Arabic Varieties: Far and Wide Proceedings of the 11th International

Conference of AIDA – Bucharest, 2015

This volume has been accomplished with the support of

Arabic Varieties: Far and Wide

Proceedings of the 11thInternational Conference of AIDA – Bucharest, 2015

EDITORS

George Grigore Gabriel Bițună

2016

Descrierea CIP a Bibliotecii Naționale a României Arabic varieties – Far and wide : proceedings of the 11th International Conference of AIDA – Bucharest, 2015 / ed.: George Grigore, Gabriel Bițună. – București : Editura Universității din București, 2016 ISBN 978-606-16-0709-9 I. International Conference of AIDA II. Grigore, George (ed.) III. Bițună, Gabriel (ed.) 811.411.21

Şos. Panduri nr. 90-92,

050663 Bucureşti ROMÂNIA

Tel./Fax: +40 214102384 E-mail: editura.unibuc@gmail.com

Web: http://editura-unibuc.ro Centru de vânzare:

Bd. Regina Elisabeta nr. 4-12, 030018 Bucureşti – ROMÂNIA

Tel. +40 213053703 Tipografia EUB:

Bd. Iuliu Maniu nr. 1-3 061071 Bucuresti – ROMÂNIA

Tel./Fax: +40 213152510 DTP & Graphic (coordinator): Emeline-Daniela Avram DTP & Graphic: Gabriel Bițună Cover photo: AIDA 11 Bucharest participants in front of the venue, Casa Universitarilor (The Academics’ House), 28th of May 2015 Back cover: AIDA logo, by designer Aluna Ille (Source: from the editors’ archive – all photo copyright responsibility falls to the editors)

CONTENTS

Foreword........................................................................................................................................... 9 Massimo Bevacqua (1973 - 2015).................................................................................................... 11 Yaşar Acat. أجاتیاشار دراسة مقارنة في العناصر المشتركة في اللھجات العربیة األناضولیة المعاصرة . …………..……… 13 Jordi Aguadé. The Arabic Dialect of Tangier Across a Century..................................................... 21 Faruk Akkuş. The Arabic Dialect of Mutki-Sason Areas................................................................ 29 Saif Abdulwahed Jewad Alabaeeji. Aspects of Grammatical Agreement in Iraqi Arabic Relative Clauses: a Descriptive Approach......................................................................................................

41

Yousuf B. Albader. Quadriliteral Verbs in Kuwaiti Arabic............................................................ 53 Muntasir Fayez Al-Hamad. تأثیر ازدواجیة اللسان على وارثي اللغة العربیة من متعلمیھا لغةً أجنبیة . الحمدمنتصر فایز …. 65 Jules Arsenne. Preliminary Results on the Arabic Spoken in Jnanate, Northern Morocco............ 73 Lucia Avallone. Spelling Variants in Written Egyptian Arabic, a Study on Literary Texts............. 79 Andrei A. Avram. On the Developmental Stage of Gulf Pidgin Arabic.......................................... 87 Montserrat Benitez Fernandez. Notes sur le sociolecte des jeunes d’Ouezzane (Nord du Maroc)…... 99 Najah Benmoftah; Christophe Pereira. Des connecteurs de cause en arabe de Tripoli (Libye)… 107 Said Bennis. Opérationnalisation du paradigme de la diversité au Maroc : vers une territorialisation linguistique et culturelle........................................................................................

119

Marwa Benshenshin. Les interrogatifs šən, šənu et šəni dans le parler arabe de Tripoli (Libye).. 127 Simone Bettega. Linguistic Self-Representation in a Popular Omani Cartoon: Towards the Rise of a National Standard?....................................................................................................................

137

Gabriel Bițună. The Spoken Arabic of Siirt: Between Progress and Decay.................................... 147 Aziza Boucherit. Reference and Spatial Orientation in “Ordinary Discourses”. hna vs. hnak, təmm and l-hīh in Algerian Arabic...................................................................................................

155

Dominique Caubet. The Dialect of Msek – Beni Itteft (Al Hoceima), on the Borders with Berber – Revisited in 2014............................................................................................................................

163

Letizia Cerqueglini. Etymology, Culture And Grammaticalisation: a Semantic Exploration of the Front/Back Axis in Traditional Negev Arabic.............................................................................

175

Ines Dallaji; Ines Gabsi. Overabundance in the Arabic Dialect of Tunis: a Diachronic Study of Plural Formation..............................................................................................................................

185

Francesco De Angelis. The Egyptian Dialect for a Democratic Form of Literature: Considerations for a Modern Language Policy................................................................................

