Chadian and Sudanese Arabic in the Light of Comparative Arabic Dialectology [Reprint 2014 ed.] 9783110803365, 9789027933249

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JANUA LINGUARUM STUDIA MEMORIAE NICOLAI VAN WIJK DEDICATA edenda curat C. H. VAN S C H O O N E V E L D Indiana University Series Practica

236

CHADIAN AND SUDANESE ARABIC IN THE LIGHT OF COMPARATIVE ARABIC DIALECTOLOGY by A L A N S. K A Y E , P h . D . California State University Fullerton, California

1976

MOUTON THE HAGUE · PARIS

© Copyright 1976 in The Netherlands. Mouton & Co. Β.V., Publishers, The Hague. No part of this book may be translated or reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publishers.

ISBN 90 279 33243

Photoset by Interprint (Malta) Ltd. and Printed in The Netherlands by Intercontinental Graphics

PREFACE

The study of Arabic linguistics and Arabic dialectology is mainly limited to the study of classical Arabic, old Arabic dialects, Middle Arabic dialects, and some of the modern dialects. The aim of this work is to present an introduction to selected synchronic and diachronic aspects of the two most neglected areas of the modern sedentary Arabic dialects, i.e. Sudanese colloquial Arabic and Chadian Arabic. Sobelman (1962) presents state of the art articles on Syrian, Egyptian, Arabian, Iraqi, North African, and Maltese dialects. In chapters 1 and 2 of this work, we have presented state of the art papers which indicate the present condition of our knowledge. We have also tried to present outlines of the grammar of each dialect. The lack of scholarly attention to these major dialects is due to the relatively remote geographical positions of the Sudan and Chad as well as to dialectologists' preference for more "civilized" areas in which to do research, e.g. Egypt or Lebanon. Even Maltese, with far fewer speakers than Chadian Arabic, has received considerable linguistic attention. Chapter 3 takes a long detailed look at the hypothesis of the Arabic koine (Ferguson 1959c), and chapters 4 and 5 examine each one of the proposed features in terms of the two dialects under consideration. We have endeavored to elucidate some of the intricate problems connected with this subject, and to demonstrate the crucial importance of Sudanese colloquial Arabic and Chadian Arabic materials for a full understanding of the history of Arabic. We have tried not to chop the subject up too much and not to dwell upon too many isolated details, but rather to follow and emphasize those details which are in fact interconnected. Our principal goal is a more or less complete picture of the significance of both of these macrodialects, rather than a presentation of grammatical details. Anyone who has studied classical Arabic and one modern dialect can see the interest and fascination for both of these dialects — a fascination which I first developed in 1967-68 while participating in Joshua Blau's seminars in Arabic dialectology at the Univer-

vi

PREFACE

sity of California, Berkeley, where he was a Visiting Professor. We should still welcome studies on Sudanese colloquial Arabic and Chadian Arabic, especially on the subdialects, but this would require a team effort which is not possible in the near future because of the civil wars ravaging both countries. When I first looked at both dialects, I frankly did not believe much of the data available in some parts of the literature. I therefore thought that I should travel to both the Sudan and Chad to confirm or reject many of the statements in these sources. This I was able to do from June 1, 1970, to September 1, 1970, through a grant of the National Science Foundation, Program in Anthropology, GS-2946, which enabled m e t o spend three months in Chad and the Sudan gathering information. Grateful acknowledgement must be recorded to the National Science Foundation for this aid. My own personal observations have largely contradicted most of the statements in available linguistic materials. Much of this work is taken into consideration and is observable in the following pages of this work. Finally, I wish to thank Professor M. B. Emeneau for his many kind efforts on my behalf — efforts too numerous to mention here. 1 A. S. K. Fullerton, Calif.

' The present work was written during 1968-70 and revised in early 1971. The final version of the manuscript was finished in mid-1971. Thus the many references to work in progress or forthcoming publications must be viewed in that framework (for instance the Roth-Laly Lexique, vols. 2-4, were completed in 1972). Also recent events in Chad and the Sudan have made some of my statements about those two countries out-of-date. I have also had the opportunity to study Nigerian Arabic in Nigeria during 1973-74 under grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Philosophical Society. What I now know about Nigerian Arabic would have enhanced many parts of the discussion in this book, regretfully. But that is the subject of a future study.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface Table of Contents

ν vii

Abbreviations

5

1. Sudanese Colloquial Arabic: The State of the Art 1.1. Dialects of Arabic in the Sudan 1.2. Historical background of the linguistic structure of the Sudan 1.3. Diversity of dialects 1.4. The need for the first English-Arabic vocabulary . . . 1.5. Purpose of a vocabulary 1.6. Characteristics of SCA 1.7. The earliest manuscripts in SCA 1.8. Linguistic features of SCA manuscripts 1.9. Variety of material recorded in the tabaqat 1.10. Early structure of SCA^ 1.11. Poetic structure of the Sukriyya dialect 1.12. Importance of Amery's work 1.13. Amery's approach to the language 1.14. Transcriptional procedure 1.15. Shortcomings of Amery's transcription 1.16. Voiced pharyngeal spirant in Amery's transcription 1.17. Further inadequacies in Amery's transcription . . . . 1.18. Classical Arabic influence on Amery's transcription . 1.19. Classicisms in'pure'SCA vocabulary 1.20. 'Purity'of the Arabic of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan 1.21. Another treatise of SCA 1.22. Sudanese grammar — standard work on SCA .... 1.23. Nalder's criticism 1.24. Shortcomings of Worsley's and Trimingham's grammars

1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 4 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 7 8 8 8 9 10 11 11

vili

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.25. 1.26. 1.27. 1.28. 1.29. 1.30. 1.31. 1.32. 1.33. 1.34. 1.35. 1.36. 1.37. 1.38. 1.39. 1.40. 1.41. 1.42. 1.43. 1.44. 1.45. 1.46. 1.47. 1.48. 1.49. 1.50. 1.51. 1.52. 1.53. 1.54. 1.55. 1.56. 1.57. 1.58. 1.59. 1.60. 1.61. 1.62.

Worsley's statement on description of Sudanese sounds Influence of emphatic consonants Trimingham's statement on the same problem . . . . Counterpoint to Worsley's statement Occurrence of hamza in SCA Changes o f ' Accent in SCA Increasing publicity of SCA Value of Hillelson's vocabulary Hillelson's contribution to the transcription of SCA . Hillelson's concept of a koine for SCA Shortcomings of Hillelson's generalizations Uniqueness of Hillelson's generalizations Specialized vocabularies of SCA Nicholson and his specialized vocabulary on the water wheel Bell's vocabulary and its shortcomings Burton's work Failures of Burton's description of Arabic sounds . . Conveniences of Burton's work Hillelson's Sudan Arabic Texts Modifications of orthography Value of Hillelson's texts Hillelson's texts as a beginning towards a comparative grammar of SCA dialects Dialectal variations in SCA Manuscripts of SCA dialectology Importance of Czapkiewicz's articles Some SCA proverbs according to Czapkiewicz . . . . Other works on SCA proverbs Nursery rhymes Atiyah 1918 Polite phrases and idioms in SCA Barclay 1964 Trimingham 1946 Second edition of Trimingham's grammar Ferguson's criticism of Trimingham's work Defects of Trimingham's work Further inadequacies False generalizations

11 11 12 12 12 12 13 13 13 13 13 14 15 15 15 16 16 16 17 17 17 17 18 18 18 19 19 19 19 20 20 20 20 20 21 21 21 21

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.63. SCA influence in the Sudan 1.64. The need for future SCA studies 1.65. Lack of SCA syntactic analysis in previous works 1.66. Shortcomings of phonemic analysis of SCA 1.67. Need for an Arabic-English dictionary 1.68. Future areas for studies of SCA dialects 1.69. Amery 1905 1.70. Barclay 1965 1.71. Burton 1934 1.72. Czapkiewicz 1959 1.73. Czapkiewicz 1960 1.74. Davies 1925 1.75. Davies 1926 1.76. Davies 1927 1.77. Farmer 1939 1.78. Ferguson 1949 1.79. Field 1952 1.80. Hillelson 1921 1.81. Hillelson 1925a 1.82. Hillelson 1935 1.83. Kensdale 1955 1.84. MacLaughlin 1964 1.85. Trimingham 1946 1.86 Worsley 1925 1.87. Conclusion Notes to Ch. 1

ÌX

. .

2. Chadian Arabic: The State of the Art 2.1. Central African varieties of Arabic 2.2. Varieties of Chadian Arabic 2.3. Pidgin Arabic—Immigrant Arabic—Abéché Arabic 2.4. Influence of Arabic on other African languages . . . . 2.5. Publications on Arabic dialectology 2.6. Fleisch's article on Chadian Arabic 2.7. Sources on Chadian Arabic 2.8. Lethem's work as the main source 2.9. Lethem 1920—the title page 2.10. The purpose of Lethem's book 2.11. Some highlights of Lethem's volume 2.12. Lethem's introductory note

22 22 22 22 23 23 23 29 29 35 36 36 38 38 38 39 40 40 41 45 53 54 56 73 81 82 91 91 92 93 94 94 94 94 95 95 95 96 96

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TABLE O F CONTENTS

2.13. 2.14. 2.15. 2.16. 2.17. 2.18. 2.19. 2.20. 2.21. 2.22. 2.23. 2.24. 2.25. 2.26. 2.27. 2.28. 2.29. 2.30. 2.31. 2.32. 2.33. 2.34. 2.35. 2.36. 2.37. 2.38. 2.39. 2.40. 2.41. 2.42. 2.43. 2.44. 2.45. 2.46. 2.47. 2.48. 2.49. 2.50. 2.51. 2.52.

The origin of the Shuwa Arabs Shuwa Arabic—its characteristics Consonantal segments Vocalic segments Personal pronouns Pronominal sufixes The verb'to be' The verb 'to have' The negation of nominal sentences Interrogation Perfect Imperfect Imperative Negative imperative Active participle Passive participle The use of the perfect and imperfect The particle hana 'of' Demonstrative pronouns Relative pronouns The definite article Gender The dual Sound plural Broken plural Collective nouns Cardinal numbers Ordinal numbers 122 verbs Hamzated verbs w23 verbs Iw/y3 verbs 12y verbs Doubly weak verbs jä 'to come' and ra?a 'to regard' Quadriliteral verbs Form II Formili Form IV Forms V and VI

.

97 97 99 99 99 99 99 100 100 100 100 100 101 101 101 101 101 102 102 102 103 103 103 104 104 104 104 105 105 106 106 107 107 108 108 109 109 109 110 110

TABLE OF CONTENTS

2.53. 2.54. 2.55. 2.56. 2.57. 2.58. 2.59. 2.60. 2.61. 2.62. 2.63.

Form VII Form VIII Form IX Form X Common prepositions with suffixes Materials on Abéché Arabic Chadian Arabic text Sources of Chadian Arabic text Dictionaries for Chadian Arabic An Abéché Arabic text Translations of the New Testament into Chadian Arabic 2.64. David Cohen's statement 2.65. A note on informants for Chadian Arabic Notes to Ch. 2 3. The 3.1. 3.2. 3.3 3.4. 3.5.

Arabic Koine Modern Arabic dialects Ferguson 1959c Descent of modern Arabic dialects Classical Arabic—the 'Arabiyya Modern dialects as continuations of one homogeneous koine 3.6. Origin of the koine — Ferguson's hypothesis 3.7. Ferguson's hypothesis — continuation 3.8. "Drift'in Arabic 3.9. Bloch 1971 3.10 Ferguson's fourteen features of the koine 3.11. Numeration, transcription and names of the features 3.12. The purpose of the critique of Ferguson's hypothesis 3.13. Feature I — Loss of the dual 3.14. Haim Blanc's statement 3.15. Diachronic aspects of feature I — Blanc 1970 3.16. Completion of the loss of the dual 3.17. Middle Arabic dialects — general 3.18. Blanc's conclusion 3.19. Feature II — taltalah 3.20. Dialects vs. classical language — Bloch's statement .

XÌ

110 Ill Ill Ill Ill 112 113 113 113 113 115 115 115 117 137 137 137 137 138 138 138 139 140 141 141 141 142 142 143 143 143 144 144 144 145

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

3.21. Some differences between the modern Arabic dialects and classical Arabic 3.22. Bloch's argument vs. Ferguson's argument 3.23. Common features of Akkadian and classical Arabic 3.24. Ugaritic 3.25. Imperfect pardigm of Hebrew, Syriac, and Ethiopie 3.26. Case of preformative vowel 3.27. Weak verb 3.28. Feature III — Loss of final-wan· verbs 3.29. Feature III as an aspect of'drift' 3.30. Feature IV — re-formation of geminate verbs 3.31. Feature IV compared to other classical Semitic languages 3.32. Overall tendency within Semitic 3.33. Feature V — the verb suffix -/3.34. Feature V compared to other Semitic languages 3.35. Numerals 3.36. Feature VI — cardinal numbers 3-10 3.37. 'Polarity' — common feature to the Semitic languages 3.38. Bloch's statement 3.39. Damascus Arabic short forms of the numerals 3.40. Moroccan Arabic short forms of the numerals 3.41. The major thesis 3.42. The Wackernagel-Meillet principle 3.43. Bisyllabic forms of the numerals occurring in isolation; Bloch's analogy 3.44. Feature VII — / t / in the numbers 13-19 3.45. The compound nature of the numerals 13-19 3.46. Presence of emphatic/t/ — a striking feature 3.47. Feature VIII — loss of the feminine comparative 3.48. Feminine comparative 3.49. Classical Arabic feminine 'elative' 3.50. Feature IX — adjective plural fu al 3.51. Koine — explanation of feature IX 3.52. Feature X — nisbah suffix -iyy>*-i 3.53. Blau's statement concerning feature X

145 146 146 146 146 147 148 148 148 148

. . .

149 149 149 150 150 150 151 152 152 152 152 152 153 153 154 154 154 155 155 155 155 156 156

TABLE OF CONTENTS

XÎÎÏ

3.54. Blau's statement concerning tendencies of Arabic dialects 156 3.55. Blau's statement concerning the subdivision problems of Semitic 157 3.56. Lexicographical differences between classical Arabic and the dialects 157 3.57. Ferguson's statement concerning loss of various particles in classical Arabic 157 3.58. Problems of the reconstruction of lexical items 158 3.59. Feature XI — the verb 4to bring' 158 3.60. On feature XI 158 3.61. Feature XII — the verb 'to see' 159 3.62. On feature XII 159 3.63. Feature XIII — the relative * ?illi 159 3.64. Blau's opinion concerning ?illi 159 3.65. Judaeo-Arabic concerning ?illi 159 3.66. Christian vs. Judaeo-Arabic 160 3.67. Relative particle λal160 3.68. Brief comments on the phonology of the dialects . . . . 160 3.69. Two phonological features for the koine 161 3.70. Short vowels in reconstruction 161 3.71. Feature XIV — the merger of dad and δα' 161 3.72. Merging of d and S iii Middle Arabic dialects 161 3.73. An aspect of the general Semitic 'drift' 161 3.74. Arguments in favor of general'drift' 161 3.75. Ancient dialects — Blau's argument 162 3.76. Homogeneous character of Arabic dialects 162 3.77. Fourteen features of the koine — conclusion 163 Notes to Ch. 3 164 4. Sudanese Colloquial Arabic in the Light of the Arabic Koine 4.1 The fourteen koine features and SCA 4.2. Feature I 4 4.3. Feature II5 4.4. Age and area hypothesis 4.5. SCA — descendant of an old Arabic dialect 4.6. Feature III 7 4.7. Feature IV8 4.8. The Arabic koine

171 171 171 171 172 172 172 173 173

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Feature V12 Feature VI14 The distribution of the numeral forms Dialects in relation to the forms of cardinal numbers . . SCA and its distribution of the cardinal numbers . . . . Original state of affairs regarding cardinal numbers in SCA 4.15. Feature VII19 4.16. Feature VII19 — striking feature of the koine 4.17. Feature VIII22 4.18. Feature IX 23 4.19. Feature X25 4.20. Blau's explanation regarding feature X 4.21. Feature XI26 4.22. Feature XII 27 4.23. Derivatives of the root r?y in SCA 4.24. Iraqi Arabic 4.25. Loan words from MSA in SCA 4.26. Feature XIII 33 4.27. The SCA use of the definite article 4.28. Relative particle in the koine 4.29. The Middle SCA's use of the relative particle 4.30. Feature XIV35 4.31. Gurage dialects 4.32. Leslau's argument regarding the morphology of Gurage dialects 4.33. Argument on koine hypothesis 4.34. PCA 4.35. Arguments for and against the postulation of an Arabic koine Notes to Ch. 4 4.9. 4.10. 4.11. 4.12. 4.13. 4.14.

