dichy_foundations of arabic linguistics-3_23-10-14.ppt

8/10/2019 DICHY_Foundations of Arabic Linguistics-3_23-10-14.ppt

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On the emergence of Arabic

dictionary making in the 2 nd and3 rd cent. H:

al-all , Ibn Durayd, al- Jawhar andIbn Fris

(working slide show)

Joseph Dichy, Universit Lumire-Lyon 2

and ICAR-CNRS/Lyon 2, ENS-Lyon Rersearch Lab

Foundations of Arabic Linguistics III Paris 23,24/10/2014

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Arabic LexicographyToo little number of studies:Haywood, 1960 and later papers

John A. Haywood, Arabic Lexicography. Its History and its Place in the generalHistory of Lexicography, Leiden, Brill, 1960

Amad Abd al- afr Ar , 1956

Introductory volume to al- Jawhar , al- i (or al- a), Cairo, 1956, reprint:Beirut, Dr al- ilm li-l- malyn , 1979, 6 vol. plus one.

Daniel Reig a few remarkable papersVery recently (special thanks to Manuella Giolfo):

Dichy J., Al -all s Conjecture: how the First Comprehensive Dictionary in

History was invented , in Giolfo, Manuella (ed.), Arab and Arabic Linguistics:Traditional and New Theoretical Approaches, (Journal of Semitic StudiesSupplement Series). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, p. 39-64

Etc. unfair to many works! Matk and Na r very criticisable

2Joseph Dichy - 23-10-14


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Who invented the dictionary? According to Alain Rey ( Dictionnaire amoureuxdes dictionnaires ), 2 answers could be given: China: Xu Shen s (58-147) Shuwn Jizi

= explained pictograms ( wen ) and ideo-phonograms ( zi ), the 2 categories ofChinese characters. Number of entries:only 9353 characters and 1163 variants,

under 540 keys. Medieval Arabic scholars with the Kit b al-ayn, due to Al- Khall bn Amad al- Farhd ,d. v. 175 H/792.



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The two do not actually compare

Neither in aim: pictograms vs sound related to meaning

Nor in scope: Al-Khall s work aimed at lexical

comprehensiveness The Shuwn Jizi did not aim at

comprehensive coverage



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Lexical comprehensiveness, ahardly imaginable project

A comprehensive dictionary aims at coveringthe entire vocabulary of a language, andpresenting it in a manuscript/volume.



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In the 2 nd /8 th cent., lexical comprehensivenesscould hardly be imagined in any culture, andcould even be deemed delusive...



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In the 2 nd /8 th cent., lexical comprehensivenesscould hardly be imagined in any culture, andcould even be deemed delusive...Moreover, in the Arabic culture, no treaty hadencompassed an entire area of knowledge ( al-Kitb , the Book of Sbawayhi was the first G.Schler , 2002).



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This where the first alphabetic orsound-to-meaning comprehensivedictionary in history appeared.

The question is: how ?

a set of dictionaries / lexicographictradition, as we shall see.



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Oral vs written transmission

The context was that of the public readingof manuscripts Dictionary order was less important than the

elaboration of knowledge.



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The context was that of the public readingof manuscripts The order of the dictionary was less important

than the transmission of knowledge

Heuristic presentation, rather than

easy consultation Memory access



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The context was that of the public readingof manuscripts The order of the dictionary was less important

than the transmission of knowledge Heuristic presentation, rather than

easy consultation

Memory access looking up concerns only appeared by theend of the 4 th /10 th cent., probably with al-Jawhari s al- i . 11

Joseph Dichy - 23-10-14


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4 main scholars / conjectures

Making the story a bit shorter than it really is:2 nd cent. H/8 th G: I- al- all (d. ar. 175/791) and the Kitb al- Ayn Ab Amr al- aybn , Kit b al-J m [not analysed here]

3 rd cent. H/9 th G: Arrival of al- all s Kit b al- Ayn in Iraq crucial role

of Ibn Durustuwayh in its diffusion

4th

cent. H/10th

G: II- Ibn Durayd , d. 321/933, Jamharat al- lua III - Isml bn ammd al- Jawhar , d. 398/1007

al- i (or al- a)

IV- Ibn Fris, d. 385/1005, Maqys al- lua 12


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1 st of 4 main scholars

I- al- all s (d. around 175/792) conjecture :

the mathematics of letter-sounds ( arf ) andtheir combination into constructs ( bin ).