193

Emanuela De Blasio. A Linguistic Study About Syrian Rap Songs.................................................. 203 Nabila El Hadj Said. Innovation of New Words Borrowed from French into the Algerian Dialect by Young Adults....................................................................................................................

211

Moha Ennaji. Teaching and Learning Arabic as a Foreign Language........................................... 217 Paule Fahmé-Thiéry. L’arabe dialectal aleppin dans le récit de voyage de Hanna Dyâb………. 223 Khalid Mohamed Farah. Words of Old Semitic Origins in Sudanese Colloquial Arabic………... 231 Ioana Feodorov. Le mélange terminologique comme trait spécifique au moyen arabe dans le Journal de voyage de Paul d’Alep (1652-1659) ...............................................................................

237

Daniela Rodica Firănescu. Ḥāšā-ki yā bintī! On Alethic and Deontic Modalities in Spoken Arabic from Syria..............................................................................................................................

251

George Grigore. Expressing Certainty and Uncertainty in Baghdadi Arabic................................. 259 Elisabeth Grünbichler. Linguistic Remarks on the Dialect of al-Buraymi, Oman.......................... 267 Jairo Guerrero. A Phonetical Sketch of the Arabic Dialect Spoken in Oran (North-Western Algeria). 273 Evgeniya Gutova. Baby Talk in the Maghreb.................................................................................. 281 Juma’a Jidda Hassan. Interjections: Cases of Linguistic Borrowing in Nigerian (Shuwa) Arabic Code Switching..................................................................................................................................

291

Qasim Hassan. Concerning Some Negative Markers in South Iraqi Arabic................................... 301 Uri Horesh. Four Types of Phonological Lenition in Palestinian Arabic....................................... 307 Bohdan Horvat. Voices and Registers in the [Dialect] Poetry of Fuad Haddad............................. 315 Ștefan Ionete. Some Features of Arabic Spoken in Hasköy............................................................. 323 Safa Abou Chahla Jubran; Felipe Benjamin Francisco فرانسیسكوفیلیب بنجامین ؛جبرانصفاء أبو شھال .

روایة "تصطفل مریل ستریب" لرشید الضعیففي ترجمة ما ورد باللھجة اللبنانیة في ................................................. 331

Najla Kalach. Ḥomṣ Arabic: First Issues......................................................................................... 337 Maciej Klimiuk. Third Person Masculine Singular Pronominal Suffix -Hne (-Hni) in Syrian Arabic Dialects and its Hypothetical Origins...................................................................................

345

Maarten Kossmann. Yes/No Interrogatives in Moroccan Dutch..................................................... 351 Cristina La Rosa. Le relateur -Vn en arabe de Sicile : exemples et remarques linguistiques……. 359 Jérôme Lentin. Sur un type de proposition circonstancielle syndétique dans les dialectes arabes. 369 Diana Lixandru. Dialy - Status Constructus or a New Grammar of the Moroccan Body………... 377 Marcin Michalski. Spelling Moroccan Arabic in Arabic Script: the Case of Literary Texts…….. 385 Karlheinz Moerth; Daniel Schopper; Omar Siam. Towards a Diatopic Dictionary of Spoken Arabic Varieties: Challenges in Compiling the VICAV Dictionaries…………………………...…

395

Amina Naciri-Azzouz. Les variétés arabes de Ghomara ? s-saḥǝl vs. ǝǧ-ǧbǝl (la côte vs. la montagne)………………………………………………………………………………………

405

Shuichiro Nakao. More on Early East African Pidgin Arabic......................................................... 413 Aldo Nicosia. Le Petit Prince in Algerian Arabic: a Lexical Perspective........................................ 421 Ahmed Salem Ould Mohamed Baba. Le lexique de l’Aẓawān. Une approche ethnolinguistique. 431 Victor Pak. Some Thoughts About Description and Teaching of Arabic Dialects........................... 439 Yulia Petrova. A Case of Colloquialization of the Text: the Kyiv Manuscript of “The Travels of Macarius” ........................................................................................................................................

445

Tornike Pharseghashvili. Linguistic Archaeology of Peripheral Arabic........................................ 453 Stephan Procházka; Ismail Batan. The Functions of Active Participles in Šāwi Bedouin Dialects….. 457 Judith Rosenhouse; Sara Brand. Arabic-Hebrew Code-Switching in the Spontaneous Speech of Israeli Arab Students.........................................................................................................................

