís wətša dl(ə́)ʕməl ntsə́dnan, dxiráyas bzáyəd ukan atṛə́wwəḥ i(y)ibušírnis. ibušírnis hammútən sə́ššəṛṛ. swáss la t(ə)flá (a)lləxxúl wəllíš šaṛa yəḥmá yut(ə)f tid(ə)swínnsən.” dḥ(ə)tta nə́šnin, al(ə)mmi hatáɣəd ṛṛayə́nnəɣ t(ə)ɣsdanəɣ wn(ə)ttqəllə́qš, (ə)kkər ṛə́wwəḥ li­ bu­šírnim dtiddartím də́džam swawal ntsə́dnan dwawal ntúh dtə́ddint.’ zʕíma wt(ə)qqíl as(ə́)ntərr ḥ(ə)tta táwalt, lakən b(ə)ʕd la kəmmə́lnət awalnə́snət, yádžis nzʕíma tutláy təṃṃayásnət ‘ə́slət! ə́slət! tawalt ídžət

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he is and there are his children (i.e. do not bother your head about them). It’s up to him, he can do what he wants for them (i.e. he can marry Ferhat off in accordance with his own ideas). The shame is on his head! What have you gained (lit. what has been added to you, i.e. clothes, jewellery, etc., so you don’t count)? What does it matter if you are here or there? Your opinion (is not accepted) whether you give it or not, (it’s all the same) whether you want something or not. He does what he likes and if you want to stay there, you will remain under his foot (lit. sole), and let us hope he will still be pleased with you. But all this is not his fault, it is all down to you’. [51] Za’ima continued to stay away (from Sa’id) at her family’s (house). Her mother filled her head daily with talk as on the first day and added to it until she was ready to burst with anger. Sa’id and his children carried on alone. No one cooked for him or did their washing, and he cannot go out anywhere because when he makes as if to go out, the children start to lament. When his wife had not returned after three or four days Sa’id became depressed. His children were weeping and they were (all) in a sorry state. So he went to his neighbours and told them about everything and said to them ‘Please do me a favour! Go to Za’ima and ask to please come back to her children and her home, and (tell her that) what she is doing is the act of foolish not of wise women. Will she leave her home and her children for the sake of something without importance?’. The women said to him ‘If it only depended on us, we would go, but perhaps she will refuse (to take) our advice’. ‘All right’, he said to them, ‘Just go to her and see what she says (lit. will say) to you’. So the woman went off to (see) her, (and) found her sitting with her mother. They said ‘Za’ima, we agreed yesterday to come to you, and Sa’id has also (lit. added) come to us this morning to ask us to come to you and explain that what you are doing is not the act of (good) women and that it would be much better if you came home to your children. Your children are starving. Since you left (until now), nothing hot has entered their stomachs. And for our part, too, if you will take our advice and do not wish to upset us, come on home to your children and your home and keep away from women’s talk, from this one (i.e. relative) and that (non-relative)’. Za’ima refused to answer them with even a word, but when they had finished what they had to say, Za’ima’s mother spoke and said to them ‘Listen, listen! I’ll just say one (final) thing to you. Don’t be angry or 269

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akənttə́mləɣ. la hatqəllə́qmət la dšáṛukan! day(u) šáṛa wɣəṛwə́nš (ə́)l­ḥəqq atat(ə́)fmət dís, mallik kull ḥə́dd yəssən mátt(a) aysə́ṣləḥ sís. nə́tš yə́lli m(ə)ʕádš at(ə́)dwəl, dkull ḥə́dd aydə́bbər afimánis.’ kkə́rnət adin ntsə́dnan ṛəwwə́ḥnət dəflə́nt is(ə́)ʕid. ṃṃántas matta təṃṃayásnət yádžis nzʕíma. yəṃṃayásnət s(ə)ʕid ‘báhi, af(ə)lkífis.’ [52] yədžá s(ə́)ʕid yumin iziɣ tláta dyəfla wə́ḥdəs ləlʕíltis. yufít tg(ə́)ʕ­məz n(ə)ttat dyádžis. yəṃṃáyas ‘wait(ə)nnítš xxúl matta yənnáyam (ə)lfə́krim? at(ə́)džəd tiddártim tḥás dibušírnim ttəmlawáḥən dattásəd atṣə́ngrəd dəhánit.’ təṃṃáyas yadžis nzʕíma ‘tíddart wətša dtiddártis dibušír(ə)n wətša dibušírnis. ukan dtiddártis dibušírnis, t(ə)lla ɣir at­ məl táwalt, átṣaṛ. lakən n(ə́)ttat t(ə)lla dín áṃṃi dtáxdimt, axi ḥ(ə)t­ta táxdimt xíris.’ yəṃṃáyas s(ə́)ʕid ‘wait(ə)nnítš xxúl dmátt(a) ay(u) nwáwal la t(ə)nnid dís a? mámak tiddart wətša nnə́s? iziɣ mámak n(ə)ttat dtáxdimt? qqə́sən f(ə)llas iržawə́n67 a? ttitš(ə́)nas kúll ši abəṭṭaṛífət mamak ttígən middən kúl a? ttḥasábən dís a? nnanás aṃṃi tigid amyú iziɣ imátta? mnə́tš ay(u) la ttígən dis míddən yəkmə́l wəttigiɣš dnə́tš lʕə́mriw wasəṃṃíɣ imátta wúh iziɣ imátta wə́ddin. ay(u) yəkmə́l d­baqi wtəṛlímš a?’ təṃṃáyas ‘kya68 s(ə́)ʕid, wəllíš íškəlt akətməl yə́lli aftɣúsa dastə́mləd báhi ḥ(ə)tta stkə́rkas. dáyu al(ə́)mmi wt(ə)qqi­s(ə)dš f(ə)llas xláṣ a? n(ə)ttat wətɣísš utšu kúl, n(ə)ttat təɣs matt(a) at(t)yə́stər zzat míddən. wətɣimínš middən ttútlay(ə)n sís. nnán aittat zʕíma dwáittat dwáittat69. tṛa mlíy(y)id matta tigidas iyə́lli! iziɣ tṛa skníy(y)id ay(u) niḥulíy(y)ən nl(ə́)ḥrir dway(u) ntəmdə́qqlin dway(u) nwúṛəɣ la t(ə)sɣídas! dmə́nit nmə́ṛṛa (a)kə́tməl ɣsəɣ adin ntɣúsa as­tə́m­ ləd ɣír yaha. aittas ttʕə́yyəḍ áitməl ṃṃíɣas ɣsəɣ adin nšáṛa yəṃ­ṃáyid yaha. asə́mləɣ bláš dakúššəɣ f(ə́)llas dasə́mləɣ xxúl am(ə)ttə́ys­ əɣ. ay(u) yəkmə́l aftiṭṭawin nʕə́mmik! dwáyu wətšá dtíškəlt tam(ə́)zwart iziɣ ttánya la t(ə)ṃṃídas yaha. ʕád n(ə)ḥmə́l n(ə)ḥmə́l wb(ə)ʕdin m(ə)-

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anything! This is a matter in which you have no right to intervene, because everyone knows his own business best (lit. knows what is good for him). A daughter of mine will not return, and everyone is his own counsellor (i.e. don’t advise us or me, we know what is good for us)’. The women rose, returned, and went to Sa’id, telling him what Za’ima’s mother had said. He said to them ‘So be it, as she pleases’. [52] Sa’id let two or three days (pass) and went himself to his wife. He found her sitting with her mother. He said to her ‘Why don’t you tell me what your brain is telling you (i.e. what’s the idea of leaving etc.)? Can you (really) leave your home upside down and your children abandoned and come here to squat (on your haunches)!’. Za’ima’s mother said to him ‘The house is not hers nor are the children hers. If they were, she would only have to say the word and it would be so (i.e. her slightest wish would be everyone’s command)’. But she is like a servant there, save that a servant is better off than she is’. Sa’id said to her ‘Why don’t you tell me, then, what all this talk is about? What do you mean that the house is not hers? And what (is this about her being) a servant? Are the store-rooms locked against her? Is she given (lit. do they give her) everything rationed like everybody else? Is she made to (lit. do they make her) account (for everything)? Is she asked why she does (something) this way (or that)? I haven’t done these things that everybody else does, and I have never asked her why this or why that. All this and you are still not satisfied!’. She (i.e. Za’ima’s mother) said to him ‘On no occasion has my daughter spoken to you about something and you agreed with her even if you didn’t mean it (lit. by lying). And if you haven’t locked (the doors) against her, is that all (there is to it)? She doesn’t want food (at all), she wants something to wear (lit. cover herself, i.e. new clothes) in front of people, (so that) they will not continue talking about her (i.e. never having new clothes to wear). They say Za’ima is this and Za’ima is that. Tell me, then, what you have done for my daughter. Or show me the silk jerds and the jewellery and gold which you have brought her. And how many times has she said to you that she wants a thing and you have told her (flatly) no. She comes to me crying and tells me she asked you for the thing but you refused her. I say “never mind” to her and tell her not to worry and that you will buy it for her some time. All that was for the sake (lit. on the eyes) of your uncle (i.e. her husband). And this is not the first or second time you have refused her. We have borne it 271

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ʕádš anə́ḥməl. ayu kúl, a s(ə́)ʕid, dbáqi wtəṛlídš. assu xə́ms iyyám yəlli tqə́lləq wtqədiʕə́dš ḥ(ə)tta stkə́rkas dt(ə)flíd tənkə́yəd tisə́dnan. maɣar šə́kkin wətnəžžmə́dš attásəd wəḥdə́k a? iziɣ yə́lli wtstahə́lš asə́flən? yəlli m(ə)ʕádš atə́dwəl dšə́kkin af(ə)lkífik.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘ttutláyəd mən žə́ddək iziɣ tfisíxəd?’ təṃṃáyas ‘lá, la datfísəx w la dšáṛukan ttutláyəɣ ɣir mən žə́ddi.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘al(ə)mmi ttutláyəd mən žə́ddək, iziɣ ə́səl! nətš madʕíli nə́tš ds(ə́)ʕid dzʕíma dyə́llis nʕə́mmi d(ə)lʕílt ídžət, wəlliš (ə́)lfəṛq žarayánəɣ, aṃṃi usə́dɣas aṃṃi wasədduɣíɣš, yəkmə́l swa swá. dbáqi ay(u) yəkmə́l ḥasbə́ɣtid. uɣə́dɣas kúllši wəttədžíɣ la ʕ(ə)r­yána w lá t(ə)lluẓ dnə́tš madʕíli ttígɣas ɣir ggáy la t(ə́)ɣs. mánis nəknim ámyu iziɣ təṃṃim ámyu, kull ḥə́dd áyig ay(u) la ggíɣfis70.’ dyəkkə́r yədžínt (or yəkkə́r dyədžínt).

[53] yəfla s(ə́)ʕid yṛə́wwəḥ yqə́lləq. b(ə)ʕd yumín yig(a) ámyu (yə)d­w(ə)lásnət. yufa báqi zʕíma tg(ə́)ʕməz nəttat dyádžis dyufa zzə́rsnət (ə)lb(a)ʕḍ ntsə́dnan yəssnínt. yəṃṃáyas ilʕíltis ‘uší w(ə)tšbiʕə́dš šəm­ min dyádžim sə́ṛṛay nnəkmə́t a? (wə)tšá ukan atə́kkrəd atṛə́wwḥəd ltiddártim xirayám a?’ təṃṃáyas yádžis nzʕíma ‘nə́tš tawalt idžət ṃṃiɣáktət səzmán. lbáqi xxúl imátta ttkə́ttrəd gəddə́wwət?’ yəqqím yttxáṣam n(ə)ttáids. aššar áššar utláynət adin ntsə́dnan ṃṃántas iya­ džis nzʕíma ‘ə́səl! nəšnínat aitu nəkmə́l ḥaḍṛát, d(ə)lḥamdu lláh la ṛə́bbi aitu yuɣə́d ḥ(ə)tta s(ə́)ʕid. nəšnínat səswállin nisi hamə́nməl lákən nəlha gəddə́wwət. ádin la yfát yfát dnəšnínat anə́ḍləb sɣəṛm zʕíma atə́kkər atṛə́wwəḥ did wərgázis. dšə́mmim ɣəṛm sənt ntɣusíwin – ya zʕím(a) atəkkər atṛə́wwəḥ ya nəšnínat nəkmə́l slímin amə́qqar la yəfṛə́ḍi ṛə́bbi tiddártim m(ə)ʕád an(ə)ttn(ə́)ʕfəs71.’ tufíš yadžis nzʕíma matta hátməl, dtəṃṃayásnət iwádin ntsə́dnan ‘mátta hakəntə́mləɣ xxúl? nəknímat wɣəṛwə́nš (ə́)lḥəqq baš at(ə)tžúllmət, lákən mánis yfat də́gwənt ttžúlmət, m(ə)ʕádš ɣə́ṛi matta hakəntə́mləɣ.’ fṛə́ḥnət adin

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repeatedly and can now no longer stand it. All this, Sa’id, and you are still not content. It’s five days now that my daughter has been upset and you haven’t called even against your will (lit. with lies, i.e. even if you didn’t mean it), and you went and sent women. So why could you not come yourself? Or does my daughter not merit your (lit. their) coming (i.e. people coming)? My daughter is not coming back and you can do as you like’. He said to her ‘Are you speaking seriously or just joking?’. She said ‘No, this is not joking or anything (of the sort), I am only speaking seriously’. He said to her ‘If you are speaking seriously, then listen! I have been thinking that I am Sa’id and that Za’ima is my cousin, that we are (lit. it is) one family, that there is no difference between us, that it’s all the same whether I bring her (things) or not. Yet I took account of all this (i.e. that you would see fit to say what you have said) and brought her everything. I left her neither unclothed (i.e. without new clothes) nor hungry, and I believed I was doing just what she wanted (lit. wants). Since you (think) the way (you do) or say what you have said, then everybody will do what he wants (lit. what is in his head, i.e. even if it means marrying another)’. And he rose and left them. [53] Sa’id went home angry. Two days later he returned to them. He again found Za’ima sitting with her mother and next to them were (lit. and he found next to them) a number of women he knew. He said to his wife ‘Have you still not had enough, you and your mother, of that opinion of yours? Would it not be better for you to come off home (to your house)?’. Za’ima’s mother said to him ‘I gave you a final (lit. one) word some time ago. Why are you talking (lit. increasing) this nonsense again now?’. He continued arguing with her, (and) after a little while the women spoke up and said to Za’ima’s mother ‘Listen! We are all here present, and praise God for bringing Sa’id here, too. We were going to speak to you a while ago but we have been busy chatting (about other things). What is past is past and we ask from you that Za’ima go home with her husband. And you have two alternatives (lit. things), either Za’ima goes off home or we all swear by the greatest (i.e. most binding) oath that God has decreed that we will never set foot in your house (again)’. Za’ima’s mother didn’t know what to reply, and said to the women ‘What am I going to say to you now? You have no right to swear but since you have already done so (lit. it is past in you that you have sworn), I can say no more to you’. The women were 273

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ntsə́dnan dyəfṛə́ḥ s(ə́)ʕid. ʕawə́dnət ššáhi išk(ə)lt íḍ(ə)nt dəqqímnət tthədrə́znət. b(ə)ʕd la kəmmə́lnət ššáhi kull ḥə́dd yəkkər yṛə́wwəḥ. t(ə)kkə́r zʕíma t(ə)knúnnəḍ tlabáttis dtṛə́wwəḥ did wərgázis. t(ə)f­ṛə́ḍ tiddártis dtxə́mməl irukánis, dyəfla s(ə́)ʕid yuɣəd áisum. trə́kkəb amə́ssis. tʕə́ššan d(ə)swə́nn ššáhi dkúll ḥə́dd yəkkə́r lwəmkánis. talží t(ə)kkə́r zʕíma tiga lə́fḍuṛ nibušírnis db(ə)ʕd la swə́nn ššáhi, yəṃṃáyas argázis baš “atádləd atwə́ttid irukánim datq(ə́)ʕʕdəd imánim, mallík ənšáḷḷa lḥə́fḍət la háttas anə́ṛḥəl.” wə́ttan imánnsən dqə́ʕʕdən adin la yəlzmásən yəkmə́l. ass n(ə)ttláta yəṃṃáyas s(ə)ʕid ilʕíltis ‘aitšá nəɣs ánqam.’ təṃṃáyas ‘aitša d(ə)lliṛə́bʕa, wyəḥlí72. ánqam b(ə)ʕd aitšá ass n(ə)lə́xmis xír. b(ə)ʕd l(a) antɣə́dda dánsəw ššáhi, ánqam abbáššar abáššar. anáṣəl did timmútšu diḍ n(ə)lžúmʕa atə́ggəz lbə́ṛkət daɣənnybárək ṛə́bbi.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘báhi, mbǝ́lḥǝq xir.’

[54] ass n(ə)lə́xmis tam(ə)ddít qamən irukánnsən afiləɣmánnsən dsə́l­ lmən af(ə)lžíṛan kúl dmiddə́nnsən dulə́yən gətkə́ṛṛit73 dəflə́nn. uṣə́­l(ə)n tiddart(ə́)nsən gtə́ṃuṛt, súggzən ddəbašə́nsən mbṛə́ntid lídis. tʕə́šš­ an mátta tʕə́ššan dəswənn ššáhi dəṭṭə́ṣən. tálži sibhaṛ ə́ṃṃas t(ə)kkə́r zʕíma t(ə)fṛəḍ tiddártis dətxə́mməl kull šáṛa gwəmkánis. n(ə)tnin ʕam­ mál fə́ṭṭṛən tusədas táfṛuxt təṃṃáyas ‘ya lálla zʕíma, təṃṃáyam yə́m­ ma wəttigə́dš am(ə)kli ássu, akə́nddnaɣ nə́šnin am(ə́)kli.’ yəffə́ɣ s(ə́)­ ʕid lə́ssuq, yiga ḍḍúṛət dysə́lləm afirfíqnis. ázgən əṃṃás yṣáṛ ládan, yəqqə́s ə́ssuq dkull ḥə́dd yəfla l(ə)lžúmʕa. b(ə)ʕd la ẓẓállən kull ḥə́dd yṛə́wwəḥ ltiddártis. t(ə)qqím adin lʕílt aša lḥífḍət wr(ə)kkbə́nš lmúnt, tə́ttən ɣír səlžíṛan. am(ə́)kli asənyig ḥə́dd ətẓíwa amə́ssi as(ə)nyig ḥə́dd ətẓíwa. b(ə)ʕd la ṛtáḥən dəthə́nnan, yəṃṃáyas s(ə́)ʕid imə́mmis ‘baš atádləd (or atádl(ə)d) atəɣrəd74. ggə́tak nwúnuḍ. áita dis ibušírən

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content and so, too, was Sa’id. They made more tea (lit. repeated tea again) and stayed talking. After they had finished tea, they all went home. Za’ima rose, wrapped her jerd around her, and went home with her husband. She cleaned the house and arranged her kitchen things, and Sa’id went off to buy meat (i.e. for a special meal). She cooked (her) dinner, (and when) they had dined and taken tea, they each went off to bed. In the morning Za’ima got up and made breakfast for the family (lit. for her children) and after they had drunk tea, her husband told her to start preparing her (domestic) things and getting herself ready because he hoped they would be moving the following week. They got themselves ready together with all they needed. On Tuesday Sa’id said to his wife ‘We are going to move tomorrow’. She said ‘Tomorrow is Wednesday, that is a day of ill omen. It would be better if we move the day after tomorrow, on Thursday. After lunch and tea we will do so at leisure. We will arrive at sunset and on Thursday (lit. Friday) night God’s blessing will descend (on us) and God will bless us’. He replied ‘Agreed, it would be better, that’s true’. [54] On Thursday afternoon they loaded their things on their camels, said goodbye to all the neighbours and to their relatives (lit. their people), mounted on the cart, and went off. They reached their house in Zuara, unloaded their kit and put it on one side (i.e. together in one room till morning). They dined as best they could (i.e. off cold food brought with them), drank tea, and took themselves off to sleep. In the morning at daybreak Za’ima got up and cleaned the house and arranged everything in its place. While they were breakfasting a girl came to her and, (addressing her as) “Lalla Za’ima”, told her that her (i.e. the girl’s) mother said she was not to make lunch that day, that they would bring lunch (for them). Sa’id went out to the market, took a turn around it, and greeted his friends. At midday sounded the call to prayer, the market closed (i.e. as every day between 12.30 and 2) and everyone went to the Friday prayer. After they (had) prayed they all returned to their homes. The family continued thus for about a week without preparing a meal (lit. food), eating only what the neighbours sent (lit. only from their neighbours). At lunchtime someone would make them a basin (of kouskous), and at dinner time someone else would do the same. After they had settled in (lit. rested and became quiet), Sa’id told his son (he would have) to start studying (i.e. Arabic language and religious philosophy), that he had spent enough idle 275

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hadig(ə)n (ə́)ddərs af(ə)ššíx ʕáməṛ75 gətməzgída tabə́ḥrit. baš at(ə)fl(ə)d antḥə́kkṛəd lə́mmi hadádlən datádləd dídsən. madʕíli ddərsə́nsən hat­ tígən talží. al(ə)mm(i) igə́ntid talži xír. báš tam(ə)ddít at(ə)fl(ə)d l(ə)-­ tməzgída taqə́blit atḥə́ḍṛ(ə)d (ə́)ddərs n(ə)ššix yusə́f.’ yəfla fə́ṛḥat yḥə́k­ kəṛ ššix ʕáməṛ, yəṃṃáyas ‘sə́bbat la háddyas nəɣs anádəl dnəttfə́q hanttnig tálži.’ yudə́l fəṛḥat yəqqár, tálži (a)fššix ʕáməṛ dtməddít afššix yúsəf, lakən wyəḥfíḍš šáṛukan mallik n(ə́)tta yəffal ltməzgída wətšá baš áyɣər lákən baš ayúṛaṛ n(ə)tta dibušírən, bəlaxáṣṣ gə́ddərs n(ə)ššix ʕáməṛ. aykə́mməl ššix ddə́rsis dwəldisə́nš ídžən ayáfham sis táwalt, mallik ššix dmúʕmi wyẓəṛṛš dísən matta ttígən. gə́ddərs n(ə)ššix yúsəf wəldisə́nš ídžən ynə́žžəm aytḥə́rrək ḥ(ə)tt(a) atḥə́rrək mallik n(ə́)tta yuʕə́ṛ bzáyəd dyuɣdásən aša sə́nt iziɣ tláta ntṛə́ḍwin – kull ṃaṃṃu aytnə́ffəs ḥ(ə)tt(a) atnə́ffəs, asə́yməl “áx!”, lákən ibušírən d(ə)ʕsákər súsa. idžəṃṃás sidžəṃṃásat ffə́ɣən stməzgída b(ə)ʕd la ykə́mməl ə́ddərs dəqd(ə́)ʕən afibušírən la zzə́nzan gətməllálin, ṃṃanásən ‘aitšá tam(ə)ddít idáw(ə)rtət ggími ntməzgída də́mlət “yá lli ʕanda də́ḥy!”’ lwaitšá n(ə)tnin ʕammál udələn gə́ddərs anḍḷḷák dibušírən ttə́ẓẓfən “yá lli ʕanda də́ḥy!”. n(ə)tnin ṃṃán ammídin dibušírən nə́ddərs ṃṃán bíqq. ə́ššix yərra imánis wn(ə)tyəslí dyəstmə́rr gəddə́rsis. lwaitšá (a)mmídin lb(ə)ʕd aitšá (a)mmídin wb(ə)ʕdín yəṃṃayásən ‘ə́slət! xlafáṣṣ(ə)nnat (< Ar. xilaafa + ass(ǝ)nnat(t)) yfát dwaṣṣ(ə)nnátt yfát dwássu yfát, lakə́n swássu idžən ssə́gwən ayar ímis lukán ḥ(ə)tta ddúnyət təɣs atúqa, wətšá ɣir ayəẓẓəf ídžən “yá lli ʕanda də́ḥy!” wb(ə)ʕḍín ayákəz l(ə)ḥsábis.’ lwaitšá n(ə)tnin udə́lən gə́ddərs, ibušírən n(ə)t­məllálin usə́dən dáttmən ttə́ẓẓfən “yá lli ʕanda də́ḥy!”. n(ə)tnin ṃṃán ammídin ídžən sibušírən nə́ddərs wynəžžə́mš ayə́ḥkəm imánis yəḍṣá. yənẓə́ɣ ššix taṛə́ṭṭa dyudə́l dís yušás ṭṭríḥt al(ə)mmi ndádin. yəṃṃáyas adin nwə́fṛux iy(y)ə́ššix ‘aṛahuk dibušírən nə́tnin la nnanásən “idaw(ə)rtət l(ə)tməzgída də́mlət ”.’ yəṃṃáyas ə́ššix ‘nətš dáyu la ɣsəɣ attákzəɣ, yaháltṛa (< Ar. yaa hal turaa) (a)y(u) nibušírən la kull yúm ttásdən t(ə)nnimásən “nəkním idáw(ə)rtət” iziɣ ttásdən wəḥdə́nsən dəxxúl manis ukə́zəɣ dáṣbiḥ.’ yənẓə́ɣ taṛəṭṭá iḍ(ə)n dyudəl

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time (lit. going around with nothing to do). There are some boys (, he said,) who are about to start studying (lit. making lessons) under Sheikh ’Amar at the seaside mosque. He was to go and see when they are going to start and start with them. He (Sa’id) thought they would do their studies in the morning, and this would be best, so that in the afternoon he (i.e. Ferhat) could go to the southern mosque to attend Sheikh Yusef’s lecture. Ferhat went to see Sheikh ’Amar, (who) told him they were going to start next Saturday and had agreed to make it in the morning. (So) Ferhat started to study, in the morning under Sheikh ’Amar and in the afternoon under Sheikh Yusef, but he learned nothing, because he did not go to the mosque to learn but to play about with the boys, especially in Sheikh ’Amar’s lecture. The Sheikh would finish his lecture and not one of them would have understood a word from it, since the Sheikh was blind and did not see what they were doing. During Sheikh Yusef’s lecture none of them could bat an eye (lit. move even a moment) because he was very strict and brought for them some two or three sticks, (and) if anyone as much as moved (lit. breathed), he said to him ‘Take (that)!’, but the boys were rascals. One day they left the mosque at the conclusion of the lecture and, meeting the boy egg-sellers (i.e. the boys who during the Italian occupation bought eggs and resold them to Italian troops), they asked them to come the following afternoon to the entrance to the mosque and cry (lit. say) “Anyone with eggs (to sell)?!”. The following day they were just starting the lecture when the boys started to cry (lit. shout) “Anyone with eggs?!”. As soon as they said this, the boys at the lecture burst out laughing. The Sheikh pretended not to hear and continued his lecture. It happened again the following day and the day after that, and then he said to them ‘Listen! The day before yesterday, yesterday, and today are past but from today (if) any one of you opens his mouth, even if the world is coming to an end, not just for somebody who shouts “Anyone with eggs?!”. When they shouted, one of the pupils at the lecture could not stop himself from laughing (lit. couldn’t keep himself in, he laughed). The Sheikh picked up (lit. pulled out) a stick and set about giving him a severe whacking. The boy said to the Sheikh that it was the boys (i.e. all of them) who told them (i.e. the egg-boys) to come to the mosque and say “Anyone with eggs?!”. The Sheikh said to him ‘That’s what I wanted to know, whether you tell these boys who come every day to come or whether they come of their own accord, and now since I know, that’s good (i.e. 277

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dísən abídžən yušásən ṭṭríḥ(t) ṭṭríh(t). d(ə)lwaitšá ynada iwə́rgaz la yttʕússu gətməzgída76 dyəṃṃáyas ‘ə́ffəɣ əbədd əggími ntməzgída. ɣir addás(ə)n ibušírən la zzə́nzan gətməllálin, ə́ḥ(ə)kmin!’ yəffə́ɣ aʕə́ssas, aššar áššar usə́d(ə)n ibušírən – yig(a) ámyu yəḥkə́min dysítfin lə́ššix yušásən ḥ(ə)tta n(ə́)tnin ṭṭríḥ(t) ṭṭríḥt, dyəṃṃayásən ‘iškəlt íḍ(ə)nt attásəm dəhánit wb(ə)ʕdin t(ə)ssə́nəm mamak akənnígəɣ, mallik də­ hánit wəllíš la ṃáṃṃu haysəɣ sɣə́ṛwən la ṃáṃṃu hakənyə́zzənz.’ fə́ṛḥat yəkká ḥ(ə)tta n(ə)tta ṭṭríḥt mahi (Ar. ma(a) hi(ya) ṭṭríḥt). ɣir yṛə́wwəḥ yufa bábis gtíddart yəṃṃáyas ‘nətš swássu m(ə)ʕádš ɣsəɣ áfləɣ lə́ddərs mallik ššix yḍ(ə́)lləm də́gnəɣ. hə́dd ayig tɣúsa wə́ḥdəs dnə́tt(a) aɣənnə́ywətt nəkmə́l. imátt?’ yəṃṃáyas bábis ‘“ṃáṃṃu wyssi­ táfš fúsis gim(ə)ɣɣáṛən wəttəqqsəntíš tiɣurdam” d “(ə)lwə́ld y(ə)ʕṛfa búh”. šəkk ššyáḍən wakḍəllmə́nš, wətšá ššix.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘nə́tš waḷḷáhi l(a)ʕḍím iziɣ la dərt (Ar.) ḥáža (Ar.). ibušírən ṃṃán “iy(y)at ánfəl asə́nməl i(y)ibušírən la zzə́nzan gətməllálin addás(ə)n l(ə)tməzgída”, nəflá, dnə́tš wasənnəṃṃíɣš ḥ(ə)tta táwalt.’ yəṃṃáyas bábis ‘ááá, ṣaṛ ḥ(ə)ttá š(ə)kkin t(ə)flid dídsən!’ yəṃṃáyas ‘wáy, ífla flíɣ, akəmləɣ (ə́)lḥəqq.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘ukán t(ə)flídš dídsən, yəlla wakyəwwíḍš ay(u) yəkmə́l də́ššix wyəssínš. (ə)lḥə́qqis yəlla ykəttfáwən t(ə́)lt iyyám la dútšu la dtíssi, tálži akənyuš ṭṭríḥət dtmə́ddit akənyuš ṭṭriḥət. ṭṭríḥət ídžət mátt(a) akə́ntig mallik ḥə́dd ɣir ayəḍḍəl dáɣyul, ṭṭə́bbis ɣír taṛə́ṭṭa wb(ə)ʕdín m(ə)ʕádš at(ə)fləd lə́ddərs, afṃaṃṃu lɣíḍik, maɣar madʕílək t(ə)qqardíy(y)id in(ə́)tš a? t(ə)qqárəd i(y)imánik dšə́kk, al(ə)mmi wt(ə)ɣrídš, aṛahuk at(ə)qqiməd dáɣyul žar ind sídik77, wət­šá dnətš. ə́fəl ltməzgídak də́ɣər əddrúsik, kaṃṃaháda (Ar. ka(a)n ma(a) ha(a)da) b(ə)ʕdín adə́bbrəɣ didək íxfiw.’ yufíš fəṛḥat matta háyməl dm(ə)ʕádš yərni ḥ(ə)tta táwalt idžət, dəmbəssíf f(ə́)llas yədwə́l ləddrúsis yə́ɣs iziɣ yɣísš.

