Re: A problem solved: Arabisms in Spanish

vardi wrote:

> Thanks John!  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.
>
> My best Arabic dictionary ("Wehr and Cowan") doesn't give any such
> exhortative expression under the root, but that, of course, doesn't mea=
n
> that one didn't exist at some stage. Never heard in Palestinian Arabic,
> though - in which there are many such expressions.
>
> 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.
The original pronunciation of <j> in Spanish was /Z/ which get devoiced /=
S/
and back /x/, probably "ojal=E1" is derived from a arab root using /Z/ or
/S/... =BF/nS/?  That could explain Portuguese "oxal=E1".

> I'm very happy that our joint efforts helped us solve this one!
>
>         Shaul Vardi
--
Carlos Eugenio Thompson Pinz=F3n
  ITEC-Telecom, Colombia

  cthompso@alpha.telecom-co.net
  http://alpha.telecom-co.net/~cthompso/