Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ The n. nabaʔ (which is taken here as the main entry because there is no vb. I in MSA with a corresponding value any more) belongs to the ClassAr vb. ^†nabaʔa (a, nabʔ) ‘to utter a low voