Soqotri Lexical Archive

By V Italy Naumkin , Leonid Kogan , Dmitry Cherkashin ,

Ahmad

v !

sä ad

-

Da

?

rhï and

v

IsÄ Gum

v

än ad

-

Da

?

rhï

Summary

:

This article is part of the annual report of the Russian ethno

-

linguistic mis¬

sion on the island of Soqotra

(

Yemen ) Collecting and analyzing

"

new " lexical material

(

that

is,

words missing from Wolf

Les

lau

'

s monumental Lexique Soqotri

,

published in 1938 and fully preserving its value up to this day

)

is one of the principal goals of the team This is abundantly justified by the extraordinary rich and archaic nature of the Soqotri vocabulary

,

which can be deservedly considered one of the last unexplored reservoirs of

Semitic lexical stock Each of the sixty

"

new words

" ,

presented m Latin and Arabic script , is provided with grammatical information

,

text illustrations and

,

whenever possible , ety¬

mological glosses

1 .

Prolegomena

A systematic investigation of the Soqotri language and folklore , initiated in

the last quarter of the 20 th century by Vitaly Naumkin , has been actively

reassumed in November 2010 in the framework of the Interdisciplinary

Expedition in Yemen supported by the Russian Academy of Sciences and

the Russian Foundation for the Humanities . 1 In the 2010 fieldwork season ,

Naumkin has been assisted by his Russian colleagues Leonid Kogan and Dmitry Cherkashin . On the Soqotri side , most of the work was carried

out by two native speakers , v ïs Gum vän ad - Da ç rhï ( 40 years old , a teacher

in a primary school ) and Ahmad v Isä ad - Da 9 rhI ( 23 years old , a student

of English in the Soqotra branch of the University of Hadramaut , Mukalla ) ,

both stemming from the bedouin tribe DaVho . The core area of the tribe is

located in the central - eastern part of the island , 2 its dialect represents the

central - eastern dialect group and , as estimated by the informants them¬

selves , is well understood by ca . 2/ 3 of the Soqotri - speaking population .

1 Grant No

10 - 01 -

18078e Today

,

the project is also supported by the Russian Founda¬

tion for Fundamental Research

(

POcpM

,

project No

12 -06 -

00182

- a)

and the Foundation for Fundamental Linguistic Research

(

OcpAH , projects Nos

A -

17

/

2011 and

B - 55 /

2012 ) Both institutions deserve our sincere gratitude for their financial help

2 Wadi DaVho can be easily spotted on the map m Miller

/

Morris 2004 , p 46

(

ca

12 °

30754

°00 '

)

62

vitaly Naumkin , L eonid K ogan , Dmitry Cherkashin et al .

After two sessions or so

,

it became obvious that our informants ' contribu™

tion to the project would go far beyond what one could legitimately expect from an informant . While their intimate knowledge of the finest nuances of their native tongue has never failed to amaze us , no less striking is their natural talent for linguistic analysis , coupled with a keen understanding of the goals of the project and , last but not least , an exemplary devotion and patience

.

Their presence among the authors of this contribution

(

hopefully , also in the future publications of our team

)

is not only a token of our sincere gratitude to the people of Soqotra

,

but also a fair recognition of the academic merits of our Soqotri colleagues and friends .

The linguistic survey of Soqotra as undertaken by the present authors has many facets , ranging from purely grammatical issues

(

such as verbal para¬

digms and vocalic oppositions ) to more ethnographically and philologically oriented tasks

,

notably

,

collecting and analyzing the Soqotran oral literature . The present article , to be updated on an annual basis

, 3

will focus on the de¬

scriptive and comparative lexicography of the Soqotri language

.

Its practical goal is simple : to make available to the interested reader all those Soqotri lexemes which are missing from Wolf

L

es lau

'

s monumental Lexique Soqo¬

tri

(

LS

) .

This task is by no means a trivial one

.

As is well known

,

the descrip¬

tive segments of LS entirely depend on the extensive collections of Soqotri texts published in the beginning of the 20 th century by D avid H einrich

Muller ( 1902 , 1905 , 1907 , also Bittner 1918 ) . Mu leer ' s Soqotri corpus is

not only very broad

:

it is also extraordinary rich and varied

(

indeed

,

one can legitimately wonder how such a titanic job could have been performed by one single scholar

—

most of

it ,

also with one single

i n

formant

—

w

i t h i

n

a

very - restricted time

-

span

)

. There are hardly any reasons to doubt that LS does provide a fairly accurate and representative panorama of the lexical treasur¬

ies of the Soqotri language

,

and its constant perusal gives ample proof of the correctness of this evaluation : scores of rare , formally and

/

or semantically peculiar lexemes not only found their way into M uleer

'

s corpus , but were also brilliantly understood and explained by the editor .

In such conditions

,

it is all the more surprising that an average day of our field work has inevitably produced from ten to twenty lexemes completely missing from Mu leer

'

s texts

(

and , consequently , from LS

)

. Such a result would perhaps be less impressive if we were faced with specialized termi¬

nological vocabulary with more or less restricted distribution

,4

but this is almost never the case

:

the immense majority of entries listed below in this

3 It is a pleasant duty to extend our gratitude to the editorial board of ZDMG for this wonderful opportunity

4 For example , plant names , among which scores of completely new lexemes have been

brilliantly elicited by M iranda M orris (v below in this Introduction )

article are fully - fledged verbal and nominal lexemes commonly used in the

everyday speech of the islanders . The impact of such " new words " on our

knowledge of the Common Semitic lexical stock is hard to overestimate . To

say more , barring potential discoveries of new texts in the ancient Semitic

languages , Soqotra may well be the last reservoir of still undiscovered genu™

ine Semitic lexical elements . It is our hope that their systematic presentation

will be of some interest not only for Semitic etymologists , but also for Ara¬

bic dialectologists , general linguists and all specialists dealing with linguis¬

tic and cultural history of Southern Arabia .

The bulk of the lexical evidence presented below was collected and ana¬

lyzed during a two - week fieldwork period in Hadibo in November 2010 . A

final edition of the manuscript was carried out during a two - month work¬

ing period in Moscow in June - August 2011 . Besides , in May 2011 Leonid

Ko gan and ? IsÄ Gum ?än took the advantage of a joint stay in Sanaa con¬

nected with the visa formalities and other practical preparations of the So -

qotrans ' visit to Russia in Summer 2011 for polishing the final version of the

manuscript .

2 . Structure of the entries

The structure of the lexical entries can be schematically represented in the

following way :

No . Soqotri transcribed Soqotri in English rendering /

( imperfect / jussive for verbs , Arabic letters Arabic rendering

dual

/

plural for nouns )

► Text illustrations

• Morphological and semantic observations

0 Etymological notes

= ► References to lexicographic studies posterior to LS

A few comments pertaining to the individual segments of the entry are now

in order .

2 . 1 . The Soqotri words are reproduced in phonological transcription . The

consonantal inventory of Soqotri is relatively well known and hardly ever

presents serious difficulties to a specialized reader . Conversely , the Soqotri

vocalic system has never been systematically analyzed , and there is still a

lot of work to be done in this domain . The vocalic oppositions marked be¬

low mostly derive from the authors ' preliminary observations on the vocalic

alternations within the Soqotri verbal paradigm and arc of necessity rather

64 ViTALY N aumkin , L eonid K ogan , D mitry C herkashin et al .

conventional . In brief , the main elements of our vocalic inventory are rather

similar to what was intuitively established by Muller more than 100 years

ago . 5 The phonemic status of a , e , o , u 6 and i is not in doubt . As for £ , it is ah

most certainly phonemic as well ( cf . such minimal pairs as ken ' color ' —

' they were ' or s em name ' - íem ' he was sick ' ) , although its relationship to a

remains to be investigated . 7 There is almost certainly no phonemic opposi¬

tion between e and 9 , but the contrast is provisionally maintained in our

transcriptions . We also mark the labialized o , most probably an allophone of

either a or o , whose exact conditional factors are still to be elicited . 8 Finally ,

we use a special sign for the rounded o , although it is , with all probabil¬

ity , a positional allophone of e ? Vocalic length is not phonemic and is left

unmarked . The stress is mostly antepenultimate ( and hence predominantly

non - phonemic as well ) , but since final stress is also relatively well attested ,

all words and forms below are explicitly accented ( as in Muller ' s corpus ) .

