Remarks on Selected Exponents of the 208-Swadesh List in Ṭuroyo

Eugene Barsky and Yulia Furman

Introduction

The present paper is a supplement to the 208-Swadesh list for Ṭuroyo published in Barsky, Furman and Loesov (2018).1 It discusses the following selected exponents of the list that were not included in the original publication: bird, head, husband, man (male), man (human being), sun, wife and woman.

The lexical study is based on fieldwork conducted in Berlin and Gütersloh among the Ṭuroyo-speaking community (August 2016). Another source of our data is the published field corpus of Ṭuroyo, which mainly consists of the texts of H. Ritter (Ritter 1967, 1969 and 1971) and E. Prym and A. Socin (PrS).

The texts from the three Ritter volumes (Ritter 1967, 1969, 1971) will be cited by the number of text and sentence along with the speaker’s place of origin, e.g. 61:9, Kfarze. The texts from the Prym-Socin collection, which originate from one Midyat speaker, will be cited by page number and line, e.g. 21/3. The concepts of the Swadesh list will be given in small capitals, e.g. woman, fat.

1. Bird

In Ṭuroyo, there are two main lexemes for the notion bird: safruno (RW 450) and ṭayro (RW 531), both in the published corpus and the data from our fieldwork.

Basically, safruno means small bird, but it can also be used as a generic term for bird and as the name of a particular species: sparrow.

Some of our informants use safruno in neutral contexts:

See also the following examples from the corpus:

The passage describes a game in which a participant thinks of a bird name and others are supposed to guess it. Later in the story, one of the participants reveals the name of the bird he thought of: flān safruno-yo ‘This is a certain bird’ (94:440, ʿIwardo). It is clear that safruno is used here as a general term for bird.

In the same text, safruno appears in a list of birds inhabiting Ṭur-ʿAbdin and denotes sparrow:

It should be noted that the word fərḥoṯe is employed here as a generic term for bird, which is not found anywhere else in the searchable corpus. It must be an adapted borrowing from Classical Syriac, which goes back to pāraḥtā ‘bird’ (SL 1236).

On the other hand, ṭayro means big bird, which can also be employed as a general term for bird and the name of a particular species: eagle. Consider the following examples for the meaning bird, both cited by our informants and found in the corpus:

Ṭayro may also refer to eagle. Some of our informants translated ‘Which kind of bird is this one? This is an eagle’ as

It is not clear why Ṭuroyo speakers (i.e. our informants and the informants for the corpus) choose ṭayro or safruno for denoting bird in neutral contexts. Both words can be used in the same situation regardless of the speaker’s origin. Nonetheless, safruno occurs more frequently in the speech of our informants. In the corpus, occurrences of ṭayro and safruno with the meaning of bird are only sporadic and occur roughly with the same frequency.

A comparable picture can be observed in Soqotri, a Modern South Arabian language, where two terms for bird exist: nóyhər and əṣféro. The former denotes ‘a generic small bird’ and the latter ‘a generic big bird.’ These words, however, can also be used synonymously. Furthermore, in the speech of L. Kogan’s informants, nóyhər denotes a generic bird, while əṣféro means a certain bird species, namely sparrow (Kogan 2015,489). The semantic development of the term nóyhər is similar to that of ṭayro: nóyhər goes back to Proto-West Semitic *našr- ‘eagle’; ṭayro goes back to Middle Eastern Aramaic (MEA)3 ṭayrā ‘bird, raptor’.

2. Head

According to the data of the published corpus and according to our informants, qarʿo (RW 399) is the main word for head in Ṭuroyo, whether of human beings or animals. Contrary to our expectations, rišo (RW 443) and qarʿo are rarely synonyms. Only one speaker from Midən and one from Bsorino employ rišo alongside qarʿo. In the corpus, however, a competition between the two words is observed in the texts from Midən, where qarʿo and rišo occur in the speech of the same speakers with equal frequency:

In published material other than the Midən texts, qarʿo occurs much more often than rišo as the exponent of head. The word rišo, however, is still occasionally used alongside qarʿo. The word may occur in the stories told by the same informant. When rišo does appear, what motivates the speaker to use this less frequent variant is unclear to us. Consider the following examples below:

It seems that rišo made way for qarʿo in the sense of head and its usage shifted to the field of derived meanings and set expressions such as the following:

3. Man (male) and Husband

Both man (male) and husband can be rendered by gawro (RW 171) and zlām (RW 587). Apparently, gawro was the main term for both man (male) and husband at the time when H. Ritter was collecting his texts. In the speech of our informants, however, zlām conveys these meanings, except in the dialects of Midyat and Arkaḥ, where gawro is still in use.