[55] yədwəl fə́ṛḥat l(ə)ddrúsis dyṛaḥ yəffál kúll yum l(ə)tməzgídas amqə́bəl. idžəṃṃás b(ə)ʕd la yṛə́wwəḥ s(ə)ʕid sə́ssuq db(ə́)ʕd la 278

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I am satisfied)’. He took up a stick and set about them individually and gave them a good hiding. And the following day he called the guardian of the mosque (lit. the man who looks after the mosque) and told him to go and stand at the entrance to the mosque and to grab the boy egg-sellers when they came. The guardian went out (and) after a while the boys appeared. He seized them (as instructed) and brough them to the Sheikh, (who) gave each of them, too, a sound beating, and said to them ‘You come here again and you know what I’ll do to you then, because there is no one here to buy from you nor to sell to you’. Ferhat also collected (lit. smelt) a sound trashing, (and) when he went home, he found his father in the house and said to him ‘From today I don’t want to go to the lecture(s) any more because the Sheikh is unfair to us. (If) somebody does something on his own, he (i.e. the Sheikh) will beat all of us. Why?’. His father said to him ‘Whoever does not put his hand into holes is not bitten by scorpions (lit. the scorpions don’t bite him) and (i.e. another saying) the father knows his son (i.e. no one knows you better than me). The devils would not be unfair to you, (certainly) not the Sheikh’. He replied ‘I swear I did nothing’ (said mostly in Arabic). The boys said “Come on, let’s go and tell the boys who sell eggs to come to the mosque”, we went (but) I didn’t say a word to them’. His father said ‘Aha, so you too went with them’. He replied ‘Yes, I did go with them, to tell (lit. I will tell) you the truth’. He (i.e. Sa’id) said to him ‘If you hadn’t gone (lit. didn’t go) with them, all this would not have caught up with you, nor did the Sheikh know (how to treat you). The right punishment (lit. its right, due) would have been to tie you up for three days without food and water, whacking you morning and evening. What does one beating do for you, because if someone is no more than a donkey, his sole medicine is the stick, and what’s more, if you don’t go to lectures any more, who is going to be sorry (lit. on whom the regret), do you think you are studying for my sake? You are studying for yourself, (and) if you don’t study, then you, not me, will be a donkey among your masters. Go to your mosque and learn (your lessons), otherwise afterwards I (too) will concern myself with you (i.e. give you a beating)’. Ferhat did not know how to reply and did not say (lit. add) another word, and (so) was obliged to return to his lessons willy-nilly (whether he wanted or not). [55] Ferhat returned to his lessons and continued going daily to his mosque as before. One day after returning from the market and after 279

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y(ə)tʕə́šša dtudə́l lʕíltis ttíg gəššáhi, fə́ṛḥat yisíš dídsən, yəṃṃáyas ‘mátta təṃṃíd gwadin nwáwal n(ə)zmán? annáda ṣṣṭáwat alə́bbnən dazə́wwqən wəxláṣ, danád(ə)l anʕə́wwəl78, iziɣ s(ə)ddíɣ t(ə)qqíməd gəṛṛáyim, la búdda sədzzə́qqa dtáždidt?’ təṃṃáyas ‘ay(u) wətša ddə́w­ wət nfúḍḍit səzmán a? tawalt ídžət ṃṃiɣáktət iziɣ han(ə́)qqim dí­ ma nə́ḥərtu (Ar.) wənʕáwdu (Ar.)?’ yəṃṃáyas ‘báhi, ay(u) la t(ə)ɣsə́d dadin dnə́tta. iziɣ aitu aitšá (a)nábiɣ ṣṣṭáwat danád(ə)l ánkuṛṛ iḍɣáɣən də́lžir.’ yəfla s(ə́)ʕid ykəlləf ídžən sikṛaṛṭíy(y)ən baš asə́ykuṛṛ (ə́)lžir dykə́lləf idžníḍ(ə)n asə́ykuṛṛ iḍɣáɣən dyəttfə́q n(ə)tta dṣṣṭáwat baš adadl(ə)n ábnan. b(ə)ʕd ússan anḍḷḷák kullši wátəy, usə́d(ə)n ṣṣṭáwat q(ə́)ʕʕdən lxəmṛət(ə́)nsən dudə́lən bə́nnan. ḥallən waidabíh79 tazə́qqa tbə́dd – ɣir af(ə́)ssqəf bə́ss dát(ə)ḍḍəl dtazə́qqa swá swa. yəflá idžən səṣṣṭáwat l(ə)ḍṛábləs yuɣəd ə́ssqəf dyuɣəd zzə́lliz d(ə)lbíban d(ə)ṛṛwá­šən. sə́qqfən ṣṣṭáwat tazə́qqa dq(ə)ʕʕə́dnas zzəllízis d(ə)ṛṛwášnis d(ə)l­bibánis db(ə́)ʕd la bəyyḍə́ntət lə́bbnən tíddart t(ə)kmə́l dzəww­ qə́ntət80.

[56] yudəl s(á)ʕid yttxə́mməm afmə́mmis yənkə́yas did ídžən swat­ší­ wən81 yəṃṃáyas ‘ə́mlas “ṃṃának nəɣs ánfəl akəmbə́yyən dnəɣs áknaɣ yə́llis n(ə)ššix xlífa. mátta ṛṛáyik? al(ə)mmi təɣsə́ttət báhi, al(ə)mmi wətɣísəd mlánəɣ sləxxúl qəbəl la hanḥə́ššəm imánnəɣ.”’ yəflas átšiw ifə́ṛḥat dyəṃṃáyas ay(u) nwáwal wúh. yəṃṃáyas fə́ṛḥat ‘mlásən af(ə)lkifə́nsən. aiyáɣən tuh la ɣsə́nn mallík ɣir əxtáṛəɣ n(ə)tš ássu al(ə)mmi was(ə)nt(ə)ʕžíbš aitšá ámlən dnə́tta la yəxtáṛit wətšá dnə́šnin lákən al(ə)mmi yəxtáṛən nə́tnin wəttafə́nš matta hámlən; t(ə)ʕ(ə)žbásən báhi, was(ə)nt(ə)ʕžíbš bláš, dnə́tš wəldəɣríš (or wəɣríš) didsən táwalt – tuhánit la hámlən ḷḷah ybárək.’ yəflá (a)tšiw yəṃṃayásən is(á)ʕid dzʕíma ayu la yəslá sməmmítsən. ṃṃán ‘ay(u) yəkmə́l d(ə́)lḥəqq, wɣər­ nə́ɣš matta hánməl dís, dmanis ámyu báhi.’ təṃṃáyas zʕíma is(á)ʕid

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he had dined and his wife had begun making tea – Ferhat was not with them – Sa’id said to her ‘What do you think about that old discussion (of ours)? Shall we call the workmen to whitewash and paint and have done, and start preparing (i.e. for Ferhat’s marriage, by buying furniture etc.), or do you still stick to your opinion (that) there must be a new room?’. She said ‘Didn’t we rid ourselves of this topic some time ago? Did I not tell you my final (lit. one) word or are we going to spend all our time beating about the bush (lit. ploughing and returning (along the same furrow), i.e. talking a lot to no point)?’. He said ‘All right, what you want has it (lit. is it). Then tomorrow I will speak to the workmen and we (can) begin bringing stones and lime’. Sa’id went and ordered a carter to bring lime (for him) and another to bring stones, and agreed with workmen to start building. A few days later when all was ready, the workmen came and prepared their mortar and started to build. Soon there appeared (lit. was standing) a new room – just the roof and it will be a perfect room! One of the workmen went to Tripoli and brought the roof as well as tiles, doors, and windows. The workmen put the roof on the room and laid its tiles, and put in the doors and windows. After they had plastered (i.e. the bricks of the walls), they whitewashed (i.e. the walls and ceiling) and painted (i.e. doors and windows) the whole house. [56] Sa’id began to occupy himself with his son(‘s marriage) and sent him (a message) via a (black) servant telling him to tell Ferhat that they (i.e. his parents) say they are going to announce his betrothal and to marry him to Sheikh Khalifa’s daughter. What did he think of this? If he wanted her, well and good, if not, he should say so at once before they incurred shame (i.e. by asking the Sheikh for his daughter only for Ferhat to reject her later). The servant went to Ferhat and told him all of this. Ferhat said to him ‘Tell them it is as they will. They may marry me to whom they please because if I pick someone today, if they don’t like her, they will say tomorrow that he was the one who picked her, not us, but if they make the choice, they can have nothing to say – if they like her, fine, if not, it makes no odds, and personally I will do as they say (lit. I have no word with them). The one they are going to speak (about) is fine by me (lit. God bless (us), i.e. Ferhat and his wife)’. The servant went and told Sa’id and Za’ima what he had heard from their son. Sa’id said ‘All this is good (lit. right), (and) we have nothing to say against it, and that being so, all is well’. Za’ima said to 281

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‘iziɣ šə́kkin ɣir at(ə́)ẓṛəd ššix gə́ssuq, baš astə́mləd, dnə́tš xxul ákkrəɣ áfləɣ ltiddartə́nsən an(ə)tḥə́kkṛəɣ.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘abbáššar ʕád. maɣar nə́šnin afmátta n(ə)st(ə́)ʕžəl? xxúl anḥə́kkər danxə́mməm y(ə)ʕdálat (or y(ə)ʕdə́l) wb(ə)ʕdín awal yəzhə́l.’ təṃṃáyas ‘mátta hanḥəkkáṛ? kúllši yḥə́kkəṛ yəqʕə́d. táfṛuxt t(ə)zʕə́m aṃṃi dtizə́rzərt dt(ə)xfíf aṃ­ṃi dərríšət, wb(ə)ʕdín dyə́llis nlə́ṣəl. ṃáṃṃu hanə́xtaṛ f(ə́)llas.’ yəṃ­ṃá­ yas ‘t(ə)ɣsəd am(ə́)mləɣ lḥə́qq iziɣ ahá? ya wə́ddi n(ə)tš yəllis n(ə́)š­šix wəšṛihə́ɣš f(ə)llas, dwáss la šə́mmin təṃṃídid ɣir wɣisə́ɣš am­ʕáṛḍəɣ dam(ə́)mləɣ yahá. dḥ(ə)ttá (a)ssu wətša hamʕáṛḍəɣ iziɣ ham(ə́)m­ləɣ yahá. n(ə)tš ɣir am(ə́)mləɣ (ə)ṛṛáyiw wb(ə)ʕdín al(ə)mmi t(ə)šṛə́həd f(ə́)llas nšáḷḷa ṛabbi (y)ʕáwən wəxláṣ.’ təṃṃáyas ‘mátta ṛṛáyik?’ yəṃ­ ṃáyas ‘(ə)ṛṛáyiw yə́llis n(ə́)ššix waɣəntts(ə)ʕʕídš. n(ə)ttat mbə́lḥəq dtáfṛuxt t(ə)zʕə́m dʕáqla, wəɣríš matta hámləɣ dís, lakən (ə́)ššix dárgaz dam(ə)dduklə́nnəɣ d(d)əššixə́nnəɣ. wn(ə)ttəmsaʕídš n(ə)šnin dtə́fṛuxt izig dšáṛa, anə́qqim wətša diṣbíḥən nəšnin də́ššix. zzat míddən d(ə́)lʕib. tibušírin llan(ə)t bzáyəd dimátta ḥəd(d) yttáɣəd glə́hṛəžž də́nnšaf iyimánis dayə́qqim yttəmʕáfan n(ə)tta dim(ə)ddukálnis (or dim(ə)ddu­ kális)?’ təṃṃáyas ‘báhi, lakən fə́ṛḥat mamak hásnig iziɣ matta hasə́n­ məl dnətta (a)ṛáhuk yəɣs yəllis nə́ššix. dtikə́rkas la yəṃṃáyak tuhanit la təɣsə́m swá swa, mallik s(á)ʕa s(á)ʕa yttútlay n(ə)tta dwə́ltmas yənnáyas “ɣsəɣ ɣír nafísa” dwə́fṛux ɣir yttḥə́ššəm akə́yməl “ɣsə́ɣtət” manis tənkə́ydas, lakən báqi h(ə)tta (a)wálik gwəṃkánis dmadabíh ḥə́dd wyttəmʕafínš n(ə)tta dmáṃṃu (ə)nnə́s, dšə́kkin af(ə)lkífik, ma­ mak təɣsə́d.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘iziɣ ḥə́kkəṛ, n(ə)tš ákkrəɣ asnə́kyəɣ iškəlt íḍ(ə)nt ifə́ṛḥat, asə́mləɣ al(ə)mmi n(ə)tta yəɣs nafísa mbə́lḥəq, dádin dáwal mallik wənɣísš as(ə)nməl yahá iziɣ asnaɣ tuhánit la wəttiɣís (NB -š unacceptable) dal(ə)mmi (yə)ṃṃá ɣərs swá swa, aṃṃi dnafísa (a)ṃṃi d(ə)lɣíris, anḥə́kkəṛ.’ təṃṃáyas ‘báhi, ḥ(ə)tt(a) áyu d(ə́)ṛṛay.’ yəfla s(ə́)ʕid lə́ssuq yəmláqqa n(ə)tta dídžən swatšíwən dín, ynadáyas yəṃṃáyas ‘ɣsə́ɣak at(ə)fl(ə)d lfə́ṛḥat dastə́mləd matta (a)kə́mləɣ da­ tḥə́kkṛəd awális. flas ə́mlas “yəṃṃáyak bábik matta ṛṛáyik gwádin

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Sa’id ‘Then when you see the Sheikh in the market, tell him, and I will go off now to their house to see them’. He said to her ‘Easy does it! Why are we in a hurry? Let us consider and weigh the matter carefully and then discussion (i.e. with the Sheikh’s side) will be easy’. She said ‘What are we going to consider? Everything has been considered and is in order. The girl is as pretty as a gazelle and as light as a feather (i.e. active, not lazy), and then again she is of good family (lit. a daughter of the origin). Whom shall we choose before her?’. He said to her ‘Do you want me to tell you the truth or not? The fact is that I am not (altogether) happy about the Sheikh’s daughter, and from the day you spoke to me (i.e. concerning the Sheikh’s daughter) I have not wanted to quarrel with you and say “No” to you, and I am not going to do so even today. I will just tell you what I think, and then if you are happy about her, I agree (lit. if God wills, he will help us) and that’s an end to it’. She asked him what his thinking was. He said ‘I think the Sheikh’s daughter will not suit us. It is true that she is pretty and an intelligent girl, I have nothing to say on that score, but the Sheikh is a friend of ours and he is our sheikh (i.e. the sheikh of our tribe). If we don’t get on with the girl or anything, we shall find ourselves (lit. remain) not (on) good (terms) with the Sheikh. This will be shameful in the eyes of (lit. in front of) people. There are lots of girls, and why should one bring oneself trouble and worry, and be on bad terms with one’s friends?’. She replied ‘Agreed, but how shall we deal with Ferhat, what shall we say to him, because he wants the Sheikh’s daughter, you know? It’s not true what he said to you that the one you want is acceptable to me, because he talks with his sister from time to time and tells her he only wants Nafisa, and the boy was (too) shy to tell you he wanted her when you sent him the message, but even so what you say is right (lit. in its place) and one has no wish to be on bad terms with one’s relatives, but (in any case) it is up to you, just as you wish’. He said ‘Look, then! I’m going to send Ferhat a message again, to tell him (that) if he truly wants Nafisa, then that is the end of the matter (lit. that is the talk), because we do not want to deny him nor to marry him to someone he does not want. If he says (lit. has said) it is all right as far as he is concerned whether we pick Nafisa or another, then we shall proceed’. She said ‘Good, that is a good idea (lit. that too is an idea)’. Sa’id went to the market and came across one of the servants there, hailed him and said ‘I want you to go to Ferhat and tell him what I tell you and see what he says. Go to him and tell him 283

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nwáwal la ṃṃíɣak qə́bəl. al(ə)mmi dis šá idžət təɣsə́dtət (ə)mlíy(y)id, dal(ə)mmi ɣə́rk tibušírin kmə́lnət swá swa, (ə)mlí(y)yid”. ɣsəɣ táwalt tan(ə́)ʕqabt.’ [57] yəflá (a)tšiw lfə́ṛḥat yəṃṃáyas matta yəmmáyas bábis. yəṃṃá­ yas fə́rḥat iwə́tšiw ‘ʔə́səl! (ə)mlas yəṃṃáyak akəmləɣ (ə́)lḥəqq, (ə́)l­ḥəqq n(ə)tš ɣsəɣ nafísa yəllis nə́ššix dnə́tš ḥ(ə)tta tíkəlt tamə́zwart ɣir ttḥə́ššməɣ (or tḥ-) wn(ə)žžə́mš akə́mləɣ.’ yəflá (a)tšiw ls(á)ʕid yəṃ­ṃá­yas. ɣir yədwə́l s(ə́)ʕid ltiddártis yəṃṃáyas ilʕíltis matta yṣáṛ dyəṃṃáyas ‘iziɣ xxúl manis ámyu xláṣ – məʕádš ɣərnəɣ matta hánməl n(ə)tš áitu ɣir áẓṛəɣ (ə)ššix attnábiɣ, dšə́mmin fəl ltíddart ɣádi naba tisə́dnan baš al(ə)mmi ṃṃan báhi, anád(ə)l anʕə́wwəl.’ təṃṃáyas ‘báhi.’ lwaitšá ɣir yəffə́ɣ s(ə́)ʕid lə́ssuq yəmláqqa n(ə)tta d(ə́)ššix ynabátti gyə́llis. yušás dis táwalt; dtəfla zʕíma ltíddart txə́ḍḍəb (or txəṭṭəb)82. təṃṃáyas yadžis (ə)nnafísa ‘n(ə)tš wn(ə)žžmə́ɣš am(ə́)mləɣ la báhi la yahá. flət lbábis al(ə)mmi yušawə́ntət xláṣ.’ təṃṃáyas zʕíma ‘n(ə)šnin nəssə́n ayu daita s(á)ʕid yəfla hayútlay lə́ššix, lakən ḥ(ə)tta šə́mmin nəɣs anḥə́kkəṛ awálim dal(ə)mmi təṛlím isnin xír.’ təṃṃáyas ‘al(ə)mmi ɣir afə́lli nə́tš, n(ə)tš wəɣríš ṃaṃṃ(u) əxtáṛəɣ fəlláwən dnə́tš madabíy(y)a yəlli d(ə)hánit t(ə)qrə́b zzə́ri. ləmmi ɣsə́ɣ, asə́fləɣ dləmmi təɣs, áittas, dmámak ṃṃíɣam al(ə)mmi ɣir yušawə́ntət bábis xláṣ.’ tṛə́wwəḥ zʕíma tufa (a)rgázis gtíddart təṃṃáyas ‘isíɣ l(ə)lʕíl(ə)t nə́ššix dutláyəɣ n(ə)tšídsən. ṃṃán “báhi al(ə)mmi ɣír yušawə́ntət bábis tuṣláwən.”’ yəṃṃáyas ‘ḥ(ə)ttá n(ə)tš laqqiɣ ə́ššix dutláyəɣ n(ə)tšíd(ə)s dəxláṣ. kúllši (y)kə́mməl lžúmʕa lá háttas anbə́yyən.’ dyudə́l s(ə́)ʕid yqə́ṭṭa gləḥwáyəž yəqḍá l(ə)ḥwáyəž nlə́byan83 kúl dwáss lžúmʕa b(ə)ʕd wmə́kli usə́dnət tatšíwin dusə́dən middə́nnsən dqámən irukánnsən dəwyə́ntən.

[58] tililíwin wb(ə)ṭṭ(ə)lnə́tš kúl smanis qámən almanis uṣə́l(ə)n. ɣir uṣə́l(ə)n tiddart nə́ššix tʕaṛḍásən yadžis nnafísa dtatšíwin dyih la qrə́bnas 284

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his father wants to know his views on what you said to him before. If there is a particular girl he wants, (he must) tell you, and (equally) if all girls are the same to him. I want (his) final word’. [57] The servant went to Ferhat and told him what his father has said (to him). Ferhat (in turn) said to the servant ‘Listen! Tell him he said to you he would not prevaricate and that the truth is he wants Nafisa, the Sheikh’s daughter, and that he was shy (at) the first time (of asking) and unable to tell him’. The servant returned (lit. went) to Sa’id and told him (this). On his return home, Sa’id told his wife what had happened and said ‘Then since it is so, that is all (there is to it). There is nothing more we have to say, when I see the Sheikh I shall talk to him (about it) and you go to the(ir) house there and talk to the women so that, if they agree, we can start preparations’. ‘Very well’, she said. The next days when Sa’id went out to the market, he met the Sheikh and spoke to him concerning his daughter. He raised no objection. In the meantime (lit. And) Za’ima went to the house and asked for Nafisa (lit. her) (for her son). Nafisa’s mother said to her ‘I am unable to say to you yes or no. Go to her father, if he agrees (lit. has given her to you), that’s final’. Za’ima said to her ‘We knew that and Sa’id has already gone to speak to the Sheikh, but we wished, too, to see what you said. It is better for both of you to be content’. She replied ‘If it is just depended on me, there is no one I would choose before you, and I would like my daughter to be here close to me. When I want, I can go to her, and when she wants, she can come to me, and, as I said to you, if her father consents (lit. has given her to you), that is final’. Za’ima returned home and, finding her husband in the house, said to him ‘I have been to the Sheikh’s wife and spoken to her (lit. them) and she (lit. they) was agreeable, saying that she is ours (lit. “she (i.e. Nafisa) has reached you”) subject to the girl’s (lit. her) father’s consent’. He said to her ‘I too have met the Sheikh and spoken to him, and it is all arranged. Everything is accomplished. Next Friday we will anounce the betrothal’. And Sa’id set about buying things. He bought everything for the lebyan, and after lunch on Friday (black) servant-girls came as well as Sa’id’s and Za’ima’s (lit. their) relatives and, taking up the(ir) impedimenta, took them (to the Sheikh’s house). [58] Ululation went on without cease from when they left (lit. lifted up, i.e. the things to carry) to when they arrived. On reaching the 285

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kúl. láqqan sɣərsən ə́dd(ə)baš dudə́l(ə)n ttignásən gəššáhi dwmə́ssi. hə́d(ə)rzən allə́ggiḍ db(ə)ʕd la tʕə́ššan dyəswə́nn əššáhi igənn ámyu ṛə́wwḥən. fə́ṛḥat ɣir yəslá hasəwžən lə́byan, ass lžúmʕa tálži (yə)kkər bə́kri dyəfla lə́žžmil l(ə́)lb(ə)ʕḍ nirfíqnis. yəqqim dídsən aša tláta iziɣ əṛb(ə)ʕ əyyám mallik wynəžžə́mš ayqábəl yadžis dbábis. wb(ə)ʕdín yṛə́wwəḥ dyədwə́l l(ə)tməzgídas yəqqár gəddrúsis. tfat tážrəst dʕǝmmál haykə́mməl (ə́)ṛṛbiʕ yud(ə)l s(ə́)ʕid ytʕə́wwəl haysə́nžəf mə́mmis b(ə)ʕd imə́ndi. idžəṃṃás yəṃṃáyas ilʕíltis ‘mátta ṛṛáyim? mámak t(ə)ɣs(ə)d tazə́qqa nmə́mmim? t(ə)ɣsə́ttət amtzə́qqa nqə́bəl la n(ə)ssə́nit nə́šnin iziɣ t(ə)ɣsə́ttət dtazəqqa nway(u) n(ə́)lwəqt84? təṃṃáyas ‘mámak y(ə)ʕni tazəqqa nqə́bəl? n(ə)tta yəllá uši ḥə́dd yrə́qqəm gətzə́ɣwin nqəbə́l a? mamak ttígən middən kúl hánig.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘báhi.’ b(ə)ʕd imə́ndi udələn ttʕə́ww(ə)lən afməmmítsən. wə́ttan ay(u) la yəlz(ə)másən stə́ṃuṛt85 kúl, wb(ə)ʕdín yuləy s(ə́)ʕid yəfla lḍṛábləs hayə́ksa, yəksa lkə́swət la lázma t(ə)kmə́l. yʕəbbáttət gəlkəṛh(ə)bət dyṛə́wwəḥ sís. ɣir yuṣə́l sis tíddart kkə́rnət tililíwin dudə́lən ttfə́ṛṛɣən dis. t(t)ʕə́žžbən mid­dən kmə́l(ə)n gwadin n(ə)lkə́swət dəygə́ntət dəlfúṛžət dáttmən ttutláyən sís táṃuṛt t(ə)kmə́l dnnán “day(u) d(ə)lkə́swət ṃaṃṃu yəɣs ayə́ksa kaṃṃaháda bláš.” iḍ n(ə́)lḥədd udə́lən gətmə́ɣṛa nməmmítsən əwyə́nas (ə́)ltix, lwaitšá dl(á)ʕdəṛ, dəygə́nn tamə́ɣṛa təlt (ə)lyáli, wəllíš ṃaṃṃu yigít gtə́ṃuṛt t(ə)kmə́l86. ass nlə́xmis yəffə́ɣ l(á)ʕris ltzə́ddayt n(ə)tta diʕ(ə)rrásnis dwuzíris. ḥḍə́ṛən tazə́ddayt dṛə́wwḥən abbáššar abáššar. utə́f(ə)n ltíddart yəṛẓa l(ə́)ʕris tábriqt dyutə́f n(ə)tta diʕ(ə)r­rásnis. b(ə)ʕd la tʕə́ššən ffə́ɣən. aššár aššar tus(ə)d táslətt. yutə́f l(ə́)ʕris ysúfəɣ tákmist dyəṭṭə́ṣ altálži.

