Wasf San'a: Texts in San'ani Arabic.

• Author: Kaye, Alan S.
• Position: Book Review

Wasf San'a: Texts in San'ani Arabic. By JANET C. E. WATSON with 'ABD AL-SALAM AL-'AMRI. Semitica Viva, vol. 23. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 2000. Pp. 319.

The volume under review is another splendid addition to the Semitica Viva series edited by Otto Jastrow. It consists of twenty-eight annotated texts with translations thereof and a glossary, which is quite extensive (pp. 265-315). The editor, Janet Watson, tells us that she wanted the texts to be "maximally homogeneous" (p. 3); thus, twenty-five texts (recorded from 1991 to 1998) are from a native of [San.sup.[subset]]a, [Abd.sup.[subset]] al-Salam al-[Amri.sup.[subset]], born in 1962, whose idiolect she states is typical of [San.sup.[subset]]ani males born around the time of the Yemeni Revolution. The texts deal with local customs and traditional culture, for the most part, including folklore, and are excellent; however, there are also narratives about everyday things, such as traveling by taxi, plane, and bus. Three texts, recorded by female informants, deal with Yemeni recipes, women's wedding and birth parties, and hopscotch.

The introduction gives information about the texts, transcriptional conventions, and certain aspects of the phonology and grammar of [San.sup.[subset]]ani Arabic. Some of this can already be found in the author's A Syntax of [San.sup.[subset]]ani Arabic (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 1993; see my review in JACS 117 [1997]: 596-97, as well as Sbahtu:: A Course in [San.sup.[subset]]ani Arabic, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 1996; see my review in JAOS 118 [1998]: 147-48).

Let me now turn to the section on deviations from [San.sup.[subset]]ani Arabic. It is noted therein that [Abd.sup.[subset]] al-Salam uses the Egyptianism [bar.sup.[subset]]a 'also' in addition to certain classicisms (pp. 8--9). First of all, there can be little doubt that the influence of Egyptian Colloquial Arabic is growing due to the popularity of Egyptian films, television, and radio, not to mention the fact that many Egyptians live and work in Yemen. Secondly, the classical forms mentioned ending in the adverbial -an, such as jiddan 'very', occur in numerous Arabic dialects as well, and although historically classical, I believe have been well incorporated into the spoken vernaculars. This situation is similar to that of Persian, in which a word such as taqriban 'approximately' (although Classical Arabic in origin with the -an accusative ending) is used in the colloquial...