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Corsican Arabic/Lexicon

Corsican Arabic
əL-KoRSKī́jə; táNGəTNə
Pronunciation	[əl̪ˠq̟ʰɔɾˁsˁˈq̟ʰɪːjə̟]
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 historical Arabic variety spoken in the Irta timeline's Corsica (natively əL-KóRSKə [ə̟l̪ˠˈq̟ʰɔɾˁsˁq̟ʰʌ]), an independent country where it's an official language alongside English. In Irta it's called Corsican (natively əL-KoRSKī́jə [əl̪ˠq̟ʰɔɾˁsˁˈq̟ʰɪːjə̟] or ət-táNGə KoRSKī́jə [ə̟t̪ˈt̪ʰæɴ̟q̟ʌ q̟ʰɔɾˁsˁˈq̟ʰɪːjə̟]; táNGə is from Irish teanga). It may also be called táNGəTNə 'our language'. Its speakers are predominantly Catholic and almost always also speak English, and some also speak Modern Standard Latin or Irish.

Its premise is "Maltese but with Middle Irish and Classical Irish (and secondarily French, Nyvierfusiez and Irta Sardinian) instead of Italian", and it's the only Irtan Semitic language that evolved naturally under Celtic influence (Knench is more Azalic-influenced, 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).

Some vowel initial masculine nouns in Irish are borrowed with t-/T-

History

In Irta, Corsica was ruled by Muslim Arabs (8th c. - 11th c.), then by the Irish (11th c. - 17th c.), then the Azalic English (17th c. - 20th c.). Corsica gained independence from the Azalic English in 1940.

Corsica in Irta briefly occupied Cambodia and parts of Thailand as well as parts of North America (e.g. Kansas and Oklahoma)

The first surviving text in Corsican Arabic is dated to 1515.

Corsican Arabic evolved from Sardino-Arabic, a fictional vernacular Arabic variety similar to our old Maghrebi Arabic which had the following features:

• qāf and ṭāʔ are unaspirated, sometimes voiced.
• ẓāʔ and ḍād are both [zˁ~ðˁ].
• jīm is [ɟ~g].
• 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/
  • Ə - schwa archiphoneme, i between 2 nonemphatics
• Some vestigial 2i3rāb (*-i for nouns but *-Ø for verbs)

Corsican Arabic during or immediately after the period of Irish rule was markedly more grammatically conservative and more Irish-like than modern Corsican Arabic. Today's Corsican Arabic shows more English grammatical influence; for example it mainly uses a genitive preposition for possessive constructions (which should be different from Maltese ta'), whereas older texts prefer a head-marked construction which requires the possessum to be in the construct state or take a possessive suffix.

Some Irish vocabulary in Corsican Arabic (especially when created after the 17th century) are actually Corsican coinages.

One Englishism: mā́nduhš Gī́jə xuG = 'he doesn't have a prayer for...' (This and "sad" comes from a Corsicanism in Irta English which shows up in Pacific English and a few British dialects but not in Quelftonian English)

Figures

• Peadar Budı-Digēgı (paDəR Bud-digḗg) is an Irta Irish politician.
• Dylan Alı-Bejdāvī (Dílən əl-bəjZṓwi): speculative evolution worldbuilder
  • Bejda (bəjZə) is an Irta Corsican town

Phonology

Consonants

Corsican Arabic has an almost complete set of emphatic-nonemphatic pairs, formed from both native emphatic consonants (Classical Arabic T D S Z q became D Z S Z G) and the contrast between broad (velarized) and slender (palatalized) consonants in borrowed Irish vocabulary. (Some of the labial pairs probably have low functional load, though.) 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). Clusters may not follow "broad with broad, slender with slender" in native words or with Irish words put into Arabic patterns. This article represents emphatic consonants with capitalized letters.