The mathematical mind of al- all allowedhim to imagine a way of covering all thevirtual combinations of the language, whichwere then to be confronted to extant words. (Dichy, 2014 the next slides appeared there. In the

written paper, they will be made much shorter.)



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Al-Khall s formal andmathematical conjecture 1

Al-all had phrased his conjecture in nearly explicitwords, in the first lines of the introduction of the K. al- Ayn, and in a crucial tradition, related by Ibn Durustuwayh (d. 370

AH/981 CE) and quoted in Ibn Nadm s library catalog, al-Fihrist (fourth century AH/tenth CE).

The narrative occurs in rsn , where al-Lay (deemed to have completed K. al- Ayn) dwelt, andwhere Al- all has spent some time towards the end ofhis life: (...) Qla l-Lay ... Kuntu asru il l- all bn A mad, fa- qla l

yawman: (...) Al-Lay ... said: I used to go and see al- all Ibn A mad.

He told me one day:14

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Law anna insnan qa ada wa- allafa urfa alifwa- b wa- t wa- al m am aluhula- stawaba f lika jama kalmi l- arab fa-yatahayyau lahu a lun l ya ruju anhu ayun minhu battatan.

If someone contemplated the [letter -]segmentsalif, b, t, , etc., and combined them, hewould, by so doing, enclose the whole speech ofthe Arabs, and find himself looking upon aprinciple that would fail to embrace no elementwhatsoever of [their speech].



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Qla [al-Lay ]: fa-qultu lahu: Wa-kayfa yaknu lika ?

Qla [al- all ]: Yuallifuhu al l- un wa-l- ul wa-l-rub wa-l- ums , wa- annahu laysa yurafu li-l-arabi kalmun ak ara minhu.

Al-Lay said: I asked him: How could that be?

He said: He would combine them according to two, three, four or five constructs ( bin ), and [according] to [the fact] that no [construct with]

more [segments than that] is known in the speech ofthe Arabs.



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Al-Layth s narrative (recall)(...) Qla l-Lay ... Kuntu asru il l- all bn A mad, fa- qla l yawman:Law anna insnan qa ada wa- allafa urfa alif wa- b wa- t wa- al m am aluhu la- stawaba f lika jama kalmi l- arab fa- yatahayyau lahu a lun l ya ruju anhu ayun minhu battatan.

Qla [al-Lay ]: fa-qultu lahu: Wa-kayfa yaknu lika ? Qla [al- all ]: Yuallifuhu al l- un wa-l- ul wa-l- rub wa-l- ums ,

wa- annahu laysa yurafu li-l- arabi kalmun ak ara minhu. (...) Al-Lay ... said: I used to go and see al- all Ibn A mad. He told meone day:

If someone contemplated the [letter -]segments alif, b, t, , etc., andcombined them, he would, by so doing, enclose the whole speech of the

Arabs, and find himself looking upon a principle that fails to embrace noelement whatsoever of [their speech]. Al-Lay said: I asked him: How could that be?He said: He would combine them according to two, three, four or fivesegment [constructs], and to [the fact] that no [construct with] more[segments] is known in the speech of the Arabs.



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Why did al- all take to a phoneticinventory of letter-segments

(urf )?He knew of course the alif, b , t alphabet order (the alphabet ofteachers Ibn Jinn).The trouble is, alif is not a standardletter-segment.He needed to base his inventory onsolid grounds.

Joseph Dichy - 23-10-14 18


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A quick visual recall of Al-Khall s conjecture-1

1) Two-segments combine in two ways, whichcorrespond to the only two possible relations,e.g. d- and -d, as below:

Fig. 1: Two-segment virtual combinations



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2) Three segments combine, virtually, in six ways ( awjuh ),resulting from the multiplication of three segments by tworelations. Considering segments n, and m, one obtains the followingsix virtual constructs : n- -m, -m-n, m-n- , n -m- , m --nand -n-m, four of which are in use ( mustamal ): -nm, n- -m, m- -n and m-n- . The two un-actualized ones ( muhmal )are: * n-m- and * -m-n. The result is obtained by circlingaround the triangle, starting from each summit in turn,from right to left, and vice-versa .