467

Lucie San Geroteo. Etude de quelques réalisations de l’arabe moyen syrien dans sîrat al-Zîr Sâlim... 475

Mehmet Șayır األمثال في لھجة ماردین العربیة .شایر محمد ………………………………………………… 485 Apollon Silagadze; Nino Ejibadze. On Arabic (Egyptian) Fiction Created in the Vernacular….. 493 Tatiana Smyslova (Savvateeva). Syntax and Semantics of Proverbs-Dialogues in Egyptian Arabic… 497 Lameen Souag. From Existential to Indefinite Determiner: Kaš in Algerian Arabic…………..… 505 Laura Andreea Sterian. Topicalization in Baghdadi Arabic Questions………………………...… 515 Mehmet Hakkı Suçin العربیة وطالبھا من تدریس اللھجات العربیة على مواقف أساتذة اللغة . صوتشینمحمد حقي .........................................................................................................................المستوى الجامعي في تركیا

521

Catherine Taine-Cheikh. baˁd(a) dans les dialectes arabes: glissements sémantiques et phénomènes de transcatégorisation..................................................................................................

531

Faruk Toprak. العربیةدراسة عن كلمات دخیلة في لھجة سعرد .توبراقفاروق ................................................... 541 Zviadi Tskhvediani. al-öišbā÷ in Ancient and Modern Arabic Dialects........................................... 545 Islam Youssef. Epenthesis, Assimilation, and Opacity in Baghdadi Arabic.................................... 549 Liesbeth Zack. Nineteenth-Century Cairo Arabic as Described by Qadrī and Naḫla…………… 557 Magdalena Zawrotna. The Use of Taboo – Related Words in Egyptian Arabic a Sociolinguistic Approach to (Im)Politeness...............................................................................................................

569

Karima Ziamari; Alexandrine Barontini. Les liaisons dangereuses : médias sociaux et parlers jeunes au Maroc. Le cas de Bouzebbal.............................................................................................

579

FROM EXISTENTIAL TO INDEFINITE DETERMINER: KAŠ IN ALGERIAN ARABIC

LAMEEN SOUAG

LACITO (CNRS) Abstract: Algerian Arabic has developed a new indefinite determiner kaš, with a number of loosely related functions. Despite its ubiquity in modern Algiers, this word is absent from 19th century sources, and appears to be a relatively recent development. More recent sources allude to it briefly without ever giving a full description. This article describes its syntactic distribution and its meaning in the dialect of Dellys (north-central Algeria) for the first time, identifying five distinct constructions in which kaš appears. It then examines this form's history based on written data. Based on the results, it reconstructs the reinterpretations that produced the present-day distribution of kaš, showing that it derives from a combination of an existential predicator with the polyfunctional morpheme ši. This finding confirms the existence of a grammaticalisation pathway from existential to indefinite quantifier, a question bearing on some scenarios proposed in the context of the debate within Arabic dialectology over the history of ši/šay'. Keywords: indefinite, Algeria, determiner, quantifier, existential, grammaticalisation. 1. Introduction1 One of the few function words unique to Algerian Arabic is the rather polysemous word kaš, common in north-central Algeria but rare in western Algeria and unknown outside of the country. No full description of its several functions exists; these will be outlined below based on the dialect of Dellys, a small coastal city about 80 kilometres east of Algiers (all phrases and judgments below are based on Dellys except where otherwise indicated). Despite its modern ubiquity, this word is absent from 19th century sources; examination of historical data suggests that this word developed relatively recently, from a combination of existential kan with the even more protean morpheme ši. In many Arabic varieties, š(i)/šay has a variety of functions: indefinite determiner, polar interrogative marker, uncertainty marker, negator, negative indefinite pronoun, and just the noun “thing” (its original sense). While historically connected, these functions are synchronically separate, and the exact chain of development that produced them all is controversial (Obler 1990; Lucas 2010; Wilmsen 2014; Diem 2014). To understand this morpheme's history better, the whole network of cross-linguistically attested grammaticalisation chains connecting its various uses must be mapped. In this respect, the recent history of kaš in Algeria is relevant not only to the study of Algerian Arabic, but also to the study of Arabic as a whole, for the light it casts upon the connection between existential predication and indefinite quantification.

2. Synchronic functions of kaš The functions of kaš(i) in modern central Algerian Arabic – or at least in present-day Dellys – fall into two rather distinct groups: an extensive family of irrealis usages, including as a determiner and in interrogation, and an isolated but very frequent form used in negative existentials.

1 The author thanks Dominique Caubet for having encouraged him early on to investigate the usage of kaš in Algerian Arabic.