5. Chadian Arabic in the Light of the Arabic Koine 5.1. The fourteen koine features and Chadian Arabic 5.2. Feature I 4 5.3. Adjective seme 'good' 5.4. Feature II6 5.5. Chadian Arabic—an SCA offshoot 5.6. Feature III 9 5.7. Feature IV10

173 173 174 174 174 174 174 175 175 175 175 175 176 176 176 176 176 177 177 177 177 177 178 178 178 179 179 180

183 . . . . 183 183 183 183 184 184 184

TABLE OF CONTENTS

5.8. 5.9.

Peculiarity of Chadian Arabic Another proof for the common origin of Chadian Arabic and SCA 5.10. Feature V u 5.11. Abu Absi and Sinaud on feature V 5.12. Feature VI16 5.13. African influence in Chadian Arabic 5.14. Speculation about the original state of affairs in Chadian Arabic 5.15. Problem in determining the actual facts 5.16. Feature VII18 5.17. Forms with 7 5.18. Emphasis in the numerals in Nomadic Chadian Arabic 5.19. Feature Vili 19 5.20. Feature IX20 5.21. Feature X22 5.22. Feature XI 23 5.23. Feature XII 24 5.24. Modification of the facts regarding feature XII 5.25. Difficulty in explaining the diachronics of the situation 5.26. Feature XIII 3 ' 5.27. The Chadian Arabic use of the definite article 5.28. Feature XIV32 5.29. Conclusion — SCA and Chadian Arabic regarding the koine hypothesis Notes to Ch. 5 Map of Chad and the Sudan

XV

184 184 184 185 185 186 186 186 186 186 186 186 187 187 187 187 187 188 188 188 188 188 190 193

References

195

Index

205

ABBREVIATIONS

ΛΑ AL BSOAS CJL CTL DRCP

FO HO IJMES JAOS JL JNES JRAS JSS Lg. MEJ MSA MSOS PCA PS RA SCA srn THSG UCPL ZDMG

American Anthropologist Anthropological Linguistics Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies Canadian Journal of Linguistics Current Trends in Linguistics Dossiers de la Recherche Cooperative sur Programme N° 45, Dossieri: Études arabes (1966-67), Population anciennes et actuelles des confins Tchado-Soudanais (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1968). Folia Orientalia Human Organization International Journal of Middle East Studies Journal of the American Oriental Society Journal of Linguistics Journal of Near Eastern Studies Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Journal of Semitic Studies Language Middle East Journal Modern Standard Arabic Mitteilungen des Seminars ßr Orientalische Sprachen Proto-Colloquial Arabic Proto-Semitic Revue Africaine' Sudanese Colloquial Arabic Sudan Notes and Records Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana University of California Publications in Linguistics Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft

1 SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE O F T H E ART

1.1. Arabic is not the only language spoken in the Republic of the Sudan today. Bender (1971: 171), for example, reports the following languages spoken close to the Ethiopian border: Ingassana, Burun, Jumjum, Central Koma, Mabaan, and Murle. Dozens more could easily be listed. 1 Relatively little is known about Sudanese languages, 2 and little is known or has been written about the dialects of Arabic which are spoken in the Sudan. Most of the material available was written by British government officials and missionaries during the British-Egyptian condominium rule, which was terminated by Sudanese independence on January 1, 1956. The purpose of this chapter is to present, for the first time insofar as I am aware, all available materials on SCA and to evaluate critically such materials for the student of Arabic linguistics, in general, and Arabic dialectology, in particular. 3 1.2. Like most of its neighbors, the Sudan, the largest country on the continent of Africa, was, and still is, the homeland of many languages and dialects. The central part of the country where nowadays Arabic is principally spoken as a mother tongue, must have previously been multilingual as are other parts of the Sudan. But the arrival of the Arabs to the Sudan in the fourteenth century (Birkeland 1952: 26) from Egypt had revolutionary (not evolutionary) effects on the linguistic structure of the country. Direct Arabic influence depended to a large extent on the movement in the Sudan of the Arab tribes which were mostly located in the central part of the country. In the course of time, therefore, Arabic supplanted the local languages, as Arab conquest proceeded from the north and east. As Gasim (1965: 4 0 ^ 1 ) notes: This explains in part the existence of the manifold chain of languages along the perimeter of the region. In the north, the Nubian language in its four dialects is still spoken by the Kunüz, Sakküt, Mahass and Danägla. In the east, Tu-Bedawi in five dialects is used by the 'Abàbda, Halanga, 'Amarrar, Bisariyün and Hadandawa. All these Beja tribes speak a Hamitic language,

2

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

while some of Banü 'Amir, also a Beja tribe, use Tigre, a Semitic language, closely connected with the Abyssinian language. Towards the south-east the Ingessana still use their own language, while in the South more than a hundred distinct languages exist. This multiplicity of language can also be seen in the West where the Nubian and Darfurian languages are in use. But most of these regions have been influenced in some way or other by Arabic, while Arabic itself has been exposed in varying degrees to their influence.

1.3. Gasim (1965: 41) points out that it is extremely difficult to speak of a Sudan Colloquial Arabic (SCA) in general, simply because there does not exist one single dialect used by all speakers to whom Arabic is the mother tongue. Every region, almost every tribe, has its own version of SCA, a situation similar to that in other Arabic speech communities. I, however, follow Gasim's assertion that one can take the dialect of Khartoum and its vicinity as a common medium intelligible to most, if not all, who are native speakers of a Sudanese sedentary (not bedouin) Arabic dialect. 1.4. Following reassertion of Anglo-Egyptian authority over the Sudan by Sir H. (afterwards, Lord) Kitchener in 1898, an effective administrative system was rapidly developed throughout the Sudan. Since British and Egyptian administrators, as could be expected, were brought in to occupy top-level positions throughout the country, and since earliest plans called for maximum use of native-born Sudanese to work under these top administrators, it was necessary that an adequate and effective means of communication be established. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that in 1905 the first English-Arabic vocabulary was published. 1.5. This first major effort at presenting Arabic vocabulary in use in the Sudan was the result of the pioneering work of a Britisher, H. F. S. Amery, who held the rank of Captain in the Intelligence department of the Egyptian Army. His stated purpose was to compile a vocabulary (1905: 1): . . . primarily for the use of British officers and officials serving in the AngloEgyptian Sudan, but it is hoped that it may also prove of some use to visitors to the Sudan, or to those interested in the various dialects of the Arabic language.

1.6. Although Amery's work is apparently the first effort made to record information about SCA as a separate dialect of Arabic, a few documents written in SCA previous to this time are in existence which contain elements of SCA. By elements (characteristics) of SCA I refer generally to the following:

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

3

(1) h > h, e.g. hasan > hasan 'Hassan'. (2) interchangeability of ? and ', e.g. 'ali > ?ali 'Ali'; ?amar > amar 'he ordered'. (3) gemination of final consonants before possessive pronouns beginning with h, e.g. kitäbaha > kitâbba 'her book', i.e. -bh- > -bb{-Ch- > -CC-). (4) the use of 'anta 'he gave' for ' a t a . (5) *z > d, e.g. *zays > dès 'army'. (6) triliteral roots > biliteral, e.g. wad < walad 'boy', bit < bint 'girl', kibäbak < marhabä bik 'hello'. (7) assimilation of a liquid, e.g. ?itta < ?inta 'you (mas. sg.)', gutta < guita 'you (mas. sg.) said'. (8) semantic change for lexemes, e.g. zayrada 'the groaning of camels' > 'thrilling shrills by women in weddings'. (9) African substratum, e.g. -äya in γanamäya 'a goat', or -äb in gurbäb 'dress worn by women around the waist'. These nine characteristics are representative of many dialects of SCA, and I have chosen them because Arabic script would denote all of them, whereas it would not (in its unvocalized version) indicate other wellknown happenings in SCA, such as the preservation of a in imperfect preformatives. 1.7. The earliest of these documents which I have found is Kitäb tabaqät wad-dayfulläh fi ?awliyä? wa sälihin wa 'ulamä? wa su ara? al-südän. Hillelson (1935: 172), the most prolific writer on SCA and a British government official, indicates that this "book" was probably written during the eighteenth century by Halfäyat al-Mulük. He states: It is a kind of biographical dictionary containing notices of the men of religion and learning who flourished in the Fung kingdom from its foundation at the beginning of the sixteenth century to the author's own time.

Several manuscripts containing these writings have been handed down, but there is great disagreement among manuscripts as to the actual content of the original texts. Hillelson (1935: 173) states that he has made use of two copies of two texts, both published in 1930, one edited by Sulaymän Dâ^ud Mandil (printed at the Muqtataf Press in Cairo). He continues: Both editions are based on MSS in native ownership and follow their originals closely without attempting to correct even the most obvious errors.... Sh. Ibrâhïm Sadïq's edition contains marginal notes which are u s e f u l . . . but they evade the more serious difficulties.

4

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC THE STATE OF THE ART

1.8. Even the extent to which portions of the text can be considered to be "pure" colloquial Sudanese Arabic is debatable (see Kaye [1970] for a new analysis of some of the issues involved concerning diglossia in Arabic). Sir H. A. MacMichael (1922: II, 218) says of the tabaqât: . . . the Arabic is Sudanese colloquial and presents a very interesting study. No dictionary would alone enable one to deduce the meaning of all words and phrases: one has to read them aloud and imagine a Sudanese speaking. 4

This seems to indicate that certain lexemes are used which do not appear in dictionaries of classical Arabic. Hillelson (1923: 192) attempts to determine the linguistic characteristics of these manuscripts: One of the most conspicuous features of the work is its linguistic form, which makes it of unique interest to the student of Arabic dialects, though it renders the task of the translator and commentator somewhat difficult. With a bold disregard for tradition the author employed the spoken vernacular of his country, and apart from quotations and from such classical forms as inevitably flow from the pen whenever the colloquial is reduced to writing, the language represents the spoken idiom of the eastern Sudan, or rather a form of colloquial koinè based on the elements common to the many patios and subdialects. It thus forms a most valuable lexicographical store house, especially as it preserves a good many words which now seem to have become obsolete.

1.9. By 1935 when he produced his Sudan Arabic texts, Hillelson seems to have modified his position considerably. In the introduction to the tabaqât, he indicates that by words, phrases, and grammatical forms utilized these papers belong more properly to the written language. Actually, there is a great deal of variety evident in the way in which various scribes involved in the production of the texts recorded the material. Many quotations and sayings (proverbs) recorded in the tabaqât are undoubtedly colloquial verse, though the main text itself gives evidence of lacking real vernacularprose style. Lack of vowel markings (pointings) increases the problem of determining just what was being written. Additional careful study of these manuscripts might add considerably to the knowledge of the ways in which SCA developed. 5 1.10. Another pre-Amery glimpse of the structure of SCA is contained in at least one of a pair of letters dating back to the time of the Mahdi — the latter part of the nineteenth century. One of these was a letter from Khalifa Abdullâhi to the Amir'Abd el-Ra'üf of the Dinka tribe. It is written in "simple" or "basic" Arabic. Whether this was a conscious effort to write in the vernacular or, as is more than likely, simply an attempt to simplify written classical Arabic so as to make it

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

5

intelligible to an uneducated tribesman is not known. A part of this letter follows: ?ana bas'al minnak ketïr, ?inta mä gibt al-kaläm ?allïlak w a m m ä samih 'isma' al-kaläm 9 allil al-waraqa di, 9 ahdar qawwäm ma'a 9 ahlak u wiledätak u niswänak, mä tuq'ud Π dar gänqe, al-qu'äd battäl ketïr. 6

Hillelson (1935: 121) translates as follows: I ask about you much, you did not say your o w n words. N o w listen well to the speech of this letter, come quickly with your people and your children and your women, d o not stay in the Dinka country, to stay there is bad indeed.

1.11. Another record of early SCA speech forms is found in the historical traditions of the Sukriyya. While these were not written at an early date, some of them apparently, retain sixteenth century spoken forms which were carefully passed down through means of an oral tradition until recorded by Hillelson (1920). Unfortunately, texts included in the article are recorded in Arabic script without vowel markings, and a transliteration is not provided. Hillelson indicates that the vocabulary of these papers is definitely colloquial, but the syntactic structure is of a poetic nature. They would, therefore, be of extreme importance and value for any kind of study of the poetic structure of SCA. There is one exception to the above statement, however. There is a transliteration of one of these papers, "The saga of Sa al-Din Wad al-Tiwaym". 7 Since this is not poetry or verse with a set form, it probably reflects the dialect of the nomadic Sukriyya of the eastern Sudan at the time that Hillelson recorded the material. 1.12. It is important to keep in mind that Captain Amery and most of those experts on SCA who followed him were army officers, not linguists in the modern sense of the term. As indicated above, pre-twentieth century information on SCA is almost nonexistent. There must have been some word lists and glossaries of SCA which have since been lost or just never rediscovered or reused because Amery states in his introduction that there was "no English-Arabic Vocabulary or Dictionary (of reasonable dimensions)" in existence which would meet the need of incoming officials into the Sudan. Amery's work was published only seven years after Sir Herbert Kitchener had regained control of Khartoum, defeating the Mahdi's successor Khalifa Abdullah al-Taashi and the remnants of his forces. Amery states that he worked under pressure to complete his Vocabulary as rapidly as possible because of the tremendous and immediate need of the times. It is little wonder, then, that there are many shortcomings in

6

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC. THE STATE OF THE ART

the work. In spite of these shortcomings, this book became the foundation upon which Hillelson and others later built. Close association with Egyptian personnel, who were also part of the occupying force in that period, undoubtedly influenced vocabulary and pronunciation of British officers. This is evident throughout the work. 1.13. As could be expected, there is a manifest tendency to merge aspects of the classical language with the colloquial. This lays the groundwork for many of Amery's problems. In fact, it would appear that he uses this approach to the language as an excuse not to exercise even a minimum of care in differentiating phonemes of the spoken language. He states (1905: 2): . . . it is not considered necessary to adopt any elaborate system of transliteration, and the English version of the Arabic words is only intended as a guide to the nearest approach to the true sound which the beginner is likely to attain....

