Tashīl al-ṣarf wa-l-naḥw in the 18th-century Syriac and Arabic grammars: the cases of Josephus Simonius Assemani and Ğirmānūs Farḥāt (original) (raw)
Related papers
THE CRITICS ON THE HISTORY OF ARABIC GRAMMAR
This study aims to critically examine IgnazGolziher’s allegations on the beginnings of Arabic linguistics. According to him, the Arabic short vowel symbols did not originate in the Arab world but were adopted from the Levant. The same he assumed in regard to the three different parts of speech, namely name (ism), verb (fiÑil), and particle (harf), which allegedly presupposed the knowledge of Aristotle’s De Interpretations falsely attributed to ÑAli (Karramallahuwajhah) . Goldziher explained this connection with the scholastic disputes occurring between the different theological schools in the first century AH, with special reference to the dogmatic differences between the Murji´ah and the Qadariyyah sects. Theological debates on various doctrines were held at the same time by Eastern Christians based on the teachings of John of Damascus. In the eyes of Goldziher, these debates – based on the assumption that since they occurred in the same century – they had to be related, and furthermore, St. John of Damascus must have borrowed his ideas from Aristotle. Since no Arabic sources speak of this connection, he raises his own suspicions, namely that Muslim sources refused to admit the borrowing of ideas from the Christians. This study serves the purpose of investigating his allegations in regard to the origin of Arabic grammar and syntax and of deciding the extent of his scholarly bias. The researcher adopts a theoretical and analytical approach based on linguistic studies. In order to arrive at a balanced judgment with regard to this conflict, the linguistic corpus, as well as the historical background of transmission is being analyzed.
Tūrāṣ Mamllā: A Grammar of the Syriac Language, Volume I: Syriac Orthography
2012
This volume, the first in a comprehensive grammar of the Syriac language, is a thematic presentation of orthography in the Syriac grammatical tradition, bringing the study of Syriac writing closer to modern linguistic accounts of writing systems. Part 1 presents a chronological overview of the writing system, and discusses all Syriac graphemes and symbols, including that of the consonantal system, the vocalization system, grammatical graphemes that pertain to phonology and morphology, punctuation marks and editorial signs, as well as signs found in liturgical MSS, ancient accent signs, and the numbering systems. The arrangement of these graphemes to form words is treated in Part 2, presenting a theory of graphotactics (the rules that determine how graphs are arranged together to formulate larger texts), looking at writing in general and at the graph level, presenting the ductus of each graph from a synchronic perspective. Part 3 discusses garšunography, the use of the Syriac script to write other languages, as well as the use of other scripts to write Syriac, the adaptation of the Syriac script to write other forms of Aramaic, and alloglottography, the art of reading Syriac texts in languages other than Syriac. Part 4 addresses technological developments post movable type including lithography and mimeography, typewriters, digital typography, and coding standards.
Historiographia Linguistica 41/1, p. 109-126, 2014
Classical Arabic scholars continue to refer to A Grammar of the Arabic Language by William Wright (1830–1889) which they generally cite without any further precision. In doing so, they dissimulate the long history of this work. Basically, it is the translation, published in two volumes (1859 and 1862), of the second edition, in German, of the Grammatik der arabischen Sprache (1859) by Carl Paul Caspari (1814–1892). However, this book has itself a long history. A first edition was published, in Latin, in 1848, under the title of Grammatica arabica. The first part (Doctrina de elementis et formis) had even been printed for the first time in 1844. In the preface to the 1848 Latin edition, Caspari quotes his two main sources: the Grammaire arabe (11810, 21831) by Antoine-Isaac Silvestre de Sacy (1758–1838) and the Grammatica critica linguae arabicae, in two volumes (1831 and 1833, respectively), by Heinrich Ewald (1803–1875). The German version of Caspari’s Arabic Grammar was reedited in 1866. A new edition appeared in 1876, prepared by August Müller (1848–1892). This fourth edition was translated into French (two printings, in 1880 and 1881) by an amazing personality, the Colombian Ezequiel Uricoechea (1834–1880). It was also republished (5th and last edition) in 1887. As for Wright’s Arabic Grammar, a second edition, “revised and greatly enlarged” appeared, in two volumes, in 1874 and 1875, and a third edition, revised by William Robertson Smith (1846–1896) and Michael Jan de Goeje (1836–1909), also in two volumes, appeared in 1896 and 1898. This third edition, with some modifications due to Anthony Ashley Bevan (1859–1933), was reprinted in 1933. The latter, constantly reprinted, is the one Arabists generally refer to. Wright’s Arabic Grammar thus appears as the collective work of the 19th and early 20th century’s European orientalism. Interestingly, it also came to remind us that it is impossible to undertake the history of the field without the knowledge of two of its great academic languages: Latin and German.
Aramaic Studies, 2008
A number of ancient Syriac grammars are analysed, as far as the passages related to diathesis are concerned. It appears that the concept and the definition of diathesis vary diachronically, but also according to the theoretical framework chosen by the authors. The influence of different Greek and Arabic models (and of their interactions) causes variation in the perspective under which diathesis is conceived and described. Particular attention is devoted to the middle diathesis, which is attributed to Syriac exclusively in the translation of the Téchne Grammatiké, made by Huzaya in the VI century. The comparison of the Greek original with the Syriac translation may also shed some light on the concept of middle diathesis, as meant in the Téchne.
Grammar and Logic in Syriac (and Arabic)
Explores the conceptual interactions between the fields of grammar and logic among the Syrians in late antiquity. How the two fields were confused or distinguished and how the one influenced developments in the other. Also some conclusions for the origins of the Arabic grammatical tradition are drawn.
2011
Abū al-Qāsim az-Zama ẖ s ar ī’s (1075–1144) grammatical treatise Al-Mufaṣṣal fī ṣan‘at al-i‘rāb is one of the main and most acknowledged philological masterpieces of the classical Arabic. The aim of this article is to shed some light on its origin, cultural and philological background, main goals and assumptions of the author, its position in the history of studies on Arabic grammar, hitherto prevailing research output of European orientalist dealing with Al-Mufaṣṣal. It also comprises a short presentation of the figure of Az-Zama ẖ s ar ī himself. The article quotes references to Arabic, English, German, Russian and Polish source literature.