Tuesday, February 14, 2012

liradi

A while back over at Lameen's place, we discussed the mystery morpheme -ij-/-iyy- that is used in Maltese and Siwi Berber with the plural suffix -at/-iet. Lameen argued that in both cases, it seems to be employed chiefly with nouns whose form is atypical for the given language. For Maltese, this would definitely make sense, since many of Maltese nouns with plural ending in -ijiet are borrowings. In fact, of the 20 most frequent nouns of this type in the MLRS Corpus, only three are of Arabic/Semitic origin: xogħlijiet = "works", mistoqsijiet = "questions" and aħbarijiet = "news". Sounds straightforward enough, especially in the context of Maltese where there is a separate conjugation paradigm for borrowed verbs, thus the existence of a noun suffix used predominantly with borrowed nouns with their strange and unusual syllable structures and vowel patterns is not that surprising.
This, however, cannot be the full story. For one, the question of 'what is a typical noun form' is one that is not that easy to answer. Secondly, Maltese is notorious - well, at least among us melitists - for applying some creative broken plurals to borrowed nouns. Thus we get forma / forom, storja / stejjer, spiża / spejjeż ("cost"), rotta / rotot ("routes") and so on, even though, say, storja with its four consonants or spiża with its very un-Semitic initial consonant cluster are not exactly, um, typical. At the same time, Romance borrowings of the honest-to-El Semitic CCVC / CVCC type (see Lipiński 2001:216) like skop or post form their plurals by means of the suffix -ijiet. Obviously there are other factors here at play, like perhaps the age of the borrowing or even the place and manner of articulation of root consonants, which would all have to be taken into account if a more detailed explanation is to be provided.
And then there's the whole semantic aspect. As Lameen notes in a reply to my comment where I wondered why we get art / artijiet ("earth, land") instead of *arieti (< Ar. 'arāḍī with presumed imāla, depharyngealization and devoicing) or żmien / żminijiet (instead of something like *azmina):

... "earth", "time", and for that matter "mother" are all words that are very rarely pluralised, increasing the pressure to adopt some commoner plural type.
This makes perfect sense - so in the evolution of Maltese, the original *arieti or something similar fell into disuse and artijiet, formed most likely by analogy, took over. And as I was reminded this morning by Charles Briffa's new book Iż-Żmien fuq Sider Malta, we actually have evidence for this shift. Not just any evidence, mind you, the mother of all evidence: Il-Kantilena. If you're reading this and you don't know about Il-Kantilena, feel free to consult Wikipedia for more details (I recommend the French version which seems to offer the most comprehensive account, and this image for the actual text). Suffice it to say that it is the oldest literary text in Maltese composed by Pietru Caxaro and dates back to the late 15th century (terminus ante quem 1485). We find what we're looking for on line 18:


Transcription (Wettinger and Fsadni 1968):
haliex liradi ’al col xibir sura

Modern orthography:
Għaliex l-iradi għal kull xiber sura:

Gloss:  
because DEF-land.PL for every span [1] shape

English: 
for each (piece of land) has its own shape (features)
And here it is: it would seem that ca. 1470, the noun art still formed a broken plural. One might consider - especially in the light of the genre - the possibility that Caxaro deliberately chose an archaism for both effect and reasons of metrics, but as for the latter, the number of syllables is the same for l-artijiet and l-iradi. In any case, it seems Lameen's hypothesis is correct and by 1796, the publication of Vassalli's Lexicon Melitense-Latino-Italum, art only had the suffixed plural form, in Vassalli's spelling Ardijyt
By the way, if you're wondering why it's iradi and not my hypothetical *arieti, it's because I forgot to account for the emphatic which, at least in most cases, inhibits imāla.
Finally, if you want hear what Il-Kantilena might have sounded like try the video below. The performer, Dr. Martin Zammit, is an Arabist and it kinda shows - for example in verse 18 (1:32) where the first word has -ie-, Martin reads [halāš]. Nevertheless, I think it is a pretty good approximation.




[1] span = "the space between thumb and forefinger". Cachia (1994:89) glosses għal kull xiber as għandhom = "they have".

34 comments:

John Cowan said...

As E.H. Sturtevant told us, sound-change operates regularly to produce irregularity, whereas analogy operates irregularly to produce regularity. When both forces are in operation, we get tangled messes that can't be understood except from their detailed histories.

A good example is German noun plurals, where sound-change has generated seven different common plural endings, all irregularly applied and extended to novel nouns by phonological analogies. When a noun of novel phonological shape gets into the language, like Baby or Auto, it has to take -s, the Notpluralending, itself generalized from English and Low German borrowings.

(In case you don't have them on tap, the seven are: zero, umlaut only, -e with or without umlaut, -er with or without umlaut, and (e)n.)

Tevfik Fikret said...

So hard to understand the articles for me. I think i am trying to solve one of niche site of internet. The name of the blog was so interesting for me :))

Lameen Souag الأمين سواق said...

Nice piece of philology - thanks for following this up!

Mo said...

I wonder whether there are systematic rules that determine the forms of Maltese broken plurals in Italian loan words. Are the patterns just assigned randomly, or is there some method in the madness?

bulbul said...

