Die nordjemenitischen Dialekte (Glossar)

Rezensionen / Stimmen

"This volume completes a project which began in 1985 with publication of Die nordjemenitischen Dialekte. Teil 1: Atlas. The second part of the project - the glossary - proceeded in somewhat staccato style with the publication in 1992 of the first volume - alif to dal - in 1996 of the second volume - dal to gayn - and now, ten years later, the third and final volume. What has now become available to researchers of Yemeni dialects is the first comprehensive lexical work on Yemeni dialects which is based primarily on fieldwork and on other primary sources - including lexical material collected by Otto Jastrow from Jiblah and by Ianthe Maclagan from Jabal Hufach - as well as on library research, and which provides dialect information. The two volumes by Piamenta (1990-1991)1 and the most inadequate lexicon by Deboo (1989)2 are both based on secondary sources. The monolingual dictionary by al-Iryani (1996)3 does not give indications of the dialect provenance of the entries.
This volume comprises a short preface, the glossary from fa' to ya', additions to secondary sources used in the first two volumes, a page of corrections to the first two volumes, additional entries from alif to gayn (pp. 1338-1425), and a map with the location of all the place numbers - but not the place names to which the place numbers refer (for this, refer to volume I and the atlas). The glossary is organised according to root, with the root provided in the left-hand column, followed by vocalised words (these in italics), and the gloss in the right-hand column. The vocalised words are given, as is standard in dictionaries of Arabic, with the verb first. This is given in the perfect and imperfect separated by a comma (e.g. fatan, yiftin jmdn. verwunden, verletzten ...), followed by any nouns. Nouns are presented first in the singular, with gender indicated (m. or f.) where the gender is not self-explanatory from the morphology (e.g. fatish f. unverschleiert), and f. is inserted before the feminine form where two genders are given (e.g. fasil, f. faslah faul). The singular is followed by any plural forms (e.g. fitneh, pl. fitan Streit). The gloss is given in German - rarely in English (e.g. kmd kammad, yikummid to treat with heated wad of cloth, pressing e.g. against anus or testicles)4 - followed by a number indicating the dialect area (e.g. 58 for San'a, unless the entry is considered general Yemeni - in which case it is marked as gemeinjem.), and an abbreviation in small capitals to any secondary source. This is succeeded, where relevant, by etymological and/or derivational notes plus any linguistic or bibliographical observations, for example: faturah, pl. fawatir Rechnung gemeinjem. - ital. fattura über das Äg.Ar.; vgl. Zayd 318, der solche Importe beklagt. Etymological and other observations are presented in a smaller font size. Occasionally reference is made to the use of a similar term in another area of the Arab world (e.g. karrut Eselsfohlen 36 - vgl. syr. ar. karr, kirr idem). For several entries, dialect variants are given after the main entry - this is particularly the case with function words, including negative particles (see m(')), interrogatives and relatives (see m, mn), verb modifiers (e.g. in this volume fa, and ha - ha), demonstratives, and also basic verbs (e.g. see the roots fth ,'öffnen', lqy ,'finden, treffen'). Where the gloss is the same in each such case, the gloss of a particular entry is ./. (for idem) plus the reference number to the dialect. Where terms are restricted to a particular register, this is indicated after the place reference, as in the case of: 'fu'ad Herz 58 - eher poetisch'.
Phonological features are added where salient - stress is marked by an acute accent where word stress for a particular dialect does not follow the typical trochaic pattern, thus the imperfect of wazan 'wiegen' is given for area 42 as yizin, with stress marked on the final syllable; similarly, where dialects regularly differ as to the position of stress for a particular form, stress marks are provided for all entries (e.g. the entries under lm 'warum' are given with the stress mark on the initial or final syllable). Entries are generally provided in their pre-pausal form - unless otherwise noted. This gives rise to forms with final nasalisation, as in: weyn batwalliij 'wohin gehst du? ... 135', and forms with final -u from the Tihamah, as in: fargadu 'Ziegenbock 77'.
What struck me in reading this glossary is the degree to which the researcher is bound by his/her experience. In comparison with a running list of San'ani terms I have been collecting in the field over the pass fifteen years, this glossary lacks many terms associated with women and children - terms used in children's games, such as guwaygif,' and many verbs on the tfay`al pattern used frequently in women's speech, far more rarely in the speech of men - common terms such as tkaysal 'faul sein' and tkaybar 'sich wichtig tun' are given, but lacking here (as in other lexical works) are those with the general sense of 'naughtiness', and other terms used almost exclusively when talking to and about children, including twayrash 'to act mischievously (after being sweet)', twaygad 'to act the scoundrel', tlaywag 'to speak with a defect', tkay'ad 'to be mean' (a denominal metaphorical extension of ku'dah 'clay water jag with a narrow spout' - the meanness comes from the narrowness of the spout - Tim Mackintosh-Smith p.c.).
This is a wonderful resource - for contemporary dialect studies it should be used alongside Piamenta and al-Iryani - and, of course, it is a relief to be able to use the complete glossary, without desperately hoping that the words one requires do not begin with any letter after gayn! The disadvantages of the work under review include its cumbersome size, made all the more unwieldy by the fact that it must be read together with the other two volumes of the glossary and, preferably though not essentially, with the atlas. Volume 1 of the glossary gives a list of general abbreviations, the main literature sources together with abbreviations of the sources used in the glossary entries, and the list of place names plus numbers from which lexical material is taken. The atlas gives important phonological and morphological Information. Weight and size considerations would certainly prevent me from taking the volumes into the field. One solution to the problem of size and weight, of course, would be to make the glossary avaiable as an electronic resource - in which case, I would most certainly take it!
Behnstedt explains in the preface some of the reasons - mainly computer-related - for the belated appearance of the volume under review. What he fails to mention, of course, is the impressive list of works - most particularly the monumental work on Syrian dialects,6 but also on Arabic dialectology in general7 and on Yemeni8 and Moroccan dialects9 - that appeared between the publication of the second volume of the glossary and the one under review. In the academic world today there are a very few researchers whose energy and productivity belie the fact that they are single individuals. Peter Behnstedt is one such and one without whom the world of Arabic dialectology would be immeasurably poorer."

1 Piamenta, M. 1990-1991. Dictionary of post-classical Yemeni Arabic. Leiden: Brill.
2 Deboo, J. 1989. Jemenitisches Wörterbuch. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
3 Al-Iryani, M. A. 1996. Al-rau jam al-yamani ß 1-lugab wa-lturät. Damascus: Al-Matba`ah al-'Ilrniyah.
4 The origin of the English gloss is not always clear.
5 Cf. Al-Amri, H. 1983. Children's games in San'a. In R. B. Serjeant & R. Lewcock (eds.), SanV.- An Arabian Islamic City. London: World of Islam Trust.
6 Behnstedt, P. 1997-2000. Sprachatlas von Syrien. 2 vols. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
7 Behnstedt, P. & M. Woidich 2005. Arabische Dialektgeographie. Leiden: Brill.
8 E.g. Behnstedt, P. 2007. Zum bestimmten Artikel und zur Ortsnamenkunde im Jemen. ZAL 47: 50-59.
9 E.g. Behnstedt, P. 2005. Materialen für einen Dialektatlas von Nordost-Marokko. EDVA 9: 7-72.

In: Orientalistische Literaturzeitung. 103 (2008). 2. S. 224-228.