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Sheikh’s house, Nafisa’s mother, the servants, and all her relatives (lit. all those near to her) came to meet them. They took the things from them and started preparing tea and dinner for them. They talked until nightfall and after they had dined and taken tea, they returned home. When Ferhat heard they were going to take the lebyan (gifts) to her, he rose early on Friday morning and went to Zhmil to (stay with) some friends. He remained with them for about three or four days because he was precluded from meeting (lit. unable to meet) his mother and father. Then he returned and went back to his mosque and studying his lessons. The winter passed and spring was almost over (when) Sa’id began preparing (i.e. by laying in provisions) for his son’s wedding (lit. with the intention of marrying (off) his son) after the harvest. One day he said to his wife ‘What do you think? How do you want your son’s room (to be)? Do you want it like an old-type room which we know or do you want it to be a modern room (lit. a room of this time)?’. She said ‘What do you mean, an old-type room? Is there still anyone who furbishes rooms in the old way? We’re going to do as everybody does’. He agreed with her. After the harvest they began preparing for their son. They obtained all they needed from Zuara and then Sa’id (mounted, i.e. in lorry, and) went off to Tripoli in order to make (other) purchases. There he bought all the necessary clothing (and furniture). He loaded it (all) on the lorry and returned home with it. When he reached the house (with it), ululation started up as they set about unloading it (i.e. the lorry). Everybody was amazed at the wedding purchases and made a spectacle of it (i.e. stood staring at it in admiration) and the whole town gave itself over to talking about it, saying “This is the keswet, anyone buying any other is wasting his time (lit. who is going to buy otherwise, it is nothing)”. On Sunday they started (the celebration of) their son’s wedding, they took the eltikh to her and the la’ḍar on the following day, and put on a tameghra for three nights like no one in the whole town had put on before. On Thursday the bridegroom went out to the tazeddayt with his party (lit. bridegrooms) and his best man. They attended the tazeddayt and slowly returned home. They entered the house and the groom broke the tabriqt (water-pot) and entered (the wedding chamber) with his party. After they had dined, they (i.e. those other than the bridegroom) left. After a little while the bride came. The groom entered, consummated the marriage (lit. took out the shirt – see Appendix), and slept till morning. 287

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[59] ykə́mməl ttál(ə)t dykə́mməl ssáb(ə)ʕ dt(ə)fḍá tíddart smíddən d­yəqqim fə́ṛḥat n(ə)tta d(ə)lʕíltis dbábis dyádžis lakən ḥ(ə)tta b(ə́)ʕd la tkə́mməl tamə́ɣṛa səddíɣ wəntyqabə́lš mallik wynəžžə́mš an(ə)ty­ qábəl kunši g(ə)tfáṣka87. ass n(ə)tfáṣka yəkkə́r ybə́ddəl ddbášis dyəflá lləmṣə́ḷḷa88, ɣir yədwə́l sləmṣə́ḷḷa yut(ə)f afbábis dyádžis dyʕə́yyəd f(ə)llá­sən89 dyəqqim zzə́rsən ytthə́drəz dídsən al(ə)mmi usə́dnas irfíq­nis, ysítfin ltmə́rbuʕt yigásən ššáhi dwmə́kli dyəffə́ɣ n(ə)ttáidsən haʕəyy­ d(ə)n afmíddən. ʕə́yydən afyíh la qrəbnásən90 kúl dəḍḍə́hwrən did b(á)ʕḍhəm al(ə́)lwəqt nwmə́ssi. flən tʕə́ššan lidžən sísən dkúll ḥə́dd yṛə́wwəḥ ltiddártis. qqímən ammídin ússan n(ə)tfáṣka, kməln kúll yúm atɣə́ddan lḥə́dd datʕə́ššan lḥə́dd wb(ə)ʕdín ftə́rqən dkúll ḥə́dd yəfla yxə́ddəm afimánis. fə́ṛḥat yədwə́l l(ə)tməzgída amqə́bəl. talž(i) ayə́kkər ayə́fḍəṛ daysəw ššáhi did bábis dyádžis wb(ə)ʕdín áyfəl ləddrúsis. lwəqt nwmə́kli ayṛə́wwəḥ ay(ə)tɣə́dda did bábis db(ə́)ʕd la aysəw ššáhi ayə́dwəl l(ə)tməzgída. ɣir aykə́mməl ə́ddərs ayfəl lə́ssuq ayhə́drəz áššar n(ə)tta dim(ə)ddukális al(ə)mmi ákkrən aṛə́wwḥən. áddyas fə́ṛḥat ayg(ə́)ʕməz báqi did bábis dyádžis aytʕə́šša daysəw ššáhi dídsən wb(ə)ʕdín ayə́kkər ltzə́qqas ayə́ṭṭəṣ.

[60] yədwəl yttqábal gbabis dyádžis swá swa, lakən báqi wynəžžə́mš an(ə)tyqábəl zzat lʕíltis. ɣir at(ə́)ḍḍəl lʕíltis tg(ə́)ʕməz zzə́rsən wynəž­ žə́mš ayat(ə)f f(ə)llásən dəɣər a(y)ə́ḍḍəl n(ə)tta yg(ə́)ʕməz zzə́rsən lʕíltis w(ə)tatə́fš (or wəttatə́fš) f(ə)llásən. b(ə)ʕd ússan yxə́mm(ə)m s(ə́)ʕid yəṃṃá “b(ə)lláhi xxúl, imátta n(ə)tš wasttigə́ɣš táḥnuyt ifə́ṛ­ ḥat? xír nway(u) nwúnuḍ l(a) ass yəkmə́l yttə́nn(ə)ḍ.” ɣir yṛə́wwəḥ sə́ssuq yufa fəṛḥat dín gtíddart, yəṃṃáyas ‘ya fə́ṛḥat, n(ə)tš xə́m(mə)məɣ akígəɣ taḥnuyt. mátta ṛṛáyik šə́kk? təɣsəd atátfəd ttžárət iziɣ təɣsəd atə́ɣrəd w(ə)xláṣ?’ yəṃṃáyas ‘n(ə)tš ɣə́ṛi swá swa. tíɣri nmatt? n(ə)tš tíɣri la tuʕə́ṛ wəɣṛíš ɣir ay(u) nə́ddərs iziɣ sə́nn. nə́žžməɣ ḥ(ə)tta ɣir á(tə)ḍḍəl ɣəṛi táḥnuyt áqqsəɣ, áfləɣ aḥə́ḍṛəɣ ə́ddərs wb(ə)ʕdín adə́wləɣ.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘ay(u) dáwal yəbʕə́d. míddən nnán ṛəbb(i)

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[59] The third and seventh days were over and the house was empty of people. Ferhat stayed with his wife and mother and father, but even after the wedding was over he still could not meet them (i.e. his parents) because he is able to see them only on (the occasion of) ’Id (i.e. variously ’Id al-Saghir or the ’Id al-Kabir). On the day of the feast he rose, changed his clothes and went to the ’Id prayer. When he returned home from it he went to his father and mother and greeted them, and stayed with them talking until friends of his came (to him). He took them into the reception room, made them tea and gave them lunch, and went out with them to give people the season’s greetings. They greeted all their close relatives (lit. those near them, i.e. friends also) and strolled around together until dinner-time. They went to dine with one of them and (then) everyone returned home. They went on similarly through the days of the feast, every day all lunching with one and dining with another before they separated and each went about his own affairs (lit. went to work for himself). Ferhat went back to the mosque as before. In the morning he would get up, breakfast and drink tea with his parents, and then go to his courses (lit. lessons). At meal-time(s) he would return to lunch with his father and, after drinking tea, he would return to the mosque. When teaching was over, he would go to the market and talk a while with his friends till they went off home (i.e. when the shops closed). (Then) Ferhat would again sit down with his parents, dine, and drink tea with them, then go off to his room to sleep. [60] He became completely at home again with his parents (i.e. again met them without reserve), but he could still not meet them in the presence of (lit. in front of) his wife. When his wife is sitting with them (i.e. veiled), he cannot join them, and when he is sitting with them, she does not come in (to them). After some time (lit. days) Sa’id thought (to himself) and said “Now why, in Heaven’s name, don’t I set Ferhat up (in) a shop? It would be better than this idling around (lit. this idling which he idles) all day long”. When he came home from the market he found Ferhat there in the house, and said to him ‘Ferhat, I have had the idea of setting you up in a shop. What do you think? Do you want to go into business or to study and no more? He answered ‘I don’t mind. Studying what? Studying is not difficult as far as I’m concerned, just the odd lesson or two. Even if I had a shop, I could close (it), go off to attend a lesson, and then return’. He said to 289

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aybárək gṃáṃṃ(u) ayig šaṛa dattə́yqudd. ṃaṃṃu yəɣs áyɣər dayə́ḥfəḍ ayfə́rrəɣ itíɣri wyttígš šáṛukan, dṃáṃṃu yəɣs aytážər iziɣ ayig šaṛá iḍ(ə)n, wyəqqárš, mallík bnádəm w(ə)ɣṛə́š(š) sə́nn nwuláw(ə)n dšə́kkin al(ə)mmi təɣsəd attážrəd, akʕə́mmṛəɣ taḥnuyt. t(ə)ɣsəd wə́ḥdək báhi, təɣsəd akšárkəɣ did ḥə́dd báhi, d(ə)nšáḷḷa ṛəbb(i) ayʕáw(ə)n. al(ə)mmi w(ə)ɣṛə́kš (ə)nníyyət, dtəɣsə́d atə́ɣrəd, af(ə)lkífik, nšáḷḷa ṛə́bbi ayə́ftəḥ f(ə́)llak.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘ya wə́dd(i) akəmləɣ (ə́)lḥəqq, tíɣri la n(ə)qqar dís wətšá náfʕa dnə́tš əṛṛáyiw wəldisš əlfáydət. aitíg(ə)d táḥnuyt xír.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘báhi! mámak t(ə)ɣsə́d! t(ə)ɣsəd akšárəɣ did ḥə́dd t(ə)ɣs(ə)d táḥnuyt wə́ḥdək?’ yəṃṃáyas ‘ʕad nə́tš máni ssə́nəɣ? ay(u) dšáṛa š(ə)kkin t(ə)ssnə́ttət íṭriw.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘ṭə́yyəb, iziɣ nə́tš əṛṛáyiw swass amə́zwar akígəɣ táḥnuyt wəḥdək, wətnəžžmə́dš. akšárkəɣ did ḥə́dd ʕám ʕamín al(ə)mm(i) attwadə́rrbəd wb(ə)ʕdín af(ə)lkífik.’ dis sə́nn nirgázən diməddúkal ns(ə́)ʕid. ídžən ismis “náži” dəttánəy (i)smis “xlífa” ɣsə́nn aštə́rkən did b(á)ʕḍhəm. yəflásən s(ə́)ʕid yəṃṃayásən ‘ɣsəɣ adutláyəɣ dídwən gšáṛa.’ ṃṃánas ‘tfə́ḍḍəl.’ yəṃṃayásən ‘n(ə)tš xə́m(mə)məɣ fə́ṛḥat ayat(ə)f ttžár(ə)t dxə́m(mə)məɣ hasígəɣ táḥnuyt, lakən áfṛux səddíɣ daḥ(ə́)škun dwə́ḥdəs ynəžžə́mš. d(ə)ssə́nəɣ wəttəthənníɣš f(ə́)llas ukan adáfəɣ manis nə́knim təɣsəm aštə́rkəm ayə́štrək ḥ(ə)ttá ntta dídwən. atə́rrəm sis lbal(ə́)nwən dayddə́rrəb dídwən. təɣsəm ayə́df(ə)ʕ amnə́knim amn(ə́)tta datẓúnəm aftláta, báhi. təṃṃim áfṛux s(ə)ddiɣ dáždid, ayədf(ə)ʕ ázgən bə́ss datẓúnəm afxə́msa, báhi. atə́mləm šáṛa iziɣ dšáṛa, dbálək wakənnytts(ə)ʕʕídš, bláš. asḥə́wwməɣ ḥədd íḍ(ə)n attšárkəɣ dídəs, iziɣ asígəɣ táḥnuyt wə́ḥdəs, swá swa.’ ṃṃánas ‘waḷḷáhi,

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him ‘That is silly. People say that God blesses a man who does a thing well (i.e. conscientiously). He who wants to study and learn devotes himself exclusively to (lit. is free only for) study and does nothing (else), while the man who wants to enter business or do something else does not study, because a man cannot have (lit. doesn’t have) two hearts. If you want to go in for business, I will arrange a shop for you. If you wish to be independent, well and good, and if you want me to arrange a partnership with someone, I will, and may God give you prosperity. If this is not your wish, and you want to study, the choice is yours, and may God make you receptive (lit. open, i.e. to learning)’. He said ‘To tell you the truth, the study I am engaged in is purposeless and in my view without advantage. It would be better if you would set me up in a shop’. (His father) said to him ‘Well and good! It is as you will. Do you want me to arrange for you a partnership with someone or do you want a shop to yourself?’. He replied that he could not be expected to know and that it was a matter he (i.e. Sa’id) knew better than him. (Sa’id) said ‘All right, then in my opinion if I settle you in a shop on your own, you will not at first (lit. from the first day) be up to it. I will associate you with someone for a year or two until you become experienced, and then it will be (lit. is) up to you’. There were two (men) among Sa’id’s friends, one called Najhi and the other Khalifa, who wanted to go into partnership between themselves. Sa’id went to them and said ‘I want to talk to you about something’. They requested him to go ahead. He said to them ‘I have been thinking of Ferhat entering business and of settling him in a shop, but the boy is still young and could not (manage) on his own, and I know I should worry (lit. not be easy in my mind) about him. Perhaps (lit. if I find, if it is possible) since you are going into partnership, he could also go into partnership with you. You will take care of him and he will gain experience with you. If you want him to pay on equal terms with yourselves (lit. as you as him) and to divide (i.e. outlay, profit and loss) three ways, well and good, and, if you say the boy is still green (lit. new) and he can pay just one half (i.e. of what Najhi and Khalifa pay) (so that) you would divide five ways (i.e. take two-fifths each against his one-fifth), then (also) well and good. If you have some objection or other (lit. if you will say something or something) and perhaps he wouldn’t suit you, then forget all about it (lit. without anything). I will arrange for someone else to take him into partnership, or I will fix him up in a shop of his own, it doesn’t matter (which)’. They said to him 291

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mátt(a) akə́nməl xxúl? š(ə́)kkin t(ə)ssəndánəɣ al(ə)mmi nəɣs fə́ṛḥat ayəštrək dídnəɣ iziɣ ahá, lakən ttžár(ə)t (or ttžáṛət) wətša dšáṛa la yəzhə́l. təɣs ḥədd ayxə́mməm qə́bəl y(ə)ʕdálət wb(ə)ʕdín ayuš tawáltis. ʕala kúll ḥál nə́šnin xxul anḥə́kkəṛ, anəmšáwəṛ al(ə)mmi hanə́xdəm ssə́nn – minit ánig ṛas(ə)lmal(ə́)nnəɣ dmátta dmáni hanə́xdəm dal(ə)mmi hanə́xdəm s(ə)tláta kadálək, wb(ə)ʕdín akənməl.’ yəṃṃayásən ‘ɣír matta hattə́fqəm əm(ə)ltíy(y)id fís(ə)ʕ.’ ṃṃánas ‘báhi.’ yəkkə́r s(ə)ʕid yṛə́wwəḥ. ɣír yəfla s(ə́)ʕid, qqímən ttutláyən lb(á)ʕḍhəm. yəṃṃáyas xlífa ináži ‘mátta ṛṛáyik gwáwal n(ə)s(ə́)ʕid?’ yəṃṃáyas náži ‘n(ə)tš ṛráyiw y(ə)ɣs ayə́štrək dídnəɣ dž ayə́štrək. ṛas(ə́)lmal ayə́rni danə́xdəm ə́ktəṛ91. al(ə)mm(i) ywatayánəɣ dnə́rbəḥ d(ə)lmə́ksəb, dal(ə)mmi n(ə)xṣə́ṛ lxṣáṛ(ə)t at(ə)kkəd drús mallik attwáẓun afṛas(ə́)lmal, dmámak t(ə)ɣsə́d dḥ(ə)ttá mən ɣir áyu, s(ə)ʕid n(ə)ttḥə́ššəm as(ə)nməl yahá. áyməl ɣir wɣisə́nš mə́mmi a(y)əxdəm dídsən.’ yəṃṃáyas xlífa ‘báhi, dama xír ayuš ázgən dánẓun afxə́msa iziɣ ayúš ttəlt (or ayuš (ə́)ttəlt) danẓun aftláta?’ yəṃṃáyas náži ‘imátt(a) ayuš ázgǝn? manis n(ǝ́)tta (y)ǝɣs ayuš áyuš, ayuš amnǝ́šnin amnǝ́tta wǝxláṣ!’ yəṃṃáyas ‘báhi, af(ǝ)lkífik.’ ttǝ́fqǝn baš ayuš ǝ́ttǝlt daẓún(ǝ)n aftláta. lwaitšá yusdásən s(ə́)ʕid yəṃṃayásən ‘mátta tigim gwáwal nwaṣṣ(ə)nnát?’ ṃṃánas ‘n(ə)šnin wətšá swass amə́zwar nəṃṃayak bahí a? dnəttfə́q baš atušəd ə́ttəlt d(ə)lmə́ksəb aftláta.’ yəṃṃayásən ‘báhi, iziɣ ádlət ṣə́ffat ləḥsabatə́nwən im(ə)zwár(ə)n92 dmə́nit hatígəm ṛas(ə)lmal(ə)nwən əməltíy(y)id.’ ṣə́ffan ləḥsabatə́nsən dəftə́ḥən ləmɣáz(ə)t dtam(ə́)qqart93 did b(á)ʕḍhəm stláta. fə́ṛḥat ṃṃánas ‘š(ə́)kkin səddiɣ dáždid. g(ə́)ʕməz dəhánit əgtə́ṃuṛt dnə́šnin idžən ssə́gnəɣ ayfəl l(ə)ḍṛábləs dəttánəy ayfəl lə́lɣəṛb94 (or áyfəl lɣəṛb).’

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‘In all sincerity, what shall we say to you now? You know whether we should like Ferhat to be partners with us or not, but business is no easy thing. Someone needs (lit. it, i.e. business, needs) to think carefully (beforehand) before (lit. and then) he commits himself (lit. gives his word). In any case, we will now look into it, we will discuss whether we are going to work (for) the two (of us), how much we shall put up as capital and what (i.e. in what goods) and where (i.e. Zuara, Tripoli, or Tunis, or a combination thereof) we shall trade (lit. work), and if we are going to operate as a threesome, we shall discuss the same things, (lit. likewise) (i.e. we need to weigh it all up from the standpoint of two or three partners), and then we will talk to you’. He said to them ‘Just tell me soon what you decide upon’. They agreed and Sa’id went off home. When Sa’id had gone, they remained talking together. Khalifa asked Najhi his opinion of what Sa’id had said, and Najhi replied ‘I think that (since) he wants to join us, let him do so. Our (lit. the) capital will be increased and we could expand trade (lit. work more, e.g. by buying a greater quantity and variety of goods, by dealing with both Tripoli and Tunis, etc.) If all goes well for us and we prosper, it (will be more) profit, and if we lose, the loss would turn out to be minor, since it would be divided up among the capital. It is as you like, but (lit. and) moreover (lit. even without this), we should be chary (lit. shy) of refusing him. He would say “They just don’t want my son to trade in conjunction with them”. Khalifa said to him ‘All right, and which would be better, for him to give one-half and for us to divide five ways or for him to contribute one-third and we divide three ways?’. Najhi answered ‘Why should he give half? Since he wants to invest in any case, he can give the same as us, and there’s an end to it!’. Khalifa agreed it should be as he (Najhi) wanted. They concluded, therefore, that he (Sa’id) should contribute one-third and that they would share three ways. The next day Sa’id came and asked them what they had done concerning their discussion of the day before. They said to him ‘Did we not agree with you from the beginning (i.e. to accept Ferhat)? And we have (now) agreed for you to give one-third and for profit to be (split) three ways’. ‘Very well’, said Sa’id to them ‘if you will start to clear up your earlier accounts and let me know how much you are going to put up as your capital’. They balanced their books (lit. accounts) and opened a very large store between the three of them. They said to Ferhat ‘You are still new. Stay here in Zuara while one of us goes to Tripoli and the other to Tunisia’. 293

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[61] yədwəl fəṛḥat dəttážər. ayə́kkər tálži, b(ə)ʕd l(a) ayə́fḍəṛ daysəw ššáhi, ayf(ə)l ltḥnúytis. ayəqqim dís alwə́zgən ənwáss, azgən ənwáss ayṛə́wwəḥ aytɣə́dda daysəw ššáhi dayə́dwəl alḷə́ggiḍ. ayə́zzənz matt(a) ayə́zzənz dáysəɣ matt(a) áysə́ɣ wb(ə)ʕdin ayṛə́wwəḥ. yəqqím fə́ṛḥat ámyu məṛtáḥ95 n(ə)tta d(ə)lʕíltis dbabis dyádžis. matt(a) as(ə)tməl lʕíltis asə́yməl “báhi” – lbáṣmət la hat(ə́)ffəɣ asə́ddyaɣ sís dáss yəkmə́l n(ə)tta yttkə́ṛkəṛ ssúkər d(ə)lkakawíyyət d(ə)lḥə́lwət d(ə)lbáškúṭət – ɣir mátta t(ə)ɣs bə́ss! idžəṃṃás ɣir yṛə́wwəḥ sə́ssuq, yufá lʕíltis gwaṃṃas ntzə́qqa wə́ḥdəs ttʕə́yyəḍ. ‘áš bim iziɣ áš bim?’ təṃṃáyas ‘yáḍzik swallín t(ə)nnuɣɣ dídi96. təṃṃáyid áwal waittəṃṃíš ḥ(ə)tta yə́mma la tuṛwíy(y)id.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘mátta təṃṃáyam?’ təṃṃáyas ‘wəl­líš matta waittəṃṃíš! təṃṃáyid “ḥə́zzəm ləḥzámim97 dʕə́wwəl afimánim – wamnigíš táxdimt!” təṃṃáyid “nə́šnin tamə́ṭṭut la waɣən­ tts(ə)ʕ­ʕídš waɣəntəlzímš!”. təṃṃáyid, təṃṃáyid, təṃṃáyid!’ təwyít lʕúbṛət dtudəl ttʕə́yyəḍ zzat wərgázis. yəṃṃáyas ‘báhi, dəxxul (d is omissible) ttʕə́yyḍəd! mátta t(ə)ɣsdíy(y)id adígəɣ? ukán dḥədd íḍ(ə)n, xxul ssə́nəɣ matt(a) adígəɣ, lakən ʕád manis dyə́mma, mátta? has(ə)flə́ɣ a? hasə́mləɣ “áš bim did lʕiltíw98 a?” yaməṛṛani háni (ai)tu ɣə́ṛi tam(ə́)ṭṭut. wəɣṛíš matta hamə́mləɣ. šə́mmim t(ə)ssəndíy(y)id nətš, dnə́tš am(ə́)mləɣ šáṛa idžət bə́ss. áwal amwáyu (ə)rr imánim wəttslid kúl. ayát(ə)f stməẓẓúɣtim tam(ə́)ffist dayə́ffəɣ sətẓə́lṃaḍt. šə́mmin, ig áyu la t(ə)ɣsə́d dədžit n(ə́)ttat átməl áyu la təɣs. nətš ṛlíɣ ssə́gəm mámak šə́mm, lbaqi wəttḥə́wwəm ḥə́dd! dšáṛa idžət bə́ss báqi (a)m(ə)ttə́mləɣ! ərr lbálim ɣir atútlay lɣəṛm astə́rrəd ḥ(ə)tta táwalt, mallik d(ə)lʕib damə́qqar astərrəd áwal.’ təṃṃáyas ‘n(ə)tš wastarríɣš awal. ḥ(ə)ttá (a)din la t(ə)ṃṃáyid yəkmə́l wasərríɣš ḥ(ə)tta tawalt ídžət. lákən n(ə)tš wn(ə)žžmə́ɣš aḥəmləɣ awal la yṛə́zz tákṛumt mallík wəlmidə́ɣš sis.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘báhi, t(ə)lmədəd sís iziɣ wt(ə)lmidə́dš sís, mátta ɣəṛi

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[61] (So) Ferhat became a merchant. He would rise early and, after he had breakfasted and drunk tea, he would go to his shop. He would stay there till midday, when he would go home to lunch and tea, and (then) return till nightfall. He would buy and sell (lit. buy what he would buy and sell what he would sell) and then return home. And so Ferhat remained happily with his wife and parents. Whatever his wife would ask for (lit. say to him), he would agree to. He would bring her some of the latest (lit. that was about to come out) dress material, and at all times of day (lit. all day) he would bring along (lit. pull) to her sugar, peanuts, sweets, and biscuits, whatever she fancied (lit. wants). One day when he came home from the market he found his wife alone in (lit. in the middle of) the room weeping. He asked her what the matter was and she said ‘Your mother has just quarrelled with me. She said things (lit. words) to me that even the mother who bore me would not say’. He asked her what she had said to her, (and) she replied ‘There is nothing she did not say to me. She told me to buckle to (lit. tie your belliri around your waist) and set to work for myself. She said “We haven’t arranged a servant for you” (and) “As far as we are concerned, a woman who doesn’t suit us is not essential to us”, and she carried on and on and on’. Sobbing overcame her and she began to weep before her husband (i.e. a sign that action from him is called for). He said to her ‘All right, and now you are crying, (so) what do you want me to do? If it were someone else, I would know at once what to do, but since it is my mother, what (now)? Am I to go to her, to ask her what is the matter (between her) and my wife, and parade myself as being a man with a wife (lit. look at me, I have a wife, i.e. it would be presumption and misplaced pride on his part)? I do not know what I am going to say to you? You know me (i.e. whether I love you or not), and I will tell you just one thing. Turn a deaf ear (lit. pretend not to hear at all) talk of this kind. (Let it) go in the right ear and out of the left. For your part, do what you want and let her say what she likes. I am content with you as you are, for the rest don’t bother about anyone (else). And I’ll just tell you one thing again – take care that when she talks to you, you (don’t) answer her back a single word, because it is greatly shameful to answer back’. She said to him ‘I won’t answer back. Even to all that she said to me, I did not answer back a word. But I cannot stand infuriating talk (lit. talk which breaks the neck) because I am not used to it’. He said ‘All right, (but) whether you are used to it or not, what am I going to do for you?’. She said to 295

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hamígəɣ?’ təṃṃáyas ‘mámak? matta ɣə́ṛk haitigad? al(ə)mmi t(ə)ɣ­sdíy(y)id mbə́lḥəq iziɣ t(ə)ɣsdíy(y)id aqqíməɣ, útlay lyádžik də́mlas “áwal amwáyu m(ə)ʕádš attʕáwəd”. t(ə)ssə́n(ə)d n(ə)tš ukan asə́mləɣ i(y)yə́mma ə́ṛṛbu nway(u) la yṣáṛ bə́ss, ayə́tməl “m(ə)ʕadš atg(ə́)ʕm­ zəd dín ḥ(ə)tta ddqíq(ə)t”. lák(ə)n n(ə)tš wɣisə́ɣš adigəɣ lə́hbal zzat míddən.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘báhi, lakən ḥ(ə)ttá n(ə)tta d(ə)lʕib damə́qqar asəmləɣ i(y)yə́mma “m(ə)ʕa(d)š atutlá(y)əd lɣə́ṛs” – wnəžžmə́ɣš at­ tí­gəɣ. šə́mmin, mamak ṃṃíɣam, la hatqə́llqəd w la hatʕə́yyḍəd w la hatkə́ddrəd imánim! ig timəẓẓúɣin wəss(ə)ʕnat, ayát(ə)f ssyə́h da­yə́f­ fəɣ ssyə́h, iziɣ ɣir atádəl, ə́kkər səzzə́rs kúl!’ t(ə)ssúsəm nafísa dt(ə)k­kə́r tuɣə́das amə́klis iwərgázis dtuɣə́das áman. ysír(ə)d ifássnis99 dyət­ ɣə́dd(a) amə́klis dyəkkə́r yəfla lbábis dyadžis yəswa dídsən ššáhi, wb(ə)ʕdín yədwəl ltəḥnúytis. [62] yfátt amə́zwar dwass ttánəy, təṛlá nafísa swá swa dɣir áṃṃi wyṣaṛš šáṛukan. ussan ússan ttžə́ddəd lʕáṛkət iškəlt íḍ(ə)nt žar nafí­ sa dʕám(m)tis. idžəṃṃás yisi ɣə́ṛsən amə́ssi n(ə)lxáḍəṛ. t(ə)kkər na­ físa t(ə)ɣs átfəl lyádžis haddər (< hatədər) iɣfis lwáhžət ntúqzin. təṃṃáyas ʕám(m)tis ‘bláš idra níɣfim ássu. assu ɣə́ṛnəɣ am(ə)ssi n(ə)lxáḍəṛ. g(ə́)ʕməz ʕəwwəl fə́lli d(ə)ssu tamə́ṛbuʕt100.’ wt(ə)qqíl nafís(a) ataɣ ṛṛá(y)is dtəṃṃáyas ‘m(ə)ʕádš nəžžməɣ ádžəɣ iɣfiw imír. náda ḥə́dd amyʕáwən madum addásəɣ.’ təṃṃáyas ‘n(ə)tš ṃṃíɣam w(ə)ffálš wəɣṛíš ṃaṃṃu hanádiɣ, daṛáhuk atə́fləd kúll ḥə́dd ayig (ə́)ššɣəl níɣfis101. təṃṃáyas ‘n(ə)tš isíɣ ḥaqqíməɣ, lákən manis ámyu, waḷḷáhi l(a)ʕzíz aḍḍləɣ ɣír fliɣ, dtə́kṛumt nṣáləḥ lɣáləy aḍḍləɣ ɣír din, d(ə)nšáḷḷa matta yəɣs áyṣaṛ ayṣaṛ.’ dtig(a) ámyu t(ə)flá. təqqim lyádžis alt­ immútš(u) wb(ə)ʕdín tṛə́wwəḥ. ɣir tutə́f tíddart tlaqqáttət ʕám(m)tis gwími. təṃṃáyas ‘imátta tusə́dəd? t(ə)llid t(ə)qqíməd din íškəlt, manis t(ə)ḥkə́məd gimánim.’ ‘flíɣ dusə́dəɣ, af(ə)lkífiw. ṃaṃṃu haiə́ysal?