2 . 2 . In the scholarly literature , Soqotri ( together with the rest of MSA ) is

typically presented as an unwritten language . This statement is correct inso¬

far as the commonly accepted attributes of written languages are concerned :

books , media , broadcasting , school education . It is also tr ue that , to the best

of our knowledge , Soqotri is not used for writing down practical things ( such

as letters or business notes ) . However , it is wrong to assume that Soqotrans

are unable ( or unwilling ) to write in their native tongue . Here again , one

has to go back to Mu liver ' s pioneering achievements . As Muller explains

in the preface to his 1902 volume , during his visit to the island he was able

to commission the qadi of Hauläf named H as i m ber vAbbüd , " ein gelehrter

5 In this pre - phonological epoch , every attempt at transcribing an unwritten language

could only be intuitive Whatever imperfect M uller ' s notation may seem , personal expe¬

rience shows that a more or less significant morphological opposition which would com¬

pletely escape Muller attention is rather hard to find This is an implicit but powerful

proof of the essential correctness of his understanding of the Soqotri phonology

6 In the speech of our informants , often realized as [ou ] and rendered accordingly in

our transcriptions

7 In principle , the relationship between e and a appears to be allophonic , the former

functioning as the unmarked variant and the latter being conditioned by the neighbor¬

hood of gutturals and emphatics Not all the examples can be explained in this way , how¬

ever , and the minimal pairs like nafa " ' he worked ' vs neja ' ' affair , business ' may compel us to treat them as different phonemes , even if the phonological load of this opposition is probably not very high

8 That e and o can be distinctive is shown from such pairs as ken ' color ' — ' it was '

or s em ' nam e ' — sjm ' sun , day ' Since there is hardly any example where j would contrast

with o , it would be reasonable to surmise an allophonic relationship between them , but

this question requires further study

9 But note possible contrasting pairs such as as hozak ' to cut ' vs bezak ' to be cut '

Mann und sozusagen Staats™ und Privatsecretar des Sultans

"

, to collect and put down in Arabic script a few specimens of bedouin poetry . The rather impressive outcome of this enterprise can be found on pp . 162 - 188 of M ül¬

ler 1902 . 10

The recent years have witnessed a spectacular revival of interest towards the Soqotran cultural identity among the islanders themselves

.

Preservation of language and folklore are the key elements of this process , and it is only natural that the problem of literacy is constantly growing in importance for a rather broad circle of educated Soqotrans interested in preserving and developing their cultural legacy 11

In the framework of our project , the necessity of putting down the So¬

qotri texts in Arabic script was motivated by more practical purposes

.

While trying to narrate a lengthy fairy tail ,

?

IsÄ G um

v

än once realized that for a better accomplishment of his goal he had to prepare beforehand . As an out¬

come of this preparation , there emerged a two

-

page specimen of a Soqotri folk story written in Arabic characters

.

The extraordinary usefulness of this practice was immediately acknowledged by all the members of the team and , since then , every Soqotri text processed by us is simultaneously recorded in phonological transcription and in Arabic script

.

The same applies to the individual words collected for the lexical archive

.

12

2 . 3

. The Arabic translations are adduced as they were provided by the in¬

formants , adjustment to the standard written form was minimal . They do not always reflect a perfect fushä , and some more or less obvious Yemeni colloquialisms crop up here and there

.

In this case

,

too

,

our practice does not differ too much from Mu leer

' s ,

who often reproduced his speakers ' Arabic

10 To be sure

,

the earliest specimens of Soqotri written m Arabic characters are found m the very first European account on the Soqotri language , the famous Memoir by J R Wellsted

(1835

) As far as one can deduce from Simeone

-

Senelle 1992

,

pp

67 - 72

,

it is still uncertain whether these transcriptions were made by

W

ellsted

'

s Soqotran in¬

formants

,

by some Arabic

-

speaking individuals or even by the Brits themselves

11 An interview entitled jWJl

<

uJJ

jpI

y J \ is one of the head liners of the second issue of the magazine Soqotra net

(

July 2010 ) Three more articles in the same magazine deal with problems related to the Soqotri language and oral literature , and more than one page is occupied by Soqotri poetry recorded m Arabic script A bilingual

(

Soqotri

-

Arabic

)

edition of Soqotri poetic and narrative texts has been recently published by

F a

hd

S a

li m

(

2006 ) With some reservations

,

it

;

may well be considered the first printed book in the Soqotri language

12 A more detailed exposition of the writing system adopted by our team

(

in most of its aspects

,

only slightly different from the original pattern developed by

ç

Is Gumvän

)

is scheduled for a forthcoming publication For the purpose of the present article , it is suf¬

ficient to mention the following additional graphemes rendering those Soqotri phonemes

which are missing from the Arabic consonantal inventory ^ for

5,

^ for

s ,

r for z

66 vitaly Naumkin , Leonid Ko

g

an

,

Dmitry Cherkashin et

al

.

explanations exactly as he heard them

(

note especially the rather extensive semi

-

colloquial Arabic tafsïrs in the poetic section of Mull er 1902

)

.

2 . 4

. Text

i 1

lustrations

—

perhaps the most essential element of the Archive —

can be subdivided in two markedly different categories . Some of the ex¬

amples go back directly to the Soqotri fairy tales and stories

,13

whereas a few others have been obtained via direct inquiry of the informants , who were asked to compose sentences including the pertinent lexeme in one of its most prominent applications . As is well known

,

each of the two types of evidence has both merits and drawbacks

.

Sentences directly extracted from the texts are linguistically neutral and provide the most objective evidence on the meaning of the relevant word . However , such examples can rarely clarify it with enough precision ^ which

is

, obviously , one of the principal goals of a lexicographic enterprise like the present one

.

Examples created on purpose by the informants inevitably bear a stamp of artificiality , but they are usually very helpful for establishing the nuclear meaning of the word as perceived by the native speakers as well as for detecting some of its hidden semantic nuances

.

The final outcome

is ,

at any rate

,

rather balanced

,

as both types of examples are sufficiently well represented in nearly every entry .

2 . 5

. Morphological and semantic observations provided in the entries arc

quite heterogeneous . Some of them pertain to the root structure of the So¬

qotri lexeme

,

a few others deal with such issues as homonymy and polysemy , semantic nuances , verbal government , deverbal /denominal derivation , etc . Doubtful precedents in M uller

'

s corpus are also treated here , as well as

some very rare cases where Muller

'

s interpretation of a given word has proved to be incorrect .

2 . 6 .

Whenever the Semitic origin of a given lexeme could be established with

enough precision , brief references to the relevant cognates are made . As it tends to happen in the MSA etymology , reliable parallels of this kind arc not many and often restricted to the immediately related continental MSA languages

M

ehr

i

and Jibbali .

2 .

7 . There is no reason to doubt that in the foreseeable future Leslau

'

s Lexique will remain the standard tool of Soqotri lexicography

.

Accordingly ,

our Archive has been primarily conceived as addenda et corrigenda to LS : all words that are missing from this dictionary are admitted

,

even if they do

11 In the present issue of the Archive

,

two groups of texts are involved those published

m Naumkin

/

Porkhomovsky 1995 and those collected anew m November 2010

appear in this or that published source on Soqotri posterior to the Vienna

corpus . A brief survey of such sources , systematically referred to in the en¬

tries of the Archive , seems to be useful in the present context :

- Perhaps the most extensive amount of new lexical information can be

gleaned from Miranda Morris ' studies dealing with the Soqotra natu™

ral habitat and traditional healing practices , culminating in her opus mag¬

num of 2004

.

14

- A wealth of new lexical evidence is found in Naumkin ' s numerous pub™

lications on Soqotra , first and foremost N aumkin 1988 and N aumkin /

P

or khomovsky 1981

.

A good part of this new vocabulary is conveniently

arranged into semantic fields , such as color designations , names of vessels

and utensils , terminology of palm cultivation , names of fishes and insects .

Many more new lexical items collected by Naumkin are scheduled for further analysis and an eventual publication .

- Numerous previously unknown Soqotri lexemes are mentioned through¬

out

T .

M

.

Johnstone

'

s lexicographic descriptions of the continental MSA . languages

(

ML and JL

) .

Besides

,

a few important new words can be found on the pages of Johnstone

'

s 1968 article dealing with one particular phe¬

nomenon of Soqotri verbal morphology .

- Lexicography was a prominent avenue of the field research on the island carried out by Marie

-

Claude

S

imeone

- S

enelle and A ntoine

L

on - net . Their extensive collections of the Soqotri anatomic vocabulary

(

1985 - 1986 , 1988 - 1989 , 1991 , 1992 ) display dozens of previously un¬

known names of body parts

,

some of them of great interest from the point of view of Semitic etymology

.

