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on #EgyptianArabic sound laws is about the 
epenthetic vowel /i/ that pops up between consonants under very specific conditions.
if you don't know what i'm talking about, keep reading & it may sound familiar.
on #EgyptianArabic sound laws is about the epenthetic vowel /i/ that pops up between consonants under very specific conditions.if you don't know what i'm talking about, keep reading & it may sound familiar.
when a word ending w 2 consonants (-CC) is followed directly by another word starting with a consonant (C-), this creates a cluster of 3 consecutive consonants, which is 
ABSOLUTELY FORBIDDEN for most speakers of this dialect.
e.g.
شفت كلب
šuft kalb "I saw a dog"
/-ftk-/
ABSOLUTELY FORBIDDEN for most speakers of this dialect.e.g.
شفت كلب
šuft kalb "I saw a dog"
/-ftk-/
speakers resolve this illegal cluster by inserting a short /i/ between the two words:
شفتِ كلب
šuft-i kalb
some grammars transcribe it with the schwa "ə", even though generally it is pronounced like a normal short /i/ ~ [ɪ].
شفتِ كلب
šuft-i kalbsome grammars transcribe it with the schwa "ə", even though generally it is pronounced like a normal short /i/ ~ [ɪ].
the linguistic term to describe a sound that pops up for phonetic reasons is "epenthesis".
English has sporadic examples of epenthesis, like when people pronounce "athlete" as ATH-uh-lete.
in Dutch & Turkish, the word "film" sometimes gets an extra vowel between L & M: fi-lim.
English has sporadic examples of epenthesis, like when people pronounce "athlete" as ATH-uh-lete.
in Dutch & Turkish, the word "film" sometimes gets an extra vowel between L & M: fi-lim.
the rule in Egyptian is so consistent that it applies even when all 3 would-be-consecutive consonants are identical!
خشّ شمال
xušš šimāl "turn left!"
has an illegal cluster/ššš/ that must be resolved with epenthesis:
xušš-i š(i)māl
خشّ شمال
xušš šimāl "turn left!"
has an illegal cluster
/ššš/ that must be resolved with epenthesis: xušš-i š(i)māl
one environment in Egyptian where the epenthetic "i" arises is
between words, like in the example above.
there are 2 more:
before affixes & clitics
in loanwords that have 3 consecutive consonants.
between words, like in the example above.there are 2 more:
before affixes & clitics in loanwords that have 3 consecutive consonants.
examples of :
when you add the indirect object لُه -lu "to him" to a verb that already ends in -CC, you need an epenthetic "i" here to break up the resulting cluster:
gibt-lu
gibt-i-lu
"I brought him (something)"
(the new /i/ actually has the word-stress!)
:when you add the indirect object لُه -lu "to him" to a verb that already ends in -CC, you need an epenthetic "i" here to break up the resulting cluster:
gibt-lugibt-i-lu"I brought him (something)"
(the new /i/ actually has the word-stress!)
( cont.)
when we negate the word حدّ ḥadd "someone" with the famous Egyptiannegative circumfix ma-X-š, we end up with a CCC cluster:
محدّش
ma-ḥadd-š
ma-ḥadd-i-š "nobody"
all because حدّ ḥadd ends with a geminated (doubled) "d" sound.
cont.)when we negate the word حدّ ḥadd "someone" with the famous Egyptian
negative circumfix ma-X-š, we end up with a CCC cluster:محدّش
ma-ḥadd-šma-ḥadd-i-š "nobody"all because حدّ ḥadd ends with a geminated (doubled) "d" sound.
the only place where the epenthetic vowel usually takes a form other than /i/ is in certain direct & indirect object suffixes, where it harmonizes with a following vowel:
شفتُهم
šuft-u-hum "I saw them"
(not šuft-i-hum)
جبتَها
gibt-a-ha "I brought it/her"
(not gibt-i-ha)
شفتُهم
šuft-u-hum "I saw them"
(not šuft-i-hum)
جبتَها
gibt-a-ha "I brought it/her"
(not gibt-i-ha)
& : non-native words containing 3 consonants in a row are also broken up by epenthesis, e.g. the pronunciation of "Sphinx" by many Arabic monolinguals as سفينجس /si'fingis/, since /nks/ is not a permitted cluster.
: non-native words containing 3 consonants in a row are also broken up by epenthesis, e.g. the pronunciation of "Sphinx" by many Arabic monolinguals as سفينجس /si'fingis/, since /nks/ is not a permitted cluster.
epenthesis is so hard-wired into the phonetics of this dialect that poets who write in colloquial Egyptian can use it in order to fit a meter.
let's examine one line from the famous Umm Kalthūm song انت عمري "Enta 3omri", whose lyrics are by the poet Aḥmad Šafīq Kāmel ...
let's examine one line from the famous Umm Kalthūm song انت عمري "Enta 3omri", whose lyrics are by the poet Aḥmad Šafīq Kāmel ...
.. & conform to the pattern
- u - - | - u - - | - u - -
where "-" is a long syllable and "u" is a short syllable.
قدّ ايه من عمري قبلك راح و عدى
'add 'ē min ʕumr-i 'abl-ak rāḥ wi-ʕadda
"how much of my lifetime went & passed away before you?" (= before you came into my life)
- u - - | - u - - | - u - -
where "-" is a long syllable and "u" is a short syllable.