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him ‘What! What can you do for me? If you really love me or if you want me to stay, talk to your mother and tell her that she is not to repeat such talk. You know that if I tell my mother just one-quarter of what has passed, she will tell me not to stay here a minute longer. But I don’t want to play the public fool (lit. in front of folk)’. He replied ‘Very well, but for me to tell my mother not to speak to you (lit. her) any more is also very shameful. I cannot do it. You (do) as I told you, do not get angry or weep or upset yourself. Make your ears very large (i.e. so that what goes in one will come out of the other), it will go in this side and come out this, or when she starts, go right away from her (lit. get up from near her completely)’. Nafisa held her peace and left to bring her husband’s meal and water. He washed his hands and had his meal and went off to his parents and took tea with them, whereafter he returned to his shop. [62] The first and second day passed and Nafisa had become quite happy again, just as if nothing had happened. (But) after a few days the quarrel was renewed between Nafisa and her mother-in-law. One day they had guests coming to dinner (lit. a guest-dinner). Nafisa rose at about tuqzin time (i.e. approximately 4 p.m.) to go to her mother’s for her to plait her hair (lit. head). Her mother-in-law said to her ‘Don’t bother plaiting your hair today. We have guests for dinner today. Stay (and) help me, and get the (guests’) room ready’. Nafisa refused to accept her wishes (lit. opinion) and told her that she could not leave her hair loose (lit. open) and to call in someone to help her till she (i.e. Nafisa) came back. She (i.e. Za’ima) said to her ‘I told you not to go. I haven’t anyone I can call in, and, mark you, if you go, everyone will do what he thinks (lit. the work of his/her head, i.e. I shall know what steps to take against you)’. She said to her ‘I was going to stay, but since things are at this pass (lit. it is so), then I swear I am as good as gone (lit. I will be only gone, I shall do nothing else but go, my mind is made up), and by the neck of dear Saleh (i.e. her brother), I will not stay here (lit. I shall only be there, i.e. until I have had my hair plaited), and I hope that whatever is going to happen, will happen’. So (saying) she went. She stayed at her mother’s till sunset and then returned. When she entered the house, her mother-in-law met her just inside and said to her ‘Why have you come (back)? You should have stayed there for good, since you are your own mistress (lit. you order yourself)’. Nafisa replied ‘I went and came back, as I wished. Who is 297

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təṛ­lim báhi, wtəṛlímš tiddart nbába dyə́mma twəssáʕ!’ təṃṃáyas ‘bá­ hi, manis twə́ss(ə)ʕ, imátta tusə́dəd?’ təṃṃáyas ‘lə́wwəl, waittuɣídš (or waituɣidə́dš) šə́mmin ldəhánit. al(ə)mmi ṃṃáyid wuhánit la yuɣ­ díy(y)id m(ə)ʕádš nəɣsám, wb(ə)ʕdín (or b(ə)ʕdís) yəshə́l (or yəz­ hə́l).’ təṃṃáyas lə́wwəl bəllə́wwəl nə́tš (or dnə́tš) la uɣə́dɣam dnə́tš la xtáṛɣam imə́mmi. wəlliš ḥə́ddukan íḍ(ə)n yəxtaṛ dídi, dwássu ma­ nis ššə́ṛ(ə)htiw tədɣá, xláṣ, wb(ə)ʕdín n(ə)tš uṛəywə́ɣš afṛux la ɣir asə́mləɣ táwalt ayərni f(ə́)llas lə́zzat uší. məmmi wəɣṛə́sš ṛṛay dídi dtmə́ṭṭut l(a) aits(ə)ʕʕad nətš qə́bəl dadin d(ə)lʕíltis. tam(ə́)ṭṭut la waitts(ə)ʕʕídš, ábrid la yuɣə́dit áttyərr, wətša d(ə́)ššuq ntsədnan.’ ɣir t(ə)sla nafís(a) awal nʕám(m)tis tqə́lləq al(ə)mmi ndádin102, tig(a) ámyu tknúnnəḍ tlabáttis103, dt(ə)flá lyádžis. təṃṃáyas yádžis ‘áš bim iziɣ ṃaṃṃu yqə́llqam (or yəsqə́llqam)?’ t(ə)ḥkáyas sway(u) la yṣáṛ kúl, dtəṃṃáyas ‘nətš m(ə)ʕádš ɣsəɣ adə́wwləɣ mallik ʕám(m)ti wətša dtam(ə́)ṭṭut la ttwaʕášaṛ. kúll yum aitádəl, maɣar lʕə́mṛiw nátš (= nətš)!?’ təṃṃáyas yádžis ‘dmaɣar šə́mmin imatt(a) attə́džəd kull yum amtádəl? t(ə)llid sə́ṛṛbu ntáwalt tamə́zwart la t(ə)ṃṃáyam tusə́dəd, dɣir t(ə)ṃṃídid in(ə)tš báss! lákən t(ə)st(ə)hləd ə́ktəṛ nwáyu. ṭṭə́bbis atig lbə́rdʕət datál(ə)y afírim datə́nxəṣ.’ təṃṃáyas nafísa ‘ʕád n(ə)tš madʕili wɣisəɣš adigəɣ l(ə́)hbal zzat míddən.’ təṃṃáyas ‘ayu wətšá dl(ə́)hbal – dl(ə́)hbal al(ə)mmi t(ə)qqíməd dtədžít zʕíma atməl ayu la tə́ɣs. yaḷḷá kkər (< ə́kkər) anf(ə)l an(ə)ddnaɣ ddbášim xxul wb(ə)ʕdín yəzhə́l.’

[63] təkkər nafísa t(ə)flá n(ə)ttat dyádžis lakən wfinə́tš zʕíma dín. udə́lnət ttxəmmə́lnət gə́ddəbaš104. ṃaṃṃu yəṃṃáyas izʕíma, tus(ə)d ttázzəl, təṃṃayásnət ‘ə́slət, l(ə)hbál wəttigətš (or wəttigəttíš)! ə́dd(ə)baš la nnə́wən mamak tə́ɣsmət (or təɣsəmt) igə́mtas! wəllíš ṃaṃṃu akənnə́ysal dís, lákən ddbaš la (wə)tša nnə́wən džə́ttid gwəmkánis mallik wəllíš bnádəm ukán, ukan attyə́xləq ṛə́bbi dmátta n(ə́)tta, ynəž­ žəm attisúfəɣ simi ntíddart lbə́ṛṛa.’ təṃṃáyas yadžis nnafísa ‘kúllši

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going to force me? If you are happy, fine, if you aren’t, my parents’ house is a very large one’. Za’ima said ‘Well and good, since it is large, why have you come (back)?’. ‘Right is against you (?)’, she replied, ‘you did not bring me here. If the one who did tells me we no longer want you here, then it will be (an) easy (matter to arrange)’. She said to her ‘First of all, it was me who brought you and me who chose you for my son. Nobody did the choosing with me, and today since my liking (for you) has flown away, everything is over, and, moreover, I did not bear a son who, when I tell him (not to do) something, still carries on with it. My son has no opinion contrary to mine (lit. against me) and the woman who suits me (i.e. before him) will be his wife. The woman who doesn’t suit me can go back by the road she came, there is no shortage of women’. When Nafisa heard what her mother-in-law had to say, she was extremely angry, put on her jerd, and went off to her mother. Her mother said to her ‘What’s the matter, who has upset you?’. She told her everything that had happened and said ‘I won’t go back again, because my mother-in-law is not the (kind of) woman that can be lived with. Every day she would start in on me. It’s too much for me (i.e. a free translation of the literal form of words “how old am I?”, which in fact has nothing to do with age)’. Her mother rejoined ‘So why then did you let her start in on you every day? You should have just come and told me as soon as she opened her mouth (lit. from the first quarter of a word), and you deserve worse (i.e. because you did not come). What she (i.e. Za’ima) should have done was put a donkeysaddle (on you) and ride on your back and spur you’. Nafisa said ‘I had no wish to appear publicly foolish’. Her mother said ‘This isn’t foolishness, it was foolish(ness) when you stayed and let Za’ima say whatever she wanted. Come on, let’s go and bring your things now, and after there will be no problem’. [63] Nafisa went off with her mother but they didn’t find Za’ima there. They began collecting things together. Someone told Za’ima and she came running and said to them ‘Listen! Don’t be foolish (lit. don’t do foolishness)! The things that are yours, do to them what you want, nobody will gainsay you in this, but the things which are not yours, leave them (lit. it) where they are, because there is no one at all let God make the mightiest in the world (lit. what he is) who can take them out of the house (lit. from the entrance of the house to the outside)’. Nafisa’s mother said to her ‘We are going to take everything 299

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hanttə́nwəy dwnttadžíš šáṛukan gwaṃṃas ntzə́qqa, ḥ(ə)ttá ššəršáfat dləɣláfat ntəmxə́ddyin105 hanttə́nwəy. hánwəy kúllši dnə́knim wətša dmíddən diṣbíḥən.’ təṃṃáyas ‘ṣṣḷá ʕalə́nnbi! ay(u) dšáṛa wəttigínš la im(ə)zwár(ə)n la in(ə)ʕqábən! hatə́wyəm ššəršáfat dləɣláfat – maɣar mə́mmi yəmmút a!? bʕíd w bə́ṛṛa, ya ṛə́bbi ḥfə́ḍna!106 waḷḷáhi l(a) ʕzíz dtəkṛúmt nmə́mmi lɣáləy, wətsúfɣəm šáṛa wətša nnə́wən ukan hattwə́qləb ddúnyət t(ə)kmə́l!’ dudə́lnət ttəmxaṣámnət, xirə́ya t(ə)nná hanwəy (ə́)ddbaš yəkmə́l dzʕíma t(ə)nnáyas wtəggayə́mš šáṛukan.

[64] n(ə)tnínat ammídin ttəmxaṣámnət anḍḷḷák ds(ə́)ʕid xášš. yəṃṃa­ yásnət ‘matt(a) áyu nləxṣúmt?’ təṃṃáyas lʕíltis ‘mamak t(ə)ssə́nd n(ə)š­nin ɣə́ṛnəɣ am(ə)ssi n(ə)lxáḍəṛ dnafísa tusəd hat(ə́)ff(ə)ɣ b(ə)ʕd túq­ zin. ṃṃíɣas g(ə́)ʕməz w(ə)tt(ə)ffə́ɣš, ɣsə́ɣam aitʕáwnəd. təṃṃáyid ɣír yaha. ṃṃíɣas al(ə)mmi t(ə)ɣsəd at(ə́)ffɣəd m(ə)ʕadš addə́wl(ə)d (or addúld < atədəwləd). t(ə)flá dtusdíy(y)id n(ə)tta dyádžis igəntíy(y)id tʕábbat(t) dudə́lnət haiyəslə́bbnət tazəqqa nmə́mmi. ɣir ṃṃiɣás­ nət “d(ə́)lʕib! dway(u) nl(á)ʕməl ttigəntíš míddən ɣir iwuh la yəmmút, udə́lnət ttxaṣámnət də́gi mamak tẓə́ṛṛəd.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘yáḷḷa, xxul ssú­ səm! m(ə)ʕá(d)š atrənyəd ḥ(ə)tta táwalt ídžət, də́ffəɣ sətzə́qqa kúl! lxáḍəṛ ʕammál hadátfən. džínt af(ə)lkifənnə́snət, mámak ɣsə́nt. al(ə)mmi ɣsə́nt aqəll(ə́)ʕnət ḥ(ə)tta tazə́qqa dattə́wyənt (or dattwínt), džáw­yənt (or džawín(ə)t). wətšá xṣáṛa gnafísa107 wb(ə)ʕdín aitšá (a)nntt(ə́)n-­ ḥuzz.’ dyig(a) ámyu yəffə́ɣ yədžínt, dḥ(ə)tta zʕíma t(ə)ffə́ɣ. ɣir qqímnət wəḥdənnə́snət, təṃṃáyas nafísa i(y)yádžis ‘xxul də́lʕib anwəy ddəbaš wúh yəkmə́l dšə́mmin aita t(ə)slíd ʕámmi matta yəṃṃá.’ təṃṃáyas ‘sidis ídžən d(ə́)lʕib lákən sidis ttánəy zʕíma t(ə)stáhlit dukán ɣír yiga ṛə́bbi wəddyusíš s(ə́)ʕid, xxul átẓəṛ ṃaṃṃu dtam(ə́)ṭṭut, nə́tš iziɣ dnə́ttat, lakən xxúl ḷḷa ɣáləb108. yáḷḷa (a)nláyəm ddəbašə́nnəɣ nə́šnin bə́ss, danṛə́wwəḥ.’ layə́mnət ddbaš(ə)nnə́snət dṛə́wwəḥnət. lwaitša tálži n(ə)tninat səddíɣ wkəmməlnə́tš ššáhi yut(ə)f f(ə)llásnət s(ə́)ʕid. “ʕáfəyt

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and not leave a thing in the room, even the sheets, pillowcases, and pillows. We are going to take everything, whether you like it or not (lit. for you are not good people, i.e. one must always struggle with bad people)’. Za’ima said ‘As the Prophet is my witness (lit. prayers on the Prophet), this is something which neither (our) forbears nor (their) descendants (lit. the first and the last) have (ever) done! You are going to take the sheets and pillowcases – is my son dead, then? Heaven forbid (lit. far away and outside), God protect us (i.e. from Ferhat’s death). I swear on the neck of my dear son, you will remove nothing, not even what belongs to you, even if the whole world were to turn upside down’. And they set about quarrelling, Kheriya saying ‘We are going to take all the(se) things’ and Za’ima saying they weren’t going to take a thing. [64] They were quarelling like this when Sa’id came in. He asked them what (all) the quarelling was about. His wife said to him ‘As you know, we have guests for dinner and Nafisa was going to go out (lit. came to go out) after tuqzin. I told her (to) stay (and) not to go out (and) that I wanted her to help me. She just refused. I told her that, if she were to go out, she would never return. She went and came (back) with her mother (and) they ranted at me and began stripping my son’s room. When I told them that that this was wicked and that people did not do this except when someone has died, they began quarrelling with me as you saw’. He said ‘Right, now hold your peace! Don’t say (lit. add) another word, and go right of the room! The guests are going to arrive. Let them do what they want, even if they want to destroy (lit. knock down, uproot) the room and take it (away), let them! What Nafisa takes is not lost (lit. there is no loss in Nafisa) and tomorrow we will settle things (lit. it)’. Saying this, he went out and left them, and Za’ima also left. When they were alone, Nafisa said to her mother ‘It would now be shameful if we take all these things and you have just heard what my father-in-law said’. Kheriya said ‘On the one hand, it is shameful, but, on the other, Za’ima deserved it, and if only God had not brought Sa’id back, then she would have seen who is a (real) woman, her or me, but I can do nothing now (lit. God is the winner, i.e. it is fate). Let’s just collect up our own things and go home’. And this is what they did (lit. they collected their things and went home). The following morning, before they had still not finished their tea, Sa’id came to them and wished them good morning (lit. “health and 301

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dwárəzg” – “dárəzg assik dám(ə)bruk.” yəṃṃáyas s(ə)ʕid ixirə́ya ‘iḍ(ə)n­nát wəqqíləɣ adutláyəɣ lɣə́ṛm mallik ufíɣam tqəllqəd bzáyəd dw­ b(ə)ʕ­dín lxáḍəṛ džíɣt(ə)n də́ffri, lakən xxúl usə́dəɣ hadutláyəɣ dídəm dəɣsə́ɣ adutlayəɣ dídəm dazəgrár. slíy(y)id y(ə)ʕdə́l dakzíy(y)id. n(ə)tš madʕíli swass amə́zwar wakənnəqṣídəɣ kán b(ə)ʕd la ḥsə́bəɣ matta háyṣaṛ aitšá db(ə)ʕd aitšá dukán wətša madʕíli tiddarínnəɣ dídžət, aɣəntḥə́mlən dakənnə́ḥməl, wak(ə)nqəṣṣdə́ɣš kúl, wb(ə)ʕdín al(ə)mmi (or, better, manis) yiga ṛə́bbi dyṣaṛ šáṛa, wətša lázəm la l(ə)x­ṣúmt w la d(ə́)lʕaṛ zzat mídd(ə)n. antt(ə́)nḥuzz žarayánəɣ nə́šnin, wə́x­láṣ.’ təṃṃáyas ‘akə́mləɣ ə́lḥəqq. lʕíltik wəllíš ṃaṃṃu ynə́žžəm att­ yʕá­šəṛ day(ə́)ʕməṛ díd(ə)s, dnə́tš xxul kúllši (y)fát, swáss amə́zwar ssə́nəɣ kullši dssə́nnəɣ háyṣaṛ áyu dháyṣaṛ uší (ə)ktəṛ nwáyu, dlukán ɣir wətša n(ə)ttḥə́ššəm ssə́kk šə́kkin də́ššix yfat dís yušawən táwalt, wɣəṛnə́ɣš táfṛuxt la hatʕášəṛ zʕíma. yə́lli wt(ə)lmíd la swʕə́wwəl w la surə́kkəb w la šáṛukan ay(u) la t(ə)qqím dídi yəkmə́l wəllíš ṃaṃṃu ynə́žžəm asə́yməl “ḥə́wwəl ḥ(ə)tta st(ə́)ffuyt l(ə́)ḍḍ(ə)ll”. tawalt ídžət bə́ss akənttə́mləɣ – t(ə)ʕžbáwən yə́lli duši t(ə)ɣsə́mtət, atə́dwəl afššə́ṛḍ ídžən. m(ə)ʕádš at(ə́)ʕməṛ did zʕíma109. təṃṃím yahá iziɣ dšáṛa, yə́lli at(ə)qqim dídi dəh, wəxláṣ.’

[65] yig(a) ámyu yəkkər s(ə́)ʕid yəffə́ɣ, yəṃṃáyas ‘manis dáy(u) dawá­ lim m(ə)ʕádš ɣəṛi matta ham(ə́)mləɣ kúl110.’ aššar áššar yusdásnət fə́ṛ­ ḥat yufínət g(ə)ʕmə́znət. yg(ə́)ʕməz zzə́rsnət dyəṃṃáyas ilʕíltis ‘mátta yṣáṛ iziɣ áš bim?’ təṃṃáyas ‘ay(u) la yṣáṛ yṣáṛ, ḥmə́ləɣ ḥmə́ləɣ, ássu xláṣ! m(ə)ʕádš nəžžməɣ aḥə́mləɣ.’ yhúzz fəṛḥat íɣfis. təṃṃáyas yadžis nnafísa ‘áš bik, tthúzzud gíɣfik? mátta? yádžik ttwaʕašáṛ a? ɣir nə́šnin la wənṣ(ə)llə́ḥš a?’ yəṃṃáyas ‘báhi, xxul aitu šə́mmin tamə́qqart dt(ə)ssə́nd əktəṛə́nnəɣ kúl, mátta hadígəɣ, tṛá? hafləɣ lyəmmá (interrogative accentuation) asəmləɣ “m(ə)ʕádš atutláyəd lɣə́ṛs”, iziɣ mámak? šə́mmin

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prosperity!”) and they in turn greeted him (lit. “And prosperity (to you, and) may your day be blessed”). He said to Kheriya ‘I wouldn’t speak to you last night because I found you very angry, and also I had left our guests behind me (i.e. outside the house), but I have now come to talk to you and want to do so at some length. Listen carefully and understand me! From the first day I had not thought of asking you (for anything) before I had calculated what would happen in the future (lit. on the morrow and the day after), and if I had not considered our houses as one, that you would put up with us and us with you, I would not have asked you at all, and then again, since God has decreed what has happened, there is (still) no need for quarrelling or for shaming ourselves before people. We can settle it between ourselves, and that’ll be an end to it’. She said to him ‘Truth to tell, your wife is not someone whom one can live near or with. As far as I am concerned, though everything has now happened (i.e. I cannot undo the marriage), I knew everything from the first day, that this would happen and that still more (than this) will happen, and if only we had not felt unable to refuse (lit. shy of) you yourself and if the Sheikh had not already pledged you his word, we would have had no daughter (of ours) live with Za’ima. My daughter is not used to housework, to cooking, or to anything (like that). All the time she lived with me no one could say to her even to move from the sun into the shade (i.e. give her the slightest order). I will say one thing to you only – if my daughter pleases you and you still want her, she will stay on one condition. She will no longer live with Za’ima. You may refuse or what you will, (but) my daughter will live here with me, and that’s final’. [65] Sa’id rose and left, saying ‘Since this is what you declare, I have nothing more at all to say’. After a little while Ferhat came to find them (i.e. Kheriya and Nafisa) sitting and sat down next to them. He said to his wife ‘What has happened, what’s the matter with you?’. She replied ‘What has happened has happened, I have endured it over and over again, and today I have had enough! I can’t take it any more’. Ferhat nodded (i.e. noncommitally). Nafisa’s mother said ‘Why do you nod? What!? Is your mother fit to live with? Is it just us who are worthless?’. He said to her ‘All right, since you are an old (i.e. experienced) woman, and know much better than all of us (i.e. Ferhat and Nafisa), what are we going to do, then? Am I going to my mother to tell her that she (lit. you) is no longer to speak to her (i.e. Nafisa), or what? Take yourself 303

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xxúl ukan atəmkúššəd šə́mmin dəlhəl nṣáləḥ damə́ddyas ṣáləḥ amə́yməl “m(ə)ʕadš atutlayəd lɣə́ṛs iziɣ m(ə)ʕádš attnábid”, mátta hatə́mləd?’ təṃṃáyas ‘n(ə)tš dyádžik wətšá swá swá. n(ə)tš ə́lhəl nṣáləḥ xxul dídi, wətšá idžə́ṃṃas iziɣ šə́həṛ isəggásən dálləxxúl wətsliš sɣə́ṛi tawalt la ttʕə́ddəm. n(ə)tš akə́mləɣ yə́lli m(ə)ʕádš atə́dwəl kúnš(i) al(ə)mmi gtíddart wə́ḥdəs. n(ə)tš wakənníɣš (ə)ffəɣ sbábik dyádžik, adin dšáṛa wətšá dššə́ɣliw, lákən mamak ṃṃíɣak, yə́lli m(ə)ʕádš atə́dwəl. šáṛa idžət bə́ss, ɣsə́ɣak astə́llfəd wəttadžittətš tugə́l111.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘ʕad nə́šnin uší nuṣílš aldín.’ təṃṃáyas ‘la, nuṣə́l(i) d(ə)nfát(i)! yə́ll(i) idwal m(ə)ʕádš atə́dwəl, dmátta uší? úšas tawáltis112 wəxláṣ! lḥámdu lláh ḥ(ə)ttá ddəbašə́nwən nəkmə́l nədží, wnəwyíš sís ḥ(ə)ttá tissə́gnit dḥ(ə)ttá ddbaš la ɣə́ṛnəɣ, al(ə)mmi t(ə)ɣsə́mtid, akə́nttnuš – la hanəmʕáfən w la dšáṛukan. t(ə)qqím yəlli ɣə́ṛwən ay(u) la t(ə)qqím dwássu manis yxə́ff lməktúbis113, atṛə́wwəḥ, wəxláṣ. al(ə)mmi ɣə́ṛs ša lmə́ktub, attáwḍ, al(ə)mmi wəɣṛə́sš, at(ə)qqim əgtíddart nḥíbis114. la ṃáṃṃu hattyqə́lləq w la ṃáṃṃu hattyʕə́ddəm.’ yəṃṃáyas fə́ṛḥat ‘báhi, mlíy(y)id šə́mm matta nə́žžməɣ adígəɣ, dwáy(u) la haitə́mləd attígəɣ.’ təṃṃáyas ‘n(ə)tš tawalt ídžət ṃṃiɣáktət d(ə)lbáqi ttánəy wətšá dššə́ɣliw. ṃṃíɣak yə́lli al(ə)mmi wətša gtíddart wə́ḥdəs, wətdəggə́lš. lukán yəɣs áyṣaṛ matt(a) áyṣaṛ, day(u) dtáwalt tamə́zwart ədtn(ə́)ʕqabt.’ fə́ṛḥat wyəqqíl á(y)ərr ḥ(ə)ttá táwalt. yiga íɣfis gəlq(ə́)ʕat dyxə́mməm am(ə)šwáṛ, wb(ə)ʕdín yəkkə́r səzzə́rsnət dyəffə́ɣ ltḥnúytis. yədža tlát(a) əṛb(ə)ʕ iy(y)ám, yig(a) ámyu ydəwlásnət (< yədwəlasnət), yufa yádžis n(ə)lʕíltis t(ə)q­qím gtawáltis tamə́zwart. yəṃṃáyas ‘(y)a lálla xirə́ya, b(ə)lláhi ʕlík, imátta ddə́wwət la wəldí(s)š ttə́mṛət? imátta wnttutláyəš áwal m(ə)ʕqúl. šə́mmin t(ə)ssə́nd tíddart wə́ḥdi wəttṣáṛš – lʕáṛ wərrzíy(y)a zzat míddən. nə́tš ɣsə́ɣtət atə́dwəl dnə́ttat tə́ɣs atə́dwəl, imátta wətdəggə́lš ltiddártis dtzə́qqas, dátig mamak ṃṃíɣas nə́tš wəxláṣ – tim(ə)ẓẓúɣin wəss(ə́)ʕnat. atšáti wəllíš ṃaṃṃu attə́ywətt dwáwal attysít(ə)f áḍu stmə́ẓẓuɣt tanə́ffist dattysúfəɣ sətẓə́lmaḍt.’ təṃṃáyas ‘mámak!? ṭə́yyəb manis wətšat(ə)ntətš!? lá, əwttə́ttət xír. ə́səl! nə́šnin wətš(a) ammídən ttányin. nə́šnin ḥ(ə)tt(a) áwal la ɣír yəsqə́llaq wənḥəmmlíš, dtínzar

