G. G. CHIKOVANI. KASHKADARYA ARABIC DIALECT OF CENTRAL ASIA. Tbilisi: Tsereteli Institute of Oriental Studies, Tbilisi Institute of Asia and Africa, 2008, 260 p. (1)

G. G. CHIKOVANI. BUKHARA DIALECT OF THE ARABIC LANGUAGE. Tbilisi: Tsereteli Institute of Oriental Studies, Tbilisi Institute of Asia and Africa, 2009, 194 p. (2)

Arabic linguistics of the XXI century was supplemented with new fundamental research in the field of Arabic dialectology. The books under consideration by Guram Galaktionovich Chikovani , a well-known Arabist-semitologist, representative of the scientific tradition established by the Leningrad School of Oriental Studies and the Tbilisi School of Semitology, are closely related. Along with studying the history of the Arabic language, both internal and external, the scientist continues for many years to collect material from two "peripheral" ("island") dialects of the Arabic language that remain in Uzbekistan to this day. Kashkadarya dialect (hereinafter - KD) is spoken in the villages of Jainau and Kamashi of Beshkend district (south of the country), Bukhara dialect (hereinafter - DB) - in the villages of Gidzhuvan district of Bukhara district and Vabkend district. According to the author's observations, 3000 people speak on the database, 1500 people speak on the CD (1, p. 7).

The special position of isolated Arabic dialects, which have been preserved for several centuries surrounded by Turkic and Iranian languages, has attracted the attention of Arabic linguists and typologists since the first half of the 20th century.1 Establishing the phonetic-phonological system and grammatical structure of "island" dialects can show the degree of stability and variability of a non-written language in a foreign-language environment: which of the common Arabic categories the language preserves, and which are subject to change or reduction. An invaluable contribution to comparative Arabic dialectology can be made by a structural and typological comparison of the "island" dialect and the dialects that function in the original territories of the Arabic-speaking population.

Compositionally reviewed books are built according to one plan: preface with a brief history of the study of Central Asian dialects in domestic and foreign Arabic studies; Part I: phonology, grammar and vocabulary of the dialect; Part II: texts with translation and commentary. The work on the CD is provided with a list of the author's research on these dialects (from 1983 to 2007). The work on the DB is presented in parallel texts in Georgian and Russian, and has additional sections: "Phrasebook" and "Basic lexical fund". The books include author's photographs of informants-carriers of CD and DB and other modern representatives of the Arab population of the above-mentioned areas.

The author characterizes the linguistic situation in the studied areas as diglossia (bilingualism), when a representative of the Arab population, along with Arabic (non-written), speaks one of the leading languages of the historical environment - Uzbek or Tajik; as triglos-

1 This can be proved by a large number of works not only by Russian and Georgian scientists, but also by foreign Orientalists, many of whom rely mainly on the works and materials of our researchers directly (see, for example, [Zimmerman, 2009]).

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uia, when an individual, along with his native Arabic, speaks Uzbek and Tajik at the same time. In some cases, there is a weak command of native Arabic and representatives of the younger generation (1, p. 6-7; 2, p. 47).

New materials on the database collected by the author in 1980 and 2000 indicate some changes in the language situation: in the first villages surveyed in the 1930s, the Arabic language is no longer recorded, but it is found in a number of other villages of Gidzhuvan and Bukhara districts. New records of folklore texts indicate that the Arabic dialect of these regions reflects the influence of the Tajik language (2, pp. 47-48, 106).

The analysis of toponyms in the areas where the Arabic dialect is preserved allows the author to conclude that toponyms containing the names of ancient Arab tribes (for example, "Naukad Kureish, Kahlay") reflect an older wave of migration of Arabs to the Kashkadarya region. Whereas in the Bukhara and Samarkand regions, toponyms that include the general reference definition of "Arab -" (for example, "Arab Saroy") reflect a later period of the spread of Arabs in this territory (2, p. 48). This observation of the author, in my opinion, is very important in solving the still controversial issue of the time and ways of migration of Arabs to Central Asia and is worthy of a special study.

An important section of each of the books consists of new recordings of oral narratives of a folklore nature made by the author in the last years of the XX-beginning of the XXI century (1, p. 52-119; 2, p. 55-64). Texts are transmitted in Latin transcription with the corresponding diacritics accepted in semitology and Arabic studies. Transcription is consistently phonetic. The same system is used to compile a phrasebook on everyday topics (2, p. 117-133) and a list of basic vocabulary (2, p. 137-162). In addition, the database book contains an alphabetical index of all nominal vocabulary from the list of the main lexical fund (2, p. 165-175 in Russian; p. 179-189 in Russian).

