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----- Original Message ----- From: Isaac Penzev To: Benct Philip Jonsson Sent: Monday, November 29, 2004 11:24 PM Subject: Re: Ajami > Benct Philip Jonsson wrote: > > > Isaac Penzev wrote: > > > Anyway, I send you a couple of my working notes in form of a web pages. > They > > > are surely far from completion, but just to feel the Sprachgeist... > > > > It's great. I was a bit confused by _bo_ and _bas_ first, but you > > should definitely keep it that way! > > It is explained easily. Phonemes /b/ and /v/ merged completely, and are > written with letter ب "ba". Read it as [b] in anlaut and after m, n, > otherwise [B], both in native Romance words and in Arabic borrowings. So > _bo_ and _bas_ come from Middle Spanish _vo_ (now _voy_) and _vas_. > > > Why do Arabic words ending in -s (and -n -l -r I assume) > > receive a pleonastic -o? One would expect them not to. > > Most Arabic nouns (including adjectives) ending in a consonant (except of > gutturals) receive ending -o. It comes from z'amma tanwino ending [un], and > is supported by Romance masc. ending. Analogy levelling, I would call it. > > > The pages look great, only I would add transcriptions of > > the Ajami/Arabic terms. > > OK. That makes sense. > > > As for the spelling of كيَرِه kiere, I'd expect |kyiri| > > rather than |kyari|, > > No. Stressed kasra is read [i], while [e] is only the unstressed one. > Stressed [e] is usu. denoted with letter ي "ya" (undotted finally). "Ya > maftuho" يَ is seen as a separate vowel, that is why there is no sokuno over > the letter "kaf". > > > although that's probably a product > > of me being used to Italian where _chiare_ is an actual > > word, and were _ia_ and _ie_ diphthongs are distinct, > > or would _ia_ be spelled ya+alif? > > Bingo! _ia_ is "ya maftuh'o +álef", _ua_ is "wa maftuh'o + álef", while "wa > maftuh'o" denotes [ue]. > Anyway, vocalization is written only for study purposes. Normally Ajami is > written without all those fath'as and kasras and sokunos asf. > > > >>>As for telling more, just ask questions. > > > > What do the perfect forms look like? > > It's |eskribiw| that gets me wondering. > > Is it _escribío_ in Spanish? > > Perfect - maz'iyo - مَاضِي needs further investigation. In Spanish 3.sn is > _escribió_. In Portuguese it is _escreveu_ [ISkrI"v&w] (the verb is -er verb > there). -ir verbs do it like this: _partiu_ [p6r"tiw]. This may be the > pattern for my Ajami perfect (hmm, rather aorist...) I'll need to design a > page for regular verbs ;) > > > > LOL. This attempt to (re)create and to describe Ajami is version No.5! > And > > > I'm still unsatisfied. > > > > It looks good. > > I'm pleased. > > With all tabrikos, > -- Yitzik >