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now, if you quarrelled with Saleh’s wife and Saleh came to tell you not to talk (i.e. give orders) to her or even call her again, what would you say?’. She replied ‘I am not like your mother. Saleh’s wife has been with me now not for a day or a month but for years and up to now she has not heard from me a word to offend (lit. hurt) her. I’ll tell you, my daughter will never return except to a house of her own. I am not telling you to leave your father and mother, that is something which doesn’t concern me, but, as I told you, my daughter will not return. One thing only (i.e. I am going to ask, if a separate house is out of the question), I want you to divorce her and not to leave her in suspense (lit. hanging)’. He said to her ‘But we haven’t got that far yet’. She said ‘No, we have got beyond it (lit. reached it and passed it)! My daughter will never return (lit. return a returning), so what more (is there)? Divorce her (lit. give her her word) and have done! Praise God we also left all your things, we didn’t even take a needle, and even the things which are ours, if you want them, we will give them (lit. it) to you. We’re going to have no misunderstanding or anything. My daughter has stayed with you as long as she is going to, and from today, since her fate has turned against her, she will come home, and there’s an end to it. If she has (another) destined for her, she will follow him, if not, she will remain in her father’s house. No one is going to upset or harm her’. He said ‘All right, you tell me what I can do, and (what you (will) tell me) I will do it’. She said she had told him her final word and the rest did not concern her, that her daughter would not return except to her own house, and that, whatever happened, this was the first and last word. Ferhat remained totally silent (lit. refused to answer a word), (but) looking down (lit. he put his head in the earth), he pondered a while, then rose from beside them and took himself off to his shop. After three or four days he returned to them (and) found his wife’s mother (still) firm in her earlier view. He said to her ‘Aunt Kheriya, for Heaven’s sake, what is the point of this useless talk? Why don’t we talk reasonably? You know that a house on my own cannot be – it would be shameful and crass in the eyes of people. I want her to come (home) and so does she, why doesn’t she come back to her house and room, and do nothing more than I have told her, stretch her ears wide? No one will beat her and the breeze will bring (any) talk in by the right ear and out by the left’. She rejoined ‘What!? That’s nice of them not to beat her!? No, it’s better if they do. Listen! We are not like other people. We cannot slightly endure hurtful words, and God 305

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waɣənttyigíš ṛə́bb(i) it(ə́)xnan (or itíxnan)115 yiganə́ɣt(ə)n innámus, dnə́šnin wakənnəṃṃíš šáṛukan116. ddbáš la t(ə)ɣsə́m akə́nttnuš, ən­ nə́fqət117 wənḍ(ə)llbítš sɣə́ṛwən. úštas tawáltis wəxláṣ! dnšáḷḷa nə́knim atúḍim gwara nl(ə́)ḥlal akənnys(ə)ʕʕəd dnə́šnin anúḍa gwara nl(ə́)ḥ­lal anəmsáʕəd nəšniníd(ə)s.’ yufíš fə́ṛḥat matta háyərr f(ə́)llas. yg(ə́)ʕməz áššar dyəkkər yṛə́wwəḥ ltiddártis. ɣír yuṣə́l tus(ə)das wə́ltmas118 təṃṃáyas ‘ɣəṛi áwal ɣsəɣ akəttə́mləɣ sbábik dyádžik.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘xír nšáḷḷa119.’ təṃṃáyas ‘yádžik dbábik slə́nn la t(ə)flíd lnafísa dyádžis, dyádžis nnafísa təṃṃáyak “yə́lli wətdəggə́lš kán ma hastígəd tíddart wə́ḥdəs, dwáyu ḥ(ə)tta n(ə́)šnin n(ə)slí, dtəṃṃayanə́ɣtid, lákən šə́kk ərr lbálik aktə́qləb íɣfik iziɣ atáɣəd əṛṛáyis. nə́šnin yə́llis la nẓúṛṛit w la nigás šáṛa. t(ə)ɣs át(ə)dwəl ait(a) ábrid zzát(ə)s, t(ə)ɣs atə́qqim, atə́q­ qim ḥ(ə)tta díma. xxul ánẓəṛ ṃaṃṃu ayə́ndəm, nə́šnin iziɣ dnə́ttat.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘ay(u) wətšá dáwal dnə́tš af(ə)lkífiw. adígəɣ ayu la ɣsə́ɣ, wəllíš ṃaṃṃ(u) ayə́ḥkəm də́gi, matta haiy(ə́)ʕžəb attígəɣ, adátfəɣ ḥ(ə)tta lə́xla (or ḥ(ə)ttá l(ə)xla).’ t(ə)fla táfṛuxt təṃṃáyas iyádžis matta t(ə)sla sɣə́ṛs.

[66] ɣir yusə́d s(ə́)ʕid, təṃṃáyas lʕíltis ‘ay(u) la n(ə)ggə́ḍ sis yṣáṛ. áfṛux fis(ə)ʕ fís(ə)ʕ qlə́bnas íɣfis.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘mámak?’ təṃṃáyas ‘nkə́y(ə)ɣas did wə́ltmas swadin nwáwal la t(ə)ṃṃidíy(y)id (or t(ə)ṃṃídid). yəṃṃáyas “n(ə)tš af(ə)lkífiw, adígəɣ ayu lá ɣsə́ɣ, wəllíš ṃaṃṃ(u) ayə́ḥ­kəm də́gi, adátfəɣ ḥ(ə)tta lə́xla”.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘nə́šnin nəṃṃáyas dnə́tta af(ə)lkífis. manis wəɣṛə́sš ṃaṃṃ(u) ayə́ḥkəm dís, ayig ay(u) la yə́ɣs, dəxxúl ánẓəṛ b(ə)ʕdin. fə́ṛḥat məskín yufíš mamak háyig, mallik yə́ɣs lʕíltis bzáyəd, madabíh atə́dwəl dwasytəllǝ́fš, lákən yádžis nnafísa wəllíš áqsaḥ níɣfis – átməl tawáltis la búdda t(ə)ɣsít. wliháda lʕíltis wəddəggə́lš kúnš(i) al(ə)mmi gtíddart wə́ḥdəs. yəqqím fə́ṛḥat yttxə́mməm dnə́tta məskín mabín naṛín – al(ə)mmi yəllə́fas ilʕíltis wyɣís, al(ə)mmi yəffə́ɣ sbábis dyádžis wyɣís. idžəṃṃás sidžəṃṃásət

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has made our nostrils not just for mucous but for pride. Nor have we bespoken anything (i.e. demanded recompense). The things you want, we shall give to you, nor shall we ask alimony from you. Divorce her and finish! I hope you will happen upon a worthy (mate) who will suit you and that we (too) will find a good match who will suit us and to whom we shall be suitable’. Ferhat did not know how to respond to her. He stayed a while, then rose and went home. When he got there, his sister (i.e. Lulu) came to him and said she had something to tell him from their father and mother. ‘Good tidings, I hope’, he said. She said ‘Your mother and father have heard that you have been to Nafisa and her mother, and that Nafisa’s mother told you that her daughter would not return (to you) unless you set her up in a house of her own. We too have heard this since (lit. and) she said it to us. (But) take care that she doesn’t muddle you up (lit. turn your head upside down) and that you (don’t) follow her advice. We have not sent her daughter away or done anything to her. If she wants to return, the way is open before her, (but) if she wants to stay (there), she can stay (there) for good. Now we shall see who will be sorry, us or her’. He replied ‘This is nonsense (lit. this is not talk, i.e. sensible talk), and things are up to me. I shall do what I will, nobody shall force me, I’m going to do what I please. I will even clear right out (lit. go to the desert)’. The girl went off and told her mother what she (had) heard from him. [66] When Sa’id came, his wife said to him ‘What we were afraid of has happened. They have very quickly turned the boy’s mind’. He asked her how this was. She said ‘I let him know (lit. sent to him) via his sister what you told me, and he replied that it was up to him, that he would do as he wished, that nobody was going to tyrannize him, and that he would clear right out’. He said to her ‘We told him (i.e. what to do) and it is (now) up to him. Since no one is going to order him about, let him do what he likes, and we shall see afterwards (what happens)’. Poor Ferhat didn’t know what to be doing, because he loved his wife dearly. He wanted her to return and not to divorce her, but Nafisa’s mother was stubbornly obdurate (lit. there was nothing harder than her head) – when she said something, she had to have it (i.e. her own way). So his wife was not going to return unless to a house of her own. Ferhat worried all the time (lit. remained worrying) and was in a dilemma (lit. between two fires), poor fellow, neither wanting to divorce his wife nor to leave his parents. One day he sent 307

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yənkə́yas ibábis yəṃṃáyas “n(ə)tš ámləɣ də́lʕib zzat míddən an(ə)mxáṣəm nəšnin də́ššix dlukan anəmfáhəm xír. mánis lalla xiríya t(ə)kməš gtawáltis anttns(ə́)ʕʕəd wəxláṣ. lḥámdu lláh nə́šnin ḥ(ə)tta tíddart ɣə́ṛ­nəɣ. aʕə́mṛəɣ nə́tš gtíddart ttánya wəxláṣ – xír nkúllši! ləxṣúmət dləxṣart120 imátt? xxúl hanə́lləf itúh dhanig zzə́ḥmət íḍ(ə)n wəldísš (ə́)llzum”. yərrás bábis yəṃṃáyas “al(ə)mmi šə́kkin dáraw mbə́lḥəq, ábrid la hak(ə)ttsə́knəɣ ugur díd(ə)s, wa ida kán t(ə)ɣsəd atxálfəd dha­tu­ gúr(ə)d afə́ṛṛay níɣfik, íg ay(u) l(a) aky(ə́)ʕžəb, dkúll ḥə́dd yəssən ššə́ɣlis121. šəkk atʕə́mṛəd gtíddart wə́ḥdək ədnətš aʕə́mṛəɣ gtíddart wə́ḥdi, ay(u) dšáṛa wəttšáṛš – wəṛllittə́tš la ṛə́bbi w lá lʕabd122, dway(u) ntɣusíwin n(ə)tš ss(ə)nə́ɣt(ə)n ə́ktṛik. nə́šnin táfṛuxt nəsqə́llqit iziɣ wntt­nəsqəllə́qš, adin dšáṛa yfát dnə́tš ṃṃíɣas “ə́dwəl ltzə́qqam dm(ə)ʕádš dis ḥə́dd ynə́žžəm ayútlay lɣə́ṛm ḥ(ə)tt(a) áwal”123. wt(ə)qqíl. m(ə)ʕádš ɣə́ṛnəɣ matta hásnig. anttnsúggəm sə́nt iziɣ tlata n(ə)lḥáfḍat íḍ(ə)n, bálək an(ə)tyə́hda ṛə́bbi daɣə́yyrən əṛṛa(y)ə́nsən. al(ə)mmi b(ə)ʕdín nufin səddiɣ kmə́šən gwawalə́nsən, anxə́mməm matta hánig.’

[67] yədža s(ə́)ʕid al(ə)mmi fátn(ə)t sənt n(ə)lḥífḍat dyig(a) ámyu yəqd(ə́)ʕ f(ə)llásnət. yutə́f yufa nafísa gwáṃṃas ntíddart yəṃṃáyas ‘mani yádžim?’ təṃṃáyas ‘t(ə)ffəɣ swállin l(ə)lžíṛan, xxúl t(ə)lla ʕam­ mál hatát(ə)f. íyya g(ə)ʕməz ládday akígəɣ ššáhi.’ yg(ə́)ʕməz ládday dtudəl ttígas gəššáhi. aššar áššar tut(ə)f yádžis tg(ə́)ʕməz zzə́rsən al(ə)m­mi kə́mmlən ššáhi. ɣir kə́mmlən ššáhi, t(ə)kkə́r nafísa t(ə)ffə́ɣ səzzə́r­ sən124 dtədžín wəḥdə́nsən. yəṃṃáyas s(ə́)ʕid ‘á, mátta lfə́krim? tš(ə)b­ʕə́d səṛṛa(y)ím iziɣ uší? áɣ əṛṛá(y)iw džát(ə)kkər (ədž + atək­kər) táf­ṛuxt atṛə́wwəḥ ltzə́qqas dəggtáwən (< d + ggətt + awən) llə́h­ bal.’ təṃṃáyas ‘wəllíš la dlə́hbal w la dšáṛukan. n(ə́)tš tawalt ídžət ṃṃiɣáktət sləwwə́l dwádin n(ə́)ttat tamə́zwart dtn(ə́)ʕqabt dwn(ə)tt­ ɣimíš ʕád mamak yəṃṃá uday “kə́lma wə́ḥda ygulu fíha wyʕáwdu”125. yəṃṃáyas s(ə́)ʕid ‘day(u) dawalím a?’ təṃṃáyas ‘day(u) dn(ə́)tta!’ yəṃṃáyas ‘báhi, manis ámyu, iziɣ n(ə́)tš aitu amə́mləɣ – ayu ə́wwəl

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word to his father saying ‘I think it is a matter of public shame for us to quarrel with the Sheikh’s family and it would be better if we came to a mutual understanding. Since Aunt Kheriya was adamant in what she said, we could accommodate her and have done. Praise God, we also have a house, I could live in the other house and that would be an end to it. This is the best idea (lit. better than all else). What is the point of quarrelling and expenditure (lit. loss, i.e. on another wedding)!? There is no need for us to divorce this one now and to throw another party (lit. crowd, i.e. of guests at second wedding)’. His father sent his reply saying ‘If you truly are my child, follow the path which I will show you, and if you want to oppose (me) and to follow (lit. walk) the counsel of your (own) head, do what you please, but everyone will know what to do (lit. knows his work, i.e. I shall know what steps to take). For you to live in a house of your own and for me to live in a house of my own, that is impossible – neither God nor his servant (i.e. man) could accept it, and I know these matters better than you. Whether we upset the girl or not, that is a thing of the past, as I have told her to come back to her room and that there was no longer anyone who would say anything to her, (but) she refused. There is nothing more we can do (for her). We will wait for her another two or three weeks, (when) perhaps God will make them (i.e. including the Sheikh) reasonable and they will change their mind. If later on we find them still obstinate in what they say, we will consider what to do’. [67] Sa’id let a couple of weeks pass and (as he had said) went to call on them. He entered and found (just) Nafisa in the house. He asked her where her mother was and she replied that she had just gone out to her neighbours’ and would be back soon. She asked him to sit down and said she would make him tea. He sat down and she began to make tea. Shortly after, her mother came in and sat with them until they had finished tea. At this point (lit. when they had finished tea) Nafisa got up and left them on their own. Sa’id (then) said to her (i.e. Kheriya) ‘Well, what do you (now) think? Have you had enough of your opinion or not (yet)? Take my advice and let the girl come home to her room, and enough of all this nonsense!’. She replied ‘There’s no nonsense or anything. I gave you from the beginning my final word, and it is (my) first and my last and don’t carry on in the way the Jew spoke of, (that is,) “they (only) say one thing and (keep) repeating it”’. Sa’id asked if that was (all) she had to say. She replied that it was. He said ‘Right 309

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mə́ṛṛa daxər mə́rra (a)m(ə)ddásəɣ dís, dswássu m(ə)ʕádš at(ə)sl(ə)d sɣə́ṛi ḥ(ə)tta táwalt.’ dyəffə́ɣ səzzərs yqə́lləq. b(ə)ʕd yumín iziɣ tláta yusdásnət fə́ṛḥat dyəṃṃáyas iyadžis n(ə)lʕíltis ‘n(ə)tš áitu ɣsəɣ akə́ryəɣ tíddart dhárrəɣ lʕíltiw daʕə́mṛəɣ dis wə́ḥdi. ṃáṃṃu yəɣs ayə́ṛla (a)yəṛ­la, ṃáṃṃu yɣísš, af(ə)lkífis.’ wt(ə)qqíl xiríya as(ə)tməl šáṛu­ kan126. b(ə)ʕd la yəqqím didə́snət áššar, yəffə́ɣ, dyədwə́l swassdín yttʕə́wwəl aftíddart la hay(ə)ʕməṛ dís. yəkrə́y tíddart dyədwə́l yəs­ sáɣas gə́ddbaš. yəslá sis bábis dyádžis. yənkə́yas bábis did ídžən swatšíwən yəṃṃáyas ‘ə́mlas “ yəṃṃáyak bábik < slíɣ t(ə)krə́yəd tíddart hatʕə́mṛəd dís. n(ə)tš wɣisə́ɣš akəmləɣ báhi iziɣ yahá. íg ay(u) lá t(ə)ɣsəd lákən, aṛáhuk, akyig ṛə́bbi dattígəd mbə́lḥəq, xláṣ! m(ə)ʕad la dnə́tš w la dšə́kk, la dnə́tš dbábik w la dšə́kkin dmə́mmi, dšə́kk af(ə)lkífik>.’ yufíš fəṛḥat mamak áyig mallik al(ə)mmi y(ə)ʕmə́ṛ gtíddart la yəkrə́yit, bábis m(ə)ʕádš ayútlay lɣə́ṛs w l(a) attynába, dal(ə)mmi wy(ə)ʕmíṛš wə́ḥdəs, lʕíltis m(ə)ʕadš atə́dwəl, lakən báqi yəqqím y(ə)ḥkəm gtawáltis dyəṃṃá bába xxul ɣir ai(y)ə́yẓəṛ šádd əgtawáltiw, ayə́ṛla swá swa.

[68] yədžá (a)l(ə)mmi fat(ə)n ússan dyədwə́l yttʕə́wwəl báqi mə́nna (< Ar. min hna) wəždíd aftíddart. ɣir yəslá sis bábis, yttwakə́ddər bzáyəd, yəṃṃáyas ilʕíltis ‘t(ə)slíd ššix127 fə́ṛḥat matta yttíg a? aita ytt­ ʕə́wwəl aftíddart hay(ə)ʕməṛ wə́ḥdəs, baš atə́ṛla nafísa dyádžis. n(ə)tš w(ə)ssinə́ɣš mamak adígəɣ n(ə)tš dway(u) nwə́fṛux. hattẓúṛṛəɣ stid­ dártiw dáyfəl af(ə)lkífis128. ayig tíddart wə́ḥdəs iziɣ hayát(ə)f lə́xla dáysab gətmúṛa nmíddən129, aydə́bbər imánis, manis wyɣísš ayaɣ ṛṛáyiw. n(ə)tš uší wuṛiwə́ɣš áfṛux la ɣir asə́mləɣ táwalt ayərni f(ə́)llas uši lə́zzat dwára la háyig ššɣəll níɣfis dyttáɣš awáliw wəttɣísəɣ kúl. aitšá asnəkyəɣ tawalt tan(ə́)ʕqabt. yəɣs áyaɣ ṛṛá(y)iw daytə́bb(ə)ʕ ṭṭríqtiw, báhi, kammaháda b(ə)ʕdin ɣəṛi díd(ə)s ləḥsábat.’ təṃṃáyas zʕíma ‘ə́səl akə́mləɣ! áfṛux, aṛáhuk, wətšá sis. dís ṃaṃṃu yddə́bbər f(ə́)llas dyənnáyas “ig ámyu dwámyu dwúh la ydə́bbər f(ə́)llas š(ə)kkin

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you are, since that is so, then I’m telling you that this is the first and last time I shall come to you, and from today you will not hear a single word from me’. Then he went away from her downcast. Two or three days later, Ferhat came to them and said to his wife’s mother ‘I am definitely going to rent a house, take my wife back (there) and live in it on my own. Some want to be happy, others don’t, it is their affair’. Kheriya declined to say anything to him. After staying with them a little, he departed. From that day he began to make arrangements for the house he was going to live in, renting a house and beginning to buy things for it. His parents heard of this, (and) his father sent word by one of the (black) servants, telling him to say that his father had heard he had rented a house to live in, that he didn’t want to say to him yea or nay, that he could do as he liked but that, if God let him do it, he should take heed that things are over between them (i.e. Sa’id and Ferhat). He would no longer be himself (i.e. Ferhat’s father) and he would no longer be his son. It was up to him (i.e. Ferhat). Ferhat didn’t know what to do, because if he lived in the house he had rented, his father would no longer talk to him nor even address him (e.g. as in passing the time of day), and if he did not live independently, his wife would never return, but nevertheless he remained firm in his intention, saying to himself that as soon as his father saw that he was in earnest, he would become quite reconciled (lit. content) (again). [68] He let some days go by and again started to get his house ready from where he had left off. When his father heard of it, he was furious and said to his wife ‘Have you heard what Sheikh Ferhat is about? He is preparing a house to live in independently so that Nafisa and her mother will be satisfied. I don’t know what to do with that boy. I will dismiss him from my house and he can go his own way. If he establishes an independent household or clears off somewhere to live abroad (lit. in people’s countries), he can fend for himself since he won’t take my advice. Up to now I have not fathered a son who, when you offer him advice, ignores it (lit. adds to it) and still goes on (i.e. with his own ideas), and I want nothing at all to do with a child who will (just) follow his own inclinations and ignore my counsel. I will send him my final word tomorrow – if he is ready to take my advice and follow my way, fine, otherwise I shall settle with him later’. Za’ima said to him ‘Listen to what I say! It is not the boy’s fault, you know. There is someone influencing him and telling him to do this and that 311

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t(ə)ssnə́dtid. wəldisš ə́llzum baš ak(ə)ttsə́mmiɣ. ɣir astnə́kyəd, ákəz matt(a) astə́mləd, dṃaṃṃu hast(t)nə́kyəd (ə)mlas ayákəz mamak ayútlay lɣə́ṛs. was(ə)nníš “ttigəd gə́ṛṛay níɣfik iziɣ wəttaɣə́dš gwáwal” iziɣ dšáṛa. ə́mləs nəšnin nəflá lnafísa dyádžis dnəṃṃáyas inafísa baš atə́dwəl ltzə́qqas, wt(ə)qqíl yádžis. nədwə́las tanəy mə́ṛṛa tal(ə)t mə́ṛṛa lakən nufít wətɣísš ats(ə)l áwal. nə́šnin, manis ámyu – baš hanig lə́hbal zzat míddən dasə́nməl wamənttəllə́fš, yahá – asnə́lləf130 dnə́ttat atfəl aṭáw(ə)d lməktúbis dnə́šnin anḥə́kkəṛ ṃaṃṃ(u) aɣənys(ə́)ʕʕəd. tibušírin llánt bzáyəd, lḥámdu lláh. t(ə)kkdánəɣ gləxṣárət, ṛə́bbi ayʕə́wwəḍ. xxul ɣir astə́mləd ámyu, m(ə)ʕádš ayərni ḥ(ə)tta táwalt, dɣir astə́mləd ɣsəɣ asə́llfəɣ, m(ə)ʕádš ynəžžəm akə́yməl “yahá, wasttəllə́fš”, dḥ(ə)ttá ntš xxul asnə́kyəɣ dasə́mləɣ awal amwáyu dasə́mləɣ al(ə)mmi dmə́mmi mbə́lḥəq, m(ə)ʕadš áyfəl din kúl. dasə́mləɣ ayərr lbális, wyttáɣš əṛṛa(y)ənnə́snət mallik áyu la nnántas wyn(ə)ffʕíš. asə́nməl ámyu wb(ə)ʕdin anḥə́kkəṛ. balək áfṛux atyə́hda ṛə́bbi.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘yə́mkən ɣərm ə́lḥəqq, lákən day(u) xxúl xláṣ? nafis(a) asnə́lləf datfəl af(ə)lkifís a? ntš ukan adáfəɣ wnttaṣə́lš alway(u) kúl. lákən m(ə)ʕadš nnə́žžəm anig šáṛukan, mallik yádžis iɣfis yəqsə́ḥ bzáyəd. ɣir atməl tawáltis, la búdda t(ə)ɣsit. swáss amə́zwar n(ə)tš ssə́nəɣ ay(u) yəkmə́l hayṣaṛ. ttmítid ass la ṃṃíɣam nətš wətša šá ṛəh afnafísa dəṃṃíɣam áyṣaṛ dáyṣaṛ dáyṣaṛ dhanə́qqim nttəmʕáfan nəšnin də́ššix, wt(ə)qqíl(ə)d ataɣəd əṛṛáyiw dtədžidánəɣ nəwwə́ḍ ṛṛay nibušírən dṃaṃṃ(u) ayá­ w(ə)ḍ ṛṛay nibušírən ayə́wq(ə)ʕ. lákən xxúl ṛə́dd lfáyət muḥál d(ə)lmu­qáddər káyən.’ təṃṃáyas ‘mámak w(ə)qqiləɣ adaɣ(ə)ɣ ṛṛá(y)ik? š(ə)kkin wait(ə)ṃṃídš wənɣísš nafísa dɣir dnə́tš la ḥkə́məɣ dís. š(ə)kkin təṃṃídid hanḥə́kkəṛ fə́ṛḥat wb(ə)ʕdin ɣir yəṃṃáyak “ɣsəɣ nafísa”, təṃṃid xláṣ. wb(ə)ʕdín, ál(ə)mmi yṣaṛ ay(u) yəkmə́l, ššix wənttəmʕáfin n(ə)šniníd(ə)s wədšáṛukan. aṣṣ(ə)nnát manis yə́llis yisi lməktúbis ɣəṛnəɣ, təqqim ɣə́ṛnəɣ, ássu manis lməktúbis yxə́ff131, t(ə)flá, dnə́šnin lḥámdu lláh ddaltúlat t(ə)kkə́d sis nə́ttat, wətšá ssə́gnəɣ

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and you know who it is. I don’t have to name her. When you send to him, weigh (carefully) what you say, and tell the one you are going to send to be careful how he talks to him. Don’t say to him that he is being pig-headed (lit. taking the opinion of his head) and not listening to advice, or something of the sort. Tell him we have been to Nafisa and her mother and have asked Nafisa to return to her room, (but) her mother refused. That we returned a second and third time but found she wouldn’t listen. Since this is so, – (and) for us to lose face (before people) and tell her we will not divorce her is unacceptable (lit. no, impossible) – we will divorce her and she can go to follow her future husband (lit. the one written for her) and we will look around for one who suits us. Praise God, there are many girls. It has cost us money, but God will recompense (us). If you just tell him in this way, he won’t say a word back, and if you say you’re going to divorce her, he cannot say to you again “No, don’t divorce her!”. I will also send to him to this effect and tell him that if he is truly my son, he will never go there (i.e. to Kheriya) again, and I will tell him to take care not to heed their advice because what they are saying to him will tell (strongly) against (him). We will tell him this, and then see. Perhaps God will make him follow the straight path’. He said to her ‘Perhaps you are right, but is this the end (of it) then? We will divorce Nafisa and she can go her own way? If possible, I will not go quite as far as that. But there is nothing more we can do, because her mother is utterly pig-headed. When she says something, she must have it (her own way). From the first day I knew all this was going to happen. You remember the day I told you I was not happy with (the choice of) Nafisa and I told you that this, that, and the other would happen, and we are going to find ourselves falling out with the Sheikh. You wouldn’t take my advice and let us follow (rather) the advice of children, and whoever follows the advice of children, comes a cropper (lit. falls heavily), but now it is impossible to undo (lit. bring back) the past and what is decreed (i.e. by God) will be’. She replied ‘What do you mean I wouldn’t take your advice!? You didn’t say to me that we didn’t want Nafisa and that it was only me who insisted on her. You said that we’d consult Ferhat and then when he told you he wanted Nafisa, you agreed. Moreover, though all this has happened, we shall not be at odds with the Sheikh or anything. In the past, while his daughter’s destiny was with us, she remained with us, now that her lot has changed (lit. gone, ended), she has gone, and, as far as we are concerned, praise God, this time 313

