Verse:Mwtqwlqwj/Qwbmwdqwg

Corsican Arabic/Lexicon

Corsican Arabic
əl-KoRSəKī́jə; táNGəTNaN
Pronunciation	[ɜ̟lqʰɔɾˁsʌˈqʰɪːjɜ̟]
Created by	Inthar
Setting	Verse:Irta
Native to	Corsica
Native speakers	330,000 ()
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Irta Maghrebi Arabic Corsican Arabic

Corsican Arabic is an Irish-influenced Arabic variety spoken in the Irta timeline's Corsica (natively əl-KóRSəKə [ɜ̟lˈqʰɔɾˁsʌqʰʌ]), an independent country where it's an official language alongside English. In Irta it's called Corsican (natively əl-KoRSəKī́jə [ɜ̟lqʰɔɾˁsʌˈqʰɪːjɜ̟] or ət-táNGə KoRSəKī́jə [ɜ̟t̪ˈt̪ʰæɴɢʌ qʰɔɾˁsʌˈqʰɪːjɜ̟]; taNGə is from Irish teanga). It may also be called táNGəTNaN 'our language'. Its speakers are predominantly Catholic and usually also speak English and French.

Its premise is "Maltese but with Irish (and secondarily French and Sardinian) instead of Italian", and it's the only Irtan Semitic language that evolved naturally under Celtic influence (Crannish is more Azalic, and Irta Modern Hebrew was revived by Celtic speakers), and the only Irtan Semitic language written in a Latin orthography (which is different from the one used on this page)

History

Corsica was ruled by Muslim Arabs (7th c. - 10th c.), then by the Irish (10th c. - 16th c.), then the French (16th c. - 19th c. Ireland ceded it to France when it was being threatened by Remonitionists and the Hivantish), then the Azalic English (19th c. - 20th c.). Corsica gained independence from the Azalic English in 1954.

The first text in Corsican Arabic is dated to 1515. Though it uses mainly native vocabulary, it has most of the syntactic features of modern Corsican Arabic.

Corsican Arabic evolved from a fictional vernacular Arabic variety which has the following features:

• qāf and Tā' are unaspirated, sometimes voiced.
• Zā' and Dād are both [zˁ~ðˁ].
• has imāla after nonemphatics
  • new ā from 3ayn loss (same condition as Maltese stressed għa and agħ) causes old ā > ō after emphatics
  • The combination of imāla and Irish borrowing has resulted in two archiphonemes: Ē (Classical ā), Ā (Middle Irish á) (ē and ā respectively after nonemphatics; both become ō after emphatics after ayin loss)
    • Some analogical leveling happens, though, which collapses some occurrences to invariable /ē ā ō/

Phonology

Corsican Arabic has an almost complete set of emphatic (realized as pharyngealization)-nonemphatic pairs, formed from both native emphatic consonants (Classical Arabic T D S Z q became D Z S Z G) and borrowed Irish vocabulary. This article represents emphatic consonants with capitalized letters.

Consonant phonemes in Corsican Arabic

		Labial		Dental/Alveolar		Postalveolar	Dorsal		Glottal
		plain	phar.	plain	phar.		prevelar	preuvular
Nasal		m m	M mˁ	n n̪	N n̪ˁ		[ŋ̟]	[ɴ]
Stop	aspirated	p pʰ	P pˁʰ	t t̪ʰ	T t̪ˁʰ		k k̟ʰ	K q̟ʰ	2 ʔ
	unaspirated	b b	B bˁ	d d̪	D d̪ˁ		g ɡ̟	G ɢ̟
Fricative	voiceless	f φ	F φˁ	s s	S sˁ	š ʃ	x x̟	X χ̟	h h
	voiced	w β	W wˁ	z z	Z zˁ~ðˁ	ž ʒ	j j	Γ ʁ̟
Trill				r r	R rˁ
Lateral				l l	L l̪ˁ

voicing distinction in stops is realized like in Irish; w = [β̞], [β] before vowels

t d T D n N L are dental

word-final nonemphatic consonants are slightly palatalized (relic of -i endings?): walid 'child' /βalid/ [βælid̪ʲ].