The main subjects of folklore texts are fairy tales or stories of local content. They take place in an environment typical of the region, and the characters also represent characters from past eras and the way of life of the Central Asian population: adventures of young heroes in deserts and cities, stories about poor people, shepherds, beys, effendi and pashas, and fairy tales with animals. However, one of the historical traditions of the village of Jainau tells about the origin of local Arabs from "grandmother Hagar" (1, p. 53; transl. p. 120-121, comment. p. 189); among the samples of the Bukhara region, one can note the narration "Yusuf" (2, p. 55-56; transl. p. 93-94, comment. pp. 106-107) - a reminiscence of the story of Joseph. One of the Bukhara short stories is a family biography of the narrator, a resident of the village of Jogara (2, p. 61-62; trans. p. 100-101, commentary p. 110-113).

An important part of each of the books is a detailed commentary on folklore texts, following the translation, which deals with issues of phonetics and grammar that are not covered in the essays that precede the folklore material.

The language material collected by G. G. Chikovani in recent decades allows us to present a more complete description of the sound and grammatical structure of both dialects, to emphasize the innovations of some grammatical forms and lexical composition of both DB and CD. The greatest attention is paid to the outline of the phonetic structure and grammar of CD 2.

The first section is devoted to a detailed analysis and description of the CD sound system (1, p. 12-15). Such an analysis is a necessary prerequisite for further study of a little-known unwritten language. Phonetic innovations include such phenomena as positional changes in consonants: deafening at the end of a word: harap (<lit. Arab, harab -) "ran away", (<lit. Arab, mana') "forbade"; secondary emphatization as a positional phenomenon in geminated bases: (<lit. Arab, rabb -) "Lord; lord", umma (<lit. Arabic, 'umm-) "mother"; in the case of the presence in the consonantal root of the primordial emphatic (1, p. 18).

As a result, the author establishes a phonological consonant system consisting of 24 phonemes (1, p. 18). In general, the reduction of the CD phonemic system (compared to the Proto-Arabic one, where there are 28 phonemes) corresponds to the general dialect trend of the decline of interdental (interdental): (or t), emphatic lateral fall of laryngeal (positional) (1, p. 12-13).

2 This may be due to the fact that a special dictionary [Vinnikov, 1962] and V. G. Akhvlediani's special work on phonetics, phonology, and morphology [Akhvlediani, 1985] were already devoted to the database.

3 The movement of the emphatic lateral is characteristic of the north-eastern distribution area of Arabic dialects (Mesopotamia, areas adjacent to the Iranian-speaking population).

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CD vocalism is also considered from a phonetic and functional-phonological point of view. Most short vowels are characterized by positional changes: alternations in timbre and number depending on the consonant environment and stress in a word or phrase, falling in an open pre-stressed syllable and, on the contrary, remaining in a favorable consonant environment (1, p.20-22). As a result of the analysis of phonological oppositions, the author establishes a system of vowel phonemes of the CD consisting of five vowels: (a-e-i-o-u), the main feature of which (in comparison, for example, with the system of classical Arabic) is the absence of a phonological opposition in brevity-longitude. The presence of long vowels in the CD is due to the stress or preservation of the traditional pronunciation of a number of word forms (1, p. 23).

DB is characterized by a system of consonant phonemes of 25 units (due to the irregular preservation of emphatic (2, p. 21-32). The phonemic system of vowels is established as identical to Kashkadarya. A phonetic feature noted for DB is the transition under the influence of the Tajik language (2, p. 33).

After getting acquainted with a detailed description of the phonetic features of CD, it remains to wish the author to introduce the morphonological aspect in the description of both CD and DB in further research. The establishment of the syllabic function of vowels in a syllable and word, the role of stress (mobile, as in classical Arabic, or permanent) is directly related to changes in the morphological structure of the word form and with the restructuring of the corresponding paradigms. Unfortunately, the syllable and stress are described very briefly in the DB (2, p. 33-34) and fluently in the CD (1, p. 44-about derived verb bases; in the comment. - p. 196; on intonation stress-p. 206) 4. Despite the lack of morphonological characteristics of the CD, the reader can get a fairly complete idea of the syllabic and vocal structure of the word in the sections devoted to the word formation of nominal and verbal parts of speech (1, p. 23-36; 36-45). It is worth noting the important observations of the author that the phonological, and therefore functional, difference between long and short vowels disappears in CD (1, p.23), as well as between "long" (or traditionally geminated, doubled) and short consonants (1, p. 44). This phenomenon may indicate a tendency to reduce such a method of word-and form formation as ablaut (internal inflection). For example, in the formation of derived verb bases (1, p. 44) or the "broken plural" of names (1, p. 27) 5. On the contrary, the method of external form and word formation is expanding due to morphemes of Arabic origin proper: - a(t) (f. sg), at (f., m. pi.),- in (pl.) 6; verbal names are formed from an unchangeable primary base by adding a suffix (1, p. 24, 227; 2, p. 43).