15

- A ki

'

o N akano

'

s Comparative Vocabulary of Southern Arabic

(

1986 ) contains more than a thousand of Soqotri lexemes . In spite of the fact that N akano

' s

work is primarily oriented towards the most fundamental

14 Miller / Morris 2004 has no general lexical index , only a list of plant names in

simplified Latin transcription However , scores of lexical items

(

both

"

old " and

"

new

"

) which are not immediately connected with botanic nomenclature are scattered over the

odd 750 pages of that book This is largely due to the fact that many plant names are de¬

scriptive and comprise numerous elements of the

"

ordinary " vocabulary A cumulative list of all Soqotri lexemes mentioned m Miller

/

Morris 2004

is ,

clearly

,

one of the most urgent desiderata of the MSA lexicography Among Morris ' other studies dealing with Soqotra , the 2003 article about the traditional medicine has to be singled out because of the extraordinary rich amount of new lexical material

15 It is rather striking that so many anatomic texts mentioned in our corpus are miss¬

ing from

L

on net

's

and

S i m e on e - S

en

el l e 's

studies

(

cf Nos 7

,8 , 9 , 34 ,

57 below ) This is

certainly not a reason to blame the French fieldwork team who carried out its task with

an exemplary care and accuracy

—

rather

,

one more occasion to admire the inexhaustible

richness of the lexical resources of the Soqotri language

68 vitaly

N

aumkin

, L

eonid

K o g

an

,D

mitry

C

herkashin et

al

.

semantic concepts , words completely missing from the Vienna corpus

are not rare on the pages of this study . This circumstance is not without

importance : as repeatedly confirmed by our own research , " new words "

are not necessarily restricted to special terminological fields , but can be

found even in the most basic semantic layers . 16

3 .

The archive

1 . âra 9 ( yd ?âraVlydrâ ç) ^J \ ' to fight , to wrestle 5 / ^ jU ?

► hozar hay di - ho fikha wa - ?âra ç t - h o kor yif çal fe T le tore my garments

and wrestled with me in order to rape me 5, çouyéghm dra ç tad h 9 - sort

' The boy fought with someone in the street 5.

• The last consonant f is patent in forms like dro ço ' she fought 5.

2 . ihsdy ( du . ibsíti , pl . ibes ) 4^ 1 ' pregnant ( small cattle ) 5 /

( oj U js ÜI j ojJiJ ! ni olJS )

► in o sdy ó ?ozi houróti ibsiti ' He has two black goats which are pregnant 5;

sékaysk séhm rridn ó ?oz dds íbhy wa ^ omor al - sínik T asked Salim about

the goat which was pregnant . He said : " I did not see it . 55 5

• The consonantal root ?- b - s becomes clear from the related verb ibóho

( td ?éboy / td ?boy ) ' to be pregnant ' : irémo t - h o tdy ó ?oz di - '?ibóho rridn dot d

wa - hkdn se garifo bal ld çydg T had a goat which was pregnant in spring ,

but it miscarried without giving birth ' , çéyydk td ?bóyhdn û - ho érhon

nd ça T would like my goats to become pregnant now 5. The singular base

of the perfect can be indirectly elicited from the third feminine plural

êbdy } 7

= = ►

M orris 2003

, p .

327.

3 . çdnéso ( td çon9s / ta çnés ) ' to hide itself ( moon behind a

mountain ) 5 /

► di - han b 9 - half lal td 'onds yd ?ókdb êzhim ' In our place when the moon

hides itself it becomes dark 5, bó vork mdn séte ld - ?ére çaf td çonds dómik T

started my journey from Hadibo in the night , when the moon was shin¬

ing . When it hid itself , I went to sleep 5.

0 Perhaps related to ?ans ' elbow 5 ( LS , p . 317 , Simeone - Senelle / Lonnet

1991 , p . 1458 ) , which would imply an original meaning ' to bow 5 or sim¬

ilar .

16 Even the

S

wadesii wordlist is no exception

,

cf hilak

"

smoke ' m No 20 below

17 In the suffix conjugation

,

the

3

m sg is always identical to the

3

f pi m Soqotn

= > ML 139 ( çànos ' to sink , to decline ' ) . The verb is almost certainly attested

in Muller 1905 , p . 168 ( wud - ke - enésoh [ tjtalúmihin ' Und verdunkelt

sie , wenn es schwindet ' , about moon ) , but was not recognized by Les™

lau because of Mu leer ' s erroneous transcription without f ( listed in

LS 68 under ?énes ' être petit ' ) .

4 . éb çe ( ydbôh / lyàbi ç) ' to cheat ( a female animal by

making it suckle a young which is

not its own ) 5 / JaJU

► tad çag éb çe fólhi h - tri é ?loy ' One man made two cows suckle one calf ,

to ?o çiggéto solob mdn tdy wa - yhe eb çàyhi tad When they gave

birth , he slaughtered the kid of one of them and made two of them

suckle the remaining kid . '

• Note that the two examples differ in what concerns the government of

the verb : the kid as direct object vs . the mothers introduced by and

vice versa . The discrepancy has been realized by the informants who

assure that both usages are possible .

0 Likely related to Mehri hdbö and Jibbali eb çê ' to caress an animal ' s teats

with the fingers or gentle words to coax it into giving milk 5 ( ML , p . 42 ;

JL , p . 22 ) . A striking , by no means accidental parallel is found also in

Tigre : ?atba ça ' to cause a cow to care for her calf , bd çay ' a cow that re¬

jects her calf ( WTS , p . 293 ) .

= >

N aumkin 1988

, p .

136 .

5 . bákle ( bdkléti / báklhi ) «là , ' sort ( of date - palms ) ' / ( j - xJl ^ )

► in o sfho di - ho b 9 - half báklhi di - tímher Tn my place I have several sorts

of date - palms ' , bákle di - hâzhol sker mds tórridr çan bákle di - sarafdne

' The dates of the di - Hazhel palm are better than those of the di - Sarafane

palm ' , torndf di - ?al - tsebtétdn mds bákle ' The dates whose sort is impos¬

sible to recognize ' .

0 Clearly related to Geez bakaltj bak u alt ' date palm , trunk of a palm tree '

( CDG , p . 101 ) . Mehri baglât ' dates ' is missing from ML and Jahn 1902 ,

but is attested once in H ein / M uller 1909 , p . 93 ( = béglah in the Had -

rami version ) .

6 . dúdhe ( dudéy / dudêyhon ) ' insect ' / 1

► dêldk dud éy h on dds bd - kd çar ' There are many insects in that house ' ,

dudéyhon báyhdn yhé ?te sérhon ' Insects have six legs ' , séndm dd te di - ha

di - d y ah bd - sdyhom wa - ?ékab day dudéyhon ' That meat which was put

on the sun went bad and insects entered it ' .

0 Likely related to Arabic düd - ' worms , maggots ' ( Lane , p . 929 ) .

70

ViTALY Naumkin , Leonid Kogan

,

Dmitry Cherkashin et

al

.

7 . fd çam (fd çmi / fi çhim ) ' upper * part of the back leg of an

animal ' /

o

\ ^ iS

p

j

=*

^

► solobk

o ?

oz di

-

ho bd

~

kd

ç

ar wa

-

sódik tos di

~

kd

ç

yhsr fahre kal fd

ç

mi

ç

okalk di

-

ho di

-

kd

ç

ar

c

ï slaughtered a goat in my house and distributed

the meat to all the houses of the family , except for the two back legs

which I left for my house 5, sdlóbdn ó ?oz wa - kddórdn wa - tóydn çaf tdké ?e

mds fd

ç

am

c

We slaughtered a goat and ate it so that only one back leg

was left 5, késdk ó ?oz di - lahdgo bd -fd çam ' I found a goat which was

caught by its leg . '

0 From Proto - Semitic pa ?m - ' upper part of leg 5 ( SED I No . 207 ) , which

came to function as the basic designation of foot in Mehri and Jibbali

(

Simeone

-

Senelle

/

Lonnet 1988 - 1989

, p .

213 , Soqotri not recorded

)

.

8 . fére (ferítiZ firdyhdn ) ojb ' upper part of the back leg of large

cattle 5 /

► sézayfk bd

-

zayéfe wa

- ?

írkah énhifére T was invited to a wedding

-

feast

and a back leg of a cow was given to me as meal ' , sob di - ?álhhe lal róukah

bd

-

zayefe na

'

amdr hdsfêre

'

When a cow

'

s leg is offered to someone as a

meal during the wedding - feast , we call it / ere . '

• The meaning of this term is different from the former insofar as it is

restricted to large cattle . Our informants insist that this word is only

applied to the cut of meat , not to the leg of a living animal .

