Old Arabic Poetry

[TheIncredibleHulk]

A video by a great Semitic linguist, A.Z Foreman, reciting a pre-Islamic Arabic poem that is over 2,000 years old written in the Safaitic script that was found in North-Eastern Jordan:


You know what's funny? I understand it for the most part despite that it's over 2,000 years old, rofl. The most notable thing here is that the F sound is pronounced as P which no longer exists in the Arabic language anymore.

[TheIncredibleHulk]

bump.

[drobbah]

There was probably more diversity during the time of the Prophet and Rashidun Caliphate but the Hijazi-Quraishi dialect probably became standard because of Caliph Uthman standardizing the Qur'an.

[TheIncredibleHulk]

There was probably more diversity during the time of the Prophet and Rashidun Caliphate but the Hijazi-Quraishi dialect probably became standard because of Caliph Uthman standardizing the Qur'an.

You're right. Safaitic wasn't a singular dialect but rather a sea of many different Arabic dialects that form a North Arabic dialectic continuum. Read this to understand more, bro:
https://www.academia.edu/38100372/Al...mmar_of_Arabic

[TheIncredibleHulk]

There was probably more diversity during the time of the Prophet and Rashidun Caliphate but the Hijazi-Quraishi dialect probably became standard because of Caliph Uthman standardizing the Qur'an.

Speaking of which, here's a video of a recitation of surat al-fati7a in Old Higazi Arabic 1,300 years ago:


Arabic qasida in the Ummuyad period:
https://twitter.com/azforeman/status...41490908651520

Several old Arabic dialects(old Hijazi and Sibawayhi's Arabic), Tiberian and Babylonian Hebrew and 10th century Persian in a single video:
https://twitter.com/azforeman/status...78611093827585

Persian sounds so freaking pansy, rofl.

[drobbah]

Speaking of which, here's a video of a recitation of surat al-fati7a in Old Higazi Arabic 1,300 years ago:


Arabic qasida in the Ummuyad period:
https://twitter.com/azforeman/status...41490908651520

Several old Arabic dialects(old Hijazi and Sibawayhi's Arabic), Tiberian and Babylonian Hebrew and 10th century Persian in a single video:
https://twitter.com/azforeman/status...78611093827585

Persian sounds so freaking pansy, rofl.

Had no idea ج turning to a g was archaic. The only modern dialects that has that feature that I know of is Egyptian and my grandfather's Adeni dialect (South Yemen).

[TheIncredibleHulk]

Had no idea ج turning to a g was archaic. The only modern dialects that has that feature that I know of is Egyptian and my grandfather's Adeni dialect (South Yemen).

Yeah. In fact, the word for camels in Arabic wasn't pronounced as Jammal either but rather as Gammal in Safaitic as well. Here's an old Safaitic inscription that was founded by Jallad last year's summer season that is the oldest use of the word, Arab, as an ethnonym in the Arabic language ever found:


Are you half Somali half Yemeni?

[drobbah]

Yeah. In fact, the word for camels in Arabic wasn't pronounced as Jammal either but rather as Gammal in Safaitic as well.
Are you half Somali half Yemeni?

Very interesting! The Somali word for camel is geel/gaal which is derived from Ancient Sabean or related Yemenite language.Considering camels were domesticated in Southern Arabia, the Arabs probably got their word from the Omanis or Yemenis?

[TheIncredibleHulk]

Very interesting! The Somali word for camel is geel/gaal which is derived from Ancient Sabean or related Yemenite language.Considering camels were domesticated in Southern Arabia, the Arabs probably got their word from the Omanis or Yemenis?

Very likely considering that the dromedary camels were first domesticated in South-Eastern Arabia. Not to mention that the Safaitic and other Northern Arabian scripts that were used to write Arabic and other languages of Northern Arabia like Dadanitic and etc are sister scripts to the Musnad scripts of Southern Arabia, so there had been a very close cultural links between the earliest Arabs and other North Arabians with the South.

[Shanck]

There's different "Qira'at" (recitation) and ahruf (this one is a more open topic that I can't comment on ) that were used by the Arabs at the time when reciting the Qur'an, and the subject in general is quite famous amongst Islamic scholars with consensus about their existence.