The CD retains some formative categories. The category of the genus (M. R.: w. r. =a/e) (1, p. 27), judging by the constructions in the texts, remains consistent, cf., for example: mahhalat-na kbira "our district large", where the name defined by mahhala (t) is w.r., the definition (f.) (1, p. 100, p. 169); "one girl is very beautiful" (f.) (1. p. 54.121).

The state category noted by the author (indicators of certainty il -, uncertainty-fad "one") (1, p. 28), judging by the texts, functions irregularly and is not consistent. The category of number, both for nominal parts of speech and for personal forms of the verb, is limited by the opposition of singular: plural, traces of the dual number are represented by relics in words denoting paired parts of the body or some paired objects "two sleeves") (1, p. 27). The category of person: the system of personal parts of the body and the system of pronouns retain a complete system of forms, i.e., the 2nd and 3rd person forms of J. R. plural (1, p. 33-35); accordingly, they are preserved both in the system of pronominal clitics and in the paradigm of personal verb forms (1, p.37-40).

A similar system of formative categories is represented by the database (2, p. 35-36, 38-41); it should be emphasized that here the state category becomes less regular (2, p.34).

4 A detailed morphonological analysis of word forms in the database, where the mobility, appearance or fall of vowels, and therefore the restructuring of the syllabic structure of the word form, is given in the sections "Changing vowels", "Structure of nominal and verbal bases" [Akhvlediani, 1985, p. 17, 25, 31 - 33, 40, 46 - 47, 64 - 65]; compare also: [Belova, 2000].

5 The same trend is also observed in the database (2, p. 35, 41).

6 In the CD, the suffix formant =m is marked as an indicator of plh, which can be attached both to the nominal base and to the personal pronoun (1, p. 207, comment. 10, p. 212, comment. 14, p. 215, comment. 12, p. 223, comment. 10, p. 223, comment. 1). This phenomenon should be described in more detail in the section on nominal forms of numbers.

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Thus, according to their system of complete paradigm of personal pronouns and personal verb forms, Central Asian dialects belong to the group of East Arabian (partially - to the group of Bedouin-type dialects), which retain the forms of the 2nd and 3rd person zh. r. pl. ch. in contrast to such dialects as Syriac, Bagdad (urban type), North Africa, where the system of personal forms of pronouns and verbs is reduced to plural and has a single form for the 3rd and 2nd person plural of the general gender.

Of great importance for comparative Arabic dialectology and the history of the Arabic language as a whole is the tendency in the dialects under consideration to form new forms and ways of expressing more differentiated verbal tenses. G. G. Chikovani establishes a whole system of six subcategories within the general category of time. The time paradigm includes both common Arabic synthetic personal forms of the perfect and imperfect 7, as well as innovative complex analytical forms:

a) perfect past (perfect basis);

b) the indefinite past (developed under the influence of the Turkic verb system) is formed from the form of the actual participle of the primary verb base in combination with the corresponding pronominal suffix for facial expression;

c) indefinite present (imperfect basis or new analytical construction: action name of the semantic verb + auxiliary conjugated verb sawa "to do" in imperfect);

d) a definite present (conveys a continuous action and is compared by the author with the English present continuous; it is formed analytically, but in two ways: a conjugated imperfect basis, to which the immutable participle of the real voice nāyim (verb. nām "to sleep, to be at rest, to lie down"); the same construction, but the auxiliary form of the participle is conjugated (in the form of "b") in parallel with the conjugated imperfect;

e) simple future (transmitted by a simple imperfect form);

f) complex (immediate) future (formed by adding the prefix ta-to the imperfect base) (1, pp. 42-44)8. The system of tense forms of the verb in the database is similar in the CD, but the verb is marked as an auxiliary verb for "past extended" (2, p. 42-43).

I deliberately focus on verb categories in such detail, since verb systems in Arabic dialects represent an indicative innovative link in the entire grammatical system of each dialect, determine general trends in changes in the grammatical system, and also affect the system of the literary language.

Noting the general dialect trend of verbalization of participles, I would like to emphasize once again that new ways of expressing verbal categories in Central Asian dialects are formed on their own verbal bases, but they are formed under the obvious influence of the Tajik and Uzbek grammatical structure.