قدّ ايه من عمري قبلك راح و عدى
'add 'ē min ʕumr-i 'abl-ak rāḥ wi-ʕadda
"how much of my lifetime went & passed away before you?" (= before you came into my life)
you'll notice that
قدّ ايه ʔadd ʔē "how much?"
has a geminate "d" sound followed the directly by a glottal stop:/ddʔ/
this must be resolved with our friend epenthetic "i":
ʔadd-i ʔē
wh creates a new short syllable, & gives us a meter beginning with
ad | di | ʔē
- u -
قدّ ايه ʔadd ʔē "how much?"
has a geminate "d" sound followed the directly by a glottal stop:
/ddʔ/this must be resolved with our friend epenthetic "i":
ʔadd-i ʔēwh creates a new short syllable, & gives us a meter beginning with
ad | di | ʔē
- u -
congratulations!you made it to the end of the thread.
but i am going to continue tweeting down here because inhave some more thoughts.
readers may notice that i referred to Egyptian epenthesis (& the avoidance of CCC clusters) as a "sound law" & not a sound CHANGE, which is how i referred to other phenomena like aw/ay becoming ō/ē, & the loss of short /i/ in certain environments.
...
sound CHANGE, which is how i referred to other phenomena like aw/ay becoming ō/ē, & the loss of short /i/ in certain environments....
this is because epenthetic /i/ usually marks where some vowel 𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 in the earlier language but has since been lost.
avoidance of CCC clusters is actually nothing new; it's just that many short vowels that historically kept consonants apart have since been lost.
avoidance of CCC clusters is actually nothing new; it's just that many short vowels that historically kept consonants apart have since been lost.
students of Classical Arabic know that nouns formerly inflected for cas.
a noun such as كلب kalb "dog" would never occur as such in practice. it would always have a suffix to mark how it functions in the sentence:
kalb-u(n) nominative,
-a(n) accusative,
-i(n) genitive.
a noun such as كلب kalb "dog" would never occur as such in practice. it would always have a suffix to mark how it functions in the sentence:
kalb-u(n) nominative,
-a(n) accusative,
-i(n) genitive.
so the problem of having the root كلب kalb followed immediately by a consonant, as in
kalb kibīr "big dog"
/lbk/
simply did not exist!
كلبٌ كبيرٌ
kalbun kabīrun
kalb kibīr "big dog"
/lbk/simply did not exist!
كلبٌ كبيرٌ
kalbun kabīrun
similarly for verbs, which - due to suffixes that used to mark the subject or grammatical mood, which have since been lost - generally ended in a vowel, or at most a single consonant.
شفتُها
šuft-u-hā
saw-1sg-3fsg
"I saw her."
...
شفتُها
šuft-u-hā
saw-1sg-3fsg
"I saw her."
...
the "helping vowel" -a- in Eg. Ar.
شفتَها
šuft-a-ha
"I saw her"
or -i- in
بتحبِّني
bitḥibb-i-ni
"you love me"
has no grammatical meaning whatsoever.
BUT to call it a new development is misleading. there was always a vowel there!
but now it's only there for phonetic reasons.
شفتَها
šuft-a-ha
"I saw her"
or -i- in
بتحبِّني
bitḥibb-i-ni
"you love me"
has no grammatical meaning whatsoever.
BUT to call it a new development is misleading. there was always a vowel there!
but now it's only there for phonetic reasons.
speaking of شفت šuft "I saw"/"you (m) saw", there's this English word _shufty_ (shufti, shoofty, etc.) that means "a look/glance/peak at something."
i think it's a UK thing. anybody here use it?
according to Wiktionary, it's from the Arabic verb, loaned into UK military slang.
i think it's a UK thing. anybody here use it?
according to Wiktionary, it's from the Arabic verb, loaned into UK military slang.
i've only ever heard it once in the wild ... it came up in an episode of "Midsomer Murders" when they're talking about having a shufty at a boat. & i was like, what the hell did he just say? it's a cool word.
it's interesting to me because with the final /-i/ it bears more of a resemblance to fem. شفتي šufti than masc. šuft, doesn't it? but i don't see why the 2sg feminine form would have gotten loaned in a 1940s military context.
...
...
so i'm wondering if it's possible that _shufty_ was borrowed from شفت šuft 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ the epenthetic /i/, as in
شفت ايه؟
šuft-i ʔē?
"what did you (m) see?"
i suppose it could also simply be "shuft" borrowed, with the -y being some English derivational suffix (as in hanky, doggy)
شفت ايه؟
šuft-i ʔē?
"what did you (m) see?"
i suppose it could also simply be "shuft" borrowed, with the -y being some English derivational suffix (as in hanky, doggy)
for comparison, here's the main character of the movie Al-Kit Kat saying (at 5:07)
تفتكروا شفت ايه؟
tiftikru šuft-𝙞 ʔē?
"what do you (pl) think i saw?"
but i think @yakabikaj & @wobblybee are right & that i'm overthinking the -y in the "shufty" loan.
تفتكروا شفت ايه؟
tiftikru šuft-𝙞 ʔē?
"what do you (pl) think i saw?"
but i think @yakabikaj & @wobblybee are right & that i'm overthinking the -y in the "shufty" loan.
