Diminutive and augmentative formation in northern Najdi/Ḥā’ili Arabic
The main goal of this paper is to make known an unusual, if not unique, morphological augmentative found in one variety of northern Najdi (Saudi) Arabic, specifically the Ḥā’ili variety as mainly spoken by members of the Shammar tribe. A brief description of the pattern can be found in Assuwaida (1997). Our paper expands on his original work, illustrating more subpatterns of the augmentative. We conclude by briefly discussing whether the unique Ḥā’ili augmentative is an innovation or a truly archaic feature.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Background on Najdi Arabic
- 3.Diminutive and augmentative in Arabic
- 4.Some connotations of the augmentative in the HD
- 5.Morphological diminutive and augmentative in Ḥā’ili dialect
- The diminutive in HD and CA
- Diminutive and augmentative forms in HD
- Monosyllabic base words
- Disyllabic base words
- Trisyllabic base words
- Base words with more than four root consonants
- The Diminutive with [aj] infix and its augmentative form
- Summary
- 6.Conclusion
-
Notes
-
References
References
Abboud, P.
(
1979)
The verb in northern Najdi Arabic.
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 42(3), 467–499.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Alfozan, A.
(
1989)
Assimilation in Classical Arabic: A phonological study (Doctoral dissertation). University of Glasgow, UK.
Alqahtani, M.
(
2014)
Syllable structure and related processes in Optimality Theory: An examination of Najdi Arabic (Doctoral dissertation). Newcastle University, UK.
Al Rasheed, M.
(
1991)
Politics in an Arabian oasis: The Rashidis of Saudi Arabia. New York: I.B. Tauris Publishers.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Al-Rojaie, Y.
(
2012)
Diminutives in Najdi Arabic: An account of sociopragmatic variation.
Journal of Human and Administrative Sciences, 2, 9–35.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Al-Sharkawi, M.
(
2014)
Urbanization and the development of gender of the Arabic dialects.
Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies, 14(5), 87–120.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Al-Sweel, A.
(
1987)
Verbal and nominal forms of Najdi Arabic.
Anthropological Linguistics, 29, 71–90.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Assuwaida. A.
(
1997)
An-Nakhatu At-Ta’iyyatu Fi Al-Lahjati Al- Ḥā’iliyah [The Ṭayy flavor in the Ḥā’ili dialect]. Ḥā’il, Saudi Arabia: Dar ALandalus Li-nnashr Wattawzi’ [In Arabic].
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Badarneh, M.
(
2010)
The pragmatics of diminutives in colloquial Jordanian Arabic.
Journal of Pragmatics, 42, 153–167.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Böhmerová, A.
(
2011)
Suffixal diminutives and augmentatives in Slovak: A Systemic view with some cross-linguistic considerations,
Lexis, 6, 59–84.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fattah, H., & Caso, F.
(
2009)
A brief history of Iraq. New York: Hermitage.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gadalla, H.
(
2000)
Comparative morphology of Standard and Egyptian Arabic. Meunchen, Germany: Lincom Europa.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hamid, I., & Faiq, S.
(
2009)
A comparative study of diminutive forms in English and Arabic.
Journal of Education and Science (J. Edu. Sci. Mosul University), 16(1), 1–15.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Heath, J.
(
1987)
Ablaut and ambiguity: Phonology of a Moroccan Arabic dialect. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ingham, B.
(
2009)
Saudi Arabia. In
L. Edzard, &
R. de Jong (Eds.),
Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics 4 (pp. 123–130). Boston: Brill.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Johnstone, T.
(
1967)
Aspects of syllabication in the spoken Arabic of ‘Anaiza’.
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 40, 1–16.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lahrouchi, M., & Ridouane, R.
(
2016)
On diminutives and plurals in Moroccan Arabic.
Morphology, 26, 453–475.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Masliyah, S.
(
1997)
The diminutive in spoken Iraqi Arabic.
Journal of Arabic Linguistics, 33, 68–88.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
McCarthy, J., & Prince, A.
(
1990)
Foot and word in prosodic morphology: The Arabic broken plural.
Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 8, 209–283.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Nakshabandi, A.
(
1996)
Diminutives in Classical Arabic and the urban Hijazi dialect.
Linguistic Communication Periodical, 7, 1–15.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Prochazka, T.
(
1988)
Saudi Arabian dialects. London: Kegan Paul International.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Procházka, S., & Ritt-Binmimoun, V.
(
2017)
Diminutives in Tunisian dialects: A formal and pragmatic analysis. Handout of a talk presented at the
12th International Conference on Arabic Dialectology (AIDA 12)
. Marseille, France, May 30–June 2.
Rabin, C.
(
1951)
Ancient West-Arabian. London: Taylor’s Foreign Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sifianou, M.
(
1992)
The use of diminutives in expressing politeness: Modern Greek versus English.
Journal of Pragmatics, 17, 155–173.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Watson, J.
(
2002)
The phonology and morphology of Arabic. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Watson, J.
(
2006)
Arabic morphology: Diminutive verbs and diminutive nouns in San’ani Arabic.
Morphology, 16, 189–204.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Youssef, I.
(
2015)
Palatalization in educated Cairene Arabic. In
M. Krämer &
O. Urek (Eds.),
Nordlyd (Special Issue on Palatalization), 42, 21–31.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Zewi, T.
(
2005)
Diminutive. In
K. Versteegh,
M. Eid,
A. Algibali,
M. Woidich, &
A. Zaborski (Eds.),
Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics 1 (pp. 637–640). Leiden: Brill.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by
Cited by 1 other publications
Jarrah, Marwan & Abdulazeez Jaradat
2022.
The syntax of the diminutive morpheme-aajin Egyptian Arabic, Syrian Arabic, and Jordanian Arabic.
Linguistics Vanguard 8:1
► pp. 69 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 june 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.