506 LAMEEN SOUAG 2.1. kaš “some/any” (irrealis indefinite determiner) To delineate the functions of this usage of kaš, it is useful to refer to Haspelmath's (1997) semantic map of the contexts in which indefinite pronouns and quantifiers may occur:

Table 1

Semantic map of indefinite contexts

question indirect negation direct negation

specific known specific unknown

irrealis non-specific

conditional comparative free choice

The three contexts marked in bold are those in which kaš is used, as illustrated by examples such as: 1) Irrealis non-specific: ila ma tə-ʕṛəf-š, səqsi kaš waħəd إیال ماتعرفش، سقسي كاش واحد if not 2Sg-know-NEG2 ask kaš one If you don't know, ask somebody. 2) Conditional: ila šət-t kaš ħaja, qul-li إیال شفت كاش حاجة، قوللي if see-2MSgPf kaš thing, say-to.me If you see something, tell me. 3) Question: šəf-t kaš ħaja ki ṛəħ-t l hađik əl-pḷaṣa? شفت كاش حاجة كي رحت لھاذیك الپالصة؟ see-2MSgPf kaš thing when go-2MSgPf to that.FSg the-place? Did you see anything when you went to that place?

These three contexts are distinguished from the rest of the map by being necessarily irrealis. In such contexts, kaš can thus succinctly be described as an indefinite irrealis existential determiner.

In the other contexts listed on the map, kaš is not used, as illustrated by contrasts such as the following. (In accordance with normal syntactic practice, *X means that X is ungrammatical, *(X) means that the omission of X makes the utterance ungrammatical, and (*X) means that the inclusion of X makes the utterance ungrammatical.) For specific indefinites, waħəd “one” is preferred, as a pronoun or as an article: 4) Specific known/unknown: (*kaš) waħəd ṛa-hu yə-xdəm f əl-jnan. واحد راھو یخدم في الجنان (*kaš) one Prog-3MSg 3MSg-work in the garden Someone is working in the garden.

A nominal with kaš can co-occur with negation, but cannot be interpreted as being within its scope: 5) balak ma ja-š kaš waħəd mən-hum perhaps not come.3MSgPf-NEG2 kaš one from-3Pl ماجاش كاش واحد منھم باالك Maybe someone among them hasn't come. / *Maybe no one has come.

FROM EXISTENTIAL TO INDEFINITE DETERMINER: KAŠ IN ALGERIAN ARABIC 507

Free choice indefinites (“anyone could write that!”) are not strongly grammaticalised in this dialect; speakers either use a free relative with lli or borrow French n'importe (qui/quoi/etc). Comparative indefinites (“he's stronger than anyone in town”) are normally expressed in other ways, without using an indefinite at all.

The only contexts for kaš cited so far have been limited to “someone” and “something”, but kaš is also used with other nouns, eg: 6) kaš nhaṛ y-ṛuħ l wəhṛan. كاش نھار یروح لوھران kaš day 3MSg-go to Oran Someday he will go to Oran. 2.2. kaš “Is there any...?” (interrogative existential predicator)

In addition to its use as a determiner, kaš is very frequently used without further support to form interrogative existential predicates (for a similar combination of functions in a language of Vanuatu, cf. Araki re (François 2002:59–67)): 7) kašħlib əlyum? 8 كاش حلیب الیوم؟) kaš (*fi-h) jdid? كاش جدید؟ kašmilk today? kaš (in-3MSg) new Any milk today? Anything new?

The English translation of these sentences may suggest that they should be interpreted as elliptical. However, the existential predicator cannot generally be dropped in other contexts, even under interrogation: 9) *(kayən) ħlib? كاین حلیب؟ *(EXIST) milk Is there milk?

Its omission cannot therefore be explained by general principles, and must rather be identified as

a specific construction involving kaš. Nevertheless, kaš behaves as a determiner within this construction. As 8 illustrates, the subject

must directly follow kaš; this is expected if kaš is or includes the determiner, but surprising if kaš has existential and interrogative functions alone. Likewise, in indirect questions, the apparently missing existential reappears, suggesting that kaš does not synchronically contain an existential predicator: 10) səqsi-t-u ila kayən kaš ždid جدیدسقسیتھُ إیال كاین كاش ask-1SgPf-3MSgDO if EXIST kaš new I asked him if there was anything new.

It therefore seems preferable to analyse this construction synchronically as containing a null existential predicator with a determiner kaš. This does not reflect the diachronic situation, however, as will be seen below. 2.3. kaš ma “(is there) anything (that)...” (inanimate indefinite pronoun in focus) As a near-equivalent of kaš ħaja “something/anything”, a sui generis construction is frequently used in which kaš is placed clause-initially, followed by the complementiser ma: 11) kaš ma lqi-t f əl-ħanut? كاش ما لقیت فالحانوت؟ kaš COMP find-2MSgPf in the-shop? Did you find anything in the shop?

