A descriptive grammar of saidi Egyptian colloquial Arabic

124 Pages·1969·6.658 MB·English

by  Abdelghany A. Khalafallah

A DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR OF SA£I:DI
EGYPTIAN COLLOQUIAL ARABIC
JANUA LINGUARUM
STUDIA MEMORIAE
NICOLAI VAN WIJK DEDICATA
edenda curai
C. H. VAN SCHOONEVELD
INDIANA UNIVERSITY
SERIES PRACTICA
32
1969
MOUTON
THE HAGUE • PARIS
A DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR
OF SA£I:DI
EGYPTIAN COLLOQUIAL
ARABIC
by
ABDELGHANY A. KHALAFALLAH
1969
MOUTON
THE HAGUE • PARIS
©Copyright 1969 in The Netherlands.
Mouton & Co. N.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.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 68-17886
Printed in The Netherlands by Mouton & Co., Printers, The Hague.
PREFACE
This study presents the first descriptive analysis of the structure of saShdi, the variety
of Egyptian Arabic spoken by the inhabitants of the Nile Valley between Cairo and
Aswan.
Besides the major purpose of describing the phonemics, morphemics and syntax of
saSitdi, it is hoped that this study would contribute to dialect studies of the varieties of
Arabic spoken in Egypt, and to comparative studies of Arabic dialects.
I can hardly find adequate words to express how deep my appreciation is for those
scholars at the University of Texas who, by training me thoroughly in structural
linguistics, have helped in making this, the first descriptive grammar of saSiidi,
possible.
To Professor Walter Lehn of the University of Texas, I owe much of the most
helpful suggestions.
I am profoundly grateful to Professor Archibald A. Hill, to whom I owe not only
excellent counsel and instructive suggestion but also much of training in structural
linguistics.
I am especially indebted to Professor Winfred P. Lehmann, whose encouragement,
patience and wise criticism during my training as a linguist and all through this study,
have helped me fare safely through the hazardous linguistic adventure of describing a
language for the first time.
I am a student of the late Professor E. Bagby Atwood, whose loss was a blow to all
who knew him. I owe much of my early orientation in linguistics to Professor Atwood.
The warmth of his friendship is unquenchable in the stream of days.
To a great scholar from Brown University I owe much of the encouragement and
help needed for the accomplishment of this work.
Cairo, May 1967 A, A. KHALAFALLAH

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface 5
PART I: PHONEMICS
Introduction 11
1. The Phonemes of saSirdi 13
2. Suprasegmentals 15
3. saSi:di Vocalic System 21
4. Consonants 25
5. Emphasis 27
6. Phonotactics 32
7. Morphophonemic Alternation 40
PART II: MORPHEMICS
8. saSi:di Morphemic Segments 49
9. Form Classes in saSirdi 51
10. Pronouns 76
11. Pronominals 77
12. Particles 79
PART III: SYNTAX
13. saSi:di Syntactic Units 87
14. Types of sa"ii:di Phrases 89
8 TABLE OF CONTENTS
15. Types of saSi:di Clauses 91
16. Major Sentence types in saSi:di 92
17. Négation 100
18. Interrogation 103
19. Sample saîi:di Text 105
Appendix to Phonotactics 111
PART 1
PHONEMICS