Saturday, July 03, 2010

The unreliability of Afroasiatic etymologies

The fact that Semitic, Egyptian, Berber, Cushitic, and Chadic all belong to a single family - Afroasiatic - is fairly secure, based on striking correspondences in basic morphology. However, it is often not appreciated just how difficult it is to find reliable lexical comparisons between these families, and just how primitive the current state of AA reconstruction is. The easiest source of AA etymologies online is Militarev's database on Starling, so I'm going to pick on it for this post (Orel & Stolbova and Ehret reveal similar issues, but the latter doesn't even include Berber, and I'm focusing mainly on Berber entries here for convenience.)

Suspiciously many entries are listed as having a cognate in only one Berber language (eg earth, hide, skin, run away); given the general closeness of different Berber varieties, you would expect valid proto-Berber terms to be reflected in more than one place. However, these could always be right. Other issues are more serious.

In several cases, a single proto-Berber root is split across several AA ones, due to mistaken sound correspondences. For example:
  • Proto-Berber *i-qăs "bone, (fruit) pit" is split between PAA *ʔayš/ʔawš- "ripened grain, corn" with Zenaga iʔssi (quoted without the glottal stop) "os; grain, graine, baie; comprimé, pilule, cachet, pastille; perle" (Taine-Cheikh), and *ḳ(ʷ)as "bone", with all other reflexes of *iqăs, even though Berber γ (<*q) commonly corresponds to Zenaga ʔ.
  • Proto-Berber *ta-Hăli (> *ti-Həli) "sheep" is split between pAA *ʔayl "ram" and *bawil "ram", although Ghadames-Awjila v corresponds regularly to Tuareg h and other Berber Ø. (A couple of forms, like Figuig tili mistakenly glossed as "ram", have even somehow found their way into a third etymon, "proto-Berber" *laH!) The issue is alluded to in a cryptic comment under the Berber section of PAA *waʔil "wild goat/ram; antelope": "Pr. H No. 220 (and Kössm. 193): Ghdm., Audj. Hgr etc. te-hele < *tiHeli, which, on the contrary, is to be connected with *ʔayl- 'ram' 3061 (together with Brb. forms of the t-ili type), as *ʔ > h in Hgr, while *ʕ > Hgr 0".

  • Most reflexes of pan-Berber ikərri / akrar "ram" are assigned to PAA *kar(w)- "ram, goat; lamb; kid". (The Semitic parallels listed for this word are rather interesting.) But Zenaga ǝgrǝrh, pl. gurănh 'bélier' (Nic. 156), on its own, is given a supposed proto-Berber form *gur- "ram", corresponding to an AA form *(ʔa-)gʷar "kind of antelope; ram; goat". In fact, however, there is a common correspondence of Zenaga g followed by a sonorant to proto-Berber k (eg ägärgur "chest" = Siwi ikərkər, əməgyih "dine" = Kabyle iməkli etc), and this word is obviously related to the other Berber forms.
Another case is listed as doubtful, eg:
  • Most reflexes of Proto-Berber *a-lăqŭm "camel" are under PAA *ʕalVḳ/g- ˜ *lVḳ/gum- ˜ *ḳalVm- "camel"; but the Zenaga one äyiʔm, with regular *l > y (in his source's transcription ǯ) and common *γ > ʔ as seen previously, ends up as PAA *gam-al- (?).
Similarly, unrelated forms may be grouped together due to accidental similarity, eg:
  • Under PAA *kʷay(-t)- "hen; partridge; dove; chick" is listed a "proto-Berber" form *i-kaHi; but the Ahaggar form listed corresponds regularly to Niger Tuareg tekažit, Mali Tuareg tekazzit, Awjila təkažit "hen" (see Kossmann 2005:60), and as such is unrelated to the Ayr and Tawllemmet forms takəyya quoted.
Another problem is undetected loans; this applies especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where little work has been done on their impact. PAA *ʔa/iw / *waʔ "bull, cow" is supported by Tawellemmet hawu "cow", isolated in Berber and obviously borrowed from Songhay, cp. Zarma haw, Tadaksahak hawú; removing this from the etymology leaves only pan-Tuareg iwan "cows", with no evidence for the desired *H. PAA *bar "cereal, corn" is supported by Zenaga būru "bread"; but this word is isolated in Berber and widespread in West Africa (eg Wolof mbuuru, Soninke buuru, Bambara nbuuru, Peul mbuuru, Zarma buuru), and is more likely a loan from Wolof or Pulaar.