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nə́šnin, dkúll ṃaṃṃ(u) áysəl ayməl nafísa wəɣṛəsš ə́lḥəqq. dḥ(ə)ttá ššix yəssə́n la d(ə)lɣə́lṭət nyə́llis. lbáqi yəlla yutlay lɣə́rk səzmán132. nə́šnin nigá (a)y(u) la f(ə)llánəɣ ḥ(ə)ttá (a)l(ə)mmi lɣə́lṭət sis nə́ttat. nəflásnət alɣádi dnəṃṃayásnət “ay(u) la yfát yfát, atə́kkər atṛə́wwəḥ tafṛuxt ltzə́qqas”. ṃṃánt yahá. mátta uší ɣəṛnəɣ hasə́ntnig? š(ə)kkin dáy(u) mamak ṃṃíɣak, (ə́)nkyas aitša ifə́ṛḥat, ə́mlas ay(u) nwawal wuhánit, dšə́kkin t(ə)ɣsəd atqə́dʕəd af(ə)llásnət aitšá baqi, báhi, wət­ ɣisə́dš, bláš, mallik wəldísš ttə́mṛət. mámak təṃṃíd, xiríya ɣir átməl tawaltis m(ə)ʕádš addwəl (< atədwəl) dís. ḥə́kkəṛ awal nfə́ṛḥat wb(ə)ʕdín (ə)fəl (lə)lqáḍi, ušas tawáltis, wəxláṣ! anə́ftəkk slə́hrəžž də́nnšaf.’ yəqqíl s(ə)ʕid ayməl šáṛukan, la báhi la lá, mallik ḥ(ə)tta n(ə)tta nə́fsa, ukan áyaf, wasyttəllə́fš inafísa. áddwəl (or ad(ə́)dwəl; < atə́dwəl) wəxláṣ, mallik lə́wwəl bəllə́wwəl wyttəmʕafínš n(ə)tta də́ššix wb(ə)ʕdín ayə́ftəkk sləxṣáṛt iškəlt íḍ(ə)nt dəzzə́ḥmət133, lákən yəssə́n ay(u) dšáṛa mbəssíf f(ə́)llas134. nafísa muš múmkən uši baš ad(ə́)dwəl, kúnš(i) al(ə)mmi gtíddart wə́ḥdəs. lwaitšá s(ə́)ʕid ynád(a) affidžen (or afidžən) swatšíwən yəṃṃáyas ‘ɣsəɣak at(ə)fl(ə)d lfə́ṛḥat attnábid. báss akəz matt(a) akə́mləɣ y(ə)ʕdə́l dákəz mamak atutláyəd lɣə́ṛs. (ə)mlas “yəṃṃáyak babik baqi akʕáwdəɣ áwal la ṃṃiɣáktid zmán, dal(ə)mmi š(ə)kkin dmə́mm(i) iziɣ dáraw, d(ə)nníɣ ɣəṛi ára mbə́lḥəq135, matt(a) akttə́mləɣ wr(ə)nníš f(ə́)llas ləzzat uší, dál(ə)mmi wətša dáraw, íg adin l(a) aky(ə́)ʕžəb”. (ə)mlas “yəṃṃáyak nafísa d­yá­džis m(ə)ʕadš ɣə́ṛnəɣ didsənt táwalt, mallik fliɣásnət n(ə)tš s(ə)ṭṭu­liw136 áldin (elsewhere aldín), fliɣásnət tikəlt tamə́zwart, ʕawdəɣ ttá­ nya, ʕawdəɣ ttálta, dəṃṃiɣásnət “báhi, ə́ḥsbət adin la yfát yfát dž at(ə)kkər nafísa atṛə́wwəḥ dswáss(u) al(ə)mmi yutlay lɣə́ṛs ḥə́dd ḥ(ə)tta tawalt ídžət, b(ə)ʕdin ə́mlət dígət ay(u) la t(ə)ɣsə́m”. madʕilhəmə́tš ḥ(ə)tta ttutláyəɣ iziɣ llíɣ gəddúnyət kúl137, dmanis ámyu m(ə)ʕádš nəžžməɣ adigəɣ šáṛukan. nətš hákkrəɣ afləɣ l(ə)lqáḍi hasə́llfəɣ baš

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it (i.e. the dissension, e.g. l’aṛket) came from her, not from us, and everyone who hears (about it) will say Nafisa was not in the right. Even the Sheikh knows it is his daughter’s fault, otherwise he would have spoken to you some time ago. We have done our duty, though the fault lies with (lit. is from) her. We went there and asked them to let bygones be bygones, to let the girl go back to her room, (but) they refused. What more could we do for them? Now you, as I told you, send to Ferhat tomorrow, and tell him about this talk (of ours), and if you want to call on them again tomorrow, do so, if you don’t, forget it, because it is fruitless. As you said, Kheriya, when she says something, never changes her mind. See what Ferhat has to say and then go to the Qadi, divorce her, and there’s an end! We will rid ourselves of (all this) trouble and strife’. Sa’id refrained from saying anything, either to concur or not, because he himself would not divorce Nafisa, if he could (avoid it). She would return definitively, because before all else he did not want to fall out with the Sheikh, and then again he would save himself paying out for another (wedding) occasion with a noisy crowd (i.e. of guests), but he knew that this was something beyond his control. It was no longer possible for Nafisa to return (i.e. to her husband) except to an independent house. The next day Sa’id called a servant to him and told him he wanted him to go to Ferhat and talk to him. He was just to pay very careful heed to what he (i.e. Sa’id) said to him and to weigh carefully what he said to him (i.e. Ferhat). He was to tell him that his father wanted to repeat what he said to him some time before, that if he is my son, my child – and (up to now) he has in truth been (proudly) acknowledging his child – (then) from now on he is not to ignore what his father (lit. he) tells him, and if he is not my child, then he is to do as he pleases. He was to tell him that his father said there was nothing more that could be done with Nafisa and her mother, because he had been to them in person once, twice, three times and asked them to agree with him in considering what has happened as over and done with, and to let Nafisa come on home, (since) from today if anyone addressed a single (offensive) word to her, then they (i.e. Ferhat and Nafisa) could speak up and do what they wanted. But they (i.e. Kheriya and Nafisa) took absolutely no notice of him (lit. did not treat him as if he was talking or even in the world at all), and therefore he could do nothing more. He was going off to the Qadi to divorce her so as to put an end to this quarrelling and altercation, and

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ánquṣṣ ay(u) nləxṣúmət dway(u) nəzzə́ḥmət, danhə́kkəṛ b(ə)ʕdin ṃáṃ­ṃ(u) ayəsləḥ ssə́gnəɣ wəxláṣ”. [69] yəfl(a) átšiw yəṃṃáyas ifə́ṛḥat “yəṃṃáyak bábik amyu dwámyu”. yəṃṃáyas fə́ṛḥat ‘ə́mlas nətš la haišáwṛən w la dšáṛukan. adígən ay(u) la ɣsə́nn, hállfən állfən, hárrən árrən, hádžən ádžən, af(ə)lkifə́nsən. adígən ay(u) l(a) asəny(ə́)ʕžəb.’ yəfl(a) átšiw yəṃṃayas is(ə́)ʕid. ɣir yṛə́wwəḥ fəṛḥat ltíddart tus(ə)das wə́ltmas dtəṃṃáyas ‘təṃṃayak yádžik matta nigás inafísa inafísa baš ad(ə́)dwəl wt(ə)qqíl, dnə́šnin m(ə)ʕádš ɣəṛnəɣ matta hásnig. m(ə)ʕá(d)š t(ə)ɣs addwəl, af(ə)lkífis, dšə́kk al(ə)mmi dmə́mmi mbə́lḥəq dədnə́tš la uṛúɣak, tiddart(ə́)nsən m(ə)ʕadš attʕə́fsəd dəṛṛayə́nsən ərr lbálik attáɣəd, aṛahuk akhə́bblən, dwəllíš ṃaṃṃu yəɣsák lməṣlə́ḥtik d(ə)lmənf(ə́)ʕtik əktəṛ nbábik dyá­džik. yi(h) la ssyá(h) d(ə)ssyá(h) ay(u) kmə́l(ə)n138 madabíhəm ak­ zə́l­bḥən dakhə́bblən baš áḍsən f(ə́)llak.’ yəṃṃáyas fə́ṛḥat ‘b(ə)lláhi, mlíy­(y)id xxul imátta ttkə́ttṛən gəddə́wwət bzáyəd! múhu sws(ə)g­gaṣṣ(ə)nnát yənkə́y(y)id bába dyəṃṃáyid ay(u) nwáwal! tawalt ídžət ṃṃiɣasə́ntət – ṃṃíɣásən n(ə)tš m(ə)ʕádš aišáwṛən. adígən ay(u) lá ɣsən. hállfən, hárrən, hádžən, yəkmə́l dídžən n(ə)tš ɣə́ṛi. dnə́tš al(ə)mmi y(ə)ʕžbíy(y)id, báhi, al(ə)mmi waiy(ə)ʕžíbš, afləɣ adatfəɣ lə́xla iziɣ anɣ(ə)ɣ imániw iziɣ adígəɣ ay(u) lá ɣsəɣ139. yəɣs ayə́lləf, báhi, ntš mwáfəq. ɣir m(ə)ʕadš aiyə́ṛẓən íɣfiw səddə́wwət dnəṃṃáyak dnəṃṃáyak, iziɣ šaṛá idžət, haykə́ttṛən ddəwwət dhaiyə́ṛẓən íɣfiw, ig ámyu dwəttígš ámyu dig túh dwəttígš túh, xxúl m(ə)ʕadš adatfəɣ tiddart íškəlt.’

(Note At this point transcription of the original text was perforce abandoned and the text continued in the curtailed form that follows. The narrative, unfinished and ending abruptly, clearly suffers. TFM)

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then they could look around for someone who suited them, and that would be an end of the matter. [69] The servant went to Ferhat and told him that his father had said all this (lit. this and that). Ferhat replied ‘Tell him I don’t want them to consult me or anything. They can do what they want – if they want to divorce, they will, if they want to send her back, they will, if they want to leave her (i.e. in her father’s house), they will, it is up to them. They can do as they please’. The servant went off and informed Sa’id. When Ferhat came back to the house, his sister came to him and said ‘Your mother wants you to know (lit. says to you) that they had done everything to bring about Nafisa’s return (lit. what we have done for Nafisa to return) but she has refused. There is nothing more they can do with her. Since she no longer wishes to return, let her be, and (Mother says that) if you are truly her son and she is your mother (lit. she is the one who bore you), then you will never again cross their threshold and will beware of following their counsel. Take care they don’t turn your head. There is no one who has your interests and advantages at heart more than your father and mother. All these others (lit. all these from here and there, i.e. those on Kheriya’s side) want to trap you and turn your head so that they can laugh at you’. Ferhat said to her ‘Do tell me, why do they talk so much nonsense?! Was it not a year ago that my father sent word to this effect?! I gave them my final answer then, telling them not to consult me any more. They can do what they want, divorce, take back, leave well alone, it’s all one to me. As for me, if it pleases me, fine, if not, I can clear right out or kill myself or do what I like (i.e. set up a separate house). If he wants to divorce, I agree. Just don’t let them drive me crazy (lit. break my head) any more with their talk, with their “we told you this and we told you that”. Otherwise, there is one thing (certain), if they are going to talk more nonsense and drive me insane, (saying) “do this and don’t do that”, then I shall never enter the house again’. (At this point it unfortunately became necessary to give up the text as it originally stood and to adopt the foreshortened version that follows. T.F. Mitchell)

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[70] t(ə)fla wə́ltmas təṃṃáyas ay(u) la t(ə)sla sɣə́ṛs yəkmə́l. ɣir yṛə́wwəḥ s(ə́)ʕid, təṃṃáyas lʕíltis matta t(ə)ṃṃáyas yə́llis. yəṃṃáyas ‘ssə́nəɣ. dayu dáwal la yəṃṃayásti ḥ(ə)tta iwə́tšiw. nəšnin m(ə)ʕádš ɣəṛnəɣ matta hásnig. xxúl ɣir affɣəɣ aqə́dʕəɣ af(ə)lqáḍi dasə́llfəɣ itə́f­ ṛuxt. al(ə)mmi n(ə́)tta yəɣs áyaɣ ṛṛáyiw, aywáfəq, dal(ə)mmi wywa­ fə́qš140, áyig ay(u) la yəɣs. ɣir yəffə́ɣ s(ə́)ʕid, yəfla lqáḍi yəṃṃáyas ‘nəɣs asnə́lləf it(ə́)fṛuxt’. yəṃṃáyas lqáḍi báhi dyurə́yas ṭṭə́ləqtis, wb(ə)ʕdin yəffə́ɣ s(ə́)ʕid dyəfla ltáḥnuyt nnáži dəxlífa. yufa xlífa dín yəṃṃáyas ‘ə́səl! ɣsə́ɣak atə́fləd lfə́ṛḥat dattfə́hhməd, mallik nkəy(ə)ɣas swallín did wə́tšiw dawal la yəṃṃayásti yəssə́ni ɣir ṛə́bbi141. šaṛá idžət bə́ss ɣsəɣak asttə́mləd, (ə)mlas “yəṃṃáyak bábik ‘t(ə)ɣsəd atá­ ɣəd ṛṛáyiw, báhi, kaṃṃahada swássu m(ə)ʕad la dnə́tš w la dšə́kk. aḥə́sbəɣ ɣir aṃṃí wakuṛiwə́ɣš d wǝɣṛíš afṛux kúl wəxláṣ”.’ yəṃṃáyas xlífa ‘lá ʕad, nə́knim wəttaṣlə́mš aldəh kúl.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘matta hasígəɣ iššix fə́ṛḥat? s(ə)ʕʕdə́ɣti, ṃṃíɣas “akyə́hda ṛəbbi”, – madʕiláš ḥ(ə)tta ttutláyəɣ! ktəṛ nwáyu m(ə)ʕádš ɣəṛi matta hasígəɣ. áfṛux wətšá sis ɣə́rs ṃáṃṃu yddə́bbər f(ə́)llas dyənnáyas “ig ámyu dwámyu”, lbáqi afṛux wyttígš ay(u) yəkmə́l.’ yəṃṃáyas xlífa ‘aitu ntš xxul asə́fləɣ damfə́hməɣ nšíd(ə)s dattsə́qnʕəɣ.’ yəṃṃáyas s(ə́)ʕid ‘ə́səl! lə́ḥsab swássu baš attwə́qqfəd žaráyak džaráyas. dnə́tš aitu háfləɣ ḥ(ə)tta l(ə)lə­žmáʕət ttányin kmə́l(ə)n asənnə́mləɣ142.’ yəṃṃáyas xlífa ‘la, d(ə́)lʕib, wəffálš lḥə́ddukan w la hatutláyəd lḥə́dd. ntš aitu ákkṛəɣ asə́fləɣ xxúl d(ə)ssə́nəɣ wyənníš šáṛukan.’

[71] yig(a) ámyu yəkkə́r xlífa, dis táḥnuyt díma yəffálas fə́ṛḥat n(ə)tta dim(ə)ddukális sə́ssən dís gəššahi dyttiṛáṛən gəlkáṛṭət, yəflás yufi dín. yəṃṃáyas ‘a fə́rḥat, ɣsə́ɣak áššar.’ yəkkə́r fə́ṛḥat, yəṃṃáyas ‘ɣsəɣ adutláyəɣ lɣəṛk dwɣisə́ɣš adutlayəɣ zzat míddən, ɣsəɣ adutlayəɣ lɣəṛk wə́ḥdək. iyy(a) ánfəl ltíddart.’ yəflá n(ə)ttáid(ə)s ltíddart yəṃṃáyas ‘ə́səl! babik xxúl yusdíy(y)id yttʕə́yyəḍ sim(ə)ṭṭáwnis dyəḥkáyid swá­ y(u) la yṣáṛ yəkmə́l. nə́tš wɣisəɣš ayṣaṛ ay(u) yəkmə́l žarayáwən daq­ qímən middən kməl(ə)n dtə́ṃuṛt t(ə)kmə́l ttútlay ssə́gwən, də́səl. aṛáhuk nšaḷḷa (a)yəḍḍ(ə)l lḥə́qq əqbála nnək, middən kmə́l(ə)n halúmmən f(ə)l-

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[70] His sister went and told her mother all that she had heard from him. When Sa’id came home, his wife relayed to him what her daughter had said. He said ‘I know. That is also what he told the servant. There is nothing more we can do for him now. When I go out I will go to the Qadi and divorce the girl. If he (i.e. Ferhat) takes my advice, he will agree, and, if he doesn’t, then let him do what he likes’. Sa’id went out, went to the Qadi and told him he wanted to divorce the girl. The Qadi accepted this and wrote out the divorce certificate (i.e. in the further presence of Ferhat, who had been sent for. See note (130)). Then Sa’id left and went to Nazhi and Khalifa’s shop. He found Khalifa there and said to him ‘Listen! I want you to go to Ferhat and make matters clear to him, since I recently sent him word (by a servant) and what he told him is known only to God. I want you to tell him just one thing, that his father says if he will follow his advice, all will be well, otherwise from this day on he will have nothing more to do with him. He will just not consider himself his father and act as if he had no son, and that’s final’. Khalifa said to him ‘No, come now, you cannot go quite as far as that’. Sa’id said ‘What am I to do with Sheikh Ferhat? I was easygoing with him, told him God would make him see the light, (but) it was as if (lit. he didn’t even consider) I wasn’t speaking! What is more, there’s nothing else I can say to him. It isn’t the boy’s fault, there is someone advising him, telling him to do this, that, and the other, otherwise the boy wouldn’t do all this’. Khalifa said he would go straight away to him (i.e. to Ferhat), clear it up with him and convince him’. Sa’id replied ‘Listen! Stop his credit with you from today and I’m going off to all the others and talk to them (i.e. ask them to do the same)’. Khalifa said to him ‘No, that is unfair. Don’t go or speak to anyone. I’m going to him right away now and I am sure he will agree’. [71] So Khalifa went off and found Ferhat in a shop where he always went with his friends drinking tea and playing cards. He told him he would like (to talk to) him for a while. Ferhat rose and said ‘I want to talk to you (, too,) but not in public (lit. in front of people). Let’s go to the (i.e. Khalifa’s) house’. They went together to the house (where) he (i.e. Khalifa) said to him ‘Listen! Your father has just come to me literally in tears and told me all that has occurred. I don’t want all of this to happen between you and that everybody should stay (on bad terms), while the whole town talks about you, so listen. Even supposing that right is clearly on your side, everyone is going to blame you because it 319

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lak šǝ́kkin, mallik ay(u) dbábik, wətša dḥəddíḍ(ə)n, wb(ə)ʕdin šaṛá iḍ(ə)n ígit gəlfə́krik – ṃaṃṃ(u) ayxáləf lwaldínis lʕə́mṛis wyrə́bbəḥ, mallik ṛə́bbi wasyttbaríkš gšáṛukan. wb(ə)ʕdin lʕib amə́qqar dla kul ə́kbəṛ uší – afmátta təmxaṣməd šəkk dbábik, af(ə)lxáḍəṛ n(ə)l(ə)ʕyálik. bəlláhi, qə́ddər kull ṃaṃṃu háysəl matta háyməl.’ wyufíš fəṛḥat matta háyməl dwyəqqil áyərr ḥ(ə)tta táwalt, mallik yufa áwal nəxlífa yəkmə́l də́lḥəqq. lakən xlífa yəṃṃáyas ‘áy(u) la yfát yfát, dnə́tš xxul ákkṛəɣ afləɣ lbábik dasə́mləɣ “ay(u) la ṃṃának yəkməl dtikə́rkas dmə́mmik yəṃṃa ay(u) la háttyig bába dadin dnə́tta”. táfṛuxt tamə́zwart lməktúbis yxə́ff, təllə́fmas wəxláṣ. atfəl atáwəḍ lməktúbis. tisə́dnan llant əbzáyəd d(ə)swássu m(ə)ʕádš atígəd šáṛukan. ida kan t(ə)ɣsəd šáṛa iziɣ dšáṛa idawrdíy(y)id inətš bə́ss dnə́tš məsul (or məsʕúl) f(ə́)llas.’ yəqqil asə́yməl fə́ṛḥat la báhi la yahá. ffə́ɣən ssyin, fə́rḥat yəfla af(ə)lḥális dəxlífa yəfla ls(ə́)ʕid. yəṃṃáyas ‘mamak ṃṃiɣak swá swa yṣaṛ. fliɣ lmə́mmik dsəfhmə́ɣtid dwayu la ṃṃiɣas yəkmə́l yəqbə́li. tafṛuxt t(ə)llə́fdəs təflá, n(ə)tta m(ə)ʕádš ayútlay f(ə)llas. xxúl b(ə)ʕdín asə́mləɣ al(ə)mmi yəɣs ayənžəf aiyə́yməl ṃaṃṃu yə́ɣs daɣtástət wəxláṣ.’

[72] yəqqím fə́ṛḥat aša šə́həṛ yqə́lləq aššar, lákən wyɣiš ayəskən aqə́llqis ibábis dyádžis. ɣir addyas zzə́rsən ayə́ttəm yḍəṣṣ dyttútlay dɣir ayəḍḍ(ə)l wə́ḥdəs, ayəqqim yqə́lləq, yttxə́mməm matta háyig. b(ə)ʕd ussan yənkə́yas bábis yəṃṃáyas ṃaṃṃu yəɣs ásnaɣ. yəṃṃayásən ai(y)yaɣən tuh la ɣsə́nn. dis táfṛuxt nidžən səlžíṛan xḍəbnástət duɣ­ nástət, lákən wysəmsaʕə́dš n(ə)ttáid(ə)s mallik n(ə)tta wəttiɣíš dyuɣit ɣír baš aysə́ṛla babis dyádžis. mbəššə́ṛt n(ə)ttat dtafṛuxt mamak atə́m­ ləd təzʕə́m, aṃṃi dtizə́rzərt dt(ə)xfíf ɣir aṃṃi dərríšt. ass yəkmə́l tt(ə)g(ə)ʕmízš (or tt(ə)g(ə)ʕməzš) ladday, ɣir ttʕə́wwəl bə́ss, lákən n(ə)tta wəttyɣíš.

[73] t(ə)qqim did(ə)s lʕíltis aša šəhṛín. idžəṃṃás təɣlə́ḍ, tiga šáṛa la wəldísš ttə́mṛət, yig(a) ámyu yẓúṛṛit. flə́nn babis dyádžis rrə́ntət,

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is your father and no other, and then, consider something else, that is, that whoever goes against his parents will never prosper, because God will bless him in nothing. And then there is the great shame, and this is an even more important matter, of the subject of your quarrel with your father, that is, your wife. Do, in heaven’s name, consider what everyone, when he hears, will say’. Ferhat did not know how to reply and said nothing, for he found that everything Khalifa said was right. But Khalifa said to him ‘What’s done is done, and now I am going to tell your father that all that was relayed to him (e.g. via his servant) was false and that his son said that he will submit (lit. do) whatever his father says. Your (lit. the) marriage to your first wife is over, you (i.e. you and your family) have divorced her, and that’s an end to it. Let her follow her destiny. There are plenty of women, and from today you can do nothing more. If you want anything at all, come only to me, and I will take responsibility for it’. Ferhat would say neither yes or no to him. They left and Ferhat went his way, whereas Khalifa went to Sa’id and said to him ‘It has turned out just as I told you. I went to your son and made everything plain to him and he agreed with all I said to him. You have divorced the girl, and she has gone. As for him, he will speak about her no more. Later I shall tell him that, if he wants to marry, he should tell me who he wants as his wife, and that’s all there is to it’. [72] Ferhat remained quite distressed for about a month, but he didn’t wish to show his distress to his parents. When he came to (be with) them, he would laugh and talk, and only when he was alone did he again become sad and wondering what to do. Some days later his father sent to him asking whom he wanted to marry, and he replied that he would marry whomever they wished. There was a girl belonging to one of the neighbours, (and) they betrothed her to him and married them, but they were unsuited, since he did not love her and had taken (lit. took) her just to please his parents. Though she was a very pretty girl, as lovely as a gazelle and lightsome as a feather, (and though) she did not sit down all day long but would just work in the house, yet he did not love her. [73] His wife stayed with him for about two months, then one day she made a mistake and did something quite trivial, so he sent her away. His parents went and brought her back but again she stayed with him 321

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lakən báqi t(ə)qqim did(ə)s áššar dyẓúṛṛit iškəlt íḍ(ə)nt. báqi yənnúɣɣ n(ə)tta dbabis dyádžis, mallik n(ə́)tnin ṃṃánas ‘la budda attə́rrəd, m(ə)ʕádš attẓúṛṛəd mallik m(ə)ʕádš anaf tafṛuxt amnə́ttat.’ n(ə)tta yəṃṃayásən yahá, lakən ddaltúlat fə́rḥat yəfla ṭul ləxlífa, yəṃṃáyas ‘ə́səl! š(ə)kkin tikəlt tamə́zwart tusd(d)íy(y)id təṃṃídid dtəṃṃídid dnə́tš uɣíɣ əṛṛá(y)ik, lakən ddaltúlat al(ə)mmi ɣsə́nn aiyígən amtíkəlt tamə́zwart m(ə)ʕádš adaɣ(ə)ɣ əṛṛay nḥə́ddukan. adígəɣ ššɣəll níɣfiw d(ə)nšaḷḷa matta yəɣs áyṣaṛ dž áyṣaṛ.’ yəṃṃáyas xlífa ‘imátt? ɣir mátta yṣaṛ bə́ss!’ yəḥkáyas sləḥkáyət t(ə)kmə́l dyəṃṃáyas ‘nətš táfṛuxt wəttɣísəɣ, wɣisə́nš aittɣə́ṣṣbən mbə́ssif.’ yəṃṃáyas ‘báhi, ay(u) dšáṛa džíttət inə́tš!’ yəkkər xlífa yəfla ls(ə́)ʕid, yəḥka n(ə)ttáid(ə)s dyəṃṃáyas ‘šaṛa la wəttəkkə́dš (or ttəkkə́dš) wəttəkkə́dš. táfṛuxt wəttyɣís, dž átfəl. áɣtas idžtíḍ(ə)nt, t(ə)kkdáwən gləxṣáṛət m(ə)ʕlíš, ṛəbbi ayʕə́wwəḍ.’

[74] yəqqim fə́ṛḥat aš(a) asə́ggas n(ə)tta dádžal, wb(ə)ʕdin yuɣa ta­ mə́ṭṭut iḍ(ə)nt ts(ə́)ʕʕdi dəts(ə́)ʕʕəd (ə)nnásən dyəqqím nttáid(ə)s.

(The usual formula for ending a story, though it would be inappropriate here, is an Arabic one – mšít mǝn tǝ́mm, xǝllíthǝm fǝlhǝ́mm, bʕíni ma rít­ hǝm ‘I went from there, leaving them in trouble, without seeing them with my eyes’ (i.e. it is just a story) TFM)

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only a little while before he sent her off again. Once more he and his parents quarrelled, since they told him he must bring her back (and) not send her away again because they would not find another girl like her. He refused them, but this time he went straight off to Khalifa and said to him ‘Listen, the first time you came to me you told me a lot (i.e. convinced me), and I took your advice, but this time if they are going to do to me as they did before, I shall no longer take anyone’s advice and shall do what I think fit (lit. the work of my head), and hang the consequences (lit. I hope what will happen will happen)’. Khalifa said to him ‘Why? Just (tell me) what has happened’. He told him the whole story and said ‘I do not love the girl. They are not going to force her on me against my will’. Khalifa replied ‘All right! Leave this to me!’. Khalifa went off to Sa’id and talked to him (at length), saying ‘Something which won’t work, won’t work (lit. is impossible). He doesn’t love the girl, (so) let her go. Marry him to another one – never mind the loss (i.e. financial) incurred, God will compensate (you)’. [74] Ferhat stayed single for about a year, and then married another (woman), who suited him and his parents, and he remained with her (thereafter).