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3) Four segments virtually combine in 24 ways,i.e. in the six ways above multiplied by four. Theintroduction presents the example of segments q,, b and r, 23 combinations of which are in use,and only one remains un-actualized: * q- -b-r. Inthe following drawing, a quadrangle includes itstwo diagonals; the six ways above (combiningthree segments) can then be multiplied by thefour angles. In other words, six combinations arerelated to each of the four angles.



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4) Five segments combine virtually in 120 ways, because the five segments multiply by the ways(awjuh ) [associated with] the four-segment

combinations (i.e. 24 x 5), of which only a littlenumber is in use ( loc. cit. ). Just for the pleasure ofreaders with a geometrical mind, I have designed thefollowing representation, in which 24 combinationscan be obtained, starting from each of the fivesummits.



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II- Ibn Durayd (d. 321/933)

The Jamharat al- lua takes up thefundamentals of al- all s method incovering the entire set of virtual constructs, with a few differences same heuristic

approach

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approachIbn Durayd s main original contribution laysin the way he accesses effective data

from Iraq (linguistic/historic context) He explicitly mentions, for instance, amongothers, Syrian usage ( lua miyya ).

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approachIbn Durayd s main original contribution laysin the way he accesses effective data

from Iraq (linguistic/historic context) He explicitly mentions, for instance, amongothers, Syrian usage ( lua miyya ).

He tries to further define words through

intuitive glosses, after al- all ,25


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III- Al-Jawhari (d. 398/1007)-1

Al- i (or al- a), due to Ism l bnammd al- Jawhar

Elaborated during the years when the authorhad to flee to Arabia for political reasons ,and live among the tribes he originated from.

Al-Jawhar based his information on in situ observation in Arabia



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III- Al-Jawhari (d. 398/1007)-2

A first later dictionary (A) Dictionary order: the order of the dictionarybecame based on the last letter of what we call a root.Al-Jawhar is one of the first Arabic lexicographers, ifnot the first, who has introduced an easier look uporder (known among western Arabists as a rimeorder ), as opposed to the heuristic order of al -all ,Ibn Durayd or Ibn Fris (d. 395/1005).

(B) Also: the dictionary introduces a normativeconception. The complete title is Tj al - lua wa i al- arabiyya ( i = plural, a = infinitive form,ma dar ).



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IV-Ibn Fris (d. 385/1005)

A second later dictionary

Ibn Fris s conjecture: the analogies(maqys ) of meaning are associatedby him with what we call a formalroot (Dichy, 2003) , andcomprehensively analysed.There is no term for root , though.



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Ibn Fris s preface .

. (Attempted transl.) There are, in the language of the[ancient] Arabs, true analogies and principles of

which branches can be derived. Authors oflanguage compilations have have written theirworks without mentioning any of those analogiesnor a single one of those principles.



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Ibn Fris s method

The entry is analyzed into semantic principles ( ): Ibn Farismentions 1, 2, 3 of them, rarelymore.Some entries cannot be consideredas a semantic principle: Onomatopea, such as babba, to

bubble ; bakh bakh, said inappreciation of sth ; uf , uf , etc.

Single words: (p. 199)30Joseph Dichy - 23-10-14


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The power of the idea

Ibn Faris s conjecture is explored by himto the point when he admits it is notcomprehensive like al- all s formal work, which covered the

entire speech of the Arabs to the point of stating not part of the

speech of the Arabs The conjecture goes as far as to expressits own limitations.



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The inheritage of Ibn F ris

His conjecture was not understood although some results wereintegrated by later authors (al-Zama ar , Ass al- Bal a ) The inheritage is still to come!



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Arabic lexicography, on the basis of al-

all s power comprehensive method,complemented by a very wide collection ofdata, developed a huge number of largedictionaries.

Haywood, 1960, who remains a fundamental reference forArabic lexicography, wrote that, were a Bagdad or Basrascholar from Abbassid times be carried through space and

time to the British Museum, and shown, say, the twelve in-quarto volumes of the 1933 edition of the Oxford EnglishDictionary , he would not have been surprised, becausesimilarly comprehensive lexicons already existed inmanuscript in his own times.



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Thank you for your attention


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