In the corpus (1960s) gawro is the main term both for man (male) and husband, irrespective of the variety.

The core meaning of zlām in the published texts is man (person), but the word happens to denote man (male) and husband in a couple of passages:

In the searchable corpus, gawro husband has 143 tokens, while gawro man (male) is represented by 37 tokens (the total number of gawro tokens including the meanings man (male), husband as well as other meanings such as ‘a man’s man’, ‘hero’, etc. is 306). Zlām has 11 entries for husband and 17 for man (male), while the total number of zlām entries including the aforementioned meanings is 716. This is represented in the Table 1:

Table 1: The meanings of gawro and zlām

By contrast, zlām is the most frequent word for man (male) and husband used by our informants from Midən, Kfarze, Bsorino and Zaz. Midyat and Arkaḥ speakers employ only gawro, while a speaker from Mzizaḥ uses both words. Consider the following examples:

4. Man (Human Being)

The basic exponents of mankind as a human being, regardless of sex, are ənsān (RW 252) and nošo (RW 369).

In the searchable corpus, the main term is ənsān: we have found 80 tokens of ənsān meaning human being vs. only nine instances of nošo with the same sense.5 See the following examples:

In the contemporary usage of Ṭuroyo speakers, nošo is gaining ground as an exponent of man (human being). Some speakers use exclusively nošo in this meaning, some employ both words and some still use ənsān.

Note that noše may be used as a plural of ənsān, alongside ənsanat. Thus a speaker who invariably uses ənsān for human being employs noše as its plural:

5. Sun

The concept sun has two exponents in the language, the inherited šəmšo (RW 496) and an innovative one that also means day, yawmo (RW 575). They are attested in the corpus conveying two different meanings: šəmšo is the source of warmth and sunshine, while yawmo is the source of daylight.

The basic meaning of the Ṭuroyo word yawmo is day. In addition yawmo is used in published texts in connection with the sun’s movement across the sky, i.e. sunset and sunrise. In other words, yawmo denotes sun as a moving celestial body, which is responsible for alternation of day and night. It is, therefore, closely associated with the idea of daytime. In this meaning, yawmo occurs only within the following collocations:

5.1. Verbs

Consider a few examples:

5.2. Nouns

Cardinal points can be expressed with yawmo-collocations as well:

5.3. From Day to Sun

We must admit that the semantic boundary between the concepts of day and sun as a source of daylight is very blurred. Yawmo in all the examples above can also be interpreted as ‘day, daylight’ in a metaphorical sense.

The only case where the features of šəmšo, i.e. the sunshine, are attributed to yawmo is an expression used for describing the outstanding beauty of a human being.

As for šəmšo, it conveys the sense of ‘the source of warmth and sunshine’:

Moreover, šəmšo by itself can mean ‘shine’, e.g., in i=šəmšo du=ṣahro ‘the shining of the moon’ (115:128, Midən; JL 7:7:9, Midən).

These two components of the sun concept are in complementary distribution in the published texts: šəmšo is never used in the collocations associated with yawmo; yawmo almost never means ‘the warmth and the shining of the sun’ (except for the set expression mentioned above).

As for the answers from our informants, the usage varies. The word šəmšo can be used in the yawmo-collocations and, moreover, yawmo can mean a celestial body. Consider their translations of the following sentences:

A semantic shift day > sun is known in various languages of the world, in particular in Kurmanji, where roj is the basic word for both day and sun (Chyet 521, 733, 826). In some of NENA, the MEA *yawmā also acquired the meaning ‘sun’: Barwar yoma (Khan 2008, 1451); C. Urmi yuma (Khan 2016, vol. 3, 342). In Modern South Arabian languages PS *yawm- day has become the main word for sun (Kogan 2015, 541).

