ABSTRACT
Verb medial hamza Verbs with medial hamza are rare, and only sa?al (he asked) and ra?as (he presided
over) occur frequently. The realization of the hamza in these forms is common to all speakers regardless of their educational status. In A the short, stressed á of B is realized i, as in si?al and ri?as. The paradigm below gives the conjugations of the verb sa?al in B:
3 m.s. sa?al yis?al 3 f.s. sa?alt tis?al 2 m.s. sa?alt tis?al ?is?al 2 f.s. sa?altiin tis?aliin ?is?ali 1 c.s. sa?alt ?as?al 3 m.pl. sa?alaw yis?aluun 2 c.pl. sa?altuun tis?aluun ?is?alu 1 c.pl. sa?alne nis?al
Verb final hamza Lit. Ar. forms with a final hamza regularly lose the hamza both in A and B. Long aa
of l i t. Ar. forms is imalized to -e, as in je <jaa?.2 In some cases the final hamza of Arabic forms is elided and the medial radical is geminated as in this example from B:
badde < bada? (he has started) but note gara (he has read) Some common verbs of this type are:
badde, ibaddi (to start) v.n. (i) tbiddi gara, yigra (to read), v.n. (i) graaye je, iji (to come, arrive), v.n. jiyye
The conjugation of the verb badde (he has started) is given below:
3 m.s. badde ibaddi 3 f.s. baddat itbaddi 2 m.s. baddeet itbaddi 2 f.s. baddeetiin itbaddiin 1 c.s. baddeet ?abaddi 3 c.pl. baddaw ibadduun 2 c.pl. baddeetuun itbadduun 1 c.pl. baddeene inbaddi
badd baddi
baddu
Note that the preformative i-of the imperfect form 3 m.s. and 3 c. pl. is realized yremalns in liaison with the negative particles laa or maa, as in: laa ybaddi (he does not start) or maa ybadduun (they do not start) Verb initial w
The most common example of these is the verb wasal (he came, arrived) which has the free variant wassal in B. 3 m.s. perfect of the same verb has the characteristic penultimate open syllable Cu-in A, but Ca-in B. Also, 3 m.s. imperfect has the penultimate syllable Coo-in A, but Cuu-in B. Cf:
A B
wusal/wugaf yoosal/yoozan
wasal/wagaf yuusal/yuuzan
The conjugation of the verb wagaf(he stood) in B, appears below:
3 m.s. wagaf 3 f.s. wagafat 2 m.s. wagaft 2 f.s. wagaftiin 1 c.s. wagaft 3 c.pl. wagafaw 2 c.pl. wagaftuun 1 c.pl. wagafne
yuugaf/yuwgaf (rural) tuugaf tuugaf tuugafiin ?awgaf yuugafuun tuugafuun nuugaf
?ugaf ?ugafi
?ugafu
Derived themes Some common examples of the derived themes of verbs initial w in B are:
II warraf, iwarruf (to bequeath), v.n. III waasal, iwaasil (to continue), v.n. V (i)twaffag, yitwaffag (to be successful) v.n. VI (i)twaadac, yitwaadac (to bid farewell), v.n. VIll ?ittasac, yittisic (to get larger), v.n.