Only an inanimate interpretation is possible; this cannot mean “Did you find anyone in the shop?” No directly corresponding in situ equivalent exists: 12) *lqit kaš f əlħanut? / *lqit kaš ma f əlħanut? / *ma lqit kaš f əlħanut?

In this usage, kaš ma behaves as an inanimate indefinite pronoun in focus.

508 LAMEEN SOUAG

Unlike the similar construction described in the previous section, this can also appear without further support in subordinate clauses: 13) ila kaš ma bɣi-ti tə-šri qul-i-li بغیتي تشري قولیليإیال كاش ما if kaš COMP want-2FSg 2Sg-buy say-ImpFSg-to.me If you want to buy anything (or: if there's anything you want to buy), tell me.

This suggests that kaš in this usage is or at least contains a predicator, unlike interrogative

existential kaš. 2.4. kaš ma “at all?, to any extent?” (epistemic event quantification) In many phrases using kaš ma, no indefinite argument is overtly present. In such cases, the addition of kaš ma expresses a sense of uncertainty or improbability which cannot easily be rendered into English by any one translation, roughly corresponding to “at all?”, “to any extent?”, “by any chance?”: 14) kaš ma xṛəj-t? كاش ما خرجت؟ 15) *xṛəj-t kaš ma? 16) *kaš ma. kaš COMP go.out-2MSgPf Have you gone out, by any chance?

The translation may suggest that kaš ma is an adverb, but the ungrammaticality of 15-16 rules this out. I analyse this usage as indefinite irrealis quantification, but over events rather than over arguments. Such an analysis correctly predicts that kaš ma should combine only with gradable or repeatable predicates: 17) kaš ma kli-t mən hađak əl-bəxsis? كاش ما كلیت من ھاذاك البخسیس؟ kaš COMP eat-2MSgPf from that.MSg the-fig? Have you eaten of those figs? 18) *kaš ma kli-t hađik əl-bəxsis-a? كاش ما كلیت ھاذیك البخسیسة؟ *kaš COMP eat-2MSgPf that.FSg the-fig-CntSg? Have you eaten that fig? 2.5. ma kaš “there is no” (negative existential predication) The positive existential marker “there is” in Algerian Arabic, as in Moroccan Arabic, is kayən. Standard negation in Algerian Arabic is ma ...-š(i), with the second element omitted in the presence of negative polarity items. The expected negative existential marker would therefore be *ma kayən-ši, as attested in Morocco. What is actually used, however, is ma ka(n)-š, with the n almost always absent.

Diachronically, the kaš appearing in the Algerian Arabic negative existential makaš obviously has the same origin as the kaš used in irrealis functions discussed above. Synchronically, however, grouping them together poses difficulties. Unlike other usages of kaš, this alternates with kan when negative polarity items are in scope: 19) ma kaš ktab 20 ماكاش كتاب) ma kan walu ما كان والو not kaš book. not EXIST nothing. There is no book. There is nothing.

This alternation suggests that kaš, in this context, is to be interpreted as an existential ka(n) plus the negative marker š, a parsing impossible for the other usages of kaš described here. Such a separation is at first sight reinforced by the fact that, unlike any of the other usages of kaš described here, its subject may equally well be definite or indefinite, although in the former case it is normally topicalised through left dislocation:

FROM EXISTENTIAL TO INDEFINITE DETERMINER: KAŠ IN ALGERIAN ARABIC 509 21) əl-ktab ma kaš-u ُالكتاب ماكاشھ the-book not kaš-3MSgDO The book isn't there / isn't around.

However, this example also makes it problematic to parse ma kaš as synchronically containing

negative š. As it illustrates, with topicalised or pronominal subjects, ma kaš takes direct object agreement suffixes (cf. ma kaš-ni “I'm not here/there, I'm not around”). In no other context can a direct object pronominal marker can be suffixed to the negative marker -š.

3. The textual history of kaš The paucity of writings in and about Algerian Arabic limit direct data on the development of kaš. Nevertheless, enough data is available to show that: a) the existential usages are relatively old, while the quantificational usage is more recent, most likely having emerged during the latter half of the colonial period; b) the form kaš was originally kan ši, and only gradually lost its n and, even later, its i.

