SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The thesis is divided into two main parts, phonology and morphology. In the phonology, long vowels, short vowels and diphthongs are discussed; their incidence in patterns; and the variants which can occur in certain phonetic contexts. Stress and syllabication are also discussed, and the section ends with a brief discussion of anaptyxis and elision. The section on morphology begins with the discussion of patterns of singular tri-radical nominal forms, with and without feminine markers, and discusses the frequency of occurrence of such patterns throughout the sample. The singular patterns are discussed in order of complexity of pattern, viz.: CvCC, GvCvG, CwGwG, etc. This is appropriate only with the singular patterns, whose number and variety lend themselves to such treatment. In all other sections, patterns are discussed in order of frequency of occurrence. The section on tri-radical patterns ends with examples of rare singular tri-radical patterns, for which a single example only was attested. A section on singular and plural quadriliteral (strictly speaking quadri-radical) patterns follows, the quadriliteral forms being divided into those with four differing radicals, those with reduplicated 2 geminate radicals, those with reduplicated C , and those with redupli- 3 cated C . The dual is briefly discussed. (The dual is obsolescent in M nominal forms, though occurring freely in verbal forms.) A section on external plurals follows. While plurals with masculine external suffixes are relatively infrequent, plurals with feminine external suffixes occur freely, both adjectivally, nominally and in participial forms. The most commonly occurring broken plural patterns are examined next. A section is devoted to illustrating the plural formation where final syllable /-eeC/, /-iiC/ in the singular becomes /-ooC/, /-uuC/ in the plural - a plural formation which occ\irs commonly in M, and one which is peculiar to the MSA languages as a whole. Other broken plural patterns are then discussed individually, according to their frequency of occurrence in the sample. The section on plural patterns ends with examples of rare plural patterns, for which a single example only was attested. Since triliteral and quadriliteral forms with /m-/ prefixes are considered separately in the text. Verbal nouns - which as gerunds, or nouns describing the action of the verb, have no plural - are discussed in a separate section, both those arising from simple verb forms, and those arising from derived verb forms. /m-/ prefixed singular forms are then discussed (the plurals of such forms being included in the section on broken plural patterns). The participial patterns are described in a separate section, since they are completely regular and predictable. Those arising from both simple and derived verb forms are illustrated. The final section covers adjectival patterns, discussed separately from the substantive forms since they are inflected for masculine and feminine as well as singular and plural.