(blue background and bold = regularly occurs in native words' underlying forms)

Consonant phonemes in Corsican Arabic

		Labial		Dental/Alveolar		Postalveolar	Dorsal		Glottal
		plain	uvularized	plain	velarized		prevelar	preuvular
Nasal		m m	M mˁ	n n̪	N n̪ˠ		[ŋ̟]	[ɴ̟]
Stop	aspirated	p pʰ	P pˁʰ	t t̪ʰ	T t̪ˠʰ		k k̟ʰ	K q̟ʰ
	unaspirated	b b	B bˁ	d d̪	D d̪ˠ		g ɡ̟	G ɢ̟	[ʔˁ]
Fricative	voiceless	f f	F ʍˁ	s s̪	S s̪ˠ	š ʃ	x x̟	X χ̟	h h
	voiced	w v~β̞	W wˁ	z z̪	Z z̪ˠ~ðˠ	ž ʒ	j j	Γ ʁ̟
Trill				r r~ɾ~ɾʲ	R rˠ~ɹ
Lateral				l l	L l̪ˠ

/h/ is always pronounced clearly. It is usually [h~ɦ], but is [ħ̞] (weak [ħ]) before or after /a/. Word-finally it is always [ħ̞] unless preceded by /ɪ/.

Allophones or marginal phonemes include H [hˁ] and Š [ʂˠ]; this article won't reflect these. [ŋ̟ ɴ̟] occur as allophones of /n̪ n̪ˠ/ before velar stops.

Emphatic consonants are realized as uvularized (for dorsal and labial emphatics) or velarized (for coronal emphatics, like Irish broad coronals). They're transcribed as pharyngealized for simplicity.

"Voiceless" stops are consistently aspirated; voiced stops are usually weakly voiced (as in German and Irish) and are always devoiced after a voiceless or aspirated consonant; tehy are commonly devoiced, especially /ɢ̟/. Voiced geminate stops are realized as voiceless unaspirated. Geminated and word-final aspirated stops are preglottalized. Gemination is neutralized word-finally. Preuvular consonants are velar or uvular for some speakers; the uvular realization is more common in rural areas.

G in contemporary urban Corsican Arabic is turning into [ʔˁ] (cf. Maltese and Egyptian Arabic /ʔ/ for older Arabic q), even affecting Irish loans: taNGə 'language' and Gī́jə 'prayer' (from Irish guidhe) are pronounced [ˈt̪ʰæŋʔˁʌ] and [ˈʔˁɪ̠jjə] by the majority of younger speakers. This is often attributed to immigration from other parts of Irta's Arab world bringing the glottal stop realization for Arabic q.

w = [β̞], [v] before vowels

t d T D n N L s S are lamino-dental

Nonemphatic consonants (except /v h/) are slightly more palatalized in word final position than in other conditions. /t d n l/ become laminal alveolar [t̻ʲ d̻ʲ n̻ʲ lʲ] when allophonically palatalized.

/rˁ/ may be realized as [ɾˁ] or [ɹʷˁ], the latter sounding a lot like a General American English r: aSXūR [æɑ̯sˠˈχʊːɹʷˁ] 'bird'.

Vowels

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 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 [ɪ̟] after nonemphatics, [ɪ̈] after emphatics

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

/əj əw/ is [ɛj ɛw] after nonemphatics, [ɔj ɔw] after emphatics

ea oa ia ua [eɐ oɐ iɐ uɐ] result from CA i u ī ū + pharyngeal consonant; some ia ua also come from Old Irish ía úa

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

Stress is no longer predictable

Minimal pairs

• ləwn 'color'; LəWN 'lunch'
• r vs R: final CA r becomes R in verbs and r in nouns and adjectives (because of genitive -i)
• Gaffə 'coffee', GaFFə 'of her'

Archiphonemes

• Ē (Classical ā), Ā (Middle Irish á): ē and ā respectively after nonemphatics; both become ō after emphatics and ā after pharyngeals
  • Some analogical leveling happens, though, which collapses some occurrences to invariable /ē ā ō/
• Ə: schwa archiphoneme, i between 2 nonemphatics in a final syllable

Emphasis spreading

Occurs for affixes that are not marked for emphasis (from originally nonemphatic consonants). A stressed onset being emphatic will result in the corresponding prefixes being emphatic and a stressed coda being emphatic will result in suffixes being emphatic.