9 . fdrse (farsíti ) ^ y ' shoulder 5 / ^ 5 "

► éghomk érhon wa

-

bésdn

á ?

oz tdhrdr wa

-

tó

'?

o sékdr

di -

míshdr yhdlóho tdhfdr h

-ç

arébe

ç

af tserakóho mds farsíti h

-ç

arébe wa

-

loyk bds

'

I assem¬

bled the goats and there was a semi - wild goat among them . When they

were brought into the pen , that goat jumped over the wall of the pen and

its shoulders were already beyond the wall , but eventually I caught it ' ,

lal tdbétdn bdr

ç

amiko za

ç

mds farsíti mahzilóti 'As soon as you realize

that the goat has reached the middle of the door - post with its shoulders ' ,

kdla

ç

k bd

- ?

óbdn wa

- ?

9bróho

b 9

- fdrse di - ag

' '

I hurled a stone and it hit a

man in his shoulder ' .

0 Likely related to Arabic far sat - ' gibbosity of the neck ' ( Lane , p . 2367 ) .

10 . fdthas ( yáfthos / lydftéhas ) ' to fall , to get lost ' /

►

fdthas kdhilihin msn tdda

9di -

sédek wa

~

fatéza

Çi

An egg fell from the nest

and was smashed ' , fdthas kênhi çag di - 'áyydk hdy ' The man I was look™

ing for got lost from me ' .

11 . fot as ( ydfátas / lydftás ) cto knock out ( a tooth ) ' / syJl ^

► dtér

ç

o

ç

dggi wa

-

dékom tad deg wa - fotas mdy

ç

dle

'

Two men fought

,

one

pushed the other and knocked out his tooth ' , za ç di - tdfatas houlíh di -

suwâhih 'A goat that will knock out the canine teeth of the Swahili

'

.

• As pointed out by our informants , the use of this verb is not restricted

entirely to teeth , cf . mâsilk mdn borf wa -fotask náfin émsahal ' In au¬

tumn I was collecting the resin of the dragon - blood tree and pinched off

for myself a bit of resin ' .

0 Cf . perhaps Hebrew pattïs ' hammer ' ( HALOT 924 ) .

12 . gdhhl ( gahlíli / gohólhil ) Jl >^ pregnant ( only about women ) ' /

► ékdomk

ç

dze gdhhl bd

-

mdstésfi

e

I saw a pregnant woman in the hospi¬

tal ' , çdze gdhhl biro séh ça m 9 go s d dskêlo ' The woman who was pregnant

gave birth to seven twins ' .

• The corresponding verb ( ' to be pregnant ' ) is dghayhlo ( tdghilol / tdghdhl ) :

ç

dyydk tdghdhl

di -

ho

ç

dze

di -

kénah T want my wife to become pregnant

again ' ( the non - attested basic form of the perfect dghilol can be indirectly

elicited from the 3 feminine plural ) . A related form is once attested in the

Vienna corpus , but was not properly understood by the editor : dim fire -

ham mm helhéten wu

-

ghél mm mintízheréten

'

Madchen werden schwanger

bei der Dattelreife , ihre Leiber werden stark bei deren Spaltung ' ( Muller

1905 , p . 219 ) , taken for granted in LS 108 ( ' devenir fort ' ) . The intended

meanings are likely ' conceive ( dim ) . . . become ( visibly ) pregnant ( ghêlj .

=

>

Nakano 1986

, p

.

9 ,

Johnstone 1968

, p

. 521 .

13 . gélof ( ydgóhf / lydgléf ) ' to take away an upper layer of

something ' / ^Js > î \ ^

►

gélofk hoy

h

i mdn tdda

ç

di

-

tómdr T took away the dust from the dates

'

, gdléfo

ç

dze badal di

-

têtdn mdn dime 'A woman took away a layer of

droppings from the pen ' , ydgóhf drzéfo di - shaf He takes away the skin

from the milk ' .

0 Clearly identical to Arabic j // ' to peel , to scrape off ' ( Lane , p . 444 ) . An

Arabism is possible .

14 . gdmah ( ydgdmah / lydgmdh ) ' to catch ' /

►

gdméhds

ç

dyyug wa

-

gésdl mds ri

'

The men caught it and cut off its head

'

, hóhon gdmahk

ç

ag kor al

-

lydgé

ç

ouyéghsn T caught the man in order to

prevent him from beating the boy ' .

• This verb is to be distinguished from the homonymous gdmah ' choquer ,

frapper les cornes ' ( LS , p . 110 ) , as illustrated by the following example ,

purposely composed by our informants in order to emphasize the

72 vitaly Naumkin , Leonid Kogan , Dmitry Cherkashin et al .

difference : hóhon gâmahk fâ çher kor al - lydgmâh ^ouyéghen CI caught

the bull in order to prevent it from goring the boy ' .

15 . gésor ( ydgósdr / lydgsér ) cto be able ' /

► rího

di -

ránhdm mélah béne wa

- ?

al

-

ndgós3r kor néroyh

c

The water of the

sea is very salty , so we cannot drink it ' , ézah çârdb wa - ?al - ydgósdr lydstât di - ?í ?

imh

£ l

wa

-di -

sí

?

imhil

c

He has a neck

-

ache and cannot look either to

the right or to the left ' , kal tdgósdr tdsbdh ta çterékdn cIf you cannot

swim , you will drown ' .

0 Also in Jibbali : giser ' können ' ( Bittner 1917 , p . 31 , not in JL ) . With all

probability related to Akkadian gasdru cto become powerful ' ( CAD G ,

p . 55 ) , Arabic $ sr cto be daring , courageous , bold ' ( Lane , p . 424 ) . An

Arabic loanword in Soqotri is not likely in view of the relatively mar¬

ginal semantic status of the Arabic root and its meager presence in the

South Arabian dialectal area ( cf . Behnstedt , p . 189 ) .

16 . yhe ( yáyhoy / ldyhs ) ^ cto let enter , to introduce ' / J > ol

► liso tdy som mese kdlíf wa

-

gddóho álldhe di

?

âl

ç

ag

d -

yhe

di -

kâ

ç

ar wa

-ç

9rébds bdr

di -

ho wa

-

yhe

-

s

di -

kd

ç

ar mdy

d -

yhe dmbórye wa

-

gddéhdy yhé

?

rho mi

?

sdr

d -

yhe wa

-

yhe

-

s

di -

kâne

c

One day there was an abundant rain

,

and

one cow came to a man , to his house , and he knew it was mine and let it

enter to the house , to his children . Also his billy - goat came to him , and he

let it enter inside ' , i çbiro suwâhili wa - yhe - s ld - sadak cIt was offered to the

Swahili and he put it in the corner of his mouth ' , táherk çâmok édbhor wa -

ç

àyydk hhé

á ?

dd

di -

nékhdl

c

Once I went to take honey from bees and I

wanted to introduce my hand into the beehive ' , yhoyk di - ho á ?dd di - bóhse

di -

ho

di -

bebe

C

I put my hand into the pocket of my father

'

.

• The paradigm of this double - weak verb is broadly identical to its struc¬

tural homologues re cto drink ' , te cto eat ' and le cto catch ' :

singular dual

plural

theperfect

3 m .

yhe yhúyo yhe

f .

yhe yhuyóto yhe

2 m .

yhoyk

yhóyki yhóykdn

f . y

hoy s

1

yhoyk yhóyki yhóydn

the imperfect

3 m .

yáyhoy

yd

yhúyo yáyhe

f .

tdy hoy tsúyo tsóydn

2m .

tdy hoy

tsúyo

tse

f .

tiyhiy tsóydn

1

dyhoy dyhúyo

n

dyhoy

singular dual

plural

the jussive

3m .

hyhe lydhéyo lydhé

f .

tss tséyo tséydn

2m .

tse

tséyo

tsé

f .

tihi ( tsi) tséydn

1

Idhé Idhéyo ndhé

The passive : yhöwd ( yúse / lydsó or lydyhó )

0 The morphological peculiarities of this verb as outlined above unam¬

biguously suggest * swy in the prototype , but it is hard to see how cto put

in , to introduce ' can be reconciled with cto be equal ' which character¬

izes its reflexes throughout Central Semitic .

