| Title | Locatives in the Spoken Arabic of Mardin (Turkey) |
|---|---|
| Contributor | George Grigore (author) |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0445.10 |
| Landing page | https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0445/chapters/10.11647/obp.0445.10 |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
| Copyright | George Grigore; |
| Publisher | Open Book Publishers |
| Published on | 2025-01-31 |
| Long abstract | This study explores the system of locatives—linguistic elements denoting place or direction—in the spoken Arabic of Mardin, a peripheral dialect with unique features preserved through limited external influence. Drawing upon a corpus of recordings from 2002 to the present, the research builds on prior work, including L’arabe parlé à Mardin (Grigore, 2007) and comparative frameworks such as Arlette Roth's (2006) analysis of Kormakiti Arabic and Stephan Procházka’s (1993) studies on Arabic prepositions. The analysis identifies two main categories of locatives: independent semantic markers (locative adverbs) and dependent ones (locative prepositions). Adverbs, such as taḥt ('under'), fōq ('above'), and hawn ('here'), function autonomously, situating actions in spatial relation to fixed reference points either within the discourse or the situational context. Conversely, prepositions like ʿala ('on'), mən ('from'), and qəddām ('in front of') operate relationally, requiring determiners such as nouns or pronouns to define spatial relationships. The study highlights structural innovations specific to Mardin Arabic, such as the use of adverbs in status constructus formations (e.g., ḥāṛṛ hawnake—‘the heat there’), diverging from broader Arabic norms. Despite significant contact with Turkish and Kurdish, Mardin Arabic retains its locative system largely intact, reflecting the resilience of its prepositional framework rooted in Classical Arabic. This stability underscores the distinctiveness of Mardin Arabic within the broader landscape of Arabic dialectology. |
| Page range | pp. 299–314 |
| Print length | 16 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |
| Landing Page | Full text URL | Platform | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0445/chapters/10.11647/obp.0445.10 | Landing page | https://books.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/obp.0445.10.pdf | Full text URL |
George Grigore is Professor at the Department of Arabic Language of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures – University of Bucharest. He has introduced dozens of students to morphology and syntax of classical Arabic, comparative linguistics of modern varieties of spoken Arabic and, also, Islamic studies.
He published a wide range of books and articles on the classical Arabic and the Mesopotamian varieties of Arabic (especially those of Mardin and Baghdad). In addition, he translated, into Romanian, some fundamental books for the Arab-Islamic civilization, starting with the Qur’ān itself. Through his translations, illustrious names such as Al-Ġazālī, Ibn Rušd, Ibn Ṭufayl, Ibn ‘Arabī, Ibn Sīnā, al-Kindī and others became familiar to the Romanian readers.