Without indicating reasons for such a decision, Amery states that in the transliterated forms of Arabic, the letter " t " may stand for t, 0, or t; " d " may stand for d, z, d, or z. Obviously this causes untold confusion. He is referring to the way in which he transliterates classical forms. Unfortunately, by following this procedure, he often does not give the reader a clue as to how the given words are actually pronounced in SCA. Amery does not recognize emphatic segments (consonants) at all. Consequently he transliterates: taiyib 'all right' for tayyib saddag 'he approved' for saddag darab 'he hit' for darab fasi 'chapter' for fasti Obviously by his transcription minimal pairs are often not differentiated at all. He writes: bad 'after' for ba'ad bad 'some' for ba'ad 1.14. Other problems of a transcriptional nature are apparent in the above-mentioned words. SCA does not permit consonant clusters within a syllable. / is the usual anaptyctic filler in these circumstances, as seen in II fasi || > fasti (£> >i/ -CC#). He transliterates both thej/m and the qâf, i.e. and, as g. Probably part of the confusion in this case arises out of the fact that he follows standard transcriptional procedure for many colloquial Egyptian dia-

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

7

lects, in particular the dialect of Cairo, in which the Jim is realized phonetically as a voiced velar stop. The SCA reflex of the Jim is rather a voiced palatal stop, IPA [j]. 8 It has become the standard practice to transcribe this phone as g in SCA, although it is important to remember its phonetic nature. 9 The voiceless uvular plosive q, found in classical Arabic and other Arabic dialects (sometimes voiced, viz. IPA [G]), on the other hand, is fronted in SCA and other modern dialects to a dorsovelar position. The resultant stop is, of course, a sound close to that usually associated with the symbol g in English, which is, in all probability, why Amery transcribes both as g. Thus his handling of the problem is a phonemic rather than a morphophonemic one, as the following examples from his vocabulary indicate: gara 'he ran' [jarä]; classical Arabic ]arä gara 'he read' [gara]; classical Arabic qara?a 1.15. I do not know the source for Amery's information concerning his claim that g is not only pronounced as the English hard g in "go", but it is also pronounced as g (IPA γ), particularly in the provinces north of Khartoum and on the Blue Nile. This may have been true then for certain lexemes or for certain idiolects, yet I never heard this myself and none of the later writers mention it. It does not appear as such in the Berber and Dongala texts collected by Hillelson. Two other phonemes which are not differentiated in his orthography are h and h. He writes habb for both 'blow' and 'love'. The latter should be written as habb.10 1.16. His method of transcribing the voiced pharyngeal spirant, IPA [Ç], standard Semitological leaves something to be desired. He writes ' over the letter with which it is sounded. This seems to reflect a lack of recognition that this sound is actually a full consonantal phoneme. Writing ' as -he does leaves the ordering of consonants and vowels (linearity) rather ambiguous in words such as simi 'he heard' and ärt 'about'. In the first case the ' follows the final vowel, viz. simi', while in the second it precedes the vowel, viz. 'an. A more complex illustration of the problem of this transcriptional procedure is nam 'ostrich'. Amore correct and unambiguous transcription would be na'âm. 1.17. There are many other inadequacies in Amery's transcription. For fihu 'in it (mas.)' he writes fiti, leaving out both the h and vocalic length. Similar problems of vowel coalescence occur in arlan 'naked' for 'aryàn. He retains the classical Arabic hamza (the grapheme for the glottal stop) in words such as ra?si, which becomes räsi in SCA (loss of the glottal stop and compensatory vowel lengthening).

8

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

In the introduction to "Specimens of the Colloquial Language" at the end of Amery's book, he indicates that morphemes will be separated when written, even though morphophonemic changes take place such as those of elision. Thus he will write wa el timsäh 'and the alligator' even though the phrase is pronounced wattimsäh, however, elsewhere (1905: 436) he writes bil deish 'with the soldier' rather than bi el deish, which would be the correct spelling according to his rule, or wabu for wa?abu 'and his father' (1905: 433). 1.18. His romanized transcription, in many ways, does not attempt to deal with departures from classical Arabic influence. Thus he transcribes tab 'absolutely', yet the word is only heard as tap. The devoicing of final stops is well known in other modern dialects of Arabic. 11 There are many other SCA words which require the use of the phoneme /p/ in certain contexts. Hillelson recognized the problem but does not really deal with it when he suggests that voiceless bilabials are at least heard in free variation with their voiced counterparts in certain environments. He notes (1925a: xxiii): ?abuk el humära mä gâppa. gäppa. 'Has your father not brought the she-ass? He has.'

Or he notes (1925: xxiii): ?alläh ma karappa 'ale 'arappa. 'God does not make things too hard for his Arabs.'

1.19. As is typical not only with Amery but also with many other authors of SCA materials, there is a tendency to caique directly from English. For example, yätu fi deil 'which of these' rather than the more common SCA yätu fihum {-hum '3rd mas. pi. pronominal suffix'). Observable also with Amery and many others is the habit of including classicisms in "pure" SCA vocabulary, or borrowings from other major dialectical areas, such as Cairene. Thus galas 'he sat' (either a loanword from classical Arabic or Cairo Arabic) is certainly less frequent than qaad or qannab, especially among SCA speakers themselves; or sarax 'he shouted' is stylistically less frequent in SCA than körax. Unfortunately, Hillelson carries these words over into his 1925 vocabulary, and it must be kept in mind that they are not normally used in most circles of SCA speakers who are extremely well educated" in literary Arabic and those who have been educated formally in institutions of higher learning in other Arab countries. 1.20. To conclude these brief remarks about Amery ( 1905), it is inter-

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

9

esting to note that in this first major work the theory was advanced that (1905: xi-xii): The Arabic of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan adheres more closely to the classical language than any other dialect outside Arabia. This purity of language is attributable partly to the high consideration in which education was always held in the Sudan before the Mahdia, nearly every village having its 'khalwa' or Kuranic School, and partly to the isolation of the country. 12

In support of his hypothesis, he points out that many classical words not known in Egypt or Syria are commonly used in the Sudan. For example, nawàr 'flower', gau 'atmosphere', nähid'young woman', and zôl 'person'. At the same time he claims that individuals using certain colloquial Egyptian phrases are looked down upon for speaking like a Turk. Cf. ? ihh. Hnta tatarku 'alayya bas. (This is a well-known and common cultural bias in many Near-Eastern societies, the best known example probably being Iran, i.e. somà turkyâ banlädam hastïd?, 'Are you a Turk or a human being?') Some of those phrases are: ?

ana mus 'äriffor mä bi'rif'l don't know' bét bita i (Cariene ?ilbët bita i) for bèli 'my house' His comments include a warning: There is, however, some danger that the Sudan Arabs, in ignorance of the eloquence and purity of their language may adopt some of the colloquialisms of Egypt

In the SCA of today, sixty six years later, both of the aforementioned phrases are used freely, except the second phrase has the definite article, viz. ?albètbitai. 1.21. Although Amery indicated that he planned to revise his vocabulary shortly after it was originally published, there was nothing published about SCA of a monographic nature or a book-long treatise for nearly twenty years. In 1923 a Sudanese official in the education department, 'Abdullah 'Abd al-Rahman al-Amin, published Al-'arabiyya fi al-Südän [Arabic in the Sudan]. I have not been able to obtain a copy of the book, even in the Sudan, but later works on SCA quote anecdotes and illustrative material from it. This work should be of considerable interest because it was prepared by an educated native speaker of SCA. Hillelson (1921: 77) says of this book by Sheikh'Abdullähi 'Abd al-Rahman al-Amin (two years before it was published in Khartoum):

10

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

The main portion of the book which hitherto remains unpublished, is a glossary of the spoken Arabic of this country . . . relating the modern dialect and the classical language.... The author champions the thesis that the modern inhabitants of the Northern Sudan are of pure Arab descent, and one of the objects of the book is to refute the contrary view which would reduce the Arab influence to a comparatively slight infiltration acting on the original Nubian stock. Some of the material to back up his thesis is also found in a short account of the superstitious ideas and practices of the ancient Arabs by Hamza alIsbahäni, who died between A.D. 961 and 971. This text which was not accessible to the Sheikh has been published by E. Mittwoch in the Mitteilungen of the Berlin Seminary of Oriental Languages (Westasiatische Studien Berlin, 1912).

1.22. Two years later, Allan Worsley,doctorin the Church Missionary Society hospital in Omdurman, wrote his Sudanese grammer which became the acknowledged standard of SCA. Works which followed, including the better-known Sudan colloquial Arabic by Trimingham, quote Worsley's description of sounds used in the Sudan, and utilize much of the grammatical analysis developed by Worsley. In a review of Worsley's work shortly after its publication, L. F. Nalder (1925: 219220) states that the work will be especially beneficial for officials coming from other Arabic-speaking countries because "their existing knowledge will render the grammar readily comprehensible...." Specific Arabic grammatical terminology such as the tä7 marbûta (usually marking feminine gender) and fa ala (first form of the verb) are used without sufficient introduction, which, of course, will make it harder for the novice to use and understand the work. Nalder notes that one of the strong points of the work is that great pains were taken in careful accentuation of every Arabic word to enable the user to avoid a frequent source of error. Several areas, however, are not adequately covered, among which Nalder includes insufficient indication that many nouns (so-called "sound" masculine and feminine plurals) do form plurals following the same basic vocalic pattern, and that inanimate masculine plural nouns do not take masculine plural adjectives. He also accuses Worsley of a tendency to overemphasize his points. As an example, he points out that Worsley indicates that certain variant forms only may be used-forms such as burumti for burmati, samilti for samalati,yaharis for yahrus, and takitbi for taktibi. With this I would have to agree. Another example of such overemphasis is seen when Worsley states that (1925:9): A peculiarity of Sudanese is that ', χ, γ, h, and h cannot be pronounced without the help of a vowel. Thus in conjugation, when normally these consonants should close a syllable, a phonetic "a" is inserted, so overriding the conjugation rule; as xagal (he was ashamed), which would be conjugated in normal Arabic ya/cÄgil (he is ashamed), in Sudanese is yaxagil.

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

11

Nalder notes that while these forms are undoubtedly current, they are not invariable forms. In fact, the regular formations are actually more common. 1.23. Further confirmation of Nalder's criticism can be seen in a phrase such as bina 'mil sinu? 'what will we do?' Such phrases are used and written too frequently to simply discard them. Trimingham gives other examples (1946: 67, 69) in which the vowel position does not normally change in the way that Worsley suggests that it does: bahliq Ί always shave', and naxlas 'we finish'. Even Worsley (1925:60,67) cites examples which violate his rule: huwa gä badi 'he came after me' ; bad bukra 'after tomorrow'; and ?αίμαη 'better'. My own observation would be that the forms which Worsley cites to prove his point are probably used to a greater extent by women (see Haas 1944). In support of this, Worsley does state in his introduction that much of his data came from women patients in the hospital. 1.24. Worsley's book is an excellent work and, undoubtedly, was used by Trimingham extensively as he developed his textbook approach. While Trimingham's book is organized in a manner which would be more usable to a learner, Worsley actually provides more detail about some aspects of SCA grammar. Both grammars, however, suffer from one common problem: both men made up sentences to prove grammatical points rather than using text material from native speakers of the language. 1.25. Although Worsley's description of Sudanese sounds improves greatly on Amery's inadequate approach, he produces some interesting thoughts (1925: 4): In Sudanese pronunciation is less energetic than in average Arabic, the articulation of consonants being relatively gentle. Each consonant, however, is distinctly pronounced, and foreigners should give to each its characteristic value.

Obvious questions raised by this statement include: (1) What does he mean by energetic? (2) What is average Arabic? (3) What does "gentle" mean in terms of phonology, and what does "relatively gentle" mean? (4) What does he mean by each consonant being distinctly pronounced? (5) How else can foreigners (or native speakers, for that matter) correctly pronounce sounds other than by giving each its "characteristic value"? His attempt at describing the elusive Sudanese mid-palatal stop is less than effective. He states that the sound is "pronounced somewhere between those of d and g". 1.26. In a footnote Worsley touches on an aspect of description that is not even mentioned by others, but one which needs more concrete

12

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

work based, of course, on materials gathered in the field. The problem concerns the determination of the extent of influence of emphatic consonants on surrounding consonants. Worsley states (1925: 6): Τ is (nominally) only found in the Divine name Atîâh (God), the vowel of which it modifies.... But actually, Τ inclines toward Τ when in the vicinity of the modifying consonants (s, ζ, 1, t, d); e.g., talab (where 'Γ together with the second 'a' also inclines to a). Similar phenomena are common as between s and s, ζ and z, etc.; for example, basat is pronounced basat and the first 'a' is then also modified.

1.27. Trimingham recognizes that such changes occur. He records mä taz'al, ?inbasit 'don't be angry, cheer up!' (1946: 132), but gives no explanation of the change and never deals with the problem except to make a statement indicating that if consonants are properly pronounced, the vowels will take care of themselves (see Lehn 1963). 1.28. One further word must be stated concerning there. Worsley has probably overstated the case as has been done in many grammars of Modern Standard Arabic, e.g. Ziadeh and Winder (1957: 6). Trimingham gives a minimal pair, one part of which has the emphatic/;proving it is not only used in the word for 'God', viz. qall 'to diminish', and qatt 'to raise'. 13 1.29. The hamza, or grapheme for the glottal stop, is not written in SCA by most writers because it occurs only rarely in word-medial position and is understood to occur before each word-initial vowel. There are morphological considerations, however, for writing the glottal stop in the latter environment. Again, Worsley overstates the case when he says (1925: 5): In Arabic generally this sound can occur anywhere in a word, but in Sudanese

only at the beginning of a word, e.g., ?akal 'he ate'.

This would simplify the description but ? does occur frequently, especially in some commonly used words. For example, Trimingham (1946: 67) notes muPassaf'l am sorry', or biftaru mit?axxirin 'they breakfast later'. Compare even Worsley (1925: 45), ma?kül, passive participle of ? akal 'he ate'; 'eaten'. (This root should have '; see footnote 114 of this chapter.) 1.30. In many dialects of SCA medial ^becomes ', as su?al 'question' > su'äl (see basal in the text of 1.10.). Worsley points out another change which occurs in SCA relative to '. He states that when ' occurs before t, ' > h. For example, qal'a > qalihtï ( || qal'at || ), sar'a > sarihtï ( || sar'at || ), or qur'a > quruhtï ( || qurat || ) (-/ is the first person singular pronominal suffix).14

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC. THE STATE OF THE ART

13

1.31. Worsley's rules on accent (1925: 8) are inadequate and confusing. This needs more work. He does have an interesting note concerning a heightened tone on final syllables of some words. Examples given (he writes ~ over final vowels to indicate the tone marking) include: bini 'my daughter' qamrâ 'moon' He states: Sudanese women will invariably correct pronunciation of this point (but seldom anything else). Therefore it must be a point of great importance to note.

1.32. In the same year in which Worsley published his grammar of SCA, S. Hillelson published a great revision, complete for the time, of Amery's vocabulary. 15 During that decade and on into the next, Hillelson appears to have been the prime mover in publishing work on SCA. His articles on aspects of SCA appear repeatedly in SNR\ in fact, he became editor of SNR which resulted in great emphasis being placed on SCA in the periodical. 1.33. Sudan Arabic English-Arabic vocabulary by Hillelson drew extensively on articles published in SNR as well as the work of Sheikh 'Abdullähi 'Abd al-Rahmän al-Amin, previously mentioned. A review of Hillelson's vocabulary by R. Davies (1925: 223) concludes that this is a valuable addition to the scholarly literature available for the study of SCA. Of particular value is the extensive work on various dialects and subdialects of SCA. 1.34. As Hillelson points out in his preface, this work is more than just a revision (albeit complete) of Amery (1905); it is actually a new work. Using orthographical practice as determined by the Sudan government, Hillelson has increased the phonemic meaningfulness of the lexical entries. Hillelson was, apparently, a prime mover in setting up the transcription as adopted by the Sudan government for SCA. Many classical — strictly classical and pseudo-classical — terms are deleted. Examples of word usage are included in some entries and are of great value. He also uses the accepted technique of including the vowel of the imperfect in parentheses following the perfect of each verb (see Wehr 1961), such as darab (u) 'he beat'. 1.35. In striving to establish a de facto koine for SCA, Hillelson sometimes reaches outside of SCA (or, at least, the SCA of the common man) into the vocabulary used only by educated or semieducated people. The Sudan at that time had a reported illiteracy rate of ninety-five percent; the actual rate was probably even higher. Determining the point at

14

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

which vocabulary and other elements of the language can be considered colloquial rather than belonging to the written language of an Arab country is always difficult, 16 but, by definition, if a given word or syntactic structure is to be considered as being a part of the colloquial language, it has to be used by the majority of native speakers in a given linguistic area. One cannot, therefore, take a word known and used by a limited number of educated people in a much wider area and claim that thereby it has attained a koine status. Hillelson seems to do this from time to time. He states (1925a: xxi): . . . the general principle, where more than one term is given as the translation of an English word, has been to accord first place to words of the koine·, these are followed by dialectical forms.

