Old Hijazi Arabic


Old Hejazi, or Old Higazi, is a variety of Old Arabic attested in Hejaz from about the 1st century to the 7th century. It is the variety thought to underlie the Quranic Consonantal Text and in its later iteration was the prestige spoken and written register of Arabic in the Umayyad Caliphate.

Classification

Old Ḥejāzī is characterized by the innovative relative pronoun ʾallaḏī, ʾallatī, etc., which is attested once in the inscription JSLih 384 and is the common form in the QCT, as opposed to the form ḏ- which is otherwise common to Old Arabic.
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.

Phonology

Consonants

The sounds in the chart above are based on the constructed phonology of Proto-Semitic and the phonology of Modern Hejazi Arabic.
Notes:
  1. The consonants and were voiced, in contrast with Northern Old Arabic, where they may have been voiceless
  2. The glottal stop was lost in Old Hejazi, except after word-final . It is still retained in Modern Hejazi in few positions.
  3. Historically, it is not well known in which stage of Arabic the shift from the Old Hejazi phonemes,, and to Modern Hejazi , , and occurred. Although the change in and has been attested as early as the eighth century CE, and it can be explained by a chain shift → →.

    Vowels

In contrast to Classical Arabic, Old Hejazi had the phonemes and , which arose from the contraction of Old Arabic and , respectively. It also may have had short from the reduction of in closed syllables:
The QCT attests a phenomenon of pausal final long -ī dropping, which was virtually obligatory.

Example

Here is an example of reconstructed Old Hejazi side-by-side with its classicized form, with remarks on phonology:
Old Hejazi Classicized
bism allāh alraḥmān alraḥīm
1) ṭāhā
2) mā anzalnā ʿalayk alqurān litašqē
3) illā taḏkirah liman yaḫšē
4) tanzīlā mimman ḫalaq alarḍ walsamāwāt alʿulē
5) alraḥmān ʿalay alʿarš astawē
6) lah mā fī lsamāwāt wamā fī larḍ wamā baynahumā wamā taḥt alṯarē
7) waïn taǧhar bilqawl faïnnah yaʿlam alsirr waäḫfē
8) allāh lā ilāh illā huww lah alasmāʾ alḥusnē
9) wahal atēk ḥadīṯ mūsē
10) iḏ rāʾ nārā faqāl liählih amkuṯū innī ānast nārā laʿallī ātīkum minhā biqabas aw aǧid ʿalay alnār hudē
11) falammā atēhā nūdī yāmūsē
12) innī anā rabbuk faäḫlaʿ naʿlayk innak bilwād almuqaddas ṭuwē		bismi llāhi rraḥmāni rraḥīm
1) ṭāhā
2) mā ʾanzalnā ʿalayka lqurʾāna litašqā
3) ʾillā taḏkiratan liman yaḫšā
4) tanzīlan mimman ḫalaqa lʾarḍa wassamāwāti lʿulā
5) ʾarraḥmānu ʿalā lʿarši stawā
6) lahū mā fī ssamāwāti wamā fī lʾarḍi wamā baynahumā wamā taḥta ṯṯarā
7) waʾin taǧhar bilqawli faʾinnahū yaʿlamu ssirra waʾaḫfā
8) ʾallāhu lā ʾilāha ʾillā huwa lahū lʾasmāʾu lḥusnā
9) wahal ʾatāka ḥadīṯu mūsā
10) ʾiḏ raʾā nāran faqāla liʾahlihī mkuṯū ʾinnī ʾānastu nāran laʿallī ʾātīkum minhā biqabasin ʾaw ʾaǧidu ʿalā nnāri hudā
11) falammā ʾatāhā nūdiya yāmūsā
12) ʾinnī ʾana rabbuka faḫlaʿ naʿlayka ʾinnaka bilwādi lmuqaddasi ṭuwā

Notes:

Proto-Arabic

Proto-Arabic nouns could take one of the five above declensions in their basic, unbound form.

Old Hejazi (Quranic Consonantal Text)

The Qur'anic Consonantal Text presents a slightly different paradigm to the Safaitic, in which there is no case distinction with determined triptotes, but the indefinite accusative is marked with a final /ʾ/.

Writing systems

Dadanitic

A single text, JSLih 384, composed in the Dadanitic script, from northwest Arabia, provides the only non-Nabataean example of Old Arabic from the Ḥijāz.

Transitional Nabataeo-Arabic

A growing corpus of texts carved in a script in between Classical Nabataean Aramaic and what is now called the Arabic script from Northwest Arabia provides further lexical and some morphological material for the later stages of Old Arabic in this region. The texts provide important insights as to the development of the Arabic script from its Nabataean forebear and are an important glimpse of the Old Ḥejāzī dialects.

Arabic (Quranic Consonantal Text and 1st c. Papyri)

The QCT represents an archaic form of Old Hejazi.

Greek (Damascus Psalm Fragment)

The Damascus Psalm Fragment in Greek script represents a later form of prestige spoken dialect in the Umayyad Empire that may have roots in Old Hejazi. It shares features with the QCT such as the non-assimilating /ʾal-/ article and the pronominal form /ḏālika/. However, it shows a phonological merger between and and the development of a new front allophone of in non-emphatic contexts, perhaps realized .