Clusters may not follow bwb sws in native words or with Irish words put into Arabic patterns. Irish broad and slender consonants are borrowed as emphatic and nonemphatic consonants, respectively (unless possibly after a stressed syllable, where they're subject to emphasis/nonemphasis spreading).

Emphatic aspirated stops are aspirated less strongly than non-emphatic aspirated stops; unaspirated emphatic stops are more fully voiced than unaspirated nonemphatic stops.

has a similar vowel inventory to Irish, with short /u/ (retained from Classical Arabic) realized as [y] after nonemphatic consonants and with more vowels from lost ayin

a e i o u ə ā ē ī ō ū ė əj əw aj aw ea oa ia ua

a is [æ] after nonemphatics, [ɑ] after emphatics

o is [o] after nonemphatics, [ɔ] after emphatics

i is [i] after nonemphatics, [ɪ] after emphatics

u is [ʏ] after nonemphatics, [ʊ] after emphatics

unstressed a is similar to stressed a; unstressed ə is [ʌ] after an emphatic and [ɜ̟] after a nonemphatic

Stress is no longer predictable

Minimal pairs

• n vs. N: náhər 'river'; Náhər 'snake': Náhər mamū́l Mill-ilmḗ hu náhər 'A river is a snake made of water'

Morphology

should extract consonantal roots from Irish words

Pronouns

• ínə, ínt(ə), hú(wə), hí(jə), nán(ə), íntum, húm(ə)
• emphatic pronouns: Rūhi, Rūhək, ...

Nouns

sound plurals: m. -0 > -īn, f. -ə > -ḗh/ṓh/ijḗh;

m. pl. const. -ė

f. sg. const. -ət/-t (Gī́jə 'prayer' -> Gī́jət 'prayer of', Gī́jəti 'my prayer'); f. pl. const. -ēt/-ōt

emphasis spreading to the syllables after a posttonic emphatic

• Gī́jə 'prayer', Gī́jəti 'my prayer'; Gī́jətuh 'his prayer'
• táNGə 'language', táNGəTi 'my language'; táNGəTuh 'his language'; taNGijḗh 'languages'
• wáNəXT 'blessing; to bless', wəNṓWiX 'blessings'? (dəwáNi 'he blessed')

todo: broken plurals

article əl- (moon) or əC- (sun); sun letters D d Z z T t L l N n S s R r š 

sg and sound pl fem possessives: -i -ək -uh -hə -nan -kum -hum

sound pl masc possessives: -éjjə -ė́k -ė́h -ė́hə -ė́nan -ė́kum -ė́hum

irish -ə nouns are borrowed as feminine -ə

head-marked (house.CONST DEF-king, house-3SG.M DEF-king) or double-marked possessives (house-SG.M DAT DEF-king)

Adjectives

all adjectives have the same declension: -0 -ə -īn -āh. Inanimate plurals are treated as sg fem

Verbs

loan verbs use -əXəZ for VN from MidIr *-aghadh (~ Scottish Gaelic -achadh, Irish -ú)

passive binyanim are lost; maSdars serve the same grammatical roles as Irish verbnouns

Gzarot split based on emphatic/nonemphatic, then simplification

negative ma-š sticks to the first (focused) constituent; the unmarked construction is máDWi huš 'he did not admit' for pronoun subjects, but máDWiš šēMəS 'Séamus did not admit' for noun subjects.