The inventory of adverbs, prepositions, and particles characteristic of CD and DB mainly represents the common Arabic heritage (2, p. 43-46; 1, p. 45-48). Numerals in the composition of lexical bases also go back to the common Arabic fund, with the exception of Tajik loanwords for "8" and " 9 " (2, p. 36; 1, p. 28-29). Complex constructions of composite numerals have their own peculiarities in comparison with the general Arabic structure (from "11" to "19"): tens occupy the first place in the phrase (2, p.37; 1, p. 29).

The vocabulary of dialects is represented by the basic Arabic vocabulary that goes back to the general Semitic, local vocabulary borrowed from the contact Tajik and Uzbek languages, partly from the Russian "brigadier", farmad "formalize") (1, p.48-51, p. 194, comment. 6; 2, pp. 137-162).

At the same time, the vocabulary of Central Asian dialects demonstrates the results of new ways of word formation, due to the special circumstances of the functioning of the language in a foreign-language environment. In addition to direct borrowings from contact languages, "composites" appear in dialects - complex verbs such as "brought" (<"took" + "gave"), "know" (<"understanding" + "you know, you can"), "fell in love with her" ("good

7 The imperfect forms recorded in the village of Jogary are characterized by the m-/mi prefixes of Tajik origin (2, p. 105, comments 4, 5).

8 With regard to this form, it is impossible not to mention the forms of the present and future tense with the prefixes da -, in the dialects of Northern and Central Iraq [Jastrow, 2000, p. 423].

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I saw her") (2, p. 111, 189; 1, p. 214). From the point of view of word formation, complex structures represent tracing papers or reflect the influence of verb forms of Tajik or Uzbek languages. The word composition method, which is not typical for Arabic word formation, also applies to the domain of the name, for example: "door" ("door of the house") (2, p. 148), "beggar" ( ma antum "having nothing") (1, p. 51).

Appreciating G. G. Chikovani's fundamental research on the current state of Central Asian Arabic dialects, I would like to express a wish to expand the grammatical analysis of unique materials obtained in the last years of the XX-early XXI centuries. As a result of familiarization with these works, the question arises about the syntactic constructions presented in the texts of CD and DB. When analyzing texts and comments on them, remarkable innovations in the structure of phrases and sentences emerge:

1) formation of a new ("relay") type of defining phrases with a special indicator of the relay connection" big" (2, p. 34), "good" (2, p. 36); in another text: "horse-un black" (2, p. 55), also in the CD: big" (1, p. 195, comment. 7). In the last example, the new isafet connection is "superimposed" on the old matching connection by gender (w.r.); see also (1, p. 237, comment. 1); the author notes the second variant of the defining phrase like "Jainau - its inhabitants" (i.e., "residents of Jainau") as "Turkish izafet", which developed under the influence of the Uzbek language (1, p. 188, comment. 5);

2) rearrangement of the word order in a sentence into SOV (nominal subject-direct complement-verb predicate), which can be seen from the texts and individual examples, can also be characterized as one of the typical line features of Central Asian dialects. Unfortunately, the author mentions this syntactic innovation only in the comments to the texts, for example: "once effendi went to the bazaar" (1, p. 222, comment. 3); "...his father brought him a wife" (1, p. 111, comment. 4). The large amount of language material and the questions posed by G. G. Chikovani during his interpretation inevitably cause the reader not only interest, but also new questions. For example: is the available language data sufficient to determine the time of separation of the CD and DB from the main continuum of Old Arabic dialects and determine what signs of the Old Arabic state have been preserved in them?

list of literature

Akhvlediani V. G. Bukharian Arabic dialect. Tbilisi: Metsniereba Publ., 1985.

Belova A. G. Vokalicheskaya struktura slova v vostochnoarabskikh dialektakh [Vocal structure of the word in East Arabic dialects]. 75th anniversary of V. G. Akhvlediani. Georgian Academy of Sciences, G. Tsereteli Institute of Oriental Studies, Tbilisi, 2000.

Vinnikov I. N. Slovar ' dialekta bukharskikh arabov [Dictionary of the Bukharian Arab dialect]. Issue 10 (3). Moscow-L.: Izd. AN SSR, 1962.

Jastrow O. Iraq // Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics / Gen. Ed. K. Versteegh; As. Ed. Mushira Eid, A. Elgibali, M. Woidich, A. Zaborski. Leiden-Boston: Brill. Vol. II, 2007.

Zimmerman G. Uzbekistan Arabic // Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics / Gen. Ed. K. Versteegh; As. Ed. Mushira Eid., A. Elgibali, M. Woidich, A. Zaborski. Leiden-Boston: Brill. Vol. IV, 2009.

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