3.1. kan ši, 1700-1900 In 18th and early 19th century Algerian Arabic texts, the form kaš does not exist. What we find instead is kan ši, never used as an indefinite quantifier, but used in kaš's other functions, including negative existentials: 22) Ma kan shy kiff hoo ُما كان شي كیفھ (mod. ma kaš kif-u ُماكاش كیفھ) not EXIST NEG2 like him There was no one like him. (Shaw 1758: 245) interrogative existential predication: 23) kan chi siada? كان شي صیادة؟ (mod. kaš ṣyada? كاش صیادة؟) EXIST Q hunting? Is there any hunting? (Cotelle 1847: 76) and followed by ma: 24) kan-chi mè n-echreb? كان شي ما نشرب؟ (mod. kaš ma nə-šṛəb? كاش ما نشرب؟) EXIST-Q COMP 1Sg-drink Is there anything for me to drink? (Letellier 1838: 38)

By the second half of the 19th century, attestations without the n in the “Sabir” pidgin used between French soldiers and non-French-speaking Algerians suggest that n-loss had already begun in lower registers: 25) « Makach sami sami, » … Ce ne sont pas des amis. (1851: L'Illustration 18, p. 327)

The syntax of this interrogative existential kan ši differed from that of modern kaš in several ways. It could be separated from the noun following it: 26) kan-chey fy-hi kettaâ. كان شي فیھ قطّاعة؟ EXIST-Q in-3MSg bandits. mod. kaš (*fi-h) qəṭṭaʕa Are there bandits there? (Vincent 1830: 70)

It could be followed by a determiner, indefinite or definite: 27) kan chi el ma fi-h كان شي الما فیھ؟ EXIST Q the water in-3MSg mod. kaš (*əl-)ma fi-h Is there any water in it? (Cotelle 1847: 88)

510 LAMEEN SOUAG 28) kan-chey baâd ed-dechar kerib li-hinné كان شي بعض الدشر قریب لھنّا؟ EXIST-Q some the-villages near to-here mod. kaš` (*bəʕḍ əd-)dšəṛ qrib l hənna Is there a village near here? (Vincent 1830:70)

In fact, while ma kan ši was already a negative existential, kan ši at this period was merely an interrogative existential “is there?”. We still find it listed with precisely these two senses in the first source to give the contracted form kaš – the dictionary of Beaussier (1871: 846, 885) : 29) kaš : 1. contr. de kan ši, y a-t-il. 2. cont. de kif aš, comment, (Alg.) ma kan ši : il n’y a pas 3.2. ka(n) ši in the early 20th century The first attestation of an epistemic use of this form is Cohen (1912: 350), who, in his grammar of the dialect spoken by Jews in Algiers, glosses kašima as “dans l'interrogatif indéfini”. But it had not yet become a determiner; ši was still used where modern speakers would require kaš: 30) ida kan ši ħaja إیدا كان شي حاجة if EXIST some thing (modern: ila kayn (kaš) ħaja إیال كاین كاش حاجة) if there is anything (ibid: 352)

Cohen also notes that at this time and place it was possible to combine other indefinite determiners with ši, eg baʕḍ ši nsa “some women” (ibid: 353). That fact would have facilitated the reinterpretation of kan ši as a compound determiner, even though no evidence indicates that this had yet taken place. For the negative existential, he still gives makanš / rarer makayənš, with the n retained (ibid: 252, 379).

3.3. kaš(i), 1952-present Brown (Brown 1955: 65) was the first to report that kaš had become a determiner, commenting that, in the Muslim dialect of Algiers, “the modifiers walu, kaš, and ši, all of which are usually translated as ‘some’” can be followed by an indefinite noun to form a noun phrase”. However, a slightly earlier attestation of the usage is found in Marçais' grammar of Jijel Arabic: 31) ža kaš waħəd 32 جا كاش واحد؟) t-šri kaš ħaja hn:aya تشري كاش حاجة ھنّایا come.3MSgPf kaš one 2Sg-buy kaš thing here Has someone come? You could buy something here. (Marçais 1952: 469) (Brown 1955: 65)

Marçais (1952: 601–602) also describes the interrogative use of kan-ši / kaš and kaš-ma in Jijel, which he considered polar question markers like French “est-ce que”, as in: 33) kaš ṣəbt šay? kaš find-2MSgPf something? “Have you found anything?” (Marçais 1952: 467)

Neither author discusses the existential interrogative usage, but Jijel again furnishes examples: 34) ka(n)š(i) ħədd f əd-daṛ كاش حّد فالدار؟ kaš someone in the-house “Is there anyone in the house?” (Jijel: Marçais 1952: 469)

Later work conforms to the picture seen for modern Dellys. Grand'Henry briefly notes kaš waħəd and kaš ma for Cherchell (1972: 137); Marçais (1977: 206) belatedly notes kaš waħəd for “(Cherchell, Alger, Dellys, Djidjelli, Constantine) … avec une nuance d'indéfini soulignée” [with a

FROM EXISTENTIAL TO INDEFINITE DETERMINER: KAŠ IN ALGERIAN ARABIC 511 nuance of underscored indefiniteness], without commenting on the possibility of combining kaš with other nominals. More recently, Madouni-La Peyre (2003: 441) includes kaš in her dictionary for Sidi-Bel-Abbès, briefly describing its usage; the example kaš ṭumubil “a car” suggest that it is still perceived as central Algerian, since western Algeria ordinarily uses luṭu “car”.