(The VN suffix -əXəZ is an exception since it is marked for emphasis)

Morphology

Pronouns

• ēn(ə), ínt(i), hú(wə), hí(jə), áhn(ə), íntum, húm(ə); impersonal mir (< mar2 'person')
  • In subject position, mir is often used as 1pl (cf. spoken Finnish)
• emphatic pronouns: Rúahi, Rúahək, ...
• object pronouns: ī́jə, īk, ī́juh, ī́hə, ī́nə, ī́kum, ī́hum (from 2iyyā-, cognate to Hebrew et < *2iyyōt < *2iyy-āt-)
  • object pronouns go to the end of a transitive clause
  • ritkállim mir gil əS-Sīn ī́hə = it (f.) was spoken in China / one spoke it in China

Nouns

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

m. pl. const. -əj

f. sg. const. -it/-t (Gī́jə 'prayer' -> Gī́jit 'prayer of', Gī́jiti 'my prayer'); f. pl. const. -ḗt/-ṓt/-ijḗt

nisba nouns: -i -ī́n, f. -ījə -ijḗh

emphasis spreading to the syllables after a posttonic emphatic

• Gī́jə 'prayer', Gī́jiti 'my prayer'; Gī́jituh 'his prayer'
• táNGə 'language', táNGəTi 'my language'; táNGəTuh 'his language'; taNGijḗh 'languages'
• wáNəXT (f.) 'blessing', wáNəXTi 'my blessing', etc.; wəNəXTijḗh 'blessings'

In post-independence Corsican Arabic, əL-Gī́jə GáWWi, əL-Gī́jə GáWWuh can also be found

todo: broken plurals

article əC- before sun letters (KóNSin šemšī́jə); sun letters D d Z z T t L l N n S s R r š ž

Before moon letters (KóNSin Gamrī́jə), the article is əL- before emphatic consonants and əl- before nonemphatic ones (including š, ž, h null).

before vowels l-

sg and sound pl fem possessives: -i -ik -uh -hə -nə -kum -hum

sound pl masc possessives: -éjjə -ḗk -ḗh -ḗhə -ḗnə -ḗkum -ḗhum

irish -ə nouns are borrowed as feminine -ə, unless they are animate masculines

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

Adjectives

Adjectives became a separate morphological part of speech from nouns under Irish influence.

Most non-nisba adjectives have the same declension: m. sg. -0, f. sg. -ə, pl. -ə. Nisba adjectives decline as -i -ī́jə -ī́jə. (The plural -ə comes from broken plurals taking feminine singular agreement, and spread to all plural adjectives under the influence of Irish plural -a/-e for adjectives.)

Color adjectives follow a different declension: áhmir 'red' has f.sg. and pl. hámrə. Loan adjectives (such as -əX adjectives from Irish) have unmarked feminine singular forms.

Predicative adjectives and adverbs formed from adjectives use kəl-/kəL-(moon) or kəC-(sun) followed by the masculine sg. form of the adjective.

In adjectives ending in non-emphatic r in the masculine form, the feminine and plural form takes emphatic R: GəSī́r 'short (m.sg.)' → GəSī́Rə (f.sg. or pl.).

Degree:

• Gádir 'much' > áktəR 'more', l-áktəR 'most'
• ftī́t 'few, little' > áNGəS 'less', l-áNGəS 'least'

Verbs

4 principal parts: past 3sg.m, imperative sg, passive participle, verbal noun

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 mə-š sticks to the first (focused) constituent; the unmarked construction is MəRáDWi huš 'he did not admit' for pronoun subjects, but MəRáDWiš šēMəS 'Séamus did not admit' for noun subjects. However, the MəRáDWiš form is used for answering questions.

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

Stems whose past and imperative stems fall together get the preverb rə-/Rə- (from Middle Irish ro, from the Old Irish perfect preverb) in the past tense, də-/Də- if the first consonant in the stem is R/r. Some conservative dialects only use rə-/də- in the past tense (in verbs that use them) when in the affirmative, not in interrogatives or negatives (cf. Irish lenition/d'- and Welsh mi):

– əl Gáddis KáLəM əlláwm? – RəGáddis. (Standard əR RəGáddis...?)

– Did Calum attend Mass today? – He did.

kətábtēn/kətábbint came from kətábt ēnə/int

The prohibitive is formed by using lē + imperative.

