lingvo.wikisort.org - Language

Search / Calendar

Maridi Arabic was a possible Arabic pidgin apparently spoken in the upper Nile valley around 1000 CE. If legitimate, it would be the oldest record of a pidgin. It is known from just fifty words in an 11th-century text.

Maridi Arabic
Regionpossibly upper Nile
Eraattested ca. 1050
Language family
Arabic-based pidgin
  • Maridi Arabic
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
GlottologNone

In 1068, the Andalusian geographer Abū ʿUbayd al-Bakrī published the words of a traveler from Aswan, who had complained to the Caliph in Egypt that in the town of "Maridi", black Africans had "mutilated" the Arabic language.

It appears that the text may be a caricature of an actual pidgin, or at least of partially acquired Arabic. It shares several features with Juba Arabic and Nubi Creole: a complete lack of inflection, including articles, possessive markers, and agreement; a single negative marker; ʔmny for the third-person dual pronoun, and perhaps the use of jaʿal 'make' rather than colloquial qaʿad 'stay' for the progressive.

It is not known where "Maridi" was. It has been concluded that it was in Mauritania, with the single non-Arabic word in the text (below), kyk (people?), hypothesized to be from Songhai -koi 'people who' plus the Arabic plural -k. However, there are also indications that it was located in Upper Egypt or northern Sudan, as several of its features are found today only in that region. Specifically, Classical q has become ʿ (ʿayn), fwq "on" has become fwʾ, and j has become d. The last is a sound correspondence found today only in Upper Egypt.


Text


The only account of the language is the following text.

bywħdywmrādwldwmālwʔsm.
LOConedaymanJumuʕato.himname
One day there was a man whose name was Jumuʿa.
dmllwʔwwbnlwʔw.
camelto.himheandsonto.himhe
He had a camel and a son.
ʔmnydyrwħʔʕdnybymħl
they.two(?)CONTgostay.two(?)LOCplace
They were going to stay in a place.
kyklwʔwlħrmʔntbrbr.
people(?)to.himsayshameyoubarbarian
People(?) said to him, "Shame! You are a barbarian!
bnnwrwħʔntbrbrlwʔʕdw
sonnotgoyoubarbarianto.himsit/stay.him(?)
Your son should not walk, you barbarian, seat him!"
ʔmnydmlfwʔʔw
they.two(?)cameluponhe
They were on the camel.
kyklwʔwlħrmʔntbrbr.
people(?)to.himsayshameyoubarbarian
People(?) said to him, "Shame! You are a barbarian!"
bnʔʕddwmārwh-.
sonsit/stayJumuʕago
The son sat and Jumuʿa walked.
kyklwʔwlħrmʔntbrbr.
people(?)to.himsayshameyoubarbarian
People(?) said to him, "Shame! You are a barbarian!"
dwmāʔwlkykmwdydmymhy.
Jumuʕasaypeople(?)notgoodnotimportant
Jumuʿa said, "People(?) are neither good nor important."

See also



References





    Текст в блоке "Читать" взят с сайта "Википедия" и доступен по лицензии Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike; в отдельных случаях могут действовать дополнительные условия.

    Другой контент может иметь иную лицензию. Перед использованием материалов сайта WikiSort.org внимательно изучите правила лицензирования конкретных элементов наполнения сайта.

    2019-2025
    WikiSort.org - проект по пересортировке и дополнению контента Википедии