Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ Kogan2011: with semantic shift from protSem *b˅ʕ˅r‑ ‘bull’, possibly also ‘livestock, cattle’ in general, the semantic shift to ‘camel’ in Ar being an Arabian innovation.
▪ According to Orel&Stolbova1994, Ar baʕīr‑ goes back to Sem *baʕīr‑ ‘¹bull, ²young bull, ³camel’, ‘ox’⁴, which in turn may have developed from AfrAs *baʕür‑ ‘bullʼ.

hist

▪ eC7 Q xii, 65: wa-namīru ʔahla-nā wa-naḥfaẓu ʔaḫā-nā wa-nazdādu kayla baʿīrin ‘We shall get provision for our folk and guard our brother, and we shall have the extra measure of a camel (load)’, 72: qālū nafqidu ṣuwāʕa l-maliki wa-li-man ǧāʔa bihī ḥimlu baʿīrin ‘They said: We have lost the king’s cup, and he who bringeth it shall have a camel-load’.

cogn

▪ Orel&Stolbova1994#183: Akk bīru¹², Hbr bᵊʕīr¹, Aram bᵊʕīrā¹, Ar baʕīr³, SAr bʕr³, Gz bəʕr-awi⁴, Te bəʕər-ay⁴, Tgy bəʕəray⁴, Amh bäre⁴, Arg bara⁴, Hrr baʕara⁴, Gur bawra⁴, Soq beʕer³, Mhr beyr³). Cognates in WCh *bar‑ ‘ram’, ‘bull’, CCh *bar‑ ‘bull’, ECh *bur‑ < *b˅Hur‑ ‘bull’, Agaw *bir‑ < *b˅Hir‑ ‘bull’, SA *baʕer‑ ‘bull’, HEC *baʕor‑ ‘oryx, bull’, Omot *b˅ʕor‑ ‘bull’. Maybe related to Berb *barar‑ ‘she-camel’.
▪ Kogan2011: Akk bīru ‘bull, young cattle’, būru ‘young calf ’; Gz bəʕər ‘ox, bull’, Hbr bəʕīr, SAr bʕr ‘livestock, cattle’; Ar baʕīr, Mhr hə-bɛ̄r, SAr bʕr ‘camel’.

disc

▪ Jeffery1938, 82: »It occurs only in the Joseph story, and Dvořák, Fremdw, 18, is doubtless right in thinking that its use here is due to Muḥammad’s sources. In the Joseph story of Gen. xlv, 17, the word used is [Hbr] bᵊʕīr, and in the Syr bᵊʕīrā, which means originally ‘cattle’ in general, and then any ‘beast of burden’. It is easy to see how the word was specialized in Ar to mean ‘camel’ (Guidi, Della Sede, 583; Rossini, Glossarium, 116; Hommel in HAA, i, 82 n.), the usual beast of burden in that country, and as such it occurs in the old poetry. There seems no reason to doubt the conclusion of Dvořák, Fremdw, 46 (cf. Horovitz, JPN, 192), that Muḥammad’s informant, hearing the word in the story as he got it from a Jewish or Christian source, passed the word on as though it had its specialized Ar meaning of ‘camel’.«
▪ Kogan2011: »The meaning ‘bull’ may also be attributed to PS *b˅ʕ˅r‑ on the evidence of Akk bīru ‘bull, young cattle’, būru ‘young calf ’ and Gz bəʕər ‘ox, bull’, but a more general meaning ‘livestock, cattle’, typical of Hbr bəʕīr and ESA bʕr is also possible (the semantic shift to ‘camel’ in Ar baʕīr, Mhr hə-bɛ̄r and, probably, ESA bʕr is an Arabian innovation).«

west

–

deriv

►

Permanent link

http://www2.hf.uio.no/common/apps/permlink/permlink.php?app=polyglotta&context=record&uid=d7aef6c5-06ff-11ee-937a-005056a97067

Choose languages

Choose images, etc.

Choose languages

Choose display