Khuzestani Arabic: Attributive constructions
© Maryam Shabibi
In Arabic, attribution is treated differently in the two distinct forms of attributive constructions, nominal (the Construct State, or noun + noun construction) and adjectival (noun + adjective). In Persian, however, both forms are treated the same, namely by the use of the Ezafe marker to join the members of the construction.
Modelling Persian, the definite article /al-/ in Kh. Arabic replicates the Ezafe marker in both types of attribution. In Kh. Arabic adjectival attribution, a definite adjective modifies a head noun which is not marked by the definite article, in parallel to the situation in a construct state in which the head noun always appears without /al-/. In MSA, a definite adjective is expected to modify a head noun with the definite article /al-/.
In examples (1a & 2a ) from Kh. Arabic, the head nouns pardāt 'curtains' and bīət 'house' are not preceded by the definite article while their adjectives l-əmlawwənāt 'colourful' and l-abyað̣ 'white' are marked definite with /al-/.
In examples (1b & 2b) from Modern Standard Arabic both the head nouns and the adjectives are marked with the definite article.
Comparing examples (1a & 2a) and (1c & 2c) from Persian we can see that the structure of the Kh. Arabic examples is similar to the structure of the Persian ones.
Example 1
| 'The colourful curtains' | |||
| a. | Kh. Arabic ![[Listen to example]](../images/soundicon.gif) | ||
| pardāt | l-əmlawwənāt | ||
| curtains | DEF-coulorful.PL.F | ||
| b. | MSA | ||
| as-sitār | l-mulawwināt | (l-mulawwin-a) | |
| DEF-curtains | DEF-colourful.PL.F | (DEF- colourful-3SG.F) | |
| c. | Persian | ||
| pardehā-ye | rangī | ||
| curtains-EZ | colourful | ||
Example 2
| 'The white house' | ||
| a. | Kh. Arabic | |
| bīət | l-abyað̣ | |
| house | DEF-white | |
| b. | MSA | |
| al-bayt | l-abyað̣ | |
| DEF-house | DEF-white | |
| c. | Persian | |
| xūne-ye | sefīd | |
| house-EZ | white | |
More examples on the same phenomenon follow.
Example 3
| 'The young teacher' | ||
| a. | Kh. Arabic | |
| muʕalləm-at | š-šābb-a | |
| Teacher-CM | DEF-young-F | |
| b. | MSA | |
| l-muʕallim-a | š-šābb-a | |
| DEF-teacher-F | DEF-young-F | |
| c. | Persian | |
| moʔallem-e | javān | |
| teacher-EZ | young | |
Example 4
| 'The Green Island' | ||
| a. | Kh. Arabic | |
| jazīr-at | l-xað̣ra | |
| island-CM | DEF-green | |
| b. | MSA | |
| aj-jazīra | l-xað̣ra | |
| DEF-island | DEF-green | |
| c. | Persian | |
| jazire-ye | sabz | |
| island-EZ | green | |
The order of elements of the same constructions (attributive constructions) has also been influenced by Persian. An adjective modifying any member of a construct state is positioned at the end of the construct in MSA and other dialects of Arabic while in Kh. Arabic it follows the noun it modifies. In fact the elements in attributive constructions have been ordered based on the Persian pattern. Compare the order of elements in example (5a) from Kh. Arabic with (5b) from MSA and (5c) from Persian.
Example 5
| 'The chief's big son' | |||
| a. | Kh. Arabic | ||
| walad | č-čəbīr | l-modīr | |
| boy | DEF-big.M | DEF-chief.M | |
| b. | MSA | ||
| walad | l-mudīr | l-kabīr | |
| boy | DEF-chief.M | DEF-big.M | |
| c. | Persian | ||
| pesar-e | bozorg-e | modīr | |
| boy-EZ | big-EZ | chief | |
From the examples above we can see that like Persian the adjective in (5a) has followed the noun that they modify. The examples from MSA however show that the adjectives come at the end of the constructions whether they modify the first noun or the second one.