Interestingly, most of the problem cases I've noticed in this quick skim are related to agricultural terminology. I wonder if that has anything to do with the particular interest of such terms for archeologists motivating a more intense search for cognates.

11 comments:

pep said...

Very interesting post Lameen, as usual (altough not an easy one, at least for those with a superficial knowledge of AA, like myself)
One thing strikes me as strange: you speak of the general closeness of berber varieties and from the little berber I know I´d say that the unity of the language is out of the question; but I´ve read somewhere else that you consider berber to be not a single language, but a language family. I wonder why is that so..
Thanks ;-)

Anonymous said...

Re: the reference to Zenaga "Buuru" (bread), I might refer readers again to the work by Haim Rabin "Ancient West Arabian" in which he mentions the South Arabian term "Burru" (wheat). note that the Hassaniya Arabic word for bread is "Muburru"

ould el-Shinqiti

Lameen Souag الأمين سواق said...

Pep: I'd say Berber is about as diverse as Romance, maybe a bit more.

Ould El Shinguiti: Yes, burr بُرّ is in fact specifically hard wheat, a type of wheat that can be stored longer than most kinds. In medieval times it was grown throughout the Mediterranean. However, I don't think Hassaniya mbuuru is likely to be derived directly from this, because there's no Hassaniya-internal explanation for the final -u or the initial m-. It is possible, though, that the Arabic word entered some West African language that didn't like doubled r's or final consonants, and later came back to Hassaniya.

Jim said...

"Ould El Shinguiti: Yes, burr بُرّ is in fact specifically hard wheat, a type of wheat that can be stored longer than most kinds."

Is it etymologically related to 'farro'?

David Marjanović said...

Is it etymologically related to 'farro'?

Some say yes, add barley, and project *bar all the way back to Proto-Nostratic. Supposed reflexes are found in several Nostratic branches.

David Marjanović said...

Alan Bomhard is the name of the linguist who proposed that. Didn't remember it in time.

Anonymous said...

Re: the term mburu/buuru/buru etc. i might call attention to the fact that it is also used in the Umani dialect of Khabura, meaning 'grain'. I think this discounts any non-Arabic origin... There are several other Hassaniya & general Maghrebiyya terms, such as: brawa (letter), qelt (waterhole), ila (if), Maknaas (crevice), Aghadiir (granary),barnuus (large blanket), ilayn (up to/until). The source is: "Spoken Arabic of Khabura on the Batina of Oman". The author's name is A.A. Brockett... ould el-Shinqiti

Caspar Jordan said...

I have been wondering about the etymology of the Berber plural in -an, -än, and similar ?suffixes. Is there any possible connection to the Arabic plural in -aan, what do you think?

Lameen Souag الأمين سواق said...

Caspar: Very likely, but hard to prove.

Chinguiti: There is no doubt that "burr" for "wheat" is Arabic. The question is whether or not it's related to "buuru" meaning "bread", and if so, how. Does the Omani form also have the final -u, and no shaddah?

Anonymous said...

not sure about the -u ending or shadda on the 'r' in Khabura... unfortunately, the one book available (at the univ library)
in my town is missing!

el-Shinqiti
04071947

Unknown said...

السلام مرحبا

العلم الحديث أثبت لا وجود شيء اسمه ( عائلة اللغات السامية الحامية ) حيث تصدى الافارقة لهذه الخرافة الأوروبية بأدلة علمية


*فاللغات التشادية شديدة التطابق مع اللغات المسماة باللغات النيجرية الكنغولية و مع اللغات المسماة نيلية صحرواية

و كذالك الامر بالنسبة للغات التشادية و الكوشية و المصرية القديمة

و عليه قام علماء أفارقة بتقسيم جديد للغات الافريقية

حيث تبين أن هناك عائلة لغوية كبرى سموها العائلة اللغوية ( المصرية النيجرية ) و هي تضم كل ما كن يسمى باللغات النيلية الصحرواية

و التشادية و الكوشية و المصرية و النيجرية الكنغولية



أما لغة الأمازيغ فيؤكد علماء الافارقة أنها لا تنتمي الى العائلة اللغوية المسماة ( المصرية النيجرية )

بل يعتبرون لغة الأمازيغ عائلة لغوية افريقية مستقلة بحذ ذاتها

و لكن الظاهر أن لغة الأمازيغ ممكن ان تكون هي ايضا فرع من العائلة اللغوية المسماة ( ( بالمصرية النيجرية


و لكن الشيء الذي لا يختلف عليه اثنان ( أصل واحد و منبع متحد و جذور مشتركة بين لغة الأمازيغ و لغة الصنغاي

و شكرا لكم