17 . yhâlah ( ydyhâlah / lydyhlâh ) ctojump ' / jü

► mahâmmad démd wa

-

tó

?

o gédahk sâ

ç

akk

ç

dy béne wa

-

lat yhâlah

'

Mu¬

hammad was sleeping . When I entered , I shouted very loudly , and he

jumped ' , yhâlah çag bd - zayéfe çaf td ?ótd ?s çayn cThe man was jumping so

much during the wedding - feast that he caught an evil eye ' . 18

• The third root consonant h is confirmed by forms like yhdlóho cshe

jumped ' .

18 . hédor ( ydhóddr / lydhdér ) l> - cto build ' / ^

►

ç

dyydk Idhder nofin kâ

ç

ar bd

-

san

ç

â wa

- ?

al

-

gésork

C

I was willing to build

for myself a house in Sanaa , but I could not ' , hédor çag mísgid e - nhofs

wa

- ?é ?

efo fähre

C

A man built a mosque for himself and for all the people

'

,

érdm dd makon híder sémdk bd

-

dd wakt

c

That Makon was build then

,

at

that time ' .

• The intensive stem from the same root is hódir ( ydhodirin / lydhâddr ) . It

is used with a specialized meaning cto arrange layers of timber on stone

walls ' , cf . hédork nófin bdstân wa - hódirk çdy síHrhdn çaf yóutar CI built

for myself a palm - grove and put sirhen - timber on the top of the wall in

order to make it impenetrable '

0 Same as Mehri hddür and Jibbali hódór cto build a thatched pen ' ( ML ,

p . 167 ) . According to DRS 841 , to be identified with * hdr cto watch , to

be on guard ' , represented by Arabic hdr ( Lane , p . 534 ) , etc .

= ►ML , p . 167 ; JL , p . 103 ; DRS , p . 841 .

18 Jumping ( both vertically and horizontally ) is a popular entertainment among the

islanders , especially during the feasts . One who jumps too much (and too well ) attracts a lot of attention from the audience and unless bismilla is pronounced by him (or for him ) , he can easily be bewitched by enviers .

74

ViTALY N aumkin , L eonid K ogan , D mitry C herkashin et al .

19

. halhétan Vemote

(

years

)

V ol ^ Jl

► Passim in the narrative formula érdm h - hafóne bd - áyhon halhétdn ' for¬

merly , in those remote years there was . . . ' ( and similar ) .

• One is tempted to identify this adjective with héle y pl . helhéten ' profond '

( LS , p . 175 ) , but note that according to our informants Mu leer ' s inter¬

pretation of çébehor di - hële / çdber h ( y ) elhéten as ' ein tiefer Brun¬

nen ' / ' tiefe Brunnen ' is not correct ( translate rather ' wells with sweet ,

good water

' )

.

0 Hardly any connection with Mehri hdwïl

'

first

;

long ago

',

hdwdldy

'

an¬

cient '

(

ML

, p . 9 )

, rightly traced back to

?

wl by Jo h nston

k

.

20 . hilak ¿JL > - ' smoke ' / oUo

► sénd hilak di - siydt mdn di - sdrhdk ' They saw the smoke of the fire from

afar ' , yd ?ókdb hilak di - ho di - aym ' The smoke is getting into my eyes ' ,

al - gésork hkéb dds di - kd çar ken hilak T was not able to enter this house

because of the smoke ' .

• Said to be fully synonymous to the well - known çéto ( LS , p . 332 ) .

0 Identical with Mehri hilok ' soot , smoke - marks on walls and ceiling '

( ML , p . 178 ) , Jib . h elk ' to give off a smell of burning ' , hdlók ' smoke -

marks on a ceiling ' ( JL , p . 110 ) .

=

>

DRS

, p

. 874 .

21 . sharéb ( ydshdrob / lydséhrdb ) ' to jump ' /

► kdno zayéfe bd - di - méde wa - tdherk kor dshdrob dds bd - zayêfe ' There

was a wedding - feast in the countryside and I went to jump there ' , sharéb

çag salé makólhim bd - kúlh mdklímo çdsara durù ç 'A man made a triple

jump and each element was three cubits long ' .

22 . hérog ( ydhórdg / lydhrég ) ' to flow , to leak ' / JL -

► ydhórdg dor mdn mónki ' Blood is flowing from the wound ' , rího ydhórdg

mdn sek di - ka çar ' Water leaks from the roof of the house ' .

• The verb can also be used when the movement of animals is described 19 :

égahk támre wa - tó '^o érahk hank késdk róho wa - kósafk mdy dónib bd -

sdre wa - '?al - sdmd wa - hérog ker gódi ç çaf ydbdrah bd - hóyhi T climbed a

palm and when I reached the top , I found a gecko . I cut off its tail with

a knife , but it did not die : it crept by the trunk and reached the ground ' ,

térodk mi ?sdr bd - ri di - kóde wa - hérog kénhi di - harf ' l pursued a he - goat

on the plateau , but it fled from me to the slope ' .

0 Might be eventually related to Arabic hr $ ' to go out ' ( Lane , p . 718 ) .

= > Probably not identical to hrg ' cesser , être défendu ' ( LS , p . 188 ) .

19 Cf colloquial Russian yxeKaxb

'

to flow away ' and

'

to run away

,

to escape '

23 . hrer ( yahrér / lyâhrar ) jf j > - "to heat , to boil ' /

►

ydgóhf drîêfo

di -

shaf wa

-

yatâkob

w a -

yahrér ba

-

sáfror

di -

sóubdhdr

"

He

takes out the skin from the milk , collects it and boils it with flowers of

the s . - plant ' , tâherk di - míshdr wa - ksek kéfe di - rígem by bd - défe di -

mískal wa

- ?

édofk wa

-

hrork toy wa

-

lat toyk

"I

went to the pen and found

there some beestings under a lid , next to the fire - place . I took it , boiled

it and then ate ' .

0 From Proto - Semitic hrr cto be hot ' , for which see DRS , p . 929 .

= > The form hirir in Mull er 1905 , p . 315 has been tentatively interpreted

as " brûlé ' ( LS , p . 192 ) , but the original translation ' geschwärzt ' is con™

textual ly more appealing .

24 . hosab ( ydhásab / lydhsáb ) "to come to a binding agreement ' /

►

v

9yyúg hésdb her kor ydsóhb karére h

-

m ése

"

The men agreed today that

tomorrow they would slaughter in order to implore the rain 5, hosabk tos

ha h

- ?

ábrehes tanúf

'

l entrust you herewith with your nephew TanuP .

0 May be related to Mehri hsawb ' to send , to send for ' ( ML , p . 450 ) . This

comparison is hampered by the fact that the exact meaning of the Soqotri

verb is hard to elicit as it is said to be out of use in the modern language .

25 . haym ^ "genitals ( male and female ' ) /

► lal ydháhh

d -

yhe dlhitdn tdkâsaf mdy haym

"

When he is milking his

cows , cut away his penis ' , gêdah çag wa - hton çouyéghen wa - zé çe mdy

mdn haym dnt

"

A man came and circumcised a boy

:

he took out a bit of

skin from his penis ' , izóho çdze kârdb b 9 - défe di - haym "The woman suf¬

fered from an ulcer on the side of her vulva ' .

=

>

Simeone

-

Senelle

/

Lonnet 1991

, p

. 1460

;

DRS

, p

. 862 .

26 . hoz jy "( appointed ) time ' / cJj

► lâzdm dgodíhin di

-

ho h

-

hoz

"

I must come in the time appointed to me

'

, byytig bd

-

mdkon sdkâddm h

-

hoz

di -

wâ

ç

de

"

The men in Makon were

already waiting for the time of the appointment ' .

0 Any connection with Mehri hawz and Jibbali habz " boundary mark '

( ML , p . 196 ; JL , p . 121 ) ? Cf . also Soqotri hoz "environ ' in DRS , p . 855 .

27 . kóbiz ( ydkobízin / lydkábaz ) "to tuck up the garment ' / jfjMl ^ 3j

► kóbiz

ç

ag her kor ydîéfdn

d -

yhe h - fárhim

"

The man had to tuck up his

garment today in order to prepare the wedding - feast for his daughter ' ,

kóbiz

ç

ag

di -

gédah

d -

yhe ken érhon

"

The man who came from his goats

76 ViTALY Naumkin ,

L

eonid

K o g

an

,

Dmitry Cherkashin et

al

.

tucked up his garment

5

, wa

-ç

od

ç

ag wa

-

yhe hdr rézalo wa

-

kóbiz

'

The man went

,

although he was tired and had to tuck up his garment

'

.

