Thursday, August 24, 2006

qadāš?

Going through my recently acquired copy of a North-African Judeo-Arabic šarħ of the targum to Song of Songs (thanks oldshelf :o), I stumbled across the following:

qāl Šlomo en-nabī: qadāš zēn bēt əl-miqdās matāʕ allāh... (1:17)

Jay C. Treat's brilliant translation and the original Aramaic text (אמר שלמה נבייא כמא יאי בית מקדשא דיי) inform me that the qadāš zēn part means "how beautiful!". Hm. I'd be the first to admit that my knowledge of the maghribī dialects is sketchy at best, but it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect some form of kīf for "how". That is, if I was expecting this word to appear here as it does in English in the role of an exclamatory particle. In CA, one would have to resort to (as in the famous example of laħn al-ʕāma, i.e. Mā aħsanu/aħsana 's-samā').
And so I'm a little puzzled: Handbuch (p. 258) lists qaddāš as "das Vorherrschende Frageadverb für 'wieviel'". Willms' Einführung (p. 51) describes qədd-əš as the North-East Algerian word for "wieviel(e)". Willms also mentions qədd with the meaning of "same size as, same extent as, same kind as" in hist list of prepositions next to kīf and zay. "Same size/extent/kind as" (see Maltese daqs) is certainly a bit closer to "how" than "how much" and the interrogative particle "what" -āš/-əš appears to be a suffix often used to create other interrogative particles (b-āš, kīf-āš, ʕl-āš, w-āš or k-āš). But still - that would make qaddāš an interrogative particle, maybe (and that's a big 'maybe') a relative particle. How does it then wind up being used in an exclamatory sentence? Is it a normal current use, a normal use in the 19th century, both, just another case of a typical šarħ translation or something completely different? Any thoughts?

12 comments:

Lameen Souag الأمين سواق said...

This is perfectly normal current usage: ashHal mliH/wa`er/Twil "how good/difficult/tall!" (ashHal, of course, like qeddash, is "how much?")

Congratulations on starting a blog, by the way - it looks interesting already!

Lameen Souag الأمين سواق said...

Indeed, even in Classical (or at least MSA) you can say stuff like kam hiya jamiilatun for "how beautiful it is", right?

bulbul said...

Thank you very much for clearing up my doubts, Lameen, and also for being the first to comment here :o) I would very much like to write as interestingly as you do, though I fear that this notebook of mine will mostly feature incoherent ramblings...
As for kam hiya jamiilatun, I remember my teacher (who was from Egypt and refused to speak anything but perfect fusHa to us) chastising one of my classmates for using this very phrase. Then again, my memory could be deceiving and I will be more than happy to defer to you on this.

Lameen Souag الأمين سواق said...

It's probably a dialectalism then - but it sure gets a lot of Google hits...

Unknown said...

ugg outlet
ray ban outlet
louis vuitton
ugg canada
oakley sunglasses
louis vuitton uk
coach factory outlet
uggs outlet
rolex watches
canada goose pas cher
201611.17wengdongdong

John said...

fit flops
fitflops
cheap ray ban sunglasses
hollister uk
canada goose sale
cheap jordan shoes
michael kors outlet online
uggs
christian louboutin outlet
oakley sunglasses cheap
20161129yuanyuan

Unknown said...

north face jackets
oakley sunglasses
moncler outlet
tiffany outlet
ray ban sunglasses
michael kors outlet
canada goose outlet
celine outlet
yeezy boost
nike uk store
20170120caihuali

Unknown said...

nike free run
louis vuitton outlet online
louis vuitton uk
coach outlet online
true religion jeans
tiffany outlet
toms shoes
gucci site ufficiale
pandora jewellery
tory burch shoes
20170217lck

Unknown said...

nike store uk
coach outlet online
ralph lauren outlet
nike air huarache
longchamp
coach outlet online
ecco shoes outlet
michael kors handbags
baltimore ravens jerseys
replica watches

Unknown said...

zzzzz2018.5.26
true religion jeans
jets jersey
kate spade handbags
ed hardy uk
ralph lauren uk
true religion jeans
nike factory
polo ralph lauren
supreme outlet
fitflops sale

yanmaneee said...

golden goose
stephen curry shoes
yeezy shoes
adidas ultra boost
converse outlet
balenciaga
longchamp handbags
kyrie 4
nike max shoes
supreme outlet

Unknown said...

vous pouvez regarder ici Dolabuy Louis Vuitton directement depuis la source sacs de répliques en Chine regardez ces gars réplique louis vuitton répliques de sacs