But his vocabulary includes such entries as: abandon, tarak (u), xalla (yexalli), sàb (i) abscess, hibn, dabara

tarak 'he abandoned', for example, is undoubtedly understood and used by many educated people of the Sudan, but I do not think that the average uneducated resident of the Khartoum-North KhartoumOmdurman area knows it. sab is the more normal lexeme (sememe). tarak, then, could not be considered as belonging to Hillelson's koine. The same applies to hibn. While it is not completely unknown by uneducated people, dabara is commonly used by all SCA speakers. Interestingly, Amery (1905) lists dabara as being of the Kordofanian dialect. Hillelson's concept of the koine seems to stem from a basic linguistic philosophy stated elsewhere (1925a: xv), in which he proclaims: . . . educated classes in all parts of the country tend to use an idiom devoid of any distinctively local features.

He is alluding to a form of MSA (see Kay e 1970), not a koine. 1.36. There are other generalizations made by Hillelson which cannot be supported. He, for example, states that (1925a: xxiv) "the feminine plural termination -an is preserved in both tenses". Examples given include: ?

eg gimäl yisrahan 'the camels are grazing' kiläb el ferig mä bedüránno 'the dogs of the camp do not like him' ? at têrân gin 'the bulls have come'

Hillelson seems to leave the final impression with the reader that such

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

15

morphemes are universally retained for SCA; they, of course, are not. {gin 'feminine plural — they have come' is problematic since the ending is -in, not -an; cf. Cairene gum.) 1.37. There are several grammatical observations made by Hillelson which are unique, i.e. not dealt with by other authors on SCA in precisely the same way. For example, he points out that it is highly characteristic of SCA to geminate liquid consonants before a vowel, and, though not stated by him, delete the glottal stop. Examples include: ?el amir 'the ruler' [or] ?el 'amir el liyäm 'the days' [or] 'el ?iyâm (cf. Cairene ?il 'iyyâm) minn en nâs 'from the people' [or] min en näs ?

He also gives examples of phonemes introduced into SCA not normally found in Arabic. He suggests that the appearance of ñ and c is probably due to African influence. Examples given include: ñarr 'mew' ñawa 'cat' flelim 'hunt on horseback' kaccan 'be disgusted with' wac 'face'17 ?umm 5irr 'a species of grass'

1.38. The publication of Hillelson's vocabulary and Worsley's grammar in 1925 generated a number of articles on specialized areas of SCA vocabulary.18 Shaw (1929) deals, for example, with the specialized vocabulary relating to gum in SCA. Owen (1933) concentrates on SCA terminology relating to the seasons of the year. He includes idioms such as: in nazalat (daxalat) fi tis'a hämila mäsika el nis'a 'when (oreyg, a star) goes down on the ninth day it is like a pregnant woman, gripping the rope that aids her in childbirth (i.e., very early, about June 15th — rains just on the point of coming)'

1.39. Nicholson (1935) provides much interesting information not available in other sources about vocabulary used while working with a water wheel. Unfortunately, the transliteration of Arabic script is rather poor. He fails to indicate vocalic length, such as dolab for döläb 'water wheel'. He also does not differentiate between emphatic and nonemphatic consonants, such as tin rather than tin 'new silt', or 'utfa rather than 'utfa 'frame wheel carrying water bucket chain'.

16

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

1.40. Another example of specialized vocabulary is found in Bell (1953). Bell deals exclusively with foreign words which have been assimilated or partially assimilated into SCA vocabulary. He excludes from his discussion words which have been completely absorbed such as doktör 'doctor', ?isbitalia 'hospital', ?agenda 'agenda', and qöta 'quota'. He also excludes what he terms narrowly confined or technical words such as qöl 'goal', haf bak 'half-back' (pi. hawaf bik). Rather he deals with words such as bardön (pl. bardönät) ' p a r d o n f o r m a l a 'mechanical brake' (from Italian), and naylön 'good quality — used of a load of grass or a beautiful girl'. Because Bell's transliteration is inadequate, this article loses much of its potential value. It would be interesting to know how widespread the usage of words such as the above really is. I do not expect, of course, that these types of words are used outside of the large urban centers such as Khartoum-Omdurman. 1.41. It is difficult to understand why the next major work dealt with here was written at all. G. S. M. Burton, an officer (bimbashi-Major) in the Sudan Defence Force produced his Sudan Arabic notebook in 1934. Although Worsley's and Hillelson's comparatively careful works had been in existence since 1925, Burton writes as if they were not. In fact, he writes as if he were the first person ever to deal with and publish about SCA. He states in his preface that he came to the Sudan without any previous knowledge of Arabic, and thus stemmed his overzealous nature in this work. 1.42. His description of some Arabic sounds, for example, is amusing but not exactly definitive. He states (1934: 4-6): kh (x) is quite another sound from English 'k' . . . . s, stronger and more hissing than our 's'. Rather like double 'ss' in English ' l o s s ' . . . . Can be known as sailing ship's' [referring to the shape of the Arabic grapheme].... t, may be known as sailing ship 't\ Same as English't' in lot, back't' in little. Has a popping sound like the opening of a soda-water b o t t l e . . . . h can be known in pronunciation by movement in the chest, i.e. a frightening sound—hum.... NOTE. — It is very important for the beginner to grasp the pronunciation rule of the following as otherwise much confusion will be caused:— they is sometimes pronounced tey dad is sometimes pronounced za za is sometimes pronounced dad.

In his preface Burton states: One of the principal objects which I have maintained throughout has been to produce a correct transliteration and so to avoid confusion when writing in Arabic characters.

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC. THE STATE OF THE ART

17

He failed utterly. In his recommended list of two hundred words which are to be learned, he does not recognize the voiceless pharyngeal (pharyngal) spirant (fricative) h (tí) writing hisäb 'account, bill' rather than hisäb. He does not recognize emphatics writing battäl for battäl 'bad', and his vowel transcription often reflects aspects of literary or other dialectical kinds of Arabic. For example, wasal 'he arrived' should be wisil, 'afsh 'baggage' should be 'afas (anaptyxis), and 'aysh for SCA ès 'bread'. On a single page, within the table of the numerals, he writes thelätha 'three' but talata a/a/'three thousand'. Sometimes he writes SCA subdialectical forms: shwaiya for suwayya 'little (quantity)', or sughaiyar for sayayyi(a)r 'little (in stature)'. 1.43. The organization of Burton (1934) was, no doubt, convenient for newcomers to the Sudan. His table of contents gives a ready reference to specific vocabulary items related to concrete situations which the traveller would have been likely to come across. It is simply unfortunate that he did not consult previous published works to enable him to achieve the consistency which he had set as his goal. It is particularly surprising that he acknowledges a . . . special debt of gratitude to Professor H. A. R. Gibb, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, who, at great inconvenience, has most kindly read the greater part of the manuscript and proof sheets (1934: vii).

1.44. An important contribution to the literature on SCA was made in the following year (1935). Hillelson completed his Sudan Arabic texts with translation and glossary. This volume includes dialectical material which should be used to develop some badly needed comparativedialectological studies. While it probably does not have sufficient material to do a comprehensive study of this nature, the book does draw some important distinctions between some of the leading Arabic linguistic areas in the Sudan (see Emeneau 1956). 1.45. In this book, Hillelson modifies two symbols of his orthography. He replaces kh with h (χ) and sh with s.19 Beyond that, the texts presented seem to be the promised continuation of his 1925 work. 1.46. Earlier in this chapter (see 1.7. ff.) some historical material included in the texts was discussed. Value of these texts for a student of modern SCA lies in knowledge gained concerning the historical development of SCA dialects. Hillelson notes, for instance, that the possessive marker bita, commonly found in Egypt (especially Cairene) and widely used in the Sudan today (other dialects have mta or taba', etc.), is not found in the tabaqät, one of the early manuscripts.

18

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC THE STATE OF THE ART

1.47. Other parts of the book are of more immediate interest as evidence of the differences in SCA dialects today. Hillelson cites texts from the Gezira, Berber Province, the Baqqara, Nomad Arabs, and from Kordofan Province. Specimens of the speech of the hasaniyya and husaynät are also found in Extracts from al-mursid al-südäni.20 All such texts are but a start towards a much needed comparative grammar of SCA dialects. The inclusion of some proverbs (sayings), riddles, folk tales, and nursery rhymes provides material in areas that are largely neglected in other works about SCA. It is unfortunate that in a book of texts Hillelson includes translations from other Arabic dialects rather than limiting himself to the actual speech of native speakers of SCA.21 1.48. SCA dialectical variations are real and often approach being mutually unintelligible. Extent in this instance of such differences may be demonstrated by a verse quoted by Hillelson (1935: 148-149): Western SCA 'al mäsi Iel-yurüb sallim 'ale 1-wâlidât qui lêha waladik bên al-haiyâ ma mât, bilâdo salfaqat daqqat talât salqât u marato gaqqalat u gemelo 1 berïdo mât. Eastern SCA yä ter ?in masèt sallim 'alè 1-ummât qui lêhin wilëdkan fil-haiyâ ma mât, bilâdo 'aiyasat gäbat talât salqât u marato hallaqat u g e m e l o 1 berïdo mât. Translation: O traveller to the west (variant: O bird in thy flight), Give greetings to my Mother; Tell her, her son is among the living, not dead; His crop has been three handfuls of grain; His wife has caught syphilis and his favorite camel is dead.

1.49. The dearth of materials on SCA dialectology is unbelievable. Hillelson published an article on songs of the Baggara in 1929. This is primarily a collection of long songs which are rich in vocabulary not found in other parts of the Sudan. Lampen (1933)deals with vocabulary in daily use for ordinary living experiences and includes some nursery rhymes among the Baggara tribes of Darfur. Kensdale (1955 and 1956) deals with a collection of manuscripts "representative of the indigeneous Arabic literature of the Western Sudan" (1956: 79). He has compiled lists of the writings (Arabic) of Shehu Usumanu dan Fodio, the Reformer, founder of the Fulani empire, as well as the Arabic writings of his

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

19

brother, Waziri Abdullahi dan Fodio. Most of the manuscripts belong to the Library of the University College, Ibadan, Nigeria (18th and 19th centuries). (Usumanu was born in 1752; Abdullahi in 1766.) Some manuscripts are imperfect, such as tazyin al-waraqät bi-jam badmä Γι minalabyät, but as the author states (1956: 79): There are four mss, in the School for Arabic Studies, Kano, where Mr. Hiskett, an Education Officer, is preparing an edition of this work for publication. The Ibadan manuscript is imperfect.

1.50. Two extremely interesting articles, Czapkiewicz (1959 and 1960), contribute greatly to our knowledge of SCA. It is disappointing that there is not a great deal more material of this nature available, not only for this dialect which he terms "the dialect of the Middle Sudan", but also for other SCA dialects. He rightly states (1960: 192): Alas, the scarcity of our dialectical material allows neither for construction of the grammatical sketch of our dialect nor to make any remark of generally binding character.

This applies easily to many other SCA dialects. 1.51. In addition to texts, Czapkiewicz includes a number of SCA proverbs. For example, ?alfätak fùtu, which he translates 'leave whatever you have to leave', or more accurately, 'that which has left you has gone', meaning 'do not worry about what you are obliged to leave!' Another proverb quoted by him appears in Hillelson (1935: 4) in a slightly different form: Czapkiewicz: al-kalbu yanbah wa l-g?amal mäsi Hillelson: al-kelib yinbah wa ag-gemel mäsi Translation: The dog barks and the camel passes on. Kaye (field work, 1970): ?alkalib yambah wadydyamal mäsi 1.52. Several other works have appeared on SCA proverbs. Of limited usefulness is Jackson ( 1919) since it has no transcriptions or vowel markings, and the proverbs listed are similar to literary Arabic ones. A book by Mrs. A. P. Singer is listed by Hillelson (1935) entitled Arabic Proverbs, and it is supposed to contain SCA materials. I could not find any further reference to the book. Perhaps it was never published or even completed. 1.53. Closely related to the area of proverbs in that they also reflect the folklore and customs of a people are nursery rhymes. Some have already been mentioned such as Hillelson (1918), the data of which was obtained from schoolboys at Gordon College. The extremely colloquial

20

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

character of this material is demonstrated by the first lines of one of the rhymes (1918: 28): ba dén uxta körakett yä-1-marfa'in, yâ-1-marfa'ïn, ta'ál ukul krët 'afterward her sister called out, O hyena, O hyena, come eat Krët' 1.54. Later the same year, Atiyah, a Sudanese, published three lullabies which are of interest as parallels to the nursery rhymes. 1.55. Connected with proverbs and nursery rhymes is the material included in Griffiths and Tähä (1936). Scott (1937) indicates that it is a collection of polite phrases used by the Sudanese along with the proper replies which should be made. The book also deals with "double meaning in words used by Sudanese" (idioms?) (Scott 1937:181)and the ways in which Europeans misunderstand them. An example is given of the European who is happy to be called bärid 'cold', (erroneously) thinking that this means that he is calm and temperate. 1.56. A recent book, Barclay (1964), contains many descriptive terms from Sudanese suburban life. It is an anthropological study of Buurri al Lamaab, a suburb of Khartoum. Of particular interest from a linguistic point of view is the comprehensive list of kinship terms contained in Appendix Β (see footnote 122). 1.57. The last comprehensive work on SCA, and the accepted norm today for all linguistic purposes, is Trimingham (1946). Trimingham's work, in a sense, is the composite of much of the scholarly achievement which preceded it. He does not deal, of course, with problems which still need to be resolved concerning SCA grammar. He does not even attempt this. His purpose was to create a kind of textbook and reference grammar all in one, which would prove useful in the learning of SCA. In this he succeeded. Recognizing that only limited work had been accomplished on the various dialects of SCA, he chose the Omdurman dialect as his basis, since it was the cultural and population center of the country. Many times, needless to say, he slights or fails to acknowledge alternate pronunciations for given lexical items of frequent occurrence, but he does produce a fundamental grammar which enables a newcomer to SCA or the Sudan to learn an acceptable norm of the language. 1.58. Several reviews followed the publication of the second edition (first edition 1939), by the Church Missionary Society of Trimingham's grammar in 1946. Tritton (1947) felt that it was particularly good in that it was written in a way which requires no background knowledge of classical or literary Arabic. In fact, he states (1947:224): "The book can be recommended without reservation." (Contrast this opinion with the

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

21

criticisms of Worsley [1925].) Holt (1948) felt that the second edition was a great improvement over the first edition in that it includes so many useful conversations, but he felt it would still require additional explanations and coaching from a qualified teacher. 22 He was also critical of Trimingham's choice of symbols (IPA) for the transliteration in that it was different from any used in the Sudan previous to that time, and it could not be reproduced on a standard typewriter. 1.59. Ferguson (1949) is the most penetrating and useful review of Trimingham's grammar. While accepting the work as being a worthwhile and more than decent contribution to the literature on SCA, he states (1949: 42) that "from a linguistic point of view, the phonological terminology is completely inadequate". Some of Ferguson's points include the way in which long vowels are written, the minimal pair status differentiating I from t, as in qall 'to diminish' and qatt 'to raise,' the vowel phonemes, as Trimingham introduces /a/, indicating that it "will be used for a rapid obscure vowel, which occurs in short unaccented syllables"—then never uses the symbol again throughout the book. Ferguson asks, "What phoneme is this?" Raised /a/ occurs once in the entire work. 1.60. Probably the greatest defect in the work, as in most material produced about SCA, is the use of translated material to demonstrate grammatical points rather than developing grammatical points around more natural material based on SCA texts. An example of the unnatural sentences used which illustrates the point (1946: 28) is the following: See I am standing. Now I am sitting. Are you standing or sitting?—I am sitting, not standing.

More natural conversational material is found in part II of the book. 1.61. There are other areas which need additional clarification in the work. Trimingham does not deal adequately with the influence of emphatic consonants on vowels, nor does he really allow for variant pronunciations — even within one dialect area — which are so common in SCA. Mention was previously made concerning some of these variants in the discussion of Worsley (1925) which went to the other extreme and presented noncommon forms as the only forms used (see 1.22. ff.). 1.62. Trimingham (1946) tends to make general statements about changes without defining how or the precise environment in which they occur. For example, consider two such footnotes (1946: 63): The i-i form has a peculiarity due to elision, e.g., rikibu becomes rikbu.