• The verb is commonly used as a token of heavy involvement in one

'

s af¬

fairs

,

running here and there in order to perform one

'

s duties , etc . 0 From Proto

-

Semitic kbs

'

to join

,

to draw together

,

to collect '

(

HALOT ,

p

. 1062

)

.

28 . kârdb (karíbi

/

karob )

'

wound

'/

^

-

y -

► sárkah m du kârdb dem Tus went out from the wound

'

, sotêdd kârdb

di

- ag

' '

The man

'

s wound got inflamed

'

, tâherk wa

- ?

al

-ç

ad bélogk

ç

af

a ?

drah

ç

amk

di -

half sdrêyk wa

-

sénka

?

k kârdb

di -

ho bd

-

sob wa

-

lat bósik

'

Having walked for a while I reached the middle of the way , but then I fell and got a wound in my leg

.

Then I cried

'

.

0 Also in jibbali

:

séréb

'

wound '

(

JL ,

p

. 148

) .

Note Tigrinya

k u

drdbba

'

in™

flammation or a kind of swelling which develops on the hands '

(

TED ,

p .

940

) ,

Amharic

k w

ardbba id

. (

AED

, p .

732

)

.

=

>

Nakano 1986

, p . 41

.

29 . kéroy (ydkârdy

/

lydkrê ) ajjU

'

to jump

'/

yê

► térodk mí

?

hr wa

-

tó

?

o érahk gâhi Molk hdy

di -

ho ba

-

nakf wa

-

kéroy wa

-

lat loyk bdy T was pursuing a he

-

goat

.

When I entered the valley , I threw a piece of cloth to its face

.

Then it jumped and I caught

it ' , k

Droh o

ç

af sziyin mahzilóti

di -

mákon

'

It jumped and dispersed the doorposts of Makon

'

.

• There is one doubtful attestation of this verb in the Vienna corpus

:

wa ~ keténah wa

-

kése mâ

ç

rher wa

-

kaíre

ç

eh af mêsï

'

Und er kehrte um und fand einen Damon und sprang auf ihn los

,

so dass er sich versah '

(

M ul ¬ ler 1902

, p

.

94 )

.

30 . kotab (ydkâtab / lydktêb )

'

to cut with a knife

'

/

► kotabk kósba kino kor drâkah bds riho mdn dram T cut a small piece of pipe in order to take some water out of the drum

'

, kdtibo

ç

âni wa

- sit

et mds torn Dr

'

The skin was cut and its dates became visible

'

.

0 Also in Arabic : qtb

'

to cut '

(

Lane ,

p .

2541

)

. An Arabism in Soqotri is

not very likely because of the relatively marginal attestation of this meaning in Arabic

.

Hebrew katab

'

destruction

' ,

traditionally identified with the Arabic root

(

BDB

, p

. 881

)

, may be related as well

.

A few com™

parable terms see further in CDG

, p .

453 .

31

. (

di

-

)

mâ

ç

zhd J

* > * * ( ¿

)

'

cartilages of the neck

'

/

l53

► dihso

ç

af rúkah mds sárhi wa

-

késdf mds (

di

-

)

mâ

ç

azhsl

'

It was flayed

,

its skin

was removed

.

Then they cut its throat

',

dátnik wa

- '

Wmodk ma

^'

mido sibib

wa

-

tá

?

o

ç

esk mdnâl dómik ézahk md

ç

azhel

bd -

sabáb dds ma

ç

mido

di -

síbib

' When I went to sleep , I took for myself a large pillow . When I woke up

from the sleep , my neck started to hurt me because of that large pillow ' .

0 Certainly identical with mâ çazhel ' spindle ' ( LS , p . 304 ) .

32 . médrak ( mddórik ) il jJu ' a star which predicts the rainfall ' /

juálo

^ íi j

j

y

çl

yj ^ s

>

xj

►

di - ?

al

-

taredc1yhi nósdb wa

- ?

al

-

níses mdn mddórik

'

Which were not

driven by showers , nor by little rains from the ra . - stars ' , lal tdlósd mdn

médrak ydké

ç

dd dghâyo

'

When it rains because of the ra

. -

star , wadis

begin to flow ' .

33 . móhdid ( mohdídi / míhdod ) jujl ^ ' door - wing ' / ^ UI ^

►

ç

dmok nofin móhdid

di -

míshdr mdn mázrod di

-

tímher

'

I made a door -

wing of palm branches for my pen ' , hóudol çânhi móhdid ' Door - wing

will be taken away because of me ' .

0 From yhed ' to shut in , to block ' ( LS , p . 141 ) .

34 . mah ^ ' marrow ' /

► mah

di -

te

?

e sker mdn mah

di - ?o ?

oz

'

The marrow of a sheep is tastier

than the marrow of a goat 5, kdla ç énhi çag bd - sohlo di - ?ó ?oz wa - ?égd ?k tos

kor dmâhmah mds mah wa

-

ksek bist bds wa

-

kdla

ç

k

'

A man threw to me

a bone of a goat and I tried to split it in order to suck from it the marrow .

But then I discovered there was no marrow in it and threw it away ' .

0 From Proto - Semitic muhh - ' brain , marrow ' ( SED I No . 187 ) . Borrow¬

ing from Arabic muhh - is not very likely .

35 . mahzílo ( mahzilóti / mdhózhil ) door step ' / ^

► kdróho

ç

af czíyin mahzilóti

di -

mâkon

'

The goat jumped and destroyed

the doorsteps of Makon ' , çdmok di - ho bd - kd var dds di -fone tdy mahzílo

wa

-

amok di

-

ho bd

-

ka

v

ar dds

di -

nd

v

a tri mahzilóti

'

In my old house I

made a doorstep of one stone only , whereas in my new house I made a

doorstep of two stones ' .

• It is hard to say whether this lexeme is identical to mahgéloh ' place en¬

tourée d ' un mur ' ( LS , p . 163 ) , describing a row of stones surrounding a

fish - trap and preventing it from being taken away by the sea ( Muller

1905 , p . 185 ) . On h gl ' to surround ' and its derivatives in Soqotri and

elsewhere in MSA see further DRS , pp . 828 - 829 .

36 . mal JU ' what can fill ' /

► mal

di - ?

dd

'

handful

'

, mal di

-

sádhdr

'

what fills a cooking

-

pot

'

, mal

di

-

goniye

'

what fills a sack

'

.

78

ViTALY Naumkin , Leonid Kogan

,

Dmitry Cherkashin et

al

.

0 Also in M ehr i mel ' fullness , filling , fill ' , amel dd - hah ' mouthful 5 ( ML ,

p . 266 ) , Jibbali msl ' fullness 5 ( JL , p . 171 ) .

37 . mósdt ( moséti / mésat ) ' beak ' /

► mósdt di - ?dsféro káyhen çan mós Dt di - souHdo ' The beak of a sparrow is

smaller than the beak of a vulture ' , égabk támre wa - ksek bdsre di -

ndkdrds sólhi d - yhe bd - mósdt ' I climbed a palm and found there a ripe

date which a 5 . - bird pecked with its beak ' .

0 Any connection with Arabic nqt ' to point , to dot , to speck ' ( L ane ,

p . 2844 ) ?

= > Morris 2003 , p . 340 .

38 . nib ( níbi / énbob ) ^ ' nit ' /

► d - yhe ri di - salhémo wa - lat bist bay kénhom wa - la énbob ' I lis head is

bald , therefore he has no lice nor nits ' , énbob ydsrókdh mdn kénhom

' Nits come from lice ' , çdméro di - ho çdze sínik bdk nib wa - ?s bd - çdmk di -

?ê ?efo wa - sfreysk çdk ' My wife said to me : " I saw a nit on your head while

you were among the people , and I was ashamed of you " . '

0 From Proto - Semitic nVb ( b ) - ' nit ' ( SED II No . 157 ) .

=

►

N aumkin

/ P

orkhomovsky 1981 ,

p

. 65 .

39 . énkdf ( ydndkof / lydnkaf ) ^ ¿ >1 ' to take out , to release , to send

away ' / ( JjU )

► bélog d - yhe hdddm kor yandkof l -frdngi ' He sent his servant in order to

release the European ' , énkafk hdy d - yhe hedíye ' I opened his gift to him ' ,

énkafk kayd mdn kar di - ?oz ' I took the rope away from the goat ' s neck ' .

• Same as nêkof ' racler ' ( LS , p . 275 ) , attested in M uller 1905 , p . 43 ( mm

ba çd inokéfis be - menäkif ' nachher schabt man ihn mit eisernen Meißeln

ab ' , about aromatic resin ) ?

