Yesterday I gave an introduction on Nabataean Arabic and Old Hijazi and the Quran Arabic. Now, let's look at some of the linguistic features that both connect and differentiate these ancient dialects form one another!
https://twitter.com/PhDniX/status/1358090614848512003
One striking commonality between Nabataean and Old Hijazi is the definite article, which in both cases was /al-/. Today, this definite article is almost universal. Only in Yemen do we find forms such as /am-/. But in pre-Islamic times a vast majority of different forms existed.
In Safaitic inscriptions, which reflect other pre-islamic dialects of Arabic, we usually find <h->, <ʾ-> but sometimes also <hn-> and only occasionally <ʾl->.
This Nabataean inscription has the definite article: الحجرو <ʾlḥgrw>, that is, al-ḥiǧr (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hegra_(Ma…).
This Nabataean inscription has the definite article: الحجرو <ʾlḥgrw>, that is, al-ḥiǧr (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hegra_(Ma…).
This previous example instantly brings us to another feature that is quite distinct. Nabataean words in the earliest period seem to inflect for case, and this case is written out. The nominative is written with <-w> and the genitive is written with <-y>.
Thus you see الحجرو <ʾlḥgrw> which represents /al-ḥigru/, and تيمالهي <tymʾlhy> which represents /taym ʾaḷḷāhi/.
The Old Hijazi writing tradition does not seem to retain these final short vowels at all, and thus does not write them: الحجر /al-ḥiǧr/, عبد الله /ʿabd aḷḷāh/.
The Old Hijazi writing tradition does not seem to retain these final short vowels at all, and thus does not write them: الحجر /al-ḥiǧr/, عبد الله /ʿabd aḷḷāh/.
In Nabataean inscriptions, the functioning inflection seems to fall apart. In JSNab 17, mentioned above we find في الحجرو /fī ʾal-ḥigru/, where we would have expected a genitive **/fī ʾal-ḥigri/. But the wāw sticks around.
Perhaps some of you have already had a lightbulb moment. This final wāw of course looks a lot like the otiose wāw in the name ʿamr which is spelled عمرو <ʾmrw> in Islamic era Arabic. This indeed seems to be an orthographic fossil from when Nabataean script was adapted to Hijazi!
That's the thread for now. Next thread will look at the demonstrative pronouns in Nabataean Arabic and Old Hijazi!
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Or becoming a patron on patreon: patreon.com/PhDniX
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