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SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

The forms ending in ύ [paradigms have u] (3rd Pers. plur. masc. past), when suffixes are added, are frequently pronounced ö.

1.63. Although SCA would be hard to define precisely in all its dialectological versions, it continues to dominate and spread its influence throughout the Sudan. MacLaughlin (1964) documents and emphasizes the ascendancy of SCA throughout the country, extending increasingly even to non-Arab speaking communities. Although the literate community in the Sudan deprecates spoken SCA or any other dialect as a nonlanguage, it is a vital and unifying factor in the Sudan. (See Nader [1962] and Kaye [1970] for discussion of some of the issues involved regarding attitudes on language.) 1.64. Before presenting a discussion of some of the major works already mentioned, a note on the future of SCA studies is appropriate. What areas have been neglected or need much more attention? There has not been an adequate dialectological study made in the Sudan. Because Omdurman is the largest population center and has the national radio station, or because Khartoum is the political center, it is presumed that one of these must be the dominant linguistic center of the country. A scientific comparison of the major dialect areas and overlap of such areas is badly needed, and should be conducted perhaps by the Sudanese government itself. Such a study should include an evaluation of the SCA found in the homes of literate and highly educated native speakers as well as illiterate and noneducated peoples, as proposed and discussed in Kaye (1970, 1971a, and 1972a). Much more textual material gathered from all parts of the Sudan would confirm that there is really not one dialect of SCA, but rather several major dialects with many variations for each dialect (see 1.87.). 1.65. Particular emphasis should be placed on the study of syntactic patterns. Adequate discussion of SCA syntax—done from any syntactic point of view, whether it be generative/transformational, tagmemic, generative semantic (Chafe 1970), etc. — is lacking in all works cited in this chapter. Simple sentence patterns are probably adequately presented, (school or traditional grammar approach), but more complex SCA sentence structure is neglected. This becomes evident in conversation with a native SCA speaker. 1.66. Even in the area of traditional autonomous phonemics much needs elucidation. The phoneme / a / and its allophones have not been adequately described by anyone. Worsley (1925: 6) probably gives the most accurate and adequate phonemic description (reproduced verbatim et literatim·, Trimingham [1946: 4]):

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

23

In some words, especially those in which 'i' occurs, this vowel seems to sound nearer the English e in 'men' than a, so that, for example, the word for 'prophet' is often written by English people nebi instead of nabi, and gebel for gabal (hill). It is nevertheless a true "a" sound, even though in some cases it may be articulated relatively higher.

1.67. Finally, an Arabic-English vocabulary or dictionary of SCA, such as the dictionaries done at Georgetown University (Richard Slade Harrell Arabic series) in the 60s, would be of great value. No one has ever attempted to produce such a work. 1.68. Valuable work has been done on SCA, but there are continuing challenges in this relatively unknown dialect area of modern Arabic. Trained in any of the modern methods of analysis, a linguist who devoted time and effort to the language would uncover other neglected areas which need specific and immediate attention. Careful comparison with colloquial Arabic dialects of other countries is also badly needed. 1.69. Amery (1905) The title page reads: "English-Arabic vocabulary for the use of officials in the Anglo-Egyptian Army, by Captain H. F. S. Amery, The Black Watch — (Attached Ε. Α.), Cairo: Al-Mokattam Printing Office. 1905. [Arabic script jjèiii AL-Muqattam]." Amery himself (p. i) states that the volume consists of two distinct elements: 1. The technical terms in use in the Egyptian Army and in the various Departments of the Sudan Government. 2. Some 3,500 words of the most common daily usage translated into the Arabic equivalents employed for these in conversation among the Arabs of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. To avoid repetition and for convenience in finding words, these two elements have been arranged together in alphabetical order, the technical terms being distinguished by having a (t.) placed after them.

Amery claims that if a word is peculiar to or of more frequent use in one part of the Sudan, this will be noted after the word. If no marking appears following the word, the word is understood all over the Arabicspeaking Sudan. The purpose of the book was clearly for official purposes. Amery states (pp. i-ii): As the British Officers of the Egyptian Army and Officials of the Sudan Government are required to read and write Arabic, it has not been considered necessary to adopt any elaborate system of transliteration....

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SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC THE STATE OF THE ART

T h e vowel transcriptions are based on the "Rules of Orthography for Native N a m e s of Places, Persons, etc. in Egypt and the Sudan", published by the Intelligence Department, War Office, Cairo, with the addition o f macrons distinguishing the long vowels. S o m e of the abbreviations after a word include the following: B. Berber D. Dongola G. Gezira K. Kordofan W.S. Western Sudan Amery, in a sense, criticizes his o w n work (p. iii): Owing to the novel nature of this Vocabulary and to the fact that it has been considered desirable to get the first edition through the printers as quickly as possible, it will necessarily [emphasis mine] have many omissions and mistakes. H e then states: It is requested that any corrections and suggestions should be sent to the Director of Intelligence, War Office, Cairo, or to the Assistant Director of Intelligence, Khartoum, with a view to a revised edition being produced at an early date [emphasis mine]. T h e introduction was written on January 5, 1905, in Khartoum (see p. xii). It contains the only grammatical remarks in the entire 454-page work. Pages i v - v are particularly interesting in that they give us a glimpse of the linguistic style of the author. The British Official on arrival in the Sudan, has immediately to direct his attention to the acquisition of an extremely difficult language. His difficulties have hitherto been enormously increased by the lack of proficient teachers and the practical absence of any printed assistance. Each newcomer has to pick up a large number of most necessary words as best as he can, with the result that he is often content with learning just sufficient to enable him to make his meaning intelligible, or to pass the various Government examinations, and even this minimum he acquires more slowly than necessary. At present no English-Arabic Vocabulary or Dictionary (of reasonable dimensions) exists, which contains even a fraction of the technical terms in daily use in the Army or in the various branches of Civil Government, nor are many of the many vocabularies of colloquial Arabic of use in the Sudan, except perhaps of Khartoum and a few other towns where the population has come much into contact with Egyptians and Syrians. The object therefore of this Vocabulary is to enable an official on entering

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

25

the Sudan to find the particular technical terms which are in use in the Egyptian A r m y , or the Department to which he is attached; and also the Arabic for such words as he is likely to require to carry on a simple conversation. Of the technical terms, a very large proportion are of European origin (in the Military terms chiefly Turkish) as:— konträto, a contract; mikröfön, a microphone; bulük, a company. and many are English technical terms literally and clumsily turned into Arabic, as hizäm [hizâm] süf [süf] köleira, flannel cholera belt etc. etc. Such as they are, however, they are the terms which a British Official joining any particular Department would require to know, and which are intelligible to all members of that Department. Of the Arabic of the Sudan more requires to be said, and the object in view will perhaps be best served by comparing it with the classical language.

Pages v-vi deal with so-called divergencies in pronunciation between SCA and classical Arabic. Remarks such as, for example, θ is sometimes s, sometimes t, and sometimes Θ, should bave been stated in the following terms: θ does not exist in SCA, it becomes t, except in loanwords from classical Arabic in which case it becomes.?. On the Jim see Kaye(1971a) and 1.14. ff. It is obviously a mistake when Amery transcribes Sal, i.e. , as thai, confusing grapheme and phoneme with regard to English orthography. It is true that words derived from the roots qtl and qrr ('to kill' and 'to purr', respectively) exhibit q >k, a common sound change in many other Arabic dialects, especially rural ones of the Syria-Palestine area. The morphophonemics need to be explored: consider gài 'he said'but kätil 'murderer' or bikurr 'it purrs'. The precise nature of diphthongization and monophthongization needs to be explored: consider haidar 'lion' but beit 'house', or auläd 'boys' but söt 'voice' (Amery's transcription). A short section (pp. vi-vii) follows called "interchange of letters". Well-known features of SCA (see Kaye 1971a: n. 55) are mentioned: —>d sidar 'trees' dès 'army' m >b makän > bakän 'place'

T h e following (pp. vii-viii) section is called "Verbs". It contains some rather misleading and confusing information: T h e Arab of the Sudan expresses himself when possible in verbs, giving also the preference to adjectives over substantives, thus if he wished to say "at

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SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

the time of the rise of the river" he would say:— lamma yunayyil al-bahar lamma yakün al-bahar munayyil fi nil al-bahar [transcriptions mine]

The remainder of the introduction is called "General". There is a discussion of classical vs. colloquial discrepancies in vocalic patterns ("The vocalization of the harakât", p. viii); simi' 'he heard' and fihim 'he understood'. Then follow a few remarks about anaptyxis (see 1.14.); samis for sams, and kelib (Amery) for kelb (Amery). Interesting statements concerning SCA kön 'because' follow (p. ix): The verbal noun kön is generally used for "because" or "for", where in Egypt the word 'alasan ['asän] would be employed, e.g. [see n. 120.] zalimni könu râgil sàhib magdara [my transcription] 'he oppressed me because he is a man of power' mabsüt minnak könak rägil samih Ί am pleased with you because you are a good man'

There then is a short discussion of conditional sentences, ?izakän or just kän, followed by a discussion of ?illä kân 'unless' and ?illâ ?in kän 'perhaps'. Then follows a brief mention of prepositions, such as the use of min for 'an 'about', and the peculiar dialectological status o f f ö g 'on, in' (p. x): The use of the word fog to express " o n " or " i n " in place of 'alä or Π in general, except in the Berber Province; thus:— hüwa fög bëtu 'he is in (on) his house' fog al-'angarib 'on the bed' fög xasim al-bêt 'in the door-way' fög xasim al-bahar 'on the river bank' It is also used occasionally to express "in the time of," as fog al-mahdiyya, 'in the time of the Mahdia.' and rarely used in the Western Sudan in the place of 'ind, as fögak alma?, 'have you any water?'

There is a brief discussion of fi batin 'in', 'inside', asfibatin al-bèt 'in (inside) the house'. Amery then mentions that a few words are regularly used to express meanings somewhat different from their original ones, for example, haddas 'to answer' (also, kallam), and sallam 'to kiss'. He states (p. xi): These words are of course also used in their proper meaning, but some few words are used only in an incorrect sense, e.g. [prescriptivism] wirik, is used for "thigh"; its real meaning being " h i p " for which the word ga'ba is used. nasib, is used for "relatives by marriage," real meaning "relative."

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

27

A fact about SCA not mentioned by others is then presented (p. xi): The habit of giving emphasis or intensification to words by accentuating or dwelling upon certain parts of them, or by doubling a consonant or lengthening a vowel, is very common: samih 'good' sammih 'very good' 'abyad 'white' 'abyàd 'very white' ?azrag 'blue' 'azzirag 'very blue'

This phenomenon I would equate with the similar development in English "grrreat", as used by Tony the Tiger in Kellogg's Sugar Frosted Flakes' commercials on television. T o my knowledge, this feature in Arabic and English has never received linguistic treatment. A brief mention of hagg ' o f ' (?al-guwäd haggu 'his horse'), familiar from Arabian dialects, follows, with a note indicating that this is not common. Then there is a short paragraph about the coining of new words in SCA (dabbùs 'pin'). Amery's warning in 1.20. has a footnote (see Kaye 1970): An excellent illustration of the reality of this danger may be obtained by questioning a native of the Sudan who has lived for instance in Khartoum and mixed with Government Officials. If he is asked how do you pronounce hum (they) he will probably reply: "We, amongst ourselves, say 'hum' but the educated people who know the Government say 'humma'." Similarly he will tell you: "We in the desert say ?ibhám for thumb, but the educated people ('annâs al-mutamaddinïn) say baham," etc. etc. (*, p. xxi).

Amery concludes (p. xiii): "Education, the study of the Kuran and of the classical Arabic should do much to counteract this influence." T h e bulk of the book (406 pp.) is a listing of words in alphabetical order in English, Arabic script, and transliteration. Page 1 (A) is prefaced by a N.B. which states: It must be remembered that the definite article though written "el" in accordance with the "Rules of Orthography" is pronounced "al, el, il, ul," according to its position in the sentence, also that before solar letters, s, s, etc. the 1 is dropped and the first letter of the following word doubled, e.g. "ash shams," "as sadr" etc. [Amery's transcription]

Sentences illustrating a word's usage are sometimes included. For example, Ί came two months ago', lei shahrein git (p. 10). One of the major faults with the vocabulary as a whole is the listing of many words derived from the same root through the processes of basic Arabic verbal morphology (root and vocalic pattern), such as 'to demarcate', xattat al-hudûd, and 'demarcation', tax tit al-fmdüd (Form II, perfect and verbal noun, respectively) (p. 101 and passim). Another major fault

28

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

is in the arena of noun morphology, such as 'my coming', geiti, and 'your coming', geitak (p. 75 and passim). Pages 408-431 are the appendices (Amery's title). Appendix A is a listing of color terms including such listings as heliotrope, ahmar manwlsh, or ultramarine blue, samäwi ghâmig. Appendix Β contains the days of the week; Appendix C is a listing of the Gregorian months (not generally known in 1905), the Muslim calendar, and Sudanese (local?) months. Appendix D deals with noises made to drive or call animals with listings for camels, dogs, oxen, sheep, etc. Appendix E gives cardinal and ordinal numbers. Appendix F includes ranks, titles, and offices (especially military, such as Lance Corporal, wakïl önbäshi [p. 417]). Appendix G is entitled "Sakia and parts": the sakia (sàgïa) is the Persian water wheel. Appendix H deals with weights, including ones for gold, measures for grain, and Sudanese weights and measures with equivalents in the British system of the period, with notes on local weights of Khartoum, Berber Province, Kordofan, etc. Pages 432—451 contain some of the most interesting things in the work, viz. texts in SCA. We are not told exactly how the texts were recorded, but I suspect that they were written, and thus have the influence of classical Arabic prose style. There is an English translation, followed by Arabic script (classical Arabic, with preservation of the interdental graphemes and gemination marker for consonants [tasdid or sadda]), followed by the transliteration. Consider the opening sentence from the first text (p. 432): T h e teacher of a primary school is either paid at the rate of 12 dollars per annum or teaches the children free of charge. Arabic script:

e

Transliteration: Sheikh el khalwa yia'ggaru sintu bi etnásher rial au yakün hûa zâtu yugarri lilla sâkit.

All the texts are supposedly representative of the major dialect areas in which SCA was spoken before 1905 — Berber, Dongola, Gezira, etc. There is one grammatical note in a footnote (p. 433); otherwise, nothing about grammar is mentioned. Several poems and songs are also included among the texts. Concluding the volume is a one-page introduction (muqaddimah) in classical

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

29

Arabic and a title page in Arabic script. There are few printing errors in the work. 1.70. Barclay (1965) This discussion, more linguistic than Barclay (1964), deals with the sedentary Arabs in Khartoum and vicinities, and predicts a more secularized future (p. 48) for the cutlure. The article revolves around cultural change in the Sudan in terms of (1) Islamization (the Arabs are the largest ethnic group — about fifty percent of the total population), and (2) Westernization. Barclay (p. 43) is right when he claims: Technically, these Arabs are overwhelmingly Arabized Nubians, descendants of an old Nubian population which in the past few centuries has become assimilated to Arab culture. Arabs are represented across the entire spectrum of ecological types in the Sudan: the largest number are village dwellers engaged in irrigation agriculture. Others are rain cultivators. Many are semisedentary, having permanent villages, but spending half or more of their time following their herds away from the village. Close to a million Arabs may be classed as nomads, most of them herders of cattle along the southern fringes of Kordofan and Darfur Provinces; the Arab camel nomads live further north in the drier areas.