Mo,

there have been some conference papers on the subject, most notably by the Konstanz guys who came up with generalizations for all nouns, not just those of loan words. I'm still waiting for my copy of Schembri's treatment of the subject.

David Marjanović said...

One might consider - especially in the light of the genre - the possibility that Caxaro deliberately chose an archaism

...though that would only have implications for the dating of the change, not for the former existence of the expected broken plural.

sound-change operates regularly to produce irregularity, whereas analogy operates irregularly to produce regularity

...That's a great way to put it. :-)

it has to take -s, the Notpluralend[u]ng, itself generalized from English and Low German borrowings

...and this still hasn't reached the Upper Austrian dialect of my grandmother's generation: [ˈãˑäʊ̯tɔ], [ˈt͡svaˑäʊ̯tɔ], [ˈd̥ʀɛ̞ɪ̯äʊ̯tɔ]...

There are exceptions in Standard German, too. Many Classical words get a regular plural ending attached to their original stem, leading to curiosities like Atlas : Atlanten; sometimes this creeps into more recent borrowings, most prominently Pizza : Pizzen.

Similarly, in my dialect or at least my family lect, Pyjama [pɪd̥ˈʃaˑma] gets -n, which would sorta kinda almost make sense if it ended in -er [ɐ] instead of the similar but entirely foreign -a [a].

Mattia said...

I don't think mistoqsijiet is a valid example in that corpus, since here the suffix is rather -iet, just like in nanniet. If mistoqsijiet displays the suffix -ijiet then you should analyse "zijiet" as z + ijiet which is absurd. About ahbarijiet I think it's interesting to note that ahbar is itself a plural (of habar) so etymologically it's a broken plural with a plural suffix attached. The idea of -ijiet after rarely pluralised nouns seems to make sense, but then I think about broken plurals like ibhra (seas) or oqmra (moons). Shouldn't such nouns follow the same criterion?

bulbul said...

True about mistoqsijiet, but there are examples galore.
True about aħbarijiet, but that's just any etymological curiosity.
"Shouldn't such nouns follow the same criterion?" That is the question, isn't it? And then there's the perennial issue of what exactly counts as "frequent" - for example, ibħra frequently appears in legal documents and qmura (but not oqmra) in astronomy. Diachronic work on this could shed light on the subject, but that is still a desideratum.

Mattia said...

Thank you for your reply. I'm aware of the great amount of plurals in -ijiet and, though I'm not a native speaker of Maltese, I'm under the impression that the -ij- infix is used with nearly all consonant-ending nouns in order to attach the suffix -iet. I can only think of one exeption and it's "triqat" (given that -at and -iet are two variants of the same morpheme) but I guess there are more of them. Can't it be that -ijiet originates from an analogy with forms such as mistoqsijiet, and that it has been morphologised replacing the simple -at/-iet after a consonant?
I found "oqbra" in Vassalli's Grammar, is it completely fallen in disuse?

Mattia said...

Sorry, I obviously meant "oqmra".

xumeiqing said...

coach outlet store online
coach outlet
nike air force 1
michael kors outlet online
ugg outlet
true religion jeans
polo outlet
nfl jerseys wholesale
michael kors handbags
hugo boss outlet
michael kors outlet clearance
nike air max
ghd flat iron
nike air max
michael kors outlet
true religion
ray bans
christian louboutin shoes
tiffany jewelry
christian louboutin
toms outlet
true religion jeans
air force 1
mizuno running shoes
adidas nmd
the north face
ugg boots canada
true religion outlet
moncler jackets
the north face
hollister clothing
michael kors outlet
sac longchamp pliage
buy red bottoms
ugg outlet
longchamp uk
timberland boots
pandora jewelry

Unknown said...

Being a member of Jordan Brand has its perks, such as being able to have certain sneakers that nobody else in the world can get their hands on.Kawhi Leonard Jordans for sale is one of the biggest names on the Jordan Brand team right now and he was recently spotted wearing one of the craziest Jordan retros ever. In the image above Leonard is seen wearing an all-gold colorway of the Air Jordan 12. The shoe feature a metallic gold upper with black accents and a translucent outsole. There’s no doubt that these are Jordan 1 FIRE! Let’s not get too excited though because the possibility of these ever hitting retailers is probably very very slim.What are your thoughts on this colorway of the Air Jordan 12? Would you cop if they ever did hit retailers?
Talks of a potential Air Jordan 1 What The began surfacing back in March. There were even a couple of photoshop images that showed us what some of us thought the shoe would end up looking like. Ever since then, not much additional info has been provided regarding this potential release. Now we just got word that the shoe has an actual release date! Wait, what?!As of right now, all we know is that the Cheap Jordans For Sale Air Jordan 1 What The is inspired by some of the most popular colorways ever seen on the Air Jordan 1. These colorways will be strategically placed on the paneling of the shoe. Some hate the idea, while others love it. Regardless, the shoe appears to be releasing! The reason we say it’s releasing is because Foot Locker Europe already has a landing page for the shoe with a release date attached to it. As of today, the shoe is Jordan 7 said to be dropping on November 28th, which happens to also by Cyber Monday! Are you hyped about this shoe, or is Nike/Jordan Brand doing too much? Let us know in the comments below and stick with KoF as more info begins to surface.
A bevy of images featuring the Air Jordan 6 Black Cat have released recently, as this latest gallery now showcases the silhouette in natural lighting.Emphasizing the sneaker’s stealthy profile comprised of blacked leather with enlarged perforations Jordan Shoes