0 Identical with Jibbali enkéf "to open up ( a cave , a door , a house ) , to take

the cover off something , to uncover ' ( JL , p . 190 ) . See further Hebrew

nökap ' what has fallen , been knocked down ' ( IIALOT , p # 722 ) , Arabic

naqafa ra ?sahu = darabahu çald m ?sihi hatta yuhri ^ a dimayahu ( LA 9 ,

p . 404 ) , Geez nakafa ' to peel , to bark ' ( CDG , p . 399 ) .

40 . ndsa ç ( yandsaVlyansd ç) ' to pull out ' /

► ndsa ç zd çre di - ?á ?dd mdn sef d - yhe di - ri ' He pulled out a handful of hair

from his head ' , gédahk mdn hadibo di - ho di - kd var wa - 'omor énhi di - ho

mugs dm al - ?énka çk énhi bdskót çdmok hdy al - ?ênka çk bêsd wa - 'es wa -

ndsa ç t - ho ri ' When I came home from Hadibo , my son said to me : " Did

you bring for me some sweets ? " I said to him : " No , I did not . " Then he

cried , stood up from his place and seized me by the hair . '

0 Identical with Mehri nusdy and Tibbali nisdj ' to pull out hair 5 ( ML , p . 299 ; JL , p . 192 ) .

41 . nises ' little rain 5 / jk *

►

di - ?

al

-

taredáyhi nósdb wa

- ?

al

-

níses mdn mddórik

'

Which were not

driven by showers , nor by little rains from the stars 5, fone yêkdn níses

bd

-

hâghdr wa

-

her bísi níses

'

Formerly there were little rains in Hagher ,

but nowadays they do not happen anymore ' .

0 Cf . Arabic nasïsat - = balalun yakünu bi - ra ?si l - çudi h da ?üqida ( TA 16 ,

p . 551 ) .

42 . nata ç ( ydnâta ç/ lydntd ç) ' to fall 5 /

► n9to

ç

o houlíli dêgm

di -

hóyhi

'

The two canine teeth from that side fell to

the ground ' , ¡yanta 1' man ri dd - támre tó ?o bdsre ' May he fall from the top

of the palm like a ripe date ! 5

43 . drîêfo ( drzefóti / érzdf ) yl ^ j \ ' skin on milk 5 /

Aj ULP Jju ^ jJl jJfc

► toyk ho drzéfo mdn sddhdr

di -

shaf

'

l ate the skin which was in the milk -

pot 5, ydhóhb d - yhe érhon di - ?dftó ?o wa - ydsód bd -fham di - syat wa -

ydgóldf drzéfo

di -

shaf wa

-

ydtâkob

'

He milks his goats into buckets and

puts them on the embers from the fire . Then he takes out the skin from

the milk and puts it together 5.

0 Likely derived from the verbal root rs / ' to put something over something ,

to hide 5, attested in Soqotri as well as elsewhere in Semitic ( LS , p . 405 ) . At

the same time , a certain semantic similarity to Arabic radf - ' heated stones

with which milk is made to boil ' ( Lane , p . 1099 ) is noteworthy .

44 . réhe ( ydráha / lydrhá ) j ' to lick 5 / Lr ^

► wa

-

suwâhih

y

droh a

d -

yhe sib he

b 9 - Us

in 'And the Swahili was licking

his lips with his tongue in anticipation ' , sínik álhhe tdrâha di - se nähr dt

T saw a cow licking its nose 5, rêhdk di - ho á ?dd T licked my hand 5.

• The verb is attested in the Vienna corpus , but the correct meaning was

not recognized by Müller ( ' beschnuppert 5, 1905 , p . 249 ) , nor by Les™

lau

( '

flairer

5

, LS

, p .

397

) :

wa

- ?

élhe terâha gad di -fólhi

'

and the cow licks

the skin of the calf ( about a dead calf ' s stuffed skin through which the

cow is cheated in order to coax it to give milk ) .

0 Also in Jibbali : rahé ' to lick 5 ( JL , p . 210 ) .

45 . sinfah ( smfêhi / sdnfâhan ) ' chick ' / ( ^ JaJi jUw )

► dtêr

ç

o sinféhi

ld - ?

dkniyo

'

Two chicks fought over the food

5

, al

-

yd

'?

ordh

sdnfâhan káyhon kor yáfrdr

'

Small chicks are unable to flight

5

.

80 _ViTALY Naumkin

,

Leonid Kogan

,

Dmitry Cherkashin et

al

.

46 . sdkare o

'

sand

,

dust

'

/

► miWo siydra mdn

t

et sdkare

'

The car is full of dust from outside

' ,

ékdomk sdkare

di -

tdkosiyin mdn méde

'

I saw how dust was whirling because of the South wind

',

zd

ç

ayk tdhk bd

-

humdr

di -

kd

ç

ar tó

'?

o érahk kd

ç

ar

ç

omor

di -

ho bébe iném dén

ç

a

di ~ ?

énka

ç

k

ç

dmok tahk

ç

omor sker

ç

dmok tahêhors wa - atébdr

' ç

omor énhi dd

di -

ha al

-

tahk

ç

dmok mêm dén

ç

a

ç

omor sdkare

' I

brought some sand to the house on

a

donkey

.

When I reached the house , my father said :

"

What did you bring

?

" I said

: "

Some sand

.

" He said

:

" A good one

?

" I said

: "

Look yourself

.

" He looked at it and said to me

: "

This is not sand

!

" I said

:

" And what is this

?

" He said

: "

This is dust

."

'

• The latter example provides a useful illustration of the semantic differ¬

ence between sdkare and tahk : the latter , similar to sugar in its shape , can be used as a building material

( '

sand , gravel

' )

, whereas the former , externally closer to flour

,

has no practical value

( '

sand

,

dust

' )

.

0 The Soqotri word is likely identical with segdrhen

'

Sandsteppe ' in Mül¬

ler 1905 ,

p .

302

( cf

. LS ,

p .

346

)

. Clearly related is Mhr . sakardyt

'

roter Sand

' ,

recorded in Jahn 1902

, p .

227

,

but missing from ML .

47 . salhémo

'

bald spot

'

/

►

zd

ç

ayk

ç

ouyêghen di

?

dl dd

di -

ydsóhor kor ydsóhors ri tá

?o

erdhki

ç

omor énhi lâzdtn tdgdrah mdy sef

ç

af tdke

?

e salhémo

'

I took my son to the man who is specialized in cauterizing in order to cauterize his head

.

When we came , he said to me

: "

You must shave his hair so that there remains a bald spot "

n

di -

bisi bdy sef yd

^

umor hdy

di -

salhémo ' A head on which there is no hair is called by us

di -

salhémo \ hóhon

al -di -

salhémo T am not bald

-

headed

'

.

• As follows from the examples above , salhémo designates the bald spot itself

,

whereas

'

bald head ' or

'

bald man ' are called di

-

salhémo .

0 Perhaps related to Arabic 'asW

-

, Mehri sdle , Jibbali sél

ç '

bald '

(

Lane ,

p

. 1717

;

ML

, p .

362

;

JL

, p .

239

)

.

48 . ser (yúsrdr / lydsrer )

'

to hurt

'

/ ^ J

► The subject of this verb is the hurting body part

:

séro fe

ç

ayn

'

My eye was hurting me

' .

The intensive stem ser (ydsérdn / hsér ) means

'

to suffer from pain ' and the subject is the patient himself , as in solóbdn mi

?

sdr

e

-

'

dghétdn wa

-

karére di

-

sdn

Id -

asar ser mésdn mer fakh

'

We slaugh¬

tered a he

-

goat for the women and tomorrow at the same time some of them suffered from stomach pains

'

, tdher

ç

ag

d -

yhe mdn half di

-

half diyahsdy ydsérdn wa

- v

atdf térof

(

The man went from his place to another place and he was suffering from pain

.

Then he recovered

'

.

• This verb is semantically different from

(

and

,

with all probability

,

unre¬

lated

to )

ser (yásrdrZlydsrér )

'

to throw violently

,

to flick away '

(

=

'

jetter

'

,

LS , p . 358 ) : gédah di - kd çanhin wa - hóbi h - tdda ç di - 'ouyéghen wa - serk

toy béne ' A scorpion came and started to creep on the boy , but I threw

it away strongly ' .

0 It is hard to say whether this verb is connected with Proto - Semitic srr

cto tie , to constrict ' ( for which v . HALOT , p . 1058 ) . A semantically more

straightforward parallel is provided by Hebrew sir ' pangs , spasm '

( HALOT , p . 1024 ) .