Inherited 3-consonant verbs

Stem I (katib)

Stem I verb conjugation: katib 'he wrote' (Arabic kataba)

→ Person ↓ Tense	1sg	2sg	3sg.m	3sg.f	1pl	2pl	3pl
past; conditional	ktábtēn	ktábbint	kátib hu	kátbit hi	ktábnə	ktábtum, ktábbintum	kátbu hum
future	náktib	táktib	jáktib hu	táktib hi	náktbu	táktbu	jáktbu hum
imperative	-	uktib!	-	-	-	uktbu!	-
passive participle	məktūb
verbal noun	kitb

Stem I verb conjugation: šaRəB 'he drank' (Arabic šaraba)

→ Person ↓ Tense	1sg	2sg	3sg.m	3sg.f	1pl	2pl	3pl
past; conditional	šRáBTēN	šRáBBiNT	šáRəB hu	šáRBəT hi	šəRáBNə	šəRáBTuM, šəRáBBiNTuM	šáRBu hum
future	nášRəB	tášRəB	jášRəB hu	tášRəB hi	nášəRBu	tášəRBu	jášəRBu hum
imperative	-	ušRəB!	-	-	-	ušəRBu!	-
passive participle	məšRūB
verbal noun	šuRB

Stem I verb conjugation, III-y: banə 'he built' (Arabic banā)

→ Person ↓ Tense	1sg	2sg	3sg.m	3sg.f	1pl	2pl	3pl
past; conditional	bənájtēn	bənájtint	bánə hu	bánit hi	bənájnə	bənájtum, bənájtintum	bánəw hum
future	nábni	tábni	jábni hu	tábni hi	nábnu	tábnu	jábnu hum
imperative	-	úbni!	-	-	-	úbnu!	-
passive participle	məbnī́
verbal noun	bínjə

Stem I verb conjugation, II-w: mēt 'he died' (Arabic māta)

→ Person ↓ Tense	1sg	2sg	3sg.m	3sg.f	1pl	2pl	3pl
past; conditional	muttēn	muttint	mēt hu	mḗtit hi	mútnə	múttum, múttintum	mḗtu hum
future	nmū́t	tmū́t	jmū́t hu	tmū́t hi	nmū́tu	tmū́tu	jmū́tu hum
imperative	-	mut!	-	-	-	mū́tu!	-
passive participle	məmū́t
verbal noun	məwt

Stem I verb conjugation, II-y: Xōn (or Xēn) 'he cheated, betrayed' (Arabic xāna)

→ Person ↓ Tense	1sg	2sg	3sg.m	3sg.f	1pl	2pl	3pl
past; conditional	Xíntēn	Xinnint	Xōn hu	Xṓnit hi	Xínnə	Xíntum, Xínnintum	Xṓnu hum
future	NXī́n	TXī́n	jXī́n hu	TXī́n hi	NXī́nu	TXī́nu	jXī́nu hum
imperative	-	Xin!	-	-	-	Xī́nu!	-
passive participle	MəXū́n
verbal noun	Xəjn

Stem II (rəkattib)

Stem II verb conjugation: RəGaddis 'he sanctified; he attended Mass' (Arabic qaddasa)

→ Person ↓ Tense	1sg	2sg	3sg.m	3sg.f	1pl	2pl	3pl
past; conditional	RəGəddástēn	RəGəddássint	RəGáddis hu	RəGáddsit hi	RəGəddásnə	RəGəddástum, RəGəddássintum	RəGáddsu hum
future	NGáddis	TGáddis	jGáddis hu	TGáddis hi	NGáddsu	TGáddsu	jGáddsu hum
imperative	-	Gáddis!	-	-	-	Gáddsu!	-
passive participle	MGáddis
verbal noun	TəGDī́s

4-consonant roots

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

rəCaCCƏC verb conjugation: rətárgim 'he translated, interpreted' (Arabic tarjama)

→ Person ↓ Tense	1sg	2sg	3sg.m	3sg.f	1pl	2pl	3pl
past; conditional	rətərgámtēn	rətərgámmint	rətárgim hu	rətárgmit hi	rətərgámnə	rətərgámtum, rətərgámmintum	rətárgmu hum
future	ntárgim	ttárgim	jtárgim hu	ttárgim hi	ntárgmu	ttárgmu	jtárgmu hum
imperative	-	tárgim!	-	-	-	tárgmu!	-
passive participle	mittárgim
verbal noun	tárgiməXəZ

