Marijn van Putten
@phdnix.bsky.social
1.8K followers 150 following 660 posts
Historical Linguist; Working on Quranic Arabic and the linguistic history of Arabic and Tamazight. Game designer for Team18k
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phdnix.bsky.social
@shjsat.bsky.social you'll find matē interesting, probably :-)
phdnix.bsky.social
(Neither does ʾadab al-kātib literature, apparently. Who's ready for the next goalpost to shift?!)
phdnix.bsky.social
(Yes an anonymous reviewer did tell me that I should not look at what Grammarians say is Classical Arabic, but that instead I should consult ʾadab al-kātib works to learn what the *actual* Classical norms were, because apparently the Grammarians don't describe those.)
phdnix.bsky.social
Of course early grammarians *did* say that there was a distinction in pronunciation.
And in Quranic tajwid there *is* a distinction between the two sounds,
and in traditional pronunciation of Classical Arabic, at least in 9th century Kufa, they were *not* identical.
phdnix.bsky.social
Thus Simon Hopkins in 2020 said: "In Classical Arabic (CA), the final vowel -ā is sometimes written with alif and sometimes written with yāˀ. According to early grammarians, Quranic tajwīd and the traditional pronunciation of CA, the two spellings are in sound identical;"
phdnix.bsky.social
But despite these clear normative statements in favour of ʾimālah from the 9th century, scholars continue to insist that *real* Classical Arabic did not have this distinction. This axiom is so fundamental that no statement to the contrary that can dissuade people of this view.
phdnix.bsky.social
This should not be surprising. Ibn Qutaybah comes fairly soon after the major Kufan Quranic reciters such as Ḥamzah (d. 156/773), al-Kisāʾī (d. 189/804) and Ḫalaf (229/844) and is contemporary with a major transmitter of these, ʾIdrīs (d. 292/905) who all recited these words so
phdnix.bsky.social
Contrary to the now standard Arabic pronunciation apparently in the mid third century AH in Kufa, pronunciations with ʾimālah of ʾalifāt maqṣūrah spelled with yāʾ was still widely considered 'good' and 'eloquent'.
phdnix.bsky.social
A really interesting observation of Ibn Qutaybah (d. 276/889) in his ʾadab al-kātib. Commenting on why balā, matā and ʾannā are spelled with yāʾ he said: "because the ʾimālah (i.e. balē, matē, ʾannē) for these is better and more eloquent than tafḫīm (balā, matā, ʾannā)"
Reposted by Marijn van Putten
yvanspijk.bsky.social
Tot grote frustratie van Onze Taal en mij heeft de drukker 'Woord voor woord' nog steeds niet geleverd.

Vandaag is het niet de feestelijke dag waar ik op hoopte. In het thema van 'niet' deel ik daarom een nieuwe preview. Waar komt het woord 'niet' vandaan? En wat is de grote ontkenningscyclus?

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Reposted by Marijn van Putten
tonogenesis.bsky.social
Certain epichoric Greek alphabets wrote ξ (x) as 𐌇𐌔 (hs). Pinyin vs. Wades-Giles has been going on far longer than anyone could’ve imagined.
phdnix.bsky.social
(I see others have said that already, oh well. Nice to add the qitâl example as a parallel)
phdnix.bsky.social
1) fi3âl is (besides mufâ3alah) also an infinitive pattern for stem III (e.g. qitâl "fight" from qâtala "to fight < to try to kill"), and I would be inclined to say that jihâd is indeed an example of that!
phdnix.bsky.social
Not as bad as a move of one's physical house, which I'm *also* in the process of doing. 🥲
phdnix.bsky.social
Depends on whether you're doing Melodic metal or Doom metal :-)
phdnix.bsky.social
And yes Transguttural Harmony is a fantastic bandname.
phdnix.bsky.social
It always bothered me that šuʿbah read yihiddī (< transguttural harmony *yahiddī < metathesis assimilation *yahtadī) but not the parallel yiḫiṣṣimūna (where yaḫiṣṣimūna is reported instead)...

But turns out there's a marginal path that reports it, even in Ibn al-Jazari!
Reposted by Marijn van Putten
dannybate.bsky.social
I just met my own book. We're getting on very well.
phdnix.bsky.social
The Qira'ah Shadhdhah of Flügel `an Hafs `an `Asim strikes once again. (Q17:64, Hafs has rajilika, all other readers have rajlika)