=

>

ML

, p .

365 .

49 . selbe

'

deep

'

/ j ^

► çobbor ha mds ribo sé '?kd wa - ^'obhor bok mds ribo selbe ' This well is shal¬

low and that well is deep ' , Ibe kâ çyber h - ha sd çh wa - lbe kd çyber di - bok

selbe ' These houses are build on the surface and the foundations of

those houses are deep in the earth ' , selbe sdrdh dd di - kosbo di - ba ba -

hóyhi wa - '?al - tdsterdhan kal béne cThe roots of this herb are deep in the

earth and cannot be driven out unless by force ' .

0 Perhaps identical with lé beb ' inférieure ' ( LS , p . 231 ) , attested in ?árim

lé beh ' the lower road ' ( Muller 1907 , p . 54 ) . Cf . also Jibbali Ihm ' under '

( JL , p . 167 ) . Hardly any connection with sol ' profondeur ' , sílhel ' endroit

profond ' ( LS , p . 143 ) in spite of the superficial similarity .

50 . sdnkahal ( sankdhfsankdlhon ) ' donkey ' /

► têrodk sankdlhon bd - kóde wa - ?al - gomk ' I was pursuing the donkeys on

the plateau but did not manage to catch them up ' , h ó milk bêh h - sdnkahal

mdn kdrye di - kd çar ' I loaded the dates on the donkey in order to bring

them from the village to the house ' .

51 . ( di - ) sáyyor j ^ ( ¿ ) ' ( to be ) few , little ' / ( JJLS ) Ji

► íno sin êrhon di - délak wa - ' dlhítdn di - sáyydr ' We have many goats , but

few cows ' , bd - sárhi di - háyhe sef di - s áy y or wa - bd - sárhi di - ?érhon sef di -

délak ' There is little hair on the human skin , but there is much hair on

the goats ' skin ' , sáyysr nd ça afrdng bd - sakdtri ' Foreigners are now few

in Soqotra ' .

0 It is tempting to connect this lexeme with Proto - Semitic wkr whose

original meaning ' to be scarce , rare ' is preserved in Akkadian wakru

( DRS , p . 610 ) .

52 . sirhen ( du . siréni , pl . ésrin ) ' a curtain or a dead tree hung on

the entrance of a sheep - fold ' /

Lgj CLx » ojäu JÜ j \ ji

► êrdmfone é ?efo yd çomdr ésnn h - ?étror di - mdkhor wa -fakh máyhdn çad

nd ça ' In former times people used to make curtains on the doors of their

82 ViTALY Naumkin , Leonid Kogan

,

Dmitry Cherkashin et

al

.

shccp - folds , and some of them still do this now ' , háudol çdnhi móhdid

sírhen bdr o ?ókdb ' Door - wing will be taken away because of me , and

curtain , since I enter ' .

53 . satrdhdr ( satríri / sdtrdhor ) j * ' tribal area , village ' / Lfuk ..*j ilJ

► ydzé çdm dd bd - sátrdhdr çdyyug wa - 'dghétdn wa - ?dmbórye ' In this village

there are men , women and children ' , otêbdl ê ?efo di - déhk Id - 'azóme di -

han bd - satrdhdr ' A lot of people assembled for a feast in our village ' , ful

mdy s em dd satrdhdr cWhat is the name of this village ? '

• The basic meaning of this very common lexeme is ' a small piece of cloth ' ,

derived from the verb sétar ( ydsatdr / lydstdr ) ' déchirer , fendre ' ( LS ,

p . 428 ) and structurally cognate with Mehri s 9 tray r ., Jibbali sdtrér ' rag ,

strip of cloth ' ( ML , p . 387 ; JL , p . 257 ) . The hypothetic path of the se¬

mantic evolution ( ' piece of cloth ' > ' tribe ' ) could not be elicited from

our informants .

54 . tahk dJUj ' red sand ' / ^

► dd tahk di - ha ydsbóm bis ' That sand is suitable for building ' , gédah tahk

kd - riho mdn çale ' Sand came from above with the water of the wadi ' .

=

►J

ohnstone 1968 ,

p

. 517 .

55 . tâkib ( ydtakibin / lydtakab ) ' to collect , to accumulate ' /

► tâkibk no fin darâhdm kor dbô çol ' I accumulated for myself some money

in order to get married ' , tdkibk obhon mdn dkhizo di - gdhi kor obon

kd çar ' I collected some stones from the bed of the wadi in order to build

a house ' .

56 . toutéyo

jAs

y

'

story

'

/ 1 ^ 3

► çérobk dds toutéyo ' I know this story ' , hima çk çag ydmetûin toutéyo h -

çag di - lit a *" ' I heard a man to tell a story about a man who was killed ' . 0 Derived from éti ( yd ?eti 7in / lyd ?étd ) ' to tell ' : wa - ?éti di - kon sáyhi tó ?o

ldtô ço çdze bd - sábab bile di - bísi ?s ' And he told what happened to them

when they killed a woman for just nothing ' . For the pattern , cf . temtûoh

' récit , poème ' ( LS , p . 254 ) and tentíro ' story ' ( cf . LS , p . 279 ) .

57 . tdlfe ( talfíti / tílof ) ' lower part of the leg ' /

► kdrzab tdlfe di - ifdf ' Wt nibbled at the leg of a kid ' , nétogk tílof di - ?érhon

mdn sferíyye di - te ' I removed the legs of the goats from the rest of the

meat which was in the cooking pot ' .

• According to the informants , the term can also be applied to humans ( as

in çag çod d - yhe bd - talfíti ' The man walked on his legs ' ) , but is préféra™

bly to be restricted to animals . Any connection with mothf ' chair du flanc 5 ( LS , p . 442 ) ?

0 May be related to Arabic dilf - ' hoof of a ruminant ' ( Lane , p . 1918 ) .

Tigre cdldf hoof ( of cows ) ' ( WTS , p . 622 ) is likely an Arabism .

58 . tdbah ( yztdbah / lydtbdh ) ' to lie on one ' s belly ' / ^ kJl J l * 3JuJ

► ho tdbahk h

-

mer tó

?

o dómik

'

I lay on my belly while sleeping

' ,

mábrhe tâbah

d -

yhe Um et ker hoy he

'

The boy lay on his belly on the ground

'

.

0 Probably related metathetically to bth ' se coucher , s ' étendre ' ( LS , p . 85 ) ,

whose only attestation in the Vienna corpus matches exactly the mean¬

ing of tâbah as mentioned above : wu - sirkdhan mer - rího id ther wu -

batdhan

le -

mírehor be

-

hóhi

di -

indha

'

wir

. .

. gingen aus dem Wasser

heraus ans Ufer und legten uns auf den Bauch im Sande , welcher heiß

war ' ( Muller 1905 , p . 144 ) .

59 . étbak ( ydtdbok / lydtbak ) ' to send ' / J ** jl

►

ç

ag étbak sí

?

ho dardhdm kor dtógdr hdy bíssol A man sent some money

with me so that I buy some clothes for him ' , karére étbak bdy d - yhe o ?oz

' Next morning he sent with him his goat ' .

• The verb is said to be predominantly used about things , as the corre¬

sponding meaning with respect to people is expressed by the well™

attested bolog ( LS , p . 87 ) .

0 It is hard to say whether this verb represents a causative transformation

of tbk ' coller l ' un sur l ' autre ' ( LS , p . 198 ) . Mehri atóbdk ' to bring , draw

alongside ' ( ML , p . 405 ) , semantically very close to Soqotri êtbdk , is

noteworthy .

60 . zd çre a yw ? ' handful7L >

► zd

ç

ayk nofin zd

ç

re

di -

torn dt

'

I took for myself a handful of dates

',

édofk zd

ç

re

di -

sdkare wa

-

kdla

ç

k bas

di - ç

dyni

di

- ag

' ç

af al

-ç

ad ya

ç

dbor

'

I took a

handful of dust and threw it into the eyes of the man so that he could

not see ' .

• The related verb zo çor ( ydzó ^or / lydz çôr ) ' to take a handful ' , probably at™

tested once in the Vienna corpus , was apparently misunderstood by

both Muller ( ' ausschütten ' , 1907 , p . 67 ) and Les lau ( ' verser ' , LS ,

p . 363 ) : de rího ça tiz çéris c do not take a handful of this water ! '

0 Same as Jibbali za çdr ' to bite ' ( JL , p . 322 ) . Note that Soqotri zo çor can

also be used with the meaning ' to bite ' , whose main exponent is never¬

theless zo çob ( LS , p . 363 ) .