6. Woman and Wife

The Midyat (məḏyoyo) and the village (quryoyo) dialects of Ṭuroyo have their own sets of basic words for the concepts of woman and wife. These notions can often be rendered by the same words. However, the relationship between the words for woman and wife within both sets is complex. Through a few illustrative passages we shall discuss the meaning and the dialectal distribution of the words aṯto (RW 39), ḥurma (RW 246), žənəke (RW 257) and pire (RW 382).

6.1. Midyat Dialect

The basic məḏyoyo word for wife is aṯto. However, aṯto is almost never used as a form of address in direct speech when the speaker addresses his wife. For this purpose the word žənəke, which usually means woman, is used as in the example below:

It should be noted that žənəke is a general form of address that can refer to any female person.

Aṯto is a generic term for a human female, woman (female), but it is only rarely used to denote a referential female person, woman (person). This function is performed by žənəke.

Compare, however, also:

Niše/neše is a suppletive plural used for both woman and wife in the Midyat dialect of Ṭuroyo.

Ḥurma occurs two times in Ritter’s corpus meaning woman. Pire is found in the Prym-Socin collection only with the meaning of old woman.

6.2. Village Dialects

There are two prominent words for wife in quryoyo: aṯto and ḥurma. Though ḥurma occurs quite often in the published corpus, aṯto is attested in the meaning of wife at least twice as much as ḥurma is:

Table 2: wife in other dialects

An exception is constituted by two villages of the Raite region dialectal cluster—Xarabe Məška and Xarabe Kafre—where ḥurma is a basic word for wife, as shown in Table 3.

Table 3: wife in the Raite dialectal cluster

As in məḏyoyo, aṯto is not used as a form of address for wife in direct speech. Ḥurma takes on this function. Consider the following example:

Ḥurma is used as a general form of address for any female person (wife, mother, familiar or unfamiliar woman).

Occasionally, pire and žənəke can also mean wife.

The basic word for woman (female) as well as for woman (person) in the village dialects is ḥurma. Consider the following examples:

The word pire can hardly have a claim on the status of basic word for woman in any of the village varieties in Ritter’s corpus. Though it is more popular in the dialects of the Raite region, as shown in Table 4 below, ḥurma still holds its position as the main word for woman. The more typical meaning of pire is old woman. It should be noted, however, that pire is the only word for woman found in Jastrow’s Lehrbuch (JL) texts, which represent the Midən variety of Ṭuroyo. Two of our informants, one from Midən and the other from Bsorino, consistently used pire in their replies.

Table 4: pire across dialects

Žənəke is yet another secondary word for woman (person) in quryoyo. It is worth mentioning that in Anḥil, it is used even more frequently than ḥurma (11 tokens of žənəke vs. 4 tokens of ḥurma).

Niše/neše and pirat are suppletive plurals for both woman and wife. Pirat is more common in the dialects of the Raite region. Niše/neše is attested in all the village varieties, especially in Kfarze and Anḥil, where pirat is only rarely used. In the dialects where both niše/neše and pirat are present, the former word stands for woman and wife, while the latter one merely means woman.

6.3. Summary

To summarise, aṯto is the basic word for wife and woman (female) in the Midyat dialect. Žənəke is the main word for woman (person) which can also be used as a form of address for any female person, including a wife. Niše/neše are suppletive plurals for both woman and wife.

In the village dialects, the basic words for wife are aṯto and ḥurma depending on the variety. Ḥurma is the main exponent of the notions woman (female) and woman (person), which can be used as a form of address for female persons including wife. Pire is the main word for woman (both female and person) in some modern Ṭuroyo dialects (Midən, Bsorino). Niše/neše and pirat are suppletive plurals for woman and wife.

7. Etymology

The following list shows our suggested etymologies of the lexemes in the previous discussion:

Abbreviations

Languages and Dialects

Glossing Abbreviations not in the Leipzig Glossing List

Bibliographical Abbreviations

Bibliography

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