A history of Arabization, rightly considered (p. 43) as being distinct from Islamization, is then presented concerning the Egyptian colonialism of the early 19th century, the Mahdist revolt of 1881, and the arrival of the British in 1898. The diversity of the southern part of the Sudan is sketched, and notes about the rebellion of the South mentioned. Two linguistic conclusions become lucid: (1) one does not have to be an Arab to be a native speaker of SCA, and (2) Arabization in the Sudan means linguistic acculturation to Arabic as a language. The remainder of the article, not really germane to our discussion of SCA literature, deals with ritual and religious systems and subsystems in the country. 1.71. Burton (1934) The title page reads: "Sudan Arabic note-book, by Bimbashi G. S. M. Burton, M.C. (B.A. Magdalen College, Oxford), Eastern Arab Corps, The Sudan Defence Force and Black Watch, 1934, published by McCorquodale and Co., Ltd., 15 King Street, London, E.C. 2", with a translation into Arabic (classical and SCA) on the opposite page (Muzakkara 'Arabiya Soudäniya). It is dedicated to "past and present officers of all ranks, the Sudan Defence Force". The preface was written in Gallabat in September, 1933, and some

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SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

interesting background material for the book is included (pp. v-vii). It begins with a quatrain from Omar Khayyám. The Moving Finger writes; and having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it. The above lines seem to provide the excuse for my boldness in producing this book. The proverb about "Fools rushing in", etc., is too well known to require repetition, but if my boldness seems to verge upon temerity it is because the expert and the beginner seldom come across the same stumbling blocks, for it generally happens that the expert has entirely lost sight of the trials which beset him in the initial stages of his studies. This note-book is, therefore, written for beginners in the hope that they will be able to meet more easily the difficulties when explained by one who has only very recently overcome them for himself; it is even hoped that they will actually form a liking for their new task. Many will, no doubt find themselves in a position very similar to my own, for when I was first ordered out to the Sudan I was told that it would be useless to attempt to learn any Arabic at home on account of the wide differences in local dialect.

Burton then discusses his first arrival at Port Sudan, his respect for his servant (a Somali), and his linguistic regret because his Somali servant did not have a full command of Arabic. After one month in the Sudan, he was called upon to take sole charge of the Corps which was, as he states, (p. vi) "somewhat of an ordeal under the circumstances". He continues: This note-book is the outcome of having kept a careful diary of my tribulations and progress; it is to be hoped that its publication will assist students with the many difficulties with which they are likely to be faced. I feel that with the aid of these notes the reader should find it possible to obtain valuable elementary instruction in Arabic at home, and more especially so if he is able to enlist the aid of anyone who already knows the language and can assist him with the pronunciation.

Burton also states that the vocabulary in the volume has been tested "in all the districts of the Sudan", and has been found to be effective in speaking with tribes such as the Hadendowa, Beni Amir, Nubians (see Badr n.d.), and Hassaniya. The foreword to the work was written by Kitchener of Khartoum himself, in Eldoret, Kenya, February 16th, 1934, a little more than three years before his death in Kenya. He states that SCA is "a notoriously difficult language to learn", and that "he should like to congratulate Captain Burton on the industry which has enabled him to complete this book". It is interesting to note that Burton financed the publication

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

31

of the work out of his own pocket, as was common in this period for many types of scholarly publications. I do not know whether the book was a financial success or not. The book consists of twenty-seven chapters. Chapter I is entitled "Alphabet, Pronunciation, Writing Points, Numerals" (pp. 1-14). It begins with a discussion of basic Arabic graphemics (see Mitchell [ 1953] for the best discussion of the subject insofar as I know). Notes on pronunciation follow (see 1.42.). Rules for the assimilation (elision— Burton's terminology) of the definite article (el—Burton's transcription) are given, followed by "writing points", i.e. the chair (kursi) for the hamza (glottal stop), the vowel points (fatha, kasra, damma), the accusative with tanwïn (nünatiori), etc., followed by a listing of the cardinal and ordinal numerals. Much confusion between classical and colloquial (see Kaye 1970) is evident, as well as a confusion between graphemics and phonemics. Chapter II is called "First 200 Words" (pp. 15-27). He begins by commenting about the listing: The following 200 words, if learnt before leaving the boat, will enable the beginner to face his new adventure with confidence and at least with the knowledge that he will be able to ensure personal comforts! All these words hold good throughout the Sudan and will be understood in Cairo.

We are never told why verbs are listed in the imperative singular masculine (an uncommon practice), e.g. itlub 'ask' (p. 15), unless otherwise stated, such as 'arrived' wasal 'arrived (he)' (see 1.42.). Basic sentences are also included, e.g., 'aäwiz häja täny 'do you want anything else?' (p. 17). This should be corrected to: 'äwiz ('äyiz) hädya tânya or hädya tänya 'äwiz (äyiz). Cf. Cairene haga tanya 'äwiz (äyiz). There are many errors in the actual data. It is certainly ignorance on the part of Burton which made him write föhim in Arabic script with rather than (p. 19) in ana mush fähim Ί don't understand', or to list 'very nice' (p. 25) as kwyis khälis for kuwayyis xälis. Many other errors from this chapter could easily be listed. An errata sheet for the volume would certainly run pages. Chapter III is entitled "First 100 Words Written". It begins (p. 28): Always practise by writing short notes to your Native Officers, Medical

32

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

Officer, Native Civil Authorities, Mamur, Postmaster, and Station Master. They appreciate notice being taken and will help you in many small ways.

The vocabulary is largely polite conversational items such as effendy 'mister', jenäb 'sir', min fadlak 'please'. Chapter IV has vocabulary items for the post office, hospital, parts of the body, railway, cultivation, servants, household effects, animals, the mess sergeant, and kitchen utensils (pp. 28-64). Chapter V (pp. 65-72) is a list of "useful pairs of words" (Burton's title) or antonyms such asyamyn 'right', shemâVleft'. Page 71 is interesting in its own right in terms of the pedagogical style in which it is written. It reads: T h e "Thin Rule" Very difficult. T h e stranger never gets this right. 1. rigaiyig "thin" and is generally used of men and things, i.e. chiefly t i m b e r — trees, sticks, pens etc. 2. rahyf "thin" and applies to clothes and other things made out of sheets, i.e. paper and glass. 3. rafy'e "thin" and can be used to cover rigaiyig and rahyf. 4. d'ayf "thin" (opposite of fat) and is used in describing men and animals.

Chapter VI (pp. 72-80) is entitled "Words for Distinguishing" and contains assorted lexemes, viz. everything from safha 'page', to humma 'fever', and humär 'donkey'. Page 80 is more good evidence for the confusion between phonemics and graphemics in that it lists "words with dual meaning". For example, he lists laham 'meat', and lahama 'to solder', both spelled in Arabic script as . Chapter VII (pp. 81-85) deals with root words, i.e. words derived through Arabic morphological processes (discontinuous morphemes) from the same root, such as the words beginning on page 81, viz.farash 'he spread', mafroosh 'spread', etc. The root is frs and the two patterns are illustrative of the first form perfect (CaCaC) third masculine singular and passive participle (maCCüC) masculine singular, respectively. The standard Arabist and Semitic root used for this purpose is the root 'to write', which is also mentioned (p. 81) and the derived forms given are as follows: wrote (he) written

clerk

katab muktüb [maktoob would be consistent with Burton's transcription; cf. mafroosh listed earlier] kätib

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC THE STATE OF THE ART

book writing library, book-case office correspondence

33

kitäb kitäba maktaba maktab mukätaba

Chapter VIII (pp. 86-100) is entitled "Arabic Expressions, Stories, Proverbs, Limericks" and is rather of a classical nature. For example, 'he gives an example' is given as yedrib mathalan, with the -an marking the accusative singular which does not occur in SCA (classical Arabic maOalan). Interesting vocabulary is given for tribal facial marks which are so characteristic of Sudanese from tribal areas. The stories given in Arabic script only, as the first (p. 90), "Why the capital of the Sudan is called Khartoum" are in literary Arabic, and are thus not relevant to SCA literature. The limericks and proverbs (?αιηθάΙ) are not really particularly SCA, but rather Arabic of a more general scope and area (more MSA than SCA). Chapter IX (pp. 101-103) is a listing of vocabulary items having to do with women, such as zumäm 'nose-ring', or tallàl or khoros 'ear-ring'. Chapter X (pp. 104-106) deals with comparatives and superlatives (see Bravmann [1971] and Kaye [1971b]). Chapter XI (pp. 107-115) deals with auxiliary verbs, such as 'tobe' (akoon Ί will be' [p. 107]), and 'to have' (endy Ί have'). Basic verbal morphology is given and a comparison with classical Arabic features is presented (see Blachère and Gaudefroy-Demombynes [1952: 36-73] for particularly Arabic forms, Cohen [1924] for a detailed discussion in terms of Semitic in general, and Nöldeke [1896] for an older and more traditional point of view). Chapter XII (pp. 116-130) is called "A Few Useful Rules" and mentions some rules about the ?idäfa (status constructus), such as kubbäyat shäy 'a cup of tea', the definite article,23 the interrogative, the negative, and noun declension (possessive suffixes). Chapter XIII (pp. 131-134) describes common greetings. See Ferguson (1967) for a theoretical discussion in terms of Syrian Arabic; Griffiths and Tähä (1936) is quoted in that paper. Festival greetings are also included (èd). Chapter XIV (pp. 135-137) deals with weights and measures. Chapter XV (pp. 138-140) is a listing of adverbs, e.g. bish shidda 'fiercely' (p. 140). Chapter XVI (pp. 141-143) is a listing of prepositions and conjunctions and "useful words in common use" (Burton's term). Chapter XVII (pp. 144-148) lists colors, shapes, and artificial and

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SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC THE STATE OF THE ART

natural features (Burton's term), such as kubry 'bridge', and jabel 'mountain', respectively. Chapter XVIII (pp. 149-151) contains vocabulary items relating to the world and creation. Chapter XIX (pp. 152-156) deals with time and seasons including the Gregorian months. Chapter XX (pp. 157-158) deals with kinship terminology, but does not distinguish between khäla 'maternal aunt' and 'amma 'paternal aunt', nor khäl 'maternal uncle' and 'amm 'paternal uncle'. Chapter XXI (p. 159) lists native Sudanese dress terms, such as jibba 'gibba (robe)' and jalläbiya 'galabiya (gown)'. Chapter XXII (pp. 160-161) discusses names of countries. The opening statement in this chapter is certainly not true today, let alone for 1934. The chapter begins as follows: In speaking about countries, the word itself can be used, but the more usual form is to express the country thus, e.g. — England, the country of the English, balad al-'indyilîz. Egypt, the country of the Egyptians, balad al-masriyyïn.

The forms today are ?ingilterra 'England' and masir 'Egypt'. 24 Chapter XXIII (pp. 162-164) is a listing of tools and equipment, including such items as shotäl 'curved knife of the Bega tribe' and wäbour 'engine of any type from a primus stove to a transatlantic liner' (p. 163). Chapter XXIV (pp. 165-166) is a listing of minerals and metals, including terms such as ?asment 'cement'. Chapter XXV (pp. 167-235) deals with, as might be expected, military terms in the office, for rations, clothing, company crimes, drills — including sentences like irf'a [ ?irfa'] dibshak 'raise your butt', and nazzil dibshak 'lower your butt' (p. 197)— musketry, ranks and special appointments, decorations like rutba el khidma el mumtäza [rutbat] 'D.S.O. (Distinguished Service Order)' (p. 213), tactical words, operation orders, and flying. Chapter XXVI (pp. 236-245) deals with natural history terms, viz. animals, birds, reptiles, fish, trees, and insects. The final chapter, Chapter XXVII (pp. 246-251), is entitled "The Garden" and lists fruits, spices, vegetables, flowers, and "garden words" (pp. 250-251). As an illustration of the practical and pedagogical intention of the author, there are four blank pages following the volume called "Notes", for addenda and corrigenda. There is also an excellent map of Africa (as of 1933) showing occupation of African countries by the British, French, Portuguese, Belgian, Spanish, and Italian forces. There are also plates: (1) a picture of the Governor-General's Palace in Khartoum, and (2) a portrait (reproduced with the permission of the National British

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

35

Portrait Gallery) of Field-Marshall Earl Kitchener, K.G., K.P., G.C.B., O.M., G.C.S.I., G.C.M.G., G.C.I.E. 25 1.72. Czapkiewicz (1959) Two SCA (Middle Sudan) texts and six proverbs are included with translations and a few grammatical notes. One of the informants was Huseyn Mahmüd Hasan (born July 2, 1936) from Ad-Duwaym; the other was his cousin 'Abd al-Min'am Basir Hasan (born March 12, 1936) also from Ad-Duwaym. The Jim is transcribed asg', which he says (p. 18) is "strongly palatalized 'g' like Hungarian 'gy' in Magyar" (see Kaye [1971a] for all the details, and Bergsträsser [ 1928:157] and Hillelson [1935: xiv] for brief mention of SCA and certain dialects of the Arabian peninsula). is transcribed as both g and q. The vowels include: â, ï, ü, è, ó, a, /', u, e, and a, ì, è, w, ò, and diphthongs eay, aw, and ew. Pharyngeals and emphatics are duly noted. The first sentence from Text I is as follows (p. 19): fî wähed ahina kida mëyit hälu u maratu kull marra big'-iblu banät u banät u banät kawwamat 'indu desta bta'it banät u sähibnä fi nihäya bagá zâ'il g'iddan u 'indu ganäbil zirrîya katïra min al-banât. Translation (p. 21): There was our brother, such a one, whose condition was poor and his wife brought him every time daughters and daughters (and so) and a dozen of daughters heaped at his (side), and our friend, in the end began to be very angry and there were (simply) numerous atomic bombs of daughters at his (side).

Perhaps the most interesting text is Text II, which is about native attitudes to the phonology of SCA regarding h and γ. I reproduce it here in its entirety in the light of Nader (1962). It reads as follows (p. 24): ff ta'lïm al-ummïya wähid kan bi'allem fi'n-näs al-ummiyyïn u ba'deyn begûl le'Tiô g'ib kalima tibtadï masalan bi'l-harlf ellf aw bi'l-harïf be aw hakaza u nâs ashâb fl-yarïb min yarbi's-sûdàn dayman yintagün Ïï-Yeyn hà. fabagâ yig'ïb kalima awwalha ha gallò hanamäya. Translation (p. 25): On the education of the illiterate One taught the illiterate people and then he told him (to one of them) "say a word beginning with the letter "a" or the letter "b" or so", and the people living in the West, from the West of the Sudan always pronounced Yeyn as hä. And when he (one of those people) was to say a word beginning with "h" he told him: hanamäya. [See 1.6. under (9)-African substratum.]

The six proverbs and the texts with the exception o f β ta'ñm al-ummïya are also known in other Arab countries, as the author states (p. 18).