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Notes (1) Zhmil is a village 10 km. south of Zuara. (2) ‘The town of the At-willul’, otherwise ‘the town of the Berbers’, i.e. Zuara. The term maziɣ ‘Berber’ (pl. imaziɣən) is regularly used of the language, cf. yttutlay maziɣ ‘he speaks Berber’, awal nimaziɣən ‘Berber, the language of the Berbers’. My informant, Ramadan Azzabi, was 24 at the time (1952) to which this text refers. His whole family, father, mother, brothers and sisters, were Zuaran, and he had lived in the town up to the age of 20, with a period of study between 16 and 20 in Tripoli, where the family moved in 1949. The remainder of his family remained in Zuara, where his uncle was the Sheikh of the Iʕəzzabən tribe. His family were known as the Ibuširən nləfqi ṛəmḍan ‘the children of Ramadan the Teacher’, who was my informant’s grandfather. Older people still called any member of the tribe ay(u) nləfqi. The story had it that the original founders of Zuara, ʕisa and ʕaṭṭuš from Algeria, wished to bring a literate man (aʕəzzab) to teach the people, who were originally divided into aʕəzzabi ‘literate’ and ʕammi ‘illiterate’. They brought such a man from the island of Djerba and this is said to be the origin of my informant’s family. The so-called 12 ‘tribes’ of Zuara are perhaps less tribal than locally recognized divisions of the population, though taqbilt ‘tribe’ is regularly used, as in taqbilt and ʕaṭṭuš ‘the Ind ʕaṭṭuš tribe’. The eight mosques in Zuara, each with its own Imam, are used on a tribal basis and belong to the longer established inhabitants. The names of the last two of the 12 divisions, at least as they were at the time the text was established, are unknown to me (TFM) but the first ten are as follows, with the first two making up the largest groups and 8-10 seemingly the most recent ‘arrivals’, necessary because the old tribes had become too large; (i) Ind ʕaṭṭuš (ii) Ind ʕisa (iii) At ləllu (iv) Ind mənṣuṛ (v) At zəffur (vi) Iʕəzzabən (vii) Ind žbaṛa (viii) nfəṛwa (Ferwa is a small island 50 km. from Zuara) (ix) lənṣaṛ (a comparatively recent off-shoot from (iii)) (x) Ind dugəzzul. These belong to the administrative division (mudiriyya) of Zuara town, which includes Ferwa. The two other mudiriyya’s of the Zuara region were əžžmil, with a mixed Arab-Berber population, mostly Arab, and əlʕəssa, exclusively Arab. These divisions may no longer apply today, though in the post-

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war period they were used not least for the purpose of distributing rations. (3) aməsraḥ ‘shepherd’ looks after the family’s sheep and goats is employed ‘at a distance’, so to speak, from among the Bedouin Arabs living close to the pasture areas, taking the animals away with the Bedouin on their peregrinations. The owner visits his flocks every 5 or 6 months. The aməsraḥ is engaged for a lengthy period (for instance, 5 or 10 years), whereas the axəmmas ‘(general) servant’, whose job encompasses not only looking after the camels but also ploughing and reaping among other menial tasks, is employed on a one-year contract, which, if desired, must be renewed. He takes his meals with the Berber family employing him. There are fixed rates of pay for the axəmmas, but not for the aməsraḥ. Both are necessarily Arab, not Berber. (4) (ə)lʕil(ə)t = ‘family’ but ‘wife’ in association with a suffixed pronoun, e.g. (ə)lʕiltiw ‘my wife’, (ə)lʕiltis ‘his wife’. The suffix is obligatorily in this sense and a separate word for ‘wife’ does not seem to occur. l(ə)ʕyal- (Ar. ‘children’) may be used similarly, i.e. l(ə)ʕyaliw either ‘my wife’ or ‘my family’ (my dependants), and lahliw (< Ar. ‘ahl ‘family; kin’) also occurs with the meaning ‘my wife’ but not *‘my family’. See also note (98). (5) The form [ijjur] ‘new moon’ is capable of more than one morphological ‘interpretation’, since the close front vowel followed by the tense palatal semi-vowel may be shown to correspond variously to at least the beginnings iyVC, i-iC, and (ə)yVC. It seems reasonable to regard [ijjur] as a representation of a form əyur, since, in parallel with e.g. ə́fus/fúsis ‘his or her hand’, the form yúris corresponds to ə́yur [ˈijjur]. yuris is always used in the sens of a woman’s month of parturition, as in e.g. lə́mmi dyúris? ‘when is her month?’, and əyur may appear elsewhere in association with the Arabic-derived šəhəṛ or, less often, (ə́)ššhəṛ ‘month’, as in, say, ə́yur nšə́həṛ wúh yəffíɣš ‘the new moon for this month hasn’t appeared’; šəhəṛ, i.e. without the usual reflex of the Arabic article, occurs again in e.g. šə́həṛ la yfát ‘last month’ and gífəɣ nšə́həṛ ‘at the end of the month’. Either šəhəṛ or (ə)ššhəṛ may be used in, say, azə́ṃṃuṛ ittwáẓẓaw gə́ššhəṛ (or gšə́həṛ) wúh iziɣ ittwaẓẓíwš ‘can olives be planted this month or not?’. A ‘rough guide’ to the local Berber monthly nomenclature and succession is: (i) žad (Ar. žuumaad al-‘uulal) (ii) žumad (Ar. žumaad attaani) (iii) ṛəžəb (iv) ʕəšban (v) ṛəmḍan (vi) tfaṣka taməškunt (‘the Lit325

tle Feast’, Ar. ʕiid aṣ-ṣaɣiir) (vii) mabin ləʕyad (‘between the Feasts’) (viii) tfaṣka taməqqart (‘the Big Feast’, Ar. ʕiid al-kabiir (ix) ʕašuṛa (x) tumi nʕašuṛa (‘the twin of ʕašura’) (xi) (ə)lmilud (month of the Prophet’s birthday) (xii) tumi n(ə)lmilud. The system is, of course, mostly Arabic-based. (6) Cf. aitmas ‘her brothers’. The suggestion has been made that perhaps the name derives from təlt + aitmas ‘one-third of her brothers’, though the derivation is far from clear, nothwithstanding the greater value placed upon male children. (7) ‘Yellow’ is the colour attributed to one who is worried or ill. ‘Black’, too, is often used to describe a sickly person. (8) ‘You have become gaunt and feeble, like a ghost’. The ‘bogeyman’ used to frighten children is pictured as tall and skeletal. (9) ‘Leave me to reflect on my fate’ – said in anger and disappointment over a loss or misfortune in reply to someone offering sympathy or advice. Saʕid is both cross with events and telling his wife to remain silent. (10) ‘I shall go to the desert’ – used when someone leaves home for the uninhabited places and no one knows their whereabouts. (11) She not only gave him the means to wash his hands – bowl, jug, towel, soap – but also poured the water. (12) The implication is that Saʕid has something on his mind which he does not wish to reveal. Zaʕima is hinting as to her belief that he is thinking of taking another wife. (13) Saʕid is saying that, if Zaʕima should leave him, as she would certainly do if he is thinking definitely of taking another wife, not only would a second wife not want his daughters but he could not hide them from her to protect them from being beaten when he is away. He is, in fact, responding to her threat by telling her that he is not going to remarry. (14) The tizzarnin (Ar. ḍuhr) prayer takes place at the middle of the day, with its exact time dependent upon the occasion. The tuqzinprayer (?too fancifully related to ‘tocsin’ (Old French touquesain, Provençal tocasenh) ‘alarm bell or signal’) corresponds to the Arabic ʕaṣr, and is at approximately 3.30 on winter afternoons, 4.30 in summer. Today the muezzin uses his watch to calculate the time between the two prayers, but their times depended in earlier days on the shadow cast by an upright stick. An easterly component to the shadow indicated the time for tizzarnin and the equal length of shadow and stick 326

was the signal for the tuqzin. The three other prayers are talži (in the morning before sunrise), timutšu (< tih nwutšu, lit. ‘th(os)e time(s) of (eating) utšu’) (immediately after sunset), and tiniḍəṣ (< tih niḍəṣ, lit. ‘the time of sleeping’) (one-and-a-half hours after sunset). (15) The inclusion of nətta shows the depth of his concern. The omission of the pronoun would indicate that he is simply waiting unconcernedly for her. (16) s. taliliwt, vb. yəsliləw/yəslilaw. The warbling sound made by women, for example in celebration of the birth of a male child. At the time of the birth they all shout ḥəkkṛət mani babis bəššrətti ‘Look for his father (and) give him the good news’. (17) The order is to mix the flour (utšu) with water & oil (udi). utšu dudi is specialized for the occasion; the utšu is not hard but porridgelike in texture, with oil, sugar, and honey added. (18) Reference is not to the Qoran but to a book or books of medicine. These are old texts – for example, Al-ṭibb wa al-ḥikma ‘Medicine and Wisdom’ by Assyuuṭi – prescribing treatments for the evil eye. One such treatment involved the writing of charms on a flat white plate which was then cleaned with water and the ‘mixture’ administered to the patient. (19) s. tabrat/pl. tibratin ‘strip/s’. The teacher tears off a strip of paper and covers it with healing writing. Then, without cutting right across the paper, he cuts it sufficiently far to convert it into nearstrips of three (tibratin) and does this several times to provide an odd number from 3 to 9 of the threefold ‘strips’. Since here treatment has been prescribed for three days, one knows that there are nine tibratin in all, of which one strip or three will be used daily. This is what is meant when he says ‘One a day’, i.e. one group of three, not one tabrat. The word is almost always used in its plural form. (20) žawi and fasux are forms of incense-makers, that is, aromatic gums or spices which give off a pleasant odour when burned. I am unaware of the specific gum or spice referred to by either of these terms, but žawi is sold in small brown pieces and fasux in large black lumps, for what the information is worth (TFM). (21) This is Palma Christi, the castor-oil plant. (22) ydawa refers to treatment administered internally; yṭəbbəb, on the other hand, concerns the use of external measures, e.g. the application of leaves of the castor-plant to the affected bodily part, the cutting of the forehead, cauterization, and so on. 327

(23) Saʕid is saying ‘I shall not even be able to see him (i.e. before he dies)’. This has to be seen in a Zuaran context in which all relatives must (endavour to) see a dying person before their demise. (24) The cleaning of the board involves washing it with water before rubbing it with a stone called taɣuri nimḥa ‘lit. the clay of rubbing’, perhaps ‘potter’s clay’ here. This serves the board a coating of a kind which enables any writing on it to be easily erased after use. When the board has been dried in the sun, the teacher writes a few Quranic verses on it. The force of verbal ayəttəm, which only seems to occur in the a-form, is that the activity begun will continue for a long time to come, however iteratively, a sense not necessarily associated with the past tense form yudəl ‘he began’, which is otherwise substitutable here for ayəttəm. Note the causative ysəḥfəḍ/yssəḥfaḍ ‘to teach’, cf. yəsḥfəḍ ‘he learned’. (25) alif(ə)lba ‘the alphabet’, i.e. the names of the letters, and alif la ši ʕ(a)lih ‘the pointing of the letters’ (lit. alif with nothing on it). Instruction in these two aspects of writing is conducted orally without any accompanying writing, the teacher adopting the pattern e.g. “əlbá wáḥda məs(s)fə́l (< min asfəl) ‘ba with one (dot) underneath’, əttá tnína min fúg ‘ta with two on top’, əssá tláta min fúg ‘sa with three on top’, əlžím (Note əžžim in local Arabic, though the letter šin is əššin in both Arabic and Berber) wáḥda məs(s)fə́l ‘žim with one underneath’, əlḥá la ší ʕlíh ‘ḥa with nothing on it’ ...”, and so on. alif bəlxəfḍa refers to the vowelled letters, which are still taught verbally in accordance with the following pattern: ‘alíf bəlxə́fḍa (= kasrah) – ʔi, ... bənnə́ṣba (= fatḥah) – ʔa, ... bəṛṛə́fʕa (= ḍammah) – ʔu, bəzzəzma (= sukuun) – ʔaʔ, əlbá bəlxə́fḍa – bi, ... bənnə́ṣba – ba, ... bəṛṛə́fʕa – bu, ... bəzzəzma – ʔab, etc.’ In the practice of Rashima, the teacher writes letters, words, and sentences on the pupil’s board in pencil and the pupil copies over them in ink using a reed pen and the ink called laʕbǝs (? Sp. lápiz ‘pencil, crayon; graphite’) (Ar. ṣmǝɣ). This ink is made from burnt wool, mixed with water, with a small piece of unburnt wool placed in the ink-well to soak up the ink, which would otherwise evaporate quickly. The wool normally used is from the fatty part of a lamb’s tail. The teaching of writing proceeds simultaneously with oral rote learning of the Qoran. ‘Writing with the letter (abəlḥaṛf)’ begins after some months of ‘Rashima’ when the teacher gives instruction in writing the letters in turn in words and sentences. All examples are, of 328

course, from the Qoran, and isolated letter shapes are never taught. abəlməllət is dictation (local Ar. malla ‘he dictated’), at which the teacher dictates complete sentences with the words split up into letters, as ʔa ... ʔal ... ḥa ... ʔam ... du – ʔalḥamdu. (26) The pupil learns by heart whatever is written on the board and recites it to the teacher with the board facing away. (27) The instrument of the punishment known as the bastinado, that is, the beating of the soles of the feet with a stick for misbehaviour or ignorance. The tafəlqit is a stick to which a loop of rope is attached. An offender’s legs are placed in the loop with him lying on his back, and two boys are deputed to twist the stick and with it the rope tightly round the legs. The boys then lift the two ends of the stick, which lifts the boy’s legs and presents the soles of his feet for the aʕəzzab to belabour them with another stick. (28) There is no Qoranic school on Thursday afternoon and the whole of Friday. (29) Fees are payable to the teacher on Wednesdays. He has 4 main sources of income: (i) his monthly salary, which at the time this text was written amounted to 100 mals or franks a day per boy, payable by the boy’s parents and subject to a means test by which the poor paid less, but the amount must have changed considerably in the mean time. The sums paid were entered by the teacher into a ledger; (ii) Wednesday fees, usually small amounts brought from home by each pupil; (iii) xətmət fees, payable as the student reached certain suras in the Qoran and before he had learned any of the suras in question. The amount paid varied with the sura and the wealth of the parents and increased as progress was made towards the end of the Book, from, say, 10 francs for the first xətmət to 240 for the last, there being 10 xətmət’s in all; (iv) tt(ə)sriḥ(ə)t or holiday fees. The word tt(ə)sriḥ(ə)t means both the money brought by the boy and the holiday from school at the times of certain religious feasts. The fee varied with the length of the holiday but did not exceed 20 francs per pupil. There were 7 days’ holiday for the boys at the Id-al-Kabiir, 4 or 5 at the Id al-Ṣaghiir, 3 days for ‘Ashura, 6 or 7 days for Milud, and 2 days for the beginning of Ramadan. There were also shorter holidays, usually 1 day, and not more than 3 a year, on the eves of feasts or musəm’s (Ar. mawsim), for example on the 27th of Sha’ban. See also note (42) for further holidays entailed by xətmət’s.

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(30) I.e. he had the board with the text on it facing him instead of turned away as it should have been, and, having read the text, he went off to clean the board, which is not permitted before the text has been properly learned. (31) I.e. nothing will happen if God does not wish it, and only God can be depended on. ‘The rest’ here refers by implication to free will. (32) Children arriving amid guests or relatives must shake and then kiss their hands. (33) If someone owes you money and persitently refuse to pay the debt, you are entitled to beat him in settlement. Cf. local Ar. xallaṣt minna ‘I settled accounts with him’. (34) məʕtməd is a fairly recent borrowing from Arabic. More educated speakers may use the form muʕtaməd based on Arabic writing, and the older generation will prefer the Arabic ʕabəy for məʕtməd/ muʕtaməd. (35) Their pre-emptive use of the oath ensures that Saʕid does not give them a second dinner, which he would otherwise have done. (36) A good example of the innumerable Arabic-Berber calques in the dialect. In the spoken Arabic west of Tripoli one would say ʔalxaaṭir keef lḥasna i(i)deena ɣeer tawwa, which corresponds wordby-word to the Berber text. (37) i, a third vocative particle in addition to a and ya, is always followed by a noun of relationship and belongs chiefly to the affectionate speech of women addressing children. The nouns concerned are not restricted, however, to məmmi ‘son’ and yəlli ‘daughter’ but embrace the older generation terms, e.g. yəmma ‘mother’, baba ‘father’, in the interesting bi-polar or reverse use of such terms when addressing a child, a feature also of numerous forms of spoken Arabic. Thus, a mother may address her son or her daughter not only as i məmmi or i yəlli but also as i yəmma in, say, (ə)ssúsəm, i yə́mma, (ə)ssúsəm ‘Hush, my child, hush’. Similarly, i ʕamti may be used by an aunt to her nephew or niece. A father, though less often if he is a young man, may use i baba as in (ə)ssusəm, i baba, but will never say i məmmi/yəlli. A maternal uncle may likewise address the child as i xali, and a paternal uncle, who would look after his nephew if the latter’s father dies, also uses i baba. Additionally, i dadda ‘black servant’ is used by negresses working for the family. The vocative particle a may be used for i but does not carry the same affectionate meaning. There are, too, some small grammatical differences be330

tween cases of the two particles – thus, for example, (a + noun) must precede an accompanying verb so that *(ə)ssusəm a məmmi/yəlli is unacceptable. In general, a yəmma/baba/ʕamti/etc. are from a child to an older person, whereas i yəmma/baba/ʕamti are from a mother/father/aunt/etc. to the child. The vocative particle i should not, of course, be confused with the formally similar indirect object/ benefactive particle i, though a few superficially ambiguous cases occur, as ay(u) la yṣaṛas i məmmi wyṣaṛ iḥədd ‘What happened to him, my son/What happened to my son shouldn’t happen to anybody’, though any supposed ambiguity is at once resolved when the type of addressee is identified. Thus, if a woman says this to a non-relative or to someone of her own age or older, then i məmmi = ‘to my son’. If the aforementioned negress servant uses the sentence to a young male within the family, then the phrase is vocative, i.e. ‘(O) my son’. (38) This is one of the many examples of women’s language that occur throughout the text. (39) yṣunəḍ ‘he turned something around’. When someone was deemed to be ill from the evil eye, an old woman or the Qoranic school teacher would bring a plate and pour some water in it, and then burn one of the incense-making fasux or ṭṭəbdil (?). The sufferer was made to bend over to inhale the incense while they moved the plate in a circular motion around his head seven times. Finally, they dipped their fingers in the water and flicked it onto his face. (40) ‘Dunce’. The word is used of someone who, not having learned his board, is not allowed to clean it off and write new suras on it. (41) ‘... can start to think about him’, i.e. about his marriage, to whom, when, and where he will live. The bridegroom and his father are responsible for wedding arrangements in Zuara, though not in Tripoli. Most Berbers living elsewhere own a house in Zuara and move there for weddings, if only temporarily. (42) For the teacher the most important xətmət-stages of progress through the Qoran are one-quarter, one-half, three-quarters, and the whole. We have seen (note (29)) that money is paid to him on these occasions. He sometimes receives gifts at other stages, for instance at 2 suras before the quarter stage. Each stage entails a holiday, 2 days, 3 days, 4 days, and a week through the progression. These holidays are automatic, though Saʕid requests a holiday in the text, the teacher may increase them on request, again as in the text. 331

(43) In the period from March to May, many families owning sheep and goats join their flocks, and, living under canvas, collect clarified butter from them. If this is plentiful, they not only use the ghi (or ghee) themselves but also market it later on. If the owners do not go, the Bedouin aməsraḥ collects one-quarter of the ghi as of right (and perhaps more ‘on the side’). People live royally on these spring excursions; meat, cheese, milk, and butter are consumed daily against the butter, lambs, and wool they will sell on their return. Of these, the butter is the most important commodity. The gathering of wool is usually undertaken by the axəmmas and any other servants as part of their job. (44) The relevant Berber greetings are : A. slxír ʕ(ə)líkum ‘Goodevening’ (Ar. ymassi lxeer ʕaleekum). B. ssíkum ʕ(ə)la xír. In narratives, greetings are often introduced in this seemingly abrupt manner, and an appropriate translation is simply ‘they exchanged greetings’. Another example is utə́fəɣ f(ə)llásən ufíɣtən gə́ʕmzən, sslám ʕ(ə)líkum ʕ(ə)líkum sslám, áš bikum təssusməm? ‘I came into them as they were sitting (there), greeted them (i.e. I said ‘Peace be upon you’ and they replied ‘Peace be upon you’) and asked (omitted) “Why are you silent?”’. (45) Sbixa is a small village 15km. south-west of Zuara. (46) Implicit in this word is the use of the oath waḷḷa(a)hi, i.e. waḷḷahi wətquss(ə)d etc. Since the shepherds were Arab, their spokesman may have said to Saʕid’s emissary, at least in former times, ʕalayya ṭṭalaag ma timši ‘I swear I shall divorce if you leave’ (i.e. and do not accept our invitation to eat). Among older religious people, you were not free to make a man break his oath, for which the penalty was to fast for three days or to pay for a meal for ten poor people. It has been seen that women do not use the same forms of oathtaking as men; yaḥlili, ya ṛəbbi was an earlier example (note (38)), and likewise female usage precludes waḷḷahi lʕaḍim in favour of waḷḷahi lʕaziz or takes the form of swearing, say, on the neck of one’s father. (47) A husband commonly uses plural forms when addressing his wife, especially in the presence of others. Another example is ʔ(ə)qamət adin nirukan ‘take these things away!’. (48) The heavy tent, which needs a number of people to move it, is always kept in a special room.

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(49) ǝllusǝt is a sauce prepared from tomatoes, pepper, salt, spices, and oil, which saves space during transport. The main spice is turmeric or curcuma (Ar. kurkum). (50) The barley is roasted, crushed, and ground for the staple breakfast of taẓǝṃṃiṭ, with water and olive oil added to the ready cooked flour, which is eaten as a paste. (51) utšu is the flour cooked in salted hot water. lǝqli comprises pieces of meat left over from an earlier feast and stored over months in ghi. It is considered a great delicacy, giving a rich gravy, and is brought out on such occasions as the spring outing. (52) Each family has two or three camels but usually only one tent, though a second one is sometimes taken for expected guests. Here ‘tents’ should be read as ‘families’. (53) Milking is normally done at night when the flocks have returned from grazing. It is only after milking that lambs are allowed to take milk from their mothers. The milk is first put in an earthenware pot, placed next to a low fire, and transferred in the morning from pot to goatskin. This is then shaken to and fro for a considerable time before the butter is skimmed off the top and potted, leaving buttermilk in the skin. In time the butter becomes ghi. ǝzzǝbda seems to be used only of the day’s yield, whereas the ‘pool’ to which it is added is tlussi ‘ghi’. The term for buttermilk is aɣi. See also note (43). (54) Times have changed but at least in earlier days a ‘pool’ of negresses lived by communicating wishes to marry or divorce as well as news of deaths. In addition, they sought employment as house servants. Nowadays and for some time, marriages tend to be arranged direct between families, but some of the negresses have set up their own agencies and businesses and some prospered greatly during the last war. (55) Ar. bayaan. The word refers in Zuara not only to the announcement of a betrothal but also to the gifts of sugar, tea, oil or ghi, peanuts, haricot beans, split peas, two bags of barley or wheat, meat, and clothes brought by the boy’s family to the girl’s. Money, too, to be spent on the wedding, is paid over by the groom’s father. Similar gifts are made to the bride-to-be and her family throughout the engagement on the occasion of any feast, whence the need to keep engagements short. The extended family of the groom and his friends are asked along, and the total ‘party’ may number as many as 100, for whom the bride’s mother must provide at least tea. 333

(56) The women’s tlabatt is wider than the men’s jerd. It is of dark brown wool and very heavy, and is worn only when the bride/wife goes out. A bride’s trouseau consists of a large number of (ind) bǝlliri ‘dress(es)’ and two or three tilabatin in addition. (57) I.e. ear-rings, necklaces, bracelets. If the family do not own such articles, they borrow them. These items are worn only for 10 days, 3 before the wedding and 7 after the bride leaves for her new house. A great number of pieces are worn during this period, most of which are too heavy for daily use. (58) See appendix ‘Marriage customs’. (59) Olives are usually grown in a separate plantation, gathered in September, dried in the sun, and pressed. A year’s supply of oil is kept and the rest sold. (60) The palms are climbed and the branches shaken so that the ripe dates fall on carpets placed beneath. The dates are potted, some unstoned, others stoned. The unstoned dates are called lǝʕriš, not izǝgnan. (61) The student repeats the Qoran three times, taking on average nine months for the first repeat and five months for the second. For the first reading, the pupil starts at the end of the Qoran, where the suras are short, well known, and easier to memorize. For the third reading, the pupil is given a bigger board, which will accommodate more material and thus enable him to complete the reading more quickly. Ferhat is now about 15 or 16 and has taken approximately two years for the two repeats. (62) The formula used is nšaḷḷa ṛǝbb(i) ayǝftaḥ f(ǝ)llas ‘May God open his mind’, i.e. to further study, which Ferhat is going to undertake. (63) To be brought by ǝššǝryul, a large 4-wheeled flat, from one of the two or three quarries near Zuara. ǝ́lžir or ǝssímǝnt is used for tazǝqqa n(ǝ)ssuri, a modern room; otherwise, the old type has ǝ́lus. (64) The walls are whitewashed, the doors and windows painted. (65) Another example of close Berber-Arabic correspondence. Cf. Tripoli Ar. xalli fiik, ǝṭṭubbik aktar min haada. (66) There are two meanings of ydiqq. The first, as in the text, where the woman is the subject of the form tdiqq, refers to her leaving her husband. If it is the husband who sends her away, the verb, with the husband as subject, is yẓuṛṛ. The second meaning is of a child refusing food, as in ydiqq affmǝssis wyǝqqil attyǝtš ‘he refused his 334

dinner and wouldn’t eat it’, said, for example, of a petulant child not given the piece of meat he wanted. His mother might say sarcastically to him slǝmmi t(ǝ)ḥfǝḍǝd adiqqi (verbal noun), mabruka ṣṣanʕa ‘Since when have you learned to throw (things) away, congratulations on your behaviour!’. (67) irži (pl. iržawǝn) is a small store-room for oil, barley, sugar, tea, etc. If a wife shows herself to be less than thrifty, her husband may take the key to the store-room and distribute commodities to his wife as he sees fit. (68) Addressive k- here shows her anger with Saʕid. (69) They would say, for example áittat zʕíma tiṛǝ́ḍ lǝ́ʕqab ‘Zaʕima only wears cast-offs’ or áittat zʕíma wt(ǝ)flíš ltmǝ́ɣṛa mallik wǝɣṛǝ́sš matta tiṛǝ́ḍ ‘Zaʕima didn’t go to the wedding because she had nothing to wear.’ (70) This contains the threat that he will marry another, which is absent from af(ǝ)lkifis ‘as he likes’. (71) ‘The greatest (i.e. most binding) oath that God has decreed’, i.e. waḷḷaahi lʕaziiz for women. la yǝfṛǝḍi ṛǝbbi is an integral part of the collocation with sliman amǝqqar. (72) The old belief was that it was inauspicious to undertake anything important on a Wednesday. (73) The forms of conveyance in regular use are as follows; takǝṛṛitt (It. carretta), flat-topped or with raised sides, variously used to transport luggage, stones, coal, etc. Its driver is akṛaṛti/-iy(y)ǝn; ǝššǝryul a larger form of takǝṛṛitt with four wheels instead of two, and always flat-topped. Its driver is again akṛaṛti. Both the ǝššǝryul and the takǝṛṛitt are drawn by one horse or mule; takǝṛṛust (It. carozza), typically a four-wheeled public conveyance. Its driver is akṛaṛsi/ -iy(y)ǝn; (ǝ)lkalis ‘gig’ (It. calesse Fr. calèche), a small two-wheeled trap for passengers only. There is no specialized name for its driver, since one drives one’s own; (ǝ)lkǝṛhbǝt ‘car, van, ambulance’. The driver is ǝššufir/-iyya (chauffeur). (74) ‘... start learning’, i.e. Arabic language and religious philosophy. (75) It is a Sheikh, not the A’ezzab, who alone can supervise advanced study. The A’ezzab is concerned only with the essentially rote teaching of the Qoran, which finishes between the ages of 14 and 16. The time of instruction with the Sheikh is a matter of personal arrangement. Probably a graduate of Al-Azhar in Cairo or of Al-Zeituna 335

