Old Higazi
| Old Higazi | |
|---|---|
Birmingham Qur'an Manuscript
|
|
| Region | Hijaz |
| Era | 1st century AD to 7th century AD |
| Dadanitic, Arabic, Greek | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 |
None (mis) |
| Glottolog | None |
Old Higazi is a variety of Old Arabic attested in Hijaz from about the 1st century AD to the 7th century AD. It is the variety thought to underly the Quranic Consonantal Text, and in its later iteration, was the prestige spoken and written register of Arabic in the Umayyad Empire.
Old Ḥigāzī is characterized by the innovative relative pronoun ʾallaḏī, ʾallatī, etc., which is attested once in JSLih 384 and is the common form in the QCT.
The infinitive verbal complement is replaced with a subordinating clause ʾan yafʿala, attested in the QCT and a fragmentary Dadanitic inscription.
The QCT along with the papyri of the first century after the Islamic conquests attest a form with an l-element between the demonstrative base and the distal particle, producing from the original proximal set ḏālika and tilka.
The emphatic interdental and lateral were realized as voiced, in contrast to Northern Old Arabic, where they were voiceless.
In contrast to Classical Arabic, Old Higazi had the phonemes [eː] and [oː], which arose from the contraction of Old Arabic [aja] and [awa], respectively. It also may have had short [e] from the reduction of [eː] in closed syllables:
The QCT attests a phenomenon of pausal final long -ī dropping, which was virtually obligatory.
Here is an example of reconstructed Old Higazi side-by-side with its classicized form, with remarks on phonology:
1) ṭāhā
2) mā ʾanzalnā ʿalayk alqurān litašqē
3) ʾillā taḏkirah liman yaḫšē
4) tanzīlā mimman ḫalaq alarḍ walsamāwāt alʿulē
5) ʾalraḥmān ʿalē lʿarš astawē
6) lah mā fī lsamāwāt wamā fī larḍ wamā baynahumā wamā taḥt alṯarē
7) waʾin taǧhar bilqawl faʾinnah yaʿlam alsirr waʾaḫfē
8) ʾallāh lā ʾilāh illā huww lah alasmā lḥusnē
9) wahal atēk ḥadīṯ mūsē
10) ʾiḏ rā nārā faqāl liʾahlih amkuṯū ʾinnī ʾānast nārā laʿallī ʾātīkum minhā biqabas aw aǧid ʿalē lnār hudē
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