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SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC THE STATE OF THE ART

1.73. Czapkiewicz (1960) This article contains three more texts in the same dialect as Czapkiewicz ( 1959) and two of them are from the same two informants as Czapkiewicz (1959) and the third one from Fath Allah (born in 1930 in Ad-Duwaym). Czapkiewicz is quite right about the third text when he states (p. 192): "The language, which he [the informant] uses in his narrative shows strong influences of that of educated people." It is sad but true nevertheless when the author states (p. 192) concerning the dialect of the Middle Sudan: Alas, the scarcity of our dialectical material allows neither for construction of the grammatical sketch of our dialect nor to make any remark of generally binding character. T h e opening sentence of each of the three texts with their translations is as follows: (1) surub fl-gahwa (pp. 192-193) 'äwiz akallimküm 'an ïl-gahwa fi's-südän. bägi innu n-näs fi's-südän bihibbü surub fl-gahwa bil-he y l. [fis-südän is a misprint for fi's-südän, i.e. the spiritus lenis, not the spiritus asper.] Translation (pp. 194-195) (1) Drinking of coffee I would like to tell you about the coffee in Sudan. 26 It happens that people in Sudan like the drinking of coffee very much. (2) ïd-defën lemma yimût wähid fi's-südän tab'an ewwel häg'a än-näs ya'nî tab'an ïn-nâs illi Yâlibithùm hinäk ïl-muslimïn bimiskü'l-insän îl-meyyit dâ biysiluhu. Translation (p. 196) When somebody dies in Sudan, the first thing of course is, that is of course the people, whose majority are moslems, take this dead man and wash him. (3) ïz-zawàg' mawdü' ïl-hadït huwwa haflat îl-'arïs fi's-südän.27 lemma yidür fl-wähid yi'arris tab'an yukallim abähu 'ala bint illi 'äyiz yizawwag'hä. Translation (pp. 196-197) The theme of the narrative is the wedding ceremony in Sudan. When somebody intends to marry, he speaks of course to his father about the girl he wants to marry. 1.74. Davies (1925) In this important review of Hillelson (1925), the author begins (p. 220): The author, in his preface, rightly claims that this is a new work rather than a revised edition of the English-Arabic vocabulary of the late Captain Amery,

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37

and it would be ungrateful to the latter book, which, despite many obvious defects, has served a very useful purpose in its day [1905 ff.], to institute comparisons between the two. An introduction, as interesting as it is scholarly, defines the scope of the work and explains the method of its presentation. Sudan Arabic "is not a homogeneous language . . . but rather the common term for a number of local forms of speech which constitute a group owing to a general similarity of type, and in consequence of geographical and political contacts." Of these local forms of speech, the author broadly distinguishes sub-dialects for the Northern Sudan, the Central Sudan, the Western Sudan, and the Baggära tribes and he notes, further, that the speech of nomad Arabs everywhere differs from that of the settled population. Davies proceeds to elaborate some of his own thoughts on an Arabic koine, which he maintains will be found in any Arabic-speaking region. He is quite right also in pointing out that even S CA subdialects have a great diversity in vocabulary items and idiomatic expressions, and that words common to one dialect of SCA are not known or used, not even with different meanings, in other dialects, yet there is a large number of common words in the whole area. Davies suggests that in addition to subdialects of SCA and a SCA koine, there also exists a technical administrative dialect, with much Cairene influence, used by the army. Davies writes in a fashion typical of British scholarly humor (p. 222): So much having been said, the author can afford to concede to the reviewer such small modicum of unhallowed joy as the amateur can, in this instance, derive from detecting the expert in error. Like another lexicographer, who defined the pastern as the knee of a horse ("Ignorance, Madam, sheer ignorance"), Mr. Hillelson is not completely happy in equine matters. Thus ashgar is not roan, but chestnut; and ahau is not chestnut but brown. Davies continues by selecting minute matters for criticism, for which he apologizes by saying: Readers of this review will rightly infer that if criticism is directed to nice points of this kind [see below], it is for lack of serious blemishes in the work (p. 222). There is always a danger in defining the meaning of a dialectical word from insufficient data. On a former occasion Dr. Seligman28 attempted to restrict the meaning of the verb nashagh to "to go northwest", basing his definition on the usage of certain sections of the Kababish tribe. Mr. Hillelson avoids this error, but falls into the similar one of defining wôtà as "to move south to the river (Bagg)". In fact, wôtà is the complementary word to nashagh. The latter is correctly explained in the Vocabulary as "to disperse in grazing grounds during the rainy season". The former means "to move back to dry weather quarters when the rainy season is over". It is perfectly true that for the

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SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC. THE STATE OF THE ART

Baggära this is a move south to the river, but the Kababish also use the word for a movement which is neither towards the south nor to a river.

Other minor matters, in essence, are taken up by Davies. He complains that there are a few omissions due to sheer oversight on the part of Hillelson, such as when 'wood' is listed as cf. 'forest', there is no 'forest', though its Arabic equivalent will be found under 'shrub'. Davies ends his criticism before he actually praises the form, style, and printing of the work as a whole by saying (p. 222): Those thoroughly familiar with the dialect of a particular region will be in a position to point out that here and there the author has included a rare dialectical word while omitting a more common or more useful one. This, indeed, could hardly have been avoided except by organized collaboration with provincial officials. Thus westerners (and possibly others) will have difficulty in finding the ubiquitous word bärid, as applies to lawfulness of possession, which is hidden away under the heading of "clear" and will look in vain for its antithesis hâmï or hârr, as also for the vulgar but very common kîrï, applied generally to stolen camels after they have passed from a thief to a receiver.

1.75. Davies (1926) This short article is a follow-up to the preceding one in that Davies lists lexemes not found in Hillelson (1925), which replaced Amery (1905) for all purposes, in an effort to try to keep it up-to-date. Some words listed, it must be admitted, are not common nor particularly useful. For instance, raba 'six-year old (camel)', or sadïs 'seven-year old (camel)' (p. 135). 1.76. Davies (1927) This is another short article which is a follow-up to the preceding in that it is a supplementary vocabulary listing to it. It contains one hundred items altogether in Arabic script and transliteration, and devotes a whole page (p. 219) to vocabulary of the Baggara (Central Sudan). The purpose of this article was the same as the one for Davies (1926) (see 1.75.). 1.77. Farmer (1939) This article, by the world's authority of Arab music for the period in which he lived, concentrates on references to musical instruments and other musical terms in Arab historical writings from the eleventh to sixteenth centuries. Unfortunately the manuscripts are not in SCA but rather in literary Arabic (a page of one [dated 1701, owned by the British Museum] is reproduced between pp. 572-573). There is nothing

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39

which bears on scholarly SCA literature, yet for this period it is interesting to note Farmer's conclusion (p. 575): It will be seen that most of the names of the instruments are Arabic, but we must remember that Arabic was the language in which the works quoted were written. In four instances only are non-Arabic names used for instruments....

It seems as though Arabic terms relating to music diffused in the Sudan and other parts of North and Central Africa before SCA really emerged in the fourteenth century. The case of the Arabic loanwords in languages such as Wolof, Bambara, Soso, Fulbe, Hausa, etc., is discussed by Farmer in this article as well as his Studies in oriental musical instruments (1931) and an article in Musical Standard (Nov. 1924), "The Arab Influence on Music in the Western Soudan". 29 1.78. Ferguson (1949) Ferguson begins his review of Trimingham (1946) by telling us that it was based on Gairdner's Egyptian colloquial Arabic 1917 (first edition). I would have to agree with Ferguson when he states (p. 42): It is intended to be a beginner's book, serving as a companion to Hillelson's Sudan Arabic Texts and Sudan Arabic Vocabulary.

Ferguson continues (p. 42): Apart from a few concessions, such as liberal use of Arabic names of persons and places, and frequent mention of donkeys and goats and the stupidities of local servants, the sentences reflect British culture (especially classroom behavior patterns) far better than Sudanese culture.

Ferguson is correct in stating that /aw/ and /o:/ are two different phonemes and that Trimingham neglects the following morphophonemic rule, also known in other Arabic dialects: II aw y

>/aw/ but also /o:/ 3 0

I would agree that Trimingham's use of g to represent the voiced palatal stop and q the voiced velar one is "unfortunate" (Ferguson's word), although they do make it easier for the Semitist to identify the SCA form. Ferguson concludes (p. 43): As a source book for the professional linguist it is valuable; as a beginner's book it is much better than most beginner's books in colloquial Arabic, but it would need a thorough revision of its phonological terminology and a complete recasting of its sentence material in order to be a really good tool for the person who wants to learn Sudan Colloquial Arabic.

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1.79. Field (1952: 184-240) Appendix A (pp. 232-233) is useful in that it contains a listing of EnglishArabic-Nubian vocabulary recorded phonetically, with the assistance of Keith Marker, on March 6, 1948, at Abka, ten miles south of Wadi Haifa. The transcriptions are far from being phonetic or consistent. A look at the Arabic numerals (p. 233) confirms this: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 20 100

wahid ethnain thelatha arba khamseh sitta saba thamanaya tissa ashera hidasha ethanasha asherin mia

Laryngeals, pharyngeals, and vocalic length are three of the most conspicuous things not noted. Consider tal hinna 'come here' for ta'äl hinà (p. 232), or rennem 'sheep' f o r

\anam.

The remaining pages referred to here are important for they list population statistics for sedentary places and nomadic groups, as well as nonlinguistic, physical anthropological facts, such as facial and nasal measurements, statistics on age, hair, teeth, etc. Field led the University of California African Expedition to the Sudan and other African countries in the late 40s, and some of his ideas about the expedition were published before 1952.31 Interesting ideas about the history and prehistory of the Sudan are also included, especially with reference to geneology. See, for example, the report of the Gumueya of Umm Disa (pp. 218 ff.).32 1.80. Hillelson (1921) This article is a review article of Al-Amin 1923 (unpublished but presumably available in 1920 or earlier). Al-Amin was at that time an Arabic teacher under the Sudan government (Education Department). Hillelson and Al-Amïn treat native beliefs, customs, children's games, manners of dress, etc., in terms of SCA glossary, and a comparison with classical Arabic.

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

41

An example of a proverb known also in ancient times (Hamza al?Isbahânï) is the following in SCA: yâ en assamis 'addetak sinn al-humâr wa'ddïni sinn alyazal 'Oh eye of the sun take the donkey tooth and give me a gazelle tooth'

Jackson (1919) has an earlier treatment of similar material. Some of the classical Arabic material in Hillelson (1921) is vocalized (p. 80); some is not. 1.81. Hillelson (1925a)33 The title page reads: "Sudan Arabic English-Arabic vocabulary, by S. Hillelson, Education Department, Sudan Government, published by the Sudan Government, London, 1925".Thepreface, which immediately follows the title page, was dated August 1925 at Oxford. He begins by mentioning that, although really a new work, this is a revision of Amery (1905), which had been out of print for quite some time. Addenda and corrigenda to Amery (1905) was utilized by Hillelson based on Amery's own manuscripts, which were preserved after his death in the Intelligence Department. Articles published in SNR, and an unpublished collection of words and dialectical forms made by G. E. Iles, "late of the Political Service", and Al-Amin (1923) were also used. Hillelson had been in the Sudan since 1911 as a full-time resident. There are abbreviations for the 341-page vocabulary on p. vii. Some of them include: Bagg. Baggära, Bed. Beduin, C.S. Central Sudan, Dong. Dongola, Rub. Rubätäb. The vowel of the imperfect is put in parentheses after the perfect of the verb (third masculine singular), and if a word belongs to MSA or Cairo Arabic, it is put in square brackets. There are nineteen pages of grammatical notes before the vocabulary actually begins. Some notes on pronunciation of SCA include: (1) d is emphatic, which he terms "velarized", with rounding of the lips34 (2) g is the chosen symbol for the Jim, which he says is "half-way between g and j, almost dy" (3) h is defined as a "strongly breathed h, articulated far back in the throat, without uvular scrape" (4) q is "like k pronounced farther back" (5) r is "always sounded", which is a reference to the fact that in many dialects of English the r is dropped (6) he includes dh, which is 8, and th, which is θ (SCA, of course, does not have any interdentals)

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SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

(7) ch (actually c) is defined as "stands in the same relation to the English sound of ch as g does to j; almost like ty" (8) gh (γ) and kh (x), which has come to be a standard Semitological and Arabist transcription, are correctly compared with North German 'g' in sagen and 'ch' in Sache with strong uvular scrape, respectively (9) ' is defined as a "hiatus before a vowel at the beginning of a word, or between two vowels, as in Glasgow Scots wa'er (for water)" (10) ' is defined as the "voiced equivalent of h, articulated with strong constriction of throat muscles" 35 Hillelson's transcription of vowels is essentially based on the phonemic principle. He states with respect to vowels (p, x): As the pronunciation varies in different localities, and is fluctuating even within the same area, a strictly phonetic notation would only be of limited value.

The vowel symbols include: à, a, è, e, i, i, ö, o, ü, u, au, ai, and oi. Hillelson is erroneous in stating that original δ has mostly become d\ mostly it has become d, as is the case with many other dialects of Arabic. In SCA and other Arabic dialects, it occasionally becomes z, but that is usually in borrowings from MSA or other languages (p. xi). Hillelson is right in claiming that ' > ? in the SCA of the tribes of Kordofan (sedentary). This is also known in many Beiruti Arabic dialects, but is restricted to initial position (p. xi). This is true of Chadian Arabic, in general, too. Hillelson shows traces of his classical upbringing when he states (p. xiv): Sudan Arabic, then, like every other spoken dialect, is not a homogeneous language, with definite rules of grammar and vocabulary [emphasis mine], but rather the common term for a number of local forms of speech which constitute a group owing to a general similarity of type, and in consequence of geographical and political contacts.

(See 1.74. It is interesting to speculate why Davies [1925] leaves out the clause which I have chosen to emphasize here.) Concerning the subdialects of the Sudan (SCA), Hillelson states his position (p. xv): The subdialects of the Sudan group are not easy to classify. Though the speech of any circumscribed area bears a definite character and has its distinct peculiarities of pronunciation, vocabulary, and idiom, the geographical limits of such features are difficult to trace, and the lines of demarcation do not coincide with

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

43

respect to the different peculiarities, by which a dialect is characterized. The difficulty of tracing dialect frontiers is further enhanced by the many migrations and tribal fusions, which have occurred within the area covered by the group, and by the fact that no detailed studies of any of the local dialects are as yet available. Nevertheless, and with due regard to these qualifications, it is possible to distinguish the following subdialects: the speech of the Northern Sudan, including Berber Province and the Arabic-speaking parts of Dongola; the speech of the Central Sudan, including Omdurman, 36 the Gezira, and the country to the east of the Blue Nile ; the idiom of the Western Sudan, embracing the White Nile, Kordofan, and Darfur; and the dialect of the Baggära tribes. It should further be noted that the speech of nomad Arabs everywhere differs from that of the settled population, and that the educated classes in all parts of the country tend to use an idiom devoid of any distinctively local features. Concerning how the differences of local usage may hamper intelligibility of SCA dialects, Hillelson related the following, terribly interesting in terms of Nader (1962) (xvi, fn. 1): A Rubatäbi was married to a woman of the Halawin who had a daughter of a previous marriage. One day, when going to the market, he noticed that he had forgotten his knife, so he called out to his step-daughter: Yâ Fatni gib el khüsa fil kamböt fil margôn. The girl replied: Father, why do you speak to me in a foreign language? In the speech of the Gezira he should have said: gib es sikkïn fil kabdúlü fil gati, and to the Halawïn girl his northern terms for "knife", "bottle-shaped basket", and "store-room" sounded as a foreign language. Elaborating on the Arabic koine (see 1.74.) he maintains (p. xvi, fn. 2): The term "common language" may be used both in a wider and in a narrower sense: in the first it refers to the Arabic language in general as contrasted with any dialectical group; in the narrower sense we speak of a common language of the Sudan as contrasted with any of the sub-dialects. A few examples from the vocabulary itself illustrate the koine and so-called SCA (dialect). koine ràgil walad ard gutta khànzïr battäl

dialect zòl darjon watä, wätä nyäwa kadrük tdïs

'man' 'child' 'earth' 'cat' 37 pig 'bad' More about Hillelson's linguistic philosophy becomes apparent when he talks about the "unsophisticated native" (p. xviii) or when he states (p. xviii):

44

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

The common language is restricted to a narrower sphere; and lacks both the homely strength of the dialect and the polish of the literary idiom; it is therefore by a right instinct regarded as unfit for literary use; yet there is no doubt that creative genius could mold it into a fine literary language by supplying its deficiencies on the one hand from the dialect, and on the other from the inexhaustible store of Classical Arabic. Usage of words like "corruption" in the following context also helps illustrate the point (pp. xxi-xxii): [Sudan Arabic], although surrounded on all sides by African languages, (it) has remained remarkably free from corruption, and this in spite of the fact that but few of those who speak it can claim unmixed Arab descent. H e concludes his ideas about the history and position of SCA by saying the following (p. xxii): This does not mean that it [SCA] resembles the language of the Koran more closely than do other dialects, nor is the fact of special importance that "the number of classical words in daily use, which in Egypt or Syria would only be known to men of considerable learning and education, are very large" [introduction to Amery ( 1905)]. It is more significant that it has consistently preserved the phonetic and grammatical features of Arabic against the influence of foreign languages and of phonetic decay, and that its development has not departed from the recognized patterns of Semitic speech. Hillelson then mentions phonetic p h e n o m e n a which are of special interest in the study of SCA. S o m e of these include: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)