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 R- to past forms from Irish ro and d-/D- if the 1st consonant in the stem is a r/R)

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: RáDWi 'he admitted, confessed' (from *ro admhaigh sé)

→ Person ↓ Tense	1sg	2sg	3sg.m	3sg.f	1pl	2pl	3pl
past; conditional	RəDWájtēn	RəDWájt, RəDWájtint	RáDWi hu	RáDWiT hi	RəDWájnə	RəDWájtum, RəDWájtintum	RáDWəW hum
future	náDWi	táDWi	jáDWi hu	táDWi hi	náDWu	táDWu	jáDWu hum
imperative	-	áDWi!	-	-	-	áDWu!	-
passive participle	áDWihə
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. Past participles use -ḗ from French -é.

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

→ Person ↓ Tense	1sg	2sg	3sg.m	3sg.f	1pl	2pl	3pl
past; conditional	rəmaksimizájtēn	rəmaksimizájt, rəmaksimizájtint	rəmaksimízi hu	rəmaksimízit hi	rəmaksimizájnə	rəmaksimizájtum, rəmaksimizájtintum	rəmaksimízəw hum
future	nmaksimízi	tmaksimízi	jmaksimízi hu	tmaksimízi hi	nmaksimízu	tmaksimízu	jmaksimízu hum
imperative	-	maksimízi!	-	-	-	maksimízu!	-
passive participle	maksimizḗ
verbal noun	maksimízəXəZ (used in constructions such as inə fi-maksimízəXəZ 'I maximize')

Prepositions

frē (< Irish fré) = against

frəjjə, frēk, frēh, frḗhə, frḗnə, frḗkum, frḗhum (that -hə for 3fs really sounds Scottish Gaelic)

• also alə = on

xuG = upon, towards, for (3fs is xuKKə, 2pl is xuGGum, 3pl is xuKKum) (< fawq + chuig)

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

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

GaWW = 'of, at' (from GuRB 'vicinity'): GaWWi, GaWWəK, GaWWuh, GaFFə, GaWnə, GaWKuM, GaFFuM

Numerals

wḗhad, tnəjn, tlḗtə, áRBa, hámsə, síttə, sába, tmḗnjə, dísa, ā́šRə [ˈveːhætʲ, ˈt̪ʰn̪ə̟jnʲ, ˈt̪ʰl̪eːtʰə̟, ˈæɑ̯ɹʷˁbˁɑ, ˈhæmsə̟, ˈsʲɪ̟ʔːt̪ʰə̟, ˈsæbæ, ˈt̪ʰmeːnʲjə̟, ˈdʲɪ̟sæ, ˈæːʃɹˁʌ]

áwwil, tḗni, tḗlit, RṓBa, hā́mis, sḗtit, sḗba, tmḗni, dḗsa, ā́šiR [ˈævːɪ̟lʲ, ˈtʰeːnʲɪ̟, ˈtʰeːlʲɪ̟ʔtʰʲ, ˈɹʷˁɔːbˁɑ, ˈhæːmʲɪ̟sʲ, ˈseːtʰʲɪ̟ʔtʰʲ, ˈseːbæ, ˈtʰmeːnʲɪ̟, ˈd̪eːsæ, ˈæːɕɪ̟əɹʷˁ]

Ordinals come before nouns, as in Irish: ət-tḗlit bēb = the third door

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.

Less topic-prominent than Arabic so no "anā ismī"

Question particle əl (from hal), assimilates to əL/ər/əR before L/r/R

The vocative particle jə/j' is consistently used (like the Irish vocative): əl məRūhakš fi-targiməXəZHuM, jə šān? 'Aren't you the one translating them, Seán?'

• is fear é Dónal = Rágil hu DóWNəL
• is é Dónal an Taoiseach olc = DóWNəL hu əT-TīšəX āR
• tá Dónal mór = DóWNəL kəl-kibīR; bhí Dónal ... = kēn DóWNəL..., beidh Dónal = jəkin DóWNəL...
• tá úll ann/agam = (form of kēn) tuffēh nēk/āndi (reverse of Arabic)
• Stative verbs: tá mé i mo chodladh = ēn fi-RGōdi

Texts

The Lord's Prayer

called əL-Pádir or əl-misḗrnə