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...

louis vuitton purse
true religion outlet store
jimmy choo shoes
coach factory outlet online
ugg boots clearance
michael kors bags
polo ralph lauren outlet online
louboutin sale
ray ban sunglasses outlet
uggs outlet
20161129yuanyuan

Unknown said...

tiffany jewellery
texans jerseys
salomon boots
michael kors outlet online
nike outlet store
coach
ugg outlet uk
skechers outlet
michael kors handbags
fitflops sale clearance

Unknown said...

louis vuitton outlet
adidas nmd runner
lebron shoes
cheap mlb jerseys
louis vuitton outlet
polo ralph lauren
oakley sunglasses
louis vuitton outlet stores
foamposite shoes
tory burch outlet online store
20170120caihuali

Unknown said...

20170329 junda
hollister clothing
nike blazer pas cher
michael kors outlet
michael kors outlet clearance
ralph lauren uk
michael kors outlet online
michael kors outlet clearance
mulberry handbags
louis vuitton outlet
instyler ionic styler

Unknown said...

nike outlet
mbt shoes
nike roshe
kate spade outlet
pandora outlet
kate spade outlet
denver broncos jerseys
cheap jerseys from china
longchamp uk
jimmy choo
20170402caiyan

Unknown said...

nike trainers
golden state warriors jerseys
ugg outlet
ed hardy outlet
hugo boss sale
nike huarache
cheap oakley sunglasses
versace
oakley sunglasses
ralph lauren

Unknown said...

adidas nmd runner
yeezy boost 350
retro jordans
nike huarache
air max 2017
lacoste outlet
nike air zoom
kobe sneakers
true religion jeans
pandora uk

Unknown said...

ugg boots
fitflops sale clearance
air jordan uk
ugg outlet
moncler jackets
cheap oakley sunglasses
michael kors handbags
ralph lauren
ugg boots
ferragamo shoes

raybanoutlet001 said...

coach outlet
ralph lauren polo
minnesota vikings jerseys
cheap basketball shoes
ferragamo outlet
louboutin shoes
ugg boots
ugg outlet
rolex replica
nike outlet

adidas nmd said...

cheap oakley sunglasses
cheap oakley sunglasses
michael kors outlet
coach handbags
air huarache
nike trainers
miami heat
nike outlet
longchamp outlet
new york jets jerseys

Unknown said...

zzzzz2018.5.26
true religion outlet
pandora charms outlet
nike outlet
adidas superstar
golden goose sneakers
red bottom shoes
nike factory outlet
mulberry handbags
ray ban sunglasses
michael kors handbags

Bilibili said...

Jordan Retro 11
Jordan 9
Jordans 11
Pandora Jewelry
Red Bottom for Women
Yeezy boost 350 v2
Pandora Outlet
Jordan 11
Pandora Jewelry
Pandora Jewelry
Rodney20181224

Bilibili said...

Pandora Charms
Pandora Charms Outlet
Jordan 11
Jordan 11 For Sale
Air Jordan 9
Pandora Jewelry
Air Max 270
Red Bottom Shoes For Women
Kyrie Irving Shoes
Jordan Retro 11
Rodney20181227

Coqicoqi said...

Yeezy boost 350 v2
Pandora Jewelry Official Site
Air Jordan 11
Nike 270
Jordan Retro 11
Pandora Jewelry
Kyrie Shoes
Red Bottom for Women
Jordan 11
Air Jordan 4 Retro
Ryan20181229

Hualala said...

Jordan 4
Nike Air Max 270
Red Bottom Shoes For Women
Pandora Jewelry Official Site
Jordan Retro 9
Jordan Retro 11
Yeezy boost 350 v2
Adidas Yeezy
Air Jordan 11
Pandora Outlet
Paul20190110

yanmaneee said...

goyard bags
air max 2018
lebron 16 shoes
birkin bag
supreme hoodie
ultra boost
longchamp
kevin durant shoes
moncler
kyrie 3 shoes

yanmaneee said...

air max 90
kyrie irving shoes
off white hoodie
supreme outlet
nike air max
kyrie 6
curry shoes
balenciaga shoes
supreme shirt
kyrie 5

yanmaneee said...

goyard
yeezy
air jordan
yeezy shoes
balenciaga
adidsas yeezy
supreme hoodie
yeezys
golden goose outlet
golden goose

yanmaneee said...

pandora jewelry
giannis shoes
kyrie 6
yeezys
yeezy boost 380
moncler outlet
yeezy shoes
golden goose
pandora outlet
stone island

Unknown said...

aaa replica bags a62 j8u93t5v15 replica ysl d22 v0f27f6p10 replica bags t30 v4k60p0n88

Angel17 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.