This article examines secondary pausal phenomena in modern oral recitation traditions of Biblical Hebrew, focusing on final nasalization and diphthongization. Its primary aim is to document and present the empirical basis for analysis, drawing on recordings from the Hebrew University Language Traditions Project. The data, spanning a wide geographic range from Libya to Uzbekistan, show that these phenomena occur across diverse traditions, supporting their linguistic significance. The study argues that these forms cannot be adequately explained as the result of influence from speakers’ vernacular languages, since comparable features are either absent or structurally different in those languages. Instead, analysis situates modern evidence within a broader historical and typological framework. It proposes two interpretative perspectives: first, typological parallels with nasalization in Rabbinic Hebrew; and second, a phonetic account of these forms as a sonoritydecreasing strategy that reinforces phrase-final vowels.
The Christian Arabic spoken in Baṣra, a port city on Šaṭṭ al-ʿArab roughly 500 kilometers south of Baghdad, has so far received only limited scholarly attention in the field of Iraqi Arabic dialectology. Based on field recordings and face-to-face interviews with native speakers, this study offers the first descriptive account of Baṣra Christian Arabic (CBṢ). It will primarily discuss, from a comparative perspective, how closely related CBṢ is to Baghdad Christian Arabic (CB) and Mosul Christian Arabic (CM). The collected data show that CBṢ diverges in certain features from CB and CM, due partly to extensive exposure to gǝlǝt Arabic and partly to inherent features. Despite this, CBṢ shares core qǝltu features with CM, but to a greater extent with the Christian Arabic spoken in Baghdad.
Abstract This article provides a comprehensive account of infinitives in Soqotri, understood here as a subset of verbal nouns formed on the basis of productive patterns. It explores the infinitive formation across different verbal stems and root classes, drawing on both published sources and fieldwork materials. C1iC2iC3 is identified as the default infinitive pattern of the basic stem, which can be traced back to Proto-msa *C1aC2īC3. In the derived stems, infinitives are most often formed with the feminine suffix -oʰ or -eʰ. The article also briefly considers the use of the suffix -Vn in the patterns of infinitives in Soqotri and in the continental msa languages. Synchronic analysis is complemented by a comparative investigation, highlighting both parallels and divergences with cognate patterns in Mehri and Jibbāli / Ŝḥɛrɛ̄ t, and thereby contributing to the reconstruction of the Proto-msa system of deverbal derivation.
Abstract The present publication constitutes the English translation of an Old Amharic treatise titled ‘Kinds of the Creation’ preserved in two manuscripts kept in church libraries in the vicinity of Mäq̆äle, the capital of Ethiopia’s Tigray Region. In addition to the translation, the paper provides a detailed linguistic commentary on the Old Amharic features in the language of the treatise as compared to other compositions in Old Amharic and to modern literary Amharic.