? > ' in a few words g > dy g > d / * [+sibilant]* 3 8 g > y3' [ + pharyngeal] >[ + laryngeal] (sedentary Kordofanian tribes only) b, d, g > ρ, t, k in certain positions m > b / * [ + nasal]* [+liquid ] , . M A > L[ + geminated]J / V_V [+consonantal] (9) heavy 'imäla among nomadic SCA speakers, i.e., [ + vocalic] r+ jn telati, khamsi, sittï [ + low J — 'three, five, six, respectively' (cf. Cairene taläta, xamsa, sitta). Hillelson then offers the reader four pages of morphological and syntactic notes concluding the introduction. H e first lists personal pronoun forms (p. xxiv):

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

ana, ani inta, itta, itt [Trimingham (1946: 27): inti] intï, itti hü, hûwa [Trimingham (1946: 9): hu] hi, hïya [Trimingham (1946: 9): hi, hiya] nihna, anihna, ihna, nina intü, ittü [Trimingham (1946: 7): intu] [Worsley (1925: 53) also lists intun] intan, ittan hum, hun hin

45

1st common sg. 2nd mase. sg. 2nd fem. sg. 3rd mase. sg. 3rd fem. sg. 1st common pl. 2nd mase. pl. 2nd fem. pl. 3rd mase. pl. 3rd fem. pl.40

Dialectical forms and usage of pronominal suffixes (especially Baggara) are mentioned under II, and notes on the verb follow, some of the highlights being: (1) transposition of the vowel in the imperfect, e.g., yekútlo 'he kills him' (2) 1st sg. imperfect marker is n- (generally a Maghribine feature), in the SCA dialects of Gawamaa and Bidèrïya, e.g., namsi Ί go' (3) -äk (sg.) and -äkum, äkun, marking a new jussive41 or invitational command, e.g., gümäk 'let us arise' (4) -t (marking 1st sg. perfect) > φ, e.g., ana gum Ί rose' (5) 1 marking Forms V and VI (rather than t-), e.g., alkallam 'he spoke' (cf. classical Arabic takallam [pause form]) (6) hollow verbs sometimes merge in their imperfect into other morphological categories, e.g., yenúm 'he sleeps' and yebit (cf. classical Arabic yanàm and yabät [pause forms], respectively). Particularly nominal developments in SCA include the following: (1) -an (accusative sg.) is preserved for other than adverbial usages, e.g., gamalan 'a camel' (2) diminutives (?ism al-tasyir) no longer having diminutive meanings, e.g., wilëd 'boy', binaiya 'girl' (3) new broken plural pattern CaCCül, e.g., bannüt 'girls', kaddus 'cats', or CaCCäC, e.g., hammär 'donkeys' (4) profession morpheme (CaCCäC), on the analogy of the Turkish suffix -ji, which also denotes professions as a class, becomes CaCCâCî, e.g., harräbi 'spearman'. For particular comments pertaining to the vocabulary section itself, see 1.35. As regards the appendices, Hillelson follows the tradition of his predecessors, viz. cardinal and ordinal numerals, Islamic months, and weights and measures, although the appendices are certainly not elaborate. 42 1.82. Hillelson (1935)

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SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC THE STATE OF THE ART

The fourteen-page introduction includes new thoughts on SCA, as well as some old ones. The volume makes use, however, of Worsley (1925). The introduction begins (p. xi): No Arabic-speaking country has hitherto evolved a modern written language which stands to the spoken dialects in the relation which literary Italian occupies towards the dialects of Italy. In speaking of Egyptian, Syrian, or Sudanese Arabic 43 we make use of convenient abstractions to denote dialectgroups each of which possesses a recognisable individuality which clearly marks it off from other groups; but within each group there exists numerous varieties of local speech differing from each other very materially in pronunciation, vocabulary and idiom. Where political or social conditions have favoured the growth of mutual intercourse and the developments of cultural centres there is a tendency for "common languages" to arise, of which is characteristic that they select those elements from the common stock of words and idioms which are most widely understood, and that they avoid features felt to be merely local or characteristic of a small g r o u p . . . . In the Sudan the "common language" 44 is less easy to define, and it is even doubtful whether it can be said to exist in a tangible form. The dialect-mixtures of the large centres of population, and the jargon of the government office and the workshop, can indeed be distinguished from rustic dialect without any difficulty, but they have no precise linguistic character and are lacking in standards of tradition and fixed u s a g e . . . . It would be an error, moreover, to suppose that the dialects are mere patois adapted only to the practical needs of the household, the market-place, and the nomad camp; the Arab of to-day has inherited from his ancestors a delight in fasäha, i.e. the ability to use the resources of his language skilfully and with a view to rhetorical effect, and this tendency finds expression in such devices as paranomasia, metaphor and allusive description, and in the use of a large vocabulary of synonyms. This pleasure in linguistic effects is given full play in ordinary conversation, 45 but it is naturally most conspicuously displayed in what may be described as the oral literature of an unlettered people, i.e. their rich store of proverbs, songs, folklore stories and historical traditions. 46

New phonological peculiarities of SCA not mentioned in Hillelson (1925) include: (1) Koran readers regard SCA dy as the correct pronunciation of the Jim [Hillelson quoting Brockelmann quoting Völlers (Brockelmann 1908:122)] (2) merger of S and d into d 47 (3) -Ct# >-Cta#, e.g. ri'kibta (rikibt) Ί rode' (4) -C*f >-C#C, e.g., ?al-?amïr 'the prince' >?al-lamir 48 (5) VCCV > VCVCV, e.g., yahfir >yahafir (where one of the consonants must be h, h, or x) 'he digs' (6) irregular gemination of consonants, e.g., katábbo 'he wrote it', qalámmak 'your pen', iqqül (yaqül) 'he says', innüm (yanüm) 'he sleeps' (7) assimilations of the following types:

SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC THE STATE OF THE ART

nklnnlntldbddttdts-

47

—>kk, e.g., akkän 'if' ->nn, e.g., ahánna 'our people' ->11, e.g., ayallo 'he looked at him' -Mt, e.g., bitt 'girl' ->dd, e.g., gidd 'leather' ->bb, e.g., abb 'slave' -Mt, e.g., raqatta Ί danced' ->dd, e.g., biddüm 'it lasts' ->ss, e.g., iSSärakö 'they were partners'

Notes on pronouns and verbs not found in Hillelson (1925) include: (1) -o# is often sounded, e.g., daraböho 'they struck him' (2) -o# > -a# in the Baggara dialect, e.g., baäifa Ί see him' (3) negation forms for the independent personal pronouns include: mäni 1 st common sg. mâk [mäki 2nd fem. sg. — 2nd common sg. Trimingham (1946: 35)] mähu (mü) 3rd mase. sg. mähi (mi) (mäha) 3rd fem. sg. mänä 1st common pl. mâkun [mäkum, mäkan 2nd masc. 2nd common pl. and fem. pl., respectively — Trimingham (1946: 35)] mähun [mähum, mähin '3rd masc. 3rd common pl. and fem. pl., respectively' — Trimingham (1946: 35)] (4) interrogative pronouns minu, munu, fem., mini; pl. minun and minin (fem.) 'who' (5) yätu (yät) 'which', e.g., fi yätu bet 'in which house?' 49 (6) relative pronoun is al (common dialectical illi)50 (7) perfect paradigm: (maraq 'to go out' and misik 'to grasp') Sg1 maraqta, misikta 2 maraqta, misikta fem. maraqti, misikti [-ti in Trimingham (1946: 63)] 3 maraq, misik fem. maraqat, miskat PI. 1 maraqnä, misiknä [-na in Trimingham (1946: 63)] 2 maraqtü, misiktú fem. maraqtan, misiktan 3 maraqö, mis(j)kö [-u in fem. maraqan, miskan Trimingham (1946: 63)] (8) imperfect paradigm: Sg. 1 'amruq fem. tamruqi (tamurqi) [-i in 2 tamruq Trimingham (1946: 73)]

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SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC THE STATE OF THE ART

3 yamruq

PI.

fem. tamruq

1 namruq 2 tamruqú (tamurqü) [-u in fem. tamruqan (tamurqan) Trimingham (1946: 73)] 3 yamruqö (yamurqö) [-u in fem. yamruqan (yamurqan)51 Trimingham (1946: 73)] (9) use of preformative a- in the imperative, e.g., ?amsi 'come' (10) retention of internal passive (classical Arabic CuCiCa, qutila 'he was killed') with vocalic assimilation, e.g., kitil 'he was killed', qibid 'he was seized', siriq 'it was stolen'52 (11) the use of qa'ad 'to sit' as an auxiliary verb marking a continuous tense, e.g., qa'adö yäklo fil-laham 'they went on eating the meat', kunta qa id barqus Ί went on dancing'

Notes on nouns, prepositions, and particles not found in Hillelson (1925) include the following: (1) kêfin for këf 'how' (in the expression kêfinnak 'how are you?') on the analogy of the adverbial preservation of tanwin (nünation)53 (2) new broken plural formations, such as CuCuCCa, qulumma 'pens', 7usudda 'lions' (quläma and ?usüda also occur) (3) the prepositions bi- and li- 'to and for, respectively' have varying forms and allomorphs bë and le, respectively (4) the particle nän54 is the question particle (prefix) (5) dialectical forms ï and yi 'yes'55

Pages 2-5 are a collection of proverbs utilizing Jackson (1919), Singer (1913), and Shuqayr (1894). Many of the proverbs exist in other Arabicspeaking countries. For example, ?at-tama waddar mägama 'covetousness wastes what it has gathered' is certainly the same as ?ittama y Pilli mä gama 'greed lessens what it has gathered' in Cairene (p. 2).56 Pages 6-9 are a collection of riddles, also discussed in Al-Amin (1923) (see also Hillelson 1921). Riddles are called higä (sg. ha(u)gwa). The questioner must always begin hagétak ma baggëtak, which Al-Amin (1923) says is from classical Arabic bajja 'to overcome', yet Hillelson (p. 6) doubts this etymology: baggëtak is probably no more than a meaningless jingle with which we may compare Egyptian birgälätak, etc. Pages 10-19 are a collection of folk tales and nursery rhymes. The nursery rhymes have already appeared in Hillelson (1918). The folk tales were written down by students at Gordon College at Khartoum years before 1935, and the fact that they were originally written down makes them more literary than is the actuality. Pages 20-27 concern anecdotes whose titles relate the subject matter.

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The texts here are extremely good. Some of the titles are: The two neighbors, the miser, an anecdote of Abu Nawwäs (SCA for Abü Nuwäs), and how Ilyäs Pasha outwitted the Danäqla. There are a few grammatical remarks in footnotes. Pages 28-35 are a story of the historical traditions of the Sukriyya, a nomadic tribe of the eastern Sudan. It is called "The saga of Sha al-Din Wad al-Tiwaym", who was the founder of the house of Abu Sinn from the second half of the sixteenth century (see Hillelson [1920] who also includes the English translation of the text). He states (pp. 28 ff.) that now the text is published in the original from the dictation of Shaykh Muhammad Wad al-Füráwí 57 (see 1.11.). Pages 36-37 are a text in Arabic script, with a SCA transliteration, about the first airplane in Khartoum from the Sudan Times of 15 January 1914.58 The text is not completely in MSA either. Note a form, for instance like transliterated bakän rather than MSA makän 'place', or waktèn 'when', occurring several times. Pages 38-65 are texts called "Sketches of Gezira life". The Gezira is the fertile plain lying between the White Nile and the Blue Nile, of which Wad Medani is the center. Hillelson says that the Gezira dialect of SCA is practically identical with the SCA of Omdurman. He is quite correct about this. Trimingham (1946) also believes this. The topics of the individual texts include: domestic furniture, a wedding party, death and mourning, a quarrel and reconciliation, a misunderstanding about land, domestic life, repairs to a house, and rain cultivation. The next series of texts are entitled "Stories of the Rubätäb" (pp. 66-77). Two of the texts — "The unfaithful brother" and "Domestic strife" — were written by Shaykh Bäbikr Badri, formerly of the Sudan Education Department. The former begins (p. 66): yà m h a m m a d 'ali, an-näs läiminnak fisän issanaf ma'ä axük 5 9 ff rizq ad-dunyä, dahin ana mä rdit lak an-nabisa, däir axabbirak w ansidak tefahhimni l-haqiqa u teddärak nafsak min löm an-näs Translation: Muhammad 'Ali, people are finding fault with you because you caused scandal with your brother about a matter of worldly wealth; I do not like to think that you should be disgraced, so I want to find out from you and ask you to tell m e the true facts, so that you may guard yourself against the fault-finding of the people. 6 0

Pages 78-87 are texts of the Kabâbïsh and Baggära (Baqqära). The doubly underscored clause in the opening line of text 58 (p. 78) illustrates the SCA character (as opposed to most other modern Arabic dialects):

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SUDANESE COLLOQUIAL ARABIC: THE STATE OF THE ART

saläm 'alêkun, intü taiyibîn? këf hâlkun?61 Translation: Peace be upon you, are you well? How are you?

Some of the material in the texts are reminiscent of classical Arabic poetry (see p. 85, fn. 3, for references to Durayd b. al-Simma in a poem quoted by Abu Tammäm [Hamäsa], The classical poem reads: wahal ?anä ?illä min yaziyyata 'in yawat yawaytu wa?in tarsud yaziyyatu ?arsudi Translation (after R. A. Nicholson): I am of Ghaziyya; if she be in error, then I will err. And if Ghaziyya be guided aright, I go right with her.

Hillelson (1949) has additional materials on this subject, as well as some corrections to Hillelson (1935), e.g. lafit 'one who turns away from unpleasant things' (1949: 272). Hillelson (1949) was written after Hillelson retired, thus "Formerly of the Sudan Government" under his name (1949: 271) is justified. 62 The next section of texts is called "Kordofan jottings". Sedentary Kordofanian SCA speakers are noted for one general phonological phenomenon — pharyngeals > laryngeals. Hillelson, who quotes AlAmïn ( 1923), says that this phenomenon is also known in certain dialects of ancient Arabia, and this sound change is also the norm among nonnomadic Chadian Arabic speakers. Kordofanian SCA has kept the emphatic series (Gawämi'a, Bidayriya), e.g. qata? 'to cut' for qata (p. 90), whereas most dialects of Chadian Arabic have lost emphasis, as is the case with Cypriot Maronite Arabic and Maltese.63 The texts themselves (pp. 88-93) deal with such topics as paranomasia, husband and wife, and the Bidayri and his donkey. 64 Pages 94-119 are extracts from a short play by Yüzbäsh! Abd alQädir Mukhtâr, Mämür of Qeteina, called Al-mursid al-südäm, first performed about 1910. Hillelson states (p. 94): It [the play] was privately printed at the Victoria Press in Khartoum, but copies are difficult to obtain. The object of the play was to dispel the native prejudice against government schools (a prejudice which has long since disappeared) and to combat native customs which conflict with enlightened Moslem morality, such as drinking bouts, dancing to the dallùka, duelling with whips, and the ever-present readiness to quarrel and to redress insults with the knife. The industrious schoolboy, wearing clean clothes and exhibiting exemplary manners and a becoming piety, is contrasted with the uncouth herdboy who comes to a bad end, and thefaki or local man of religion is represented as exerting his influence on the side of good learning and enlightenment. The schoolboy and the fakï speak careful literary Arabic, but the speeches

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of the unsophisticated members of the cast are admirable specimens of the dialect of the locality, i.e. the speech of such tribes as the Hasaniya and the Husaynàt. In reprinting extracts of the text emendations have been made in the rare cases in which the author's spelling has unwittingly lapsed into Egyptian or classicising forms, and a few unintelligible and presumably corrupt words have been omitted. The transliteration and translation were prepared with the assistance of a native of Qeteina who as a boy had acted in the play.

The text is printed in Arabic characters, a SCA transliteration, and a translation with a few grammatical comments in the footnotes (some originally by Mukhtär, and some by Hillelson, who also translated some of Mukhtär's comments). Pages 120-122 contain two letters based on Shuqayr (1904). The first is a letter from Khalifa 'Abdullàhi to 'Abd al-Ra^ùf of the Dinka (see 1.10.). The colloquial nature of this letter is further substantiated with such words as