in Tunis, he does not live solely on his tuition fees but is also the Imam of a mosque and may be a rich man in his own right. Instruction by the Sheikh normally takes the form of explaining difficult texts to students. (76) The duties of the guardian include cleaning, security (locking up and opening up), and sometimes calling to prayer. (77) ‘... a donkey among your masters’, i.e. boys of your own age and class will become your masters. (78) I.e. preparing for Ferhat’s wedding, buying furniture, etc., etc. (79) ‘(It was) Soon (when ...)’. waidabíh is the conjunctive temporal equivalent of anḍ(ǝ)llák ‘when’, which is commoner and is substitutable for waidabih here. (80) There are a number of building and decorating terms in this passage. (ǝ)ssqǝf is both ‘ceiling’ (which is plastered and whitewashed) and ‘roof’ (which is tiled). The red roof tiles are perforated to allow the passage of iron bars, which are cemented to the walls. The floor tiles (also ǝzzǝlliz) are of various colours. We have seen that the doors and windows are painted (zǝwwǝq), whereas the walls are whitewashed (lǝbbǝn). Before painting and whitewashing, the walls are, of course, plastered (bǝyyǝḍ). (ǝ)lbiban is in the plural not because there are a number of doors but because the door is in two vertical halves. Other building terms include (ǝ)lyažuṛ, which may refer variously to bricks or roof tiles, and lǝ́blǝk (It. blocco), a cubeshaped slab, and there are many others from beyond the scope of this brief résumé. (81) It is strictly taboo for father and son to talk directly about the son’s marriage. This must be undertaken by an intermediary. Each ‘tribe’ in Zuara (see note 2), has (or had) its own group of black exslaves who usually assume this task among others and are also the local gossip-carriers. The reserve between father and son concerning the latter’s marriage takes several forms – for instance, the son goes away for a few days when his engagement is announced and he does not see or speak to his parents for approximately one month after his wedding. He visits his home when his parents are unlikely to be about and they in turn avoid places, even corridors at home, where they would be likely to meet him. A bride-to-be is free to see her own parents and her prospective mother-in-law from the outset but does not speak unveiled to her father-in-law for about two years. Veiled, she may speak to him for the first time after approximately six 336

months and then only to pass the time of day. Most marriages take place just before Ramadan and contact is resumed between son and family on the occasion of the ‘Id Al-Ṣaghir at the end of the month of fasting; alternatively, the marriage may be celebrated at the ‘Id AlṢaghir and contact re-established at the ‘Id Al-Kabir after the month of pilgrimage. Arrangements are made in accordance with the annual dates of the festivals. (82) yǝxḍǝb/yxǝḍḍǝb or yxǝṭṭǝb is only used of a mother asking another mother or of both mother and father making a joint approach (xḍǝbnas ‘they asked her’). When the father alone is involved, either yutlay or ynaba is the appropriate verb. (83) See note (55). (84) Reference is to modern furnishing. (85) Sugar, tea, oil, etc. are brought in Zuara; furniture and clothes come from Tripoli. (86) See Appendix ‘Marriage Customs’. (87) Reference is variously to the ‘Id Al-Ṣaghir (otherwise, the ‘Id Al-Fiṭr, the feast of the breaking of the fast after Ramadan) or to the ‘Id Al-Kabir (otherwise, the ‘Id Al-Aḍḥan or the ‘Id Al-ḍaḥiyya, the feast of the slaughtering (of the sheep) after the pilgrimage in the pilgrimage month). The usual exchange of greetings on the occasion of ‘Id is: A. tfáṣkak ttambárǝkt ‘Happy (lit. blessed) holiday’ B. ʕlína w(ǝ)ʕlík ‘And also to you’ (lit. on us and on you). A woman often responds with nšáḷḷa lʕúqba limál dkúll ʕám nǝknim tǝddǝ́rǝm ‘I hope you will come again next year (lit. the next one (greeting) is for next year (= imal)) and that every year you (still) live’. The ‘Id greetings take place for the most part during the lǝmṣǝḷḷa (see note (88)) at the seashore, and tours are also made of houses to greet, for example, women and others unable to attend the prayers. Special clothes are worn for ‘Id. Ferhat, for example, will wear a complete (serge?) suit (ǝ́)lkaṭ n(ǝ́)lmǝlf, comprising asṛawil ‘trousers’, taṣǝḍṛit (Ar. farmǝla) ‘waistcoat’, and (ǝ́)zzbuun ‘jacket’. On other days the jacket is not worn, and the waistcoat and trousers are of linen ((ǝ)lkǝ́ttan). The jerd (aḥuli) also differs, with the wearing of a silk one (aḥuli n(ǝ)lǝḥrir) for ‘Id. The jerd, it should be said, is a togalike garment worn throughout Libya. (88) On the two occasions of ‘Id, special prayers (lǝmṣǝḷḷa) are offered up near the sea-shore. Almost the whole (male) population of Zuara attends, divided into their several ‘tribes’. Prayers are said at a 337

time other than that of any prayer (tẓallit) of the daily sequence and are led by the Imam of Zuara, chosen from the Imams of the numerous mosques. The Imam also preaches a sermon. (89) I.e. with the greeting appropriate to the feast. yʕǝyyǝd includes mutual embracing as well as greeting. (90) yih la qrǝbnasǝn, i.e. close friends and associates in addition to relatives. (91) I.e. they will expand their trade by buying in greater quantities and varieties of goods, by dealing with both Tripoli and Tunis, etc. (92) Khalifa and Naži were working independently before. Their books will now have to start again from scratch. (93) I.e. a large store as opposed to a shop, trading in a great variety of goods, often expensive, e.g. clothes. taḥnuyt is the general word for ‘shop’ but sells rather sugar, tea, oil, and similar commodities. (94) ǝ́lɣǝṛb is the Tunesian border area in the vicinity of Ben Gardane. (95) Cf. ass yǝkmǝl nǝtta mǝrtaḥ ‘he rests all day’. Note that *nǝttat mǝrtaḥa is unacceptable because a woman’s housework is not seen as work but as duty. (96) In the event of a serious quarrel between his wife and his mother, a man is in duty bound to side with the latter, whatever the rights of the case. Confronted with the problem, a husband normally keeps his own counsel, but if in spite of his misgivings he is driven to commit himself, he must and will take his mother’s part. Zaʕima has behaved badly according to the standards of the society. Except among the extremely poor, it is a matter of pride for a mother-in-law to continue doing all the housework until she is physically unable to do so without help, so that her daughter-in-law should be left a ‘lady of leisure’. Nafisa could expect to continue thus for at least 10 years. She might help with washing, for example her husband’s clothes, but she would never cook and would even have her meals brought to her by her mother-in-law. Likewise, when guests are expected as here, she would only perform light duties, e.g. getting the room ready for them. Those who can afford it, either her own parents or her parents-in-law, will supply a bride with a maidservant, usually a young black girl. Zaʕima makes reference to this in the text. 338

(97) ḥǝzzǝm lǝḥzamim. ‘Roll up your sleeves!’, lit. tie the end of your bǝlliri round your waist, as women do when working. lǝḥzǝm is also the girdle of a man’s asṛawil (Ar. sirwal) ‘trousers’ and, in fact, refers to anything tied round the waist. (98) (ǝ)lʕiltiw. It is appropriate here to draw attention to taboos and practices concerning terms of address and reference to young spouses within a family. In general, usage between women and between the spouses themselves is much less restricted than otherwise. Thus, if Ferhat asks his mother about Nafisa’s whereabouts, let us say, he will use 3 person pl. masc. forms, as in mani llan/flǝnn? ‘where is she/where has she gone?’ or matta hadigǝn ɣadi? ‘what’s she going to do there?’. He cannot talk to his father about Nafisa at all, though if he does ask Saʕid mani flǝnn? he could be asking about his mother and his wife. He cannot say *mani nafisa? or mani lʕiltiw to anyone, father, mother, sister, or whoever, nor can he say mani t(ǝ)lla? ‘where is she?’ to either parent, though this may be asked of his sister or of someone outside the family. If, in turn, they were to ask after Nafisa, they (for instance, a close friend of Ferhat’s) would say mamak llan l(ǝ)ʕyal? ‘how is the wife?’ (and it would have to be a close friend to ask the question at all). (For l(ǝ)ʕyal, see note (4).) Female relatives, however, may ask Ferhat mamak t(ǝ)lla nafisa? but they cannot say *mamak t(ǝ)lla lʕiltik? (ǝ)lʕilt-, in fact, seems to be reserved for use between Ferhat and Nafisa. As we have seen (note (47)), in the presence of his parents and in the early years of the marriage, Ferhat uses plural imperative forms to Nafisa, e.g. ǝkkrǝt ssyin, wǝllʕǝt (ǝ)lkanun, sirdǝt (ǝ)lʕal(ǝ)t, ǝsswǝt tamǝṛbuʕt ‘up you get and light the brazier, clean the tea-things and set out the guests’ room’, but he can never use his wife’s name to anyone other than herself. If he wishes to refer to her, he will use nǝttat ‘she’ or nǝtnin ‘they’ and, if you ask him who he means, he will reply ‘l(ǝ)ʕyal’. As to Nafisa, if she wishes to ask where Ferhat is, she can say nothing to her father-in-law for many years, whereafter she may say mani yǝlla? ‘where is he?’, using the singular form of the verb. There is little or no ceremony between women and she may ask mani fǝrḥat? of Zaʕima from the outset. To Saʕid, however, she can never use Ferhat’s name. A male person from outside the family, addressing Nafisa, may use the name, as in mani feṛḥat? wybanš ussani ‘where is Ferhat? He hasn’t appeared for some days’, but he may not use argaz ‘husband’ and say, for example, matta lḥal nwǝrgazim? ‘how is your 339

husband?’, though once again a woman may use the term. The subject is clearly an interesting one demanding further research. (99) The need for water for hand-washing shows the meal to be utšu with its attendant use of the hand. (100) By laying down carpets, setting out implements, and so on. (101) This is a threat by which Zaʕima tells Nafisa that she knows what steps to take, for example asking Ferhat to chastise his wife. (102) alǝmmi ndadin is yet another example of the constant interplay between Berber and surrounding Arabic. Tkǝddrǝt lǝnn haaka hu (< ʔilaa ʔan haakaḏa huwa) regularly occurs in the Arabic of the Zuara environs but would not be understood in Tripoli. (103) I.e. her heavy dark woollen jerd for outdoor wear. (104) I.e. clothes, ornaments, tea-sets, coffee-sets, etc. (105) This is the ultimate form of bad behaviour and insult, tantamount to wishing Ferhat dead. Four months after the death of her husband, his widow returns to her own family, taking her bedding with her. Otherwise, it is never taken. (106) ‘Banish the thought!’, lit. far away and outside, and may God protect us, i.e. from Ferhat’s death. This is said when anything of ill omen is mentioned. (107) lit. ‘there is no loss in Nafisa’, i.e. what Nafisa takes is not lost. Saʕid is on Nafisa’s side. (108) lit. ‘God is the victor’, i.e. as a result of Saʕid’s wise intervention, she can do nothing. (109) Kheriya, in fact angling for a divorce, is saying that Nafisa would now require a separate house, a deeply shameful thing, since Ferhat would have to leave his family, whereafter he and they would never be reconciled. And the whole town would talk! (110) The form of words he chooses shows that Saʕid is unequivocally angry with Kheriya. (111) Cf. yttágǝl gtaɣlíwin ‘he is hanging the “dukkar” on the palms’. Arabic dukkaar refers to the part of the male palm-tree which is hung on the bunches of unformed dates in order to fertilize them. amǝ́ṛṣiḍ, mostly used for figs, is the corresponding Berber term. (112) ‘Give her her word’, i.e. tǝllǝ́fǝd ‘you are divorced’. Cf. yǝllǝf ‘he divorced’/tǝllǝf ‘she was divorced’, where the active/passive distinction reflects the fact that a woman may not divorce her husband. (113) ǝlmǝ́ktub is the one decreed by fate to be a woman’s husband. 340

(114) In this and a few other collocations, ḥibi (ḥibik, ḥibis, ḥibitnǝɣ, etc.) replaces baba ‘(my) father’. (115) ‘God has not made our noses for mucous only’, i.e. we are proud. (116) I.e. we have not demanded money or any other form of recompense from you. (117) ǝnnǝfqǝt is the maintenance money or alimony paid during the divorce. When divorced, a wife cannot remarry for three months from the time of registration of the divorce with the Qadi. Thereafter, her husband is no longer liable unless she is pregnant, in which case he continues payments up to the time of the birth. The Qadi makes other arrangements for the support of the child until it is two years old. When the child has been weaned, the husband can if he wishes take it but rarely does so before it has reached the age of four or five. It is possible to pay at once the sum due, or for the bride’s father to refuse the money and to ask the Qadi to distribute it among the poor. ǝnnǝfqǝt has to be paid even if the wife is to blame for the divorce, but it is not payable if the husband wants her to return to the matrimonial home. Thus, Kheriya and Nafisa would have no case in the circumstances described in the text. (118) Parents are unable to discuss the matter direct with their son, nor he with them, whence the role of go-between played by Ferhat’s sister. (119) Someone says he has something to tell you; you respond xir nšaḷḷa ‘I hope it’s good’. The same response is also made to žžužfǝɣ iḍ(ǝ)nnat ‘I had a dream last night’, when the dreamer must relate what it was. (120) I.e. in the form of whatever expenditure a new wedding may entail. (121) This is quite strongly threatening. (122) I.e. man(kind). (123) I.e. no one can ask anything of you, even the most reasonable request. (124) Neither Kheriya nor Saʕid could broach the subject before Nafisa. (125) The story is told in Zuara that a Jew’s small son asked him why it was that muslims never stopped talking. The boy thought they must be very clever people. The text gives the father’s reply, which has become the stock answer to anyone who keeps asking you for or 341

about the same thing. There are many similar stories and sayings concerning Jews and their uncomplimentary opinions of Muslims. One such saying is nǝttat wǝtša dǝlfundǝq ǝll(i) iwal(i) yxǝššha ‘It is not // a wholesale shop/an inn/an animal enclosure// that anyone (at all) can enter’. The whole story is as follows: ysǝstǝn uday babis yǝṃṃayas ‘ɣir anǝmmut mani hanfǝl?’ yǝṃṃayas ‘l(l)žǝnnǝt’. yǝṃṃayas ‘bahi. iziɣ aɣyulǝnnǝɣ, mani hanǝttnǝdž?’ yǝṃṃayas ‘anǝttnǝqqǝn gtǝsqift’. yǝṃṃayas ‘iziɣ imǝs(ǝ)lmin, mani haʕǝmṛǝn?’ yǝṃṃayas ‘nǝttat (= ǝlžǝnnǝt) wǝtša dǝlfundǝq ǝll(i) iwal(i) yxǝššha’. “A Jew asked his father (saying) ‘When we die, where shall we go?’. He answered (lit. said) ‘To Paradise’. ‘Fine, and where shall we leave our donkey, then?’ ‘We shall tie him up in the entrance hall (= tasqift)’. ‘Where, then, will the Muslims live?’ Paradise isn’t a place anyone can enter’. (126) She cannot have anything as shameful said about her that she advised Ferhat to leave his parents. By comparison divorce carries no stigma, and Kheriya has wanted divorce from the outset, not expecting Ferhat to take his present action. (127) Sarcasm again. (128) For Ferhat it is a matter of even greater shame to be banned from his parent’s house than to leave it of his own free will. He would also be sent off without money and with only the clothes he stands up in. (129) This is said of one who, having gone to another town or to the country, cannot find work and lives only from hand to mouth. aysab would not be used if he is ultimately successful elsewhere. (130) Zaʕima is advising Saʕid to divorce Nafisa, a device not yet considered. A father can go to the Qadi and register the fact that he wishes to divorce his son’s wife. The Qadi is then bound to seek the agreement of the son. In 99% of cases the son agrees in order to avoid the otherwise consequent contumely. The Qadi must also inform the wife. This has no effect on ǝnnǝfqǝt (see note (117)). A husband may not wish to take his wife back nor to divorce her and be faced with maintenance payments. The Qadi would then intervene through the wife’s father or failing him, her uncle, or in turn failing him, her brother. The husband must choose between maintaining his absent wife and divorcing her, which also involves maintaining her, though for a shorter period. The certificate of divorce, written in this case in the presence of Saʕid and Ferhat and later registered in the Sharia court, is subsequently kept by Nafisa as proof of her freedom. 342

(131) I.e. she has gone as the result of the will of God, so there can be no argument with the Sheikh. (132) This is not so, since the Sheikh is patently under his wife’s thumb. (133) ǝzzǝḥmǝt, i.e. the noisy crowd of relatives and friends attending a wedding. (134) šaṛa mbǝssif f(ǝ)llas, i.e. something he had to do against his will. (135) ǝnniɣ ɣǝṛi ara mbǝlḥǝq, i.e. Saʕid has in the past been proud to speak of (his child) Ferhat, but if Ferhat leaves, then Saʕid will have to disown him, to Ferhat’s great shame. (136) That ‘I have been spurned’ is implicit in sǝṭṭuliw ‘in person, of my own accord’. (137) I.e. they took not the slightest notice of me and treated me as if I were non-existent, not worthy of notice. (138) Lit. ‘all these (people) from here and there’, i.e. all the others on Kheriya’s side. (139) I.e. set up a separate house. (140) If Ferhat disagrees, the divorce initiated by his father is invalid. (141) ‘what he told him is known only by God’, i.e. it was shameful. (142) ‘I shall speak to them’, i.e. to tell them to stop Ferhat’s credit.

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Appendix: Marriage Customs ǝlltix marks the beginning of the wedding, the first day of a customary period of three days, sometimes extended by richer folk. (The elaborate ceremonial described below does not apply to the taking of a second wife, when no special ceremonies take place.) The physical form taken by the ǝlltix is a large wooden basin, which is filled with utšu by the groom’s family and carried by servants through the streets to the bride's house. The procession is accompanied by brothers, sisters, and cousins of the groom. The groom’s mother remains in her house where she is very busy providing for all those, including strangers, who call to eat. The ǝlltix is taken to the bride’s house at about 7 p.m., and the bride and her group comprising sisters and female friends including the ‘best woman’ (always a negress, who attends, for example, to the bride’s food requirements, her dressing, and so on) eat their dinner from it according to an unusual ritual. The bride and best woman feed each other in turn and the others must wait for them to eat their fill. Thereafter, the remainder help themselves but to no more than two or three handfuls. The bride and the groom remain with their friends in their own houses, and drumming (with the ǝḍḍǝṛbuk(ǝt) ‘drum’ and singing (by the women only) continue through the night. With most families, on the afternoon of the second day (lǝʕḍaṛ), at 5 p.m. or thereabouts, a camel is brought to the courtyard of the groom's house, and is loaded with a sack of barley and one of wheat, over which are placed two or three carpets hanging down to ground level. It is then mounted by children before setting out for the bride’s house. In the mean time, the bride’s mother has done the round of the neighbourhood calling out áḥḍaṛ (Ar.) gwǝmkánim ‘come to (lit. be present at) your place’, whereby she invites all friends and relatives to come to the lǝʕḍǝṛ. The invitees help the black servants to load the camel and to bring to the bride’s house the clothes (dresses, shoes, hats -- in part for any brother of the bride) as well as the foodstuffs (oil, sugar, meat, beans, peanuts, etc.) that the groom’s father will have paid for. The camel sets out accompanied by a great crowd and also, firstly, by a small donkey carrying two children and a small sack of cereals and, secondly, by a group of Sudanese instrumentalists, a drummer beating the ǝḍḍǝngǝt with a stick, and a piper playing the tabǝẓbaẓt ‘pipes’. A third collects money from the crowd and bystanders, crying out in Arabic as he 344

does so ‘This is from so-and-so’. The whole party on setting out does not go direct to the bride’s house but makes a tour of Zuara. When they reach the bride’s house, they leave their gifts and, in the case of the women and children, are free to stay, though the men must leave before returning during the night. All the arrangements for the many facets of the wedding ceremony as they concern the groom and his party must be organised by the groom’s best man (lúzir, Ar. waziir). Most of the foregoing concerns activity at the groom’s house. At the bride’s house, after lunch, clay (taɣuri) from the Jebel Nafousa is brought and mixed with water. The bride is then covered all over with the mixture before going with her group to the sea to wash it off. She must return to her house before the groom arrives and at about 5 p.m. she is decked out with jewellery, made up with antimony, and sprayed with perfume. At about 9 p.m. she emerges veiled from her room into the courtyard and the black servants prepare henna and apply it to her hands and feet, and at about this time, while she is still in the courtyard, the groom and his party return. The groom carries a dagger and no one must pass between him and his bride. He also removes a bracelet (ǝddǝblǝz) from her left wrist. This bracelet is sent back the following day with further presents of rings, scarves, and perfume. During the henna-ing period, the women sing, the groom’s party stand by, and anyone is free to enter the courtyard. After about an hour the groom and his party leave. In the courtyard of the groom’s house there now takes place the tamǝɣṛa. Four or five black singers and poets come to the house at the instigation of visiting groups to sing and recite poems. They are paid by the group introducing them, and whenever a member of a visiting group pays the agreed fee, the names of the whole group are announced so that the grooms knows who has been to his wedding. The audience sits in a circle around the courtyard with the poets (sometimes also dancers) performing in the centre. A drum is beaten at the conclusion of each poem recited, and people come and go throughout the night up to about 5 a.m. The word tamǝɣṛa is also used to refer to the wedding as a whole. Even with the better-off, the celebrations do not exceed five days, in which case the second day is taken up with feasting and singing, the lǝʕḍǝṛ is held on the third day, and the tamǝɣṛa is repeated on the 345

fourth night. The typical pattern, however, covers three days only, with the lǝʕḍǝr on the second and a single tamǝɣṛa on the third night. The tazǝddayt ‘going to the seaside’ is always on the last day, starting at about 5 p.m. The Qadi goes to the groom's house to lunch and reads the opening line of the marriage ceremony (ayɣǝr lfatḥa). He asks the groom's father as to the acceptability to him of his future daughter-in-law and also asks him if the girl accepts to marry his son. After lunch the Qadi reads the whole fatḥa, which, perhaps it should be said, does not refer to the Qoran. Later on, both fathers will go to the Sharia court for the registration of the marriage and to pay the appropriate fees, but the marriage is completed when the fatḥa has been said. At about 5 p.m., the groom and his party, accompanied by female relatives and friends, go, some of the men on horseback, to the seashore, where they may be joined by other riders. The riders carry rifles and gallop in groups not exceeding six, firing into the air as they go. At sunset the groom and his party return to his home, where he is obliged to take the tabriqt ‘jug’ placed outside the door of his room and smash it. Thereafter, groom and party leave the house to take the air, and during this time the bride and her attendants arrive and enter her room. The attendants stay until about midnight, when the groom enters. The groom’s party return in the early morning and remain in close attendance upon him for a period of seven days, going out with him and eating with him at his house, where people bring their meals to them. During these seven days, the groom’s father – whom the groom must neither look at nor talk to for anything between two and five weeks after the marriage – invites folk from all over Zuara to partake at his house of food provided by relatives and friends. This food, usually including kouskous, meat, beans, and potatoes, is called tẓiwa, which is the china basin in which the food is brought. On the third day after the tazǝddayt, the bride’s mother, with friends to help her, takes furniture for her daughter's room at the groom’s house. In earlier times they also took painted china plates for putting on the walls and also raffia lids (Ar. ṭabag, Berber andu, pl. inda) as well as white, red and black blankets, which were folded and hung over a wooden rail between the two walls adjacent to the door. Nowadays,

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she takes only tea- and coffee-sets, which are for ornamental purposes only. On the third night after the tazǝddayt (iḍ n(ǝ)ttal(ǝ)t), the wife leaves her room, and friends of the groom go to the room or to a guestroom if available and there spend the night singing. Each man present must sing three songs and if he does not know any, then he is ‘caned’ on the hand with the bride’s shoe, which is repeated for subsequent failures. The best man is responsible for administering the initial ‘punishment’ and also has to repeat the title of a song if a singer should hesitate or pause between verses. The same procedure is repeated on the seventh night after the tazeddayt (iḍ n(ǝ)ssab(ǝ)ʕ), except that seven songs are now required in place of three, with the same sanction applied. If you are among the groom’s best friends, he can give you his ring and handkerchief, which absolve you from singing and ‘caning’. He cannot, however, grant this favour to more than three people. After the iḍ n(ǝ)ssabǝʕ, the celebrations are over and the bride is at last free to remove the heavy jewellery which she was hitherto been obliged to wear throughout! Addenda (ǝ)nnǝžmǝt, though no longer observed, seems sufficiently interesting to mention. At about 3 a.m., just before the conclusion of the tamǝɣṛa, the groom was upon a time led by a number of women, girls, and boys to a quiet uninhabited place and a specimen of the kind of palm-tree called (ǝ)llǝmsi or talǝmsit, where he was led seven times around the tree. Thereafter, he was taken home again to the accompaniment of singing and shouting. A common enquiry of the groom’s family was l(ǝ)ʕrisǝ́nwǝn hayǝ́ffǝɣ lǝnnǝ́žmǝt iziɣ ahá? ‘is your groom going to (do) the nǝžmǝt or not?’ The dates (iɣiwǝn) of the llǝmsi, it may be added, are considered to be the best. bulǝṭṭuṭ is a kind of kouskous with larger balls of flour (semolina) than the usual variety. I am not certain whether it is brought on the day of the lǝʕḍaṛ after the henna-ing or the tazǝddayt when the bride goes to her room in her new house (TFM). The bride's family bring it to the groom’s party, in whose midst it is placed, whereupon they all literally hurl themselves upon it in order to grab one of the few pieces of meat or one of the two or three eggs on top. Most get just a 347

handful of kouskous. The groom does not take part but is led beforehand by his maternal aunt seven times around the tẓiwa containing the bulǝṭṭuṭ, and it is at the completion of his seventh circumambulation that his party make their dash for titbits. The seven turns, it may be noted, are not made in the same rotary direction: the first is clockwise, the second anti-clockwise, the third clockwise, and so on. When the bride enters her room on the night of tazǝddayt, she is accompanied by negresses who go to the best man and plead with him to give them much prized olive oil for the bride. If she is given a lot, it is thought she will be fortunate in her marriage and not be under her husband’s thumb. The best man must at first refuse and the negresses insist, until he finally gives in and pours some into her cupped hands from the bottle already available in the room. She then asks for more and he reluctantly accedes to her request. He must try to dispense only one or two drops at a time, and she for her part tries to jog his elbow to make him pour more. Unless they have agreed beforehand with the groom’s father on the sum to be paid them, the negresses ask the best man for money, which is called (ǝ)nnḥil(ǝ)t using the form of words ušanǝɣ or nǝɣs nnḥil(ǝ)t. Some families having a small son combine the ceremonies of the wedding and the circumcision (haḍǝhhṛǝn). During her henna-ing the bride is brought to the centre of the courtyard to the ceremony of the (ǝ)ṣṣxab, during which negresses sing and shout, calling aḥḍǝṛ, ya zeen, wǝtkaddǝš ʕala lalti nafisa ʕṭeṭni ṣṣukkǝṛ maṛṛa fi maṛṛa, ʕṭeṭni ššahi maṛṛa fi maṛṛa, etc. ‘Come, beauty, and be heaped on my mistress Nafisa, she gave me sugar time and again, she gave me tea time and again’, etc. The ǝṣṣxab proper is part of the circumcision but, if there is no wedding, different words and refrains are used by the negresses. They go to the boy's house and are paid by the women of the family. If circumcision is combined with the wedding, the former is carried out at the time the groom goes off to the tazǝddayt.

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Other families may observe the practice of verifying the bride’s virginity on the wedding night. If so, the best man waits outside the room, and others outside the house. If his wife was indeed a virgin, the groom joins his best man and without speaking they give the news to the outside group, who in celebration discharge rifles into the air. If the outcome is different, groom and best man discuss the groom’s course of action. He may in any case wish to keep her, whereafter firing takes place, or he may reject her, when her parents become liable to refund all expenses. After the groom leaves his room, the bride is joined by sisters and friends. The word takmist ‘shirt’ is used with particular significance in this context. The shirt worn by the bride is a special one, usually of silk, sometimes white and sometimes striped, and it is taken by the women from the bridal chamber to the bride’s mother, who examines it to verify the facts of consummation and of her daughter’s virginity. Relevant idioms are yufiš dis takmist ‘he (the groom) found she wasn’t a virgin’ and ysufǝɣ takmist ‘he consummated the marriage’ (lit. he took out the shirt).

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