Re: A problem solved?!?

Brian Betty wrote:
>
> On 2-17-99, Shaul Verdi wrote: "Yeah, there is a root KH - W - L with the
> meaning grant, accord, concede.  That's almost certainly it!  The mystery
> is solved. The middle root letter is "w", a "hollow" letter in Arabic
> grammatical terms, falling out in many conjugations. So the fact that only
> the KH (in Spanish orthography - "j") and the L remain is quite
> understandable. [snip] As for Gustavo's comment that the Portuguese
> equivalent uses a "sh" (S) sound rather than KH, I guess we must now see
> that not as a more faithful rendition of the original Arabic, but rather as
> the assimilation of the expression into the (beautiful and gentle, IMHO)
> sound patterns typical of Portuguese.
>
> Oy, I'll have to argue against this one. Medieval Spanish X and J were /S/
> and /Z/, like in modern Portuguese. So Ojala' would be more likely "in
> sha'llaah" with weird initial variations (shift of IN to O) or something
> under the abnormal wear and tear of being an expression borrowed from
> Arabic. I could see the Arabic in+S >oZ (the nasal voices the S) more
> easily than /XWL spontaneously becoming Z-L.
>
I see (crushed wimper). I guess if you can mutate the vowel in my name
(Vardi > Verdi), then pretty much anything goes :) - so maybe you're
right and ojala' does come from inshallah!  It's just that the piece
John Cowan quoted stated that it came from "an Arabic expression meaning
'May Allah grant that...'" - which pushed me towards the KH - W - L
root.  Inshallah really means "if Allah wills" - so either the source
John quotes wasn't over accurate, or it's a very liberal translation.

I do agree that if we accept a pronunciation oSala or OZala, that does
make the inshallah origin more probable.

I shall never again use "A problem solved" as a subject line in my
conlanglist messages.

        Shaul Vardi
















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> BB
>
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