4. The grammaticalisation path of kaš Based on the historical data examined, it appears that, in Algiers ca. 1800, there was no morpheme kaš. Rather, there were two distinct morphemes that could be juxtaposed, with purely compositional semantics, to yield kan ši. The first was the existential predicator kayən, alternating in non-positive contexts with kan. The second was a morpheme ši with at least four functions: • noun “thing/property” – relatively rare, then and now, compared to ħaja: 35) nehhi had ech-chiy نّحي ھاد الشي remove this the-thing Remove this thing. (Letellier 1838: 71) • indefinite pronoun, with a distinct form šay(ən) – modern speakers recognise this but typically prefer ħaja, or, in negative contexts, walu: 36) me te-hadder chèy شاي ما تحّضر NEG 2Sg-prepare anything Don't prepare anything. (ibid: 21) • second negator (NEG2), varying with š: 37) me-ne-qeder-ch ne-mchi ماندرش نمشي NEG-1Sg-can-NEG2 1Sg-walk I can't walk. (ibid:13) • polar question marker (Q) – no longer used by or familiar to most speakers: 38) ta-h'b-chi ne-a'on-ek? تحب شي نعاونك؟ 2MSg-want-Q 1Sg-help-2SgObj Do you want me to help you? (ibid: 10)

A fifth function of ši, as an indefinite determiner, is not documented for 19th century Algiers, which instead used baʕḍ: 39) ida baâd el-ouahhed i-saqsi إدا بعض الواحد یسقسي if some the-one 3MSg-ask If someone asks... (Delaporte 1845: 56)

However, the indefinite determiner function must be assumed to have existed in the region – if not necessarily in the prestige dialect of Algiers – on other grounds, since this usage of ši:

• is well-attested in Morocco and Malta (Caubet 1983; 1984; Haspelmath & Caruana 1996) • is described for Jewish Algiers alongside baʕḍ by Cohen (1912: 353) • is still in use in Dellys today, in some realis contexts (from which kaš is excluded):

33) dəxl-u ši ʕibad دخلوا شي ِعباد enter-3PlPf some people Some people came in.

This situation was transformed by three successive changes, all of which took place during the colonial period, and the latter two of which were completed before independence in 1962.

1. During the 19th century, this frequent combination started to undergo phonetic erosion, losing its n and i in lower registers. This progressively advanced to higher registers over the 20th

512 LAMEEN SOUAG

century, and affected both irrealis and negative combinations of kan+ši, even though their respective functions were already quite different.

2. By the start of the early 20th century, interrogative kan ši ma... “is there anything that...” was extended from phrases in which “anything” was an argument to ones in which it was only an adjunct quantifying the action.

3. In interrogative existential predicates, initial kan ši..., followed by an indefinite noun phrase, originally had two rather similar interpretations, depending on dialect: “Is there?” or “Is there any?”. During the first half of the 20th century, as interrogative ši fell out of use, this expression was reinterpreted as an irrealis indefinite determiner specifying the nominal following it. This allowed it to be extended to non-initial contexts, and ruled out the insertion of material between it and the indefinite noun phrase following it.

The timing of the latter change in particular correlates with the rise of rural-to-urban migration,

in which natives of the towns where kaš would rise – notably Algiers and Constantine – often came to be outnumbered by rural immigrants speaking rather different dialects of Arabic and Kabyle. This suggests that historical explanations relating to dialect contact or language contact should be considered. In fact, some dialects of Kabyle exhibit a very similar development of yə-lla ḵra “is there any(thing)?” to a quantifier laḵra; publication of further research on the nature and direction of contact is planned.

As for the present, investigation of the usage of kaš across a wider geographical and social range would be desirable. Further changes may well be underway; it would notably be worth checking whether the determiner's restriction to irrealis usage is stable, and whether this form's use is expanding beyond the Central Algerian distribution reported by Marçais.