Work out interactions between subject suffixes + object suffixes + subject pronoun clitics

4-consonant roots

usually treated somewhat like loan verbs; they even take d- in the past tense

Irish loan verb conjugation: dətárgəm 'he translated' (Arabic tarjama)

→ Person ↓ Tense	1sg	2sg	3sg.m	3sg.f	1pl	2pl	3pl
past; conditional	dətərgámnə	dətərgámt, dətərgámint	dətárgəm hu	dətárgəmət hi	dətərgámnan	dətərgámtum, dətərgám(t)intum	dətárgəmu hum
future	nətárgəminə	tətárgəmint	jətárgəm hu	tətárgəm hi	nətárgəmunan	tətárgmintum	jətárgmu hum
imperative	-	tárgəm!	-	-	-	tárgəmu!	-
passive participle	mittárgəm
verbal noun	tárgəməXəZ

Irish -aigh verbs

Loan verb paradigm based on loaned Irish -aigh verbs (partly fitted to native 3-y verbs, hence the stress shifts and possibly vowel reduction and addition of the D-/d-/T-/t- to past forms from Irish do)

past tense forms are lenited as in Irish, and VN follows that (Irish feminine definite article lenition + analogy to past for d-/t-/s-)

Irish loan verb conjugation: DáDWi 'he admitted, confessed' (from d'admhaigh sé)

→ Person ↓ Tense	1sg	2sg	3sg.m	3sg.f	1pl	2pl	3pl
past; conditional	DəDWájnə	DəDWájt, DəDWájnt	DáDWi hu	DáDWiT hi	DəDWájnan	DəDWájtum, DəDWájntum	DáDWu hum
future	náDWiNə	táDWiNT	jáDWi hu	táDWi hi	náDWuNaN	táDWiNTuM	jáDWu hum
imperative	-	áDWi!	-	-	-	áDWu!	-
passive participle	mitáDWi
verbal noun	áDWəXəZ (used in constructions such as inə f-áDWəXəZ 'I confess')

Newer loan verbs

Newer loan verbs use the same stress patterns and affixes as Irish -aigh loan verbs, but have a fixed stem (ignoring the D-/T- in the past tense)

Newer loan verb conjugation: dəmaksimízi 'he maximized' (from French maximiser)

→ Person ↓ Tense	1sg	2sg	3sg.m	3sg.f	1pl	2pl	3pl
past; conditional	dəmaksimizájnə	dəmaksimizájt, dəmaksimizájnt	dəmaksimízi hu	dəmaksimízit hi	dəmaksimizájnan	dəmaksimizájtum, dəmaksimizájntum	dəmaksimízu hum
future	nəmaksimízinə	təmaksimízint	jəmaksimízi hu	təmaksimízi hi	nəmaksimízinan	təmaksimízintum	jəmaksimízu hum
imperative	-	maksimízi!	-	-	-	maksimízu!	-
passive participle	maksimizė́
verbal noun	maksimízəXəZ (used in constructions such as inə fi-maksimízəXəZ 'I maximize')

Prepositions

frė (< Irish fré) = against

frė́jə, frėk, frėh, frė́hə, frė́nan, frė́kum, frė́hum (that -hə for 3fs really sounds Scottish Gaelic)

ā́lə = on; alájjə, alájk, ...

mijéjn 'about' (~ Scottish Gaelic mu dheidhinn): mijéjni, mijéjnək, mijéjnih, mijéjnhə, mijéjnnan, mijéjnkum, mijéjnhum

fi (< CA fī) is matched to faoi sometimes; 'in' often uses a different prep

Numerals

wḗhəd, tnėn, tlḗtə, áRBa, hámsə, síttə, sába, tmḗnjə, dísa, ā́šRə

áwwəl, tḗni, tḗlit, RṓBa, hā́mis, sḗtit, sḗba, tmḗni, dḗsa, ā́šir

Syntax

Irish/Gàidhlig relex; VSO and verbnouns whose possessors are direct objects. Even more Irishy than Irta Modern Hebrew; grammar-wise it's the most Irishy Irtan Semlang, though it does not have mutations.

Question particle əl (from hal)

Texts

The Lord's Prayer

called əl-Pádir or əl-misḗrnə