5. Conclusions Algerian Arabic kaš is the result of two morphemes merging into one during the past 200 years. Its form is the result of irregular phonetic shortening of a commonly used combination of morphemes. Its polysemy is partly inherited from its sources and partly the result of a functional expansion that gave an existential predicator the ability to function as an indefinite determiner. The latter development parallels the grammaticalisation cycle of existential “there is” > indefinite article “some/any” reported for Chinese (Tsai 2003), and contrasts with the converse grammaticalisation of “some/any” > “there is” suggested for Arabic and Mehri by Wilmsen (2014).

References Beaussier, Marcelin. 1871. Dictionnaire pratique arabe-français. Algiers: Imprimerie Bouyer. Brown, Anthony F. R. 1955. A phonological and grammatical analysis of an Algerian dialect of Arabic. London: University

of London. Caubet, Dominique. 1983. “Quantification, négation, interrogation: les emplois de la particule ‘ši’ en arabe marocain”,

Arabica 30(3). 227–245. Caubet, Dominique. 1984. “A la recherche d’un invariant : les emplois de la particule ši en arabe marocain”, Opérations de

détermination II, 33–56. Paris: Paris VII. Cohen, Marcel. 1912. Le parler arabe des juifs d’Alger. Paris: Champion. Cotelle, H. 1847. Le langage arabe ordinaire, ou, Dialogues arabes élémentaires, destinés aux français qui habitent

l’Afrique. Alger: Dubos Frères. Delaporte, J.H. 1845. Principes de l’idiome arabe en usage à Alger ; suivis d’un conte arabe avec la prononciation et le mot

à mot interlinéaires. Paris: Hingray. Diem, Werner. 2014. Negation in Arabic: A Study in Linguistic History. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. François, Alexandre. 2002. Araki: A disappearing language of Vanuatu. (Pacific Linguistics 522). Canberra: Australian

National University. Grand’Henry, Jacques. 1972. Le parler arabe de Cherchell (Algérie). (Publications de l’Institut Orientaliste de Louvain 5).

Louvain-la-Neuve: Université Catholique de Louvain.

FROM EXISTENTIAL TO INDEFINITE DETERMINER: KAŠ IN ALGERIAN ARABIC 513 Haspelmath, Martin. 1997. Indefinite pronouns. (Oxford Studies in Typology and Linguistic Theory). Oxford: Clarendon

Press. Haspelmath, Martin & Josephine Caruana. 1996. “Indefinite pronouns in Maltese”, Rivista di Linguistica 8(1). 213–227. Letellier, L. Victor. 1838. Vocabulaire Oriental Français, Italien, Arabe, Turc et Grec: pour la seule prononciation. Paris:

L’auteur.https://books.google.fr/books?id=KeOcpKa5rIC&lpg=PR3&ots=HengeMNOXf&dq=vocabulaire%20oriental%20francais%20italien&hl=ar&pg=PP7#v=onepage.

Lucas, Christopher. 2010. “Negative -š in Palestinian (and Cairene) Arabic: Present and possible past”, Brill’s Annual of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics 2(1). 165–201.

Madouni-La Peyre, Jihane. 2003. Dictionnaire Arabe Algérien-Français: Algérie de l’ouest. (Dictionnaires L & M). Paris: Langues & Mondes - L’Asiathèque.

Marçais, Philippe. 1952. Le parler arabe de Djidjelli (nord constantinois, Algerie). Marçais, Philippe. 1977. Esquisse grammaticale de l’arabe maghrébin. Paris: Maisonneuve. Obler, Loraine K. 1990. “Reflexes of Classical Arabic šay’un in the dialects: Synthetic forms of language change”, James

Bellamy (ed.), Studies in Near Eastern Culture and History in Memory of Ernest T. Abdel-Massih. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Shaw, Thomas. 1758. Travels or Observations relating to several parts of Barbary and the Levant. London: Millar. http://books.google.fr/books?id=0c4GAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA476#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://books.google.fr/books?id=0c4GAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA476#v=onepage&q&f=false.

Tsai, Wei-Tien Dylan. 2003. “Three Types of Existential Quantification in Chinese”, Audrey Li & Andrew Simpson (eds.), Form, Interpretation and Functional Structure: Perspectives from Asian Languages, 161–179. London: Curzon / Routledge.

Vincent, M. 1830. Vocabulaire français-arabe, suivi de dialogues à l’usage de l’Armée d’Expedition d’Afrique. Paris: Firmin Didot.

Wilmsen, David. 2014. Arabic Indefinites, Interrogatives, and Negators: A Linguistic History of Western Dialects. (Oxford Studies in Diachronic and Historical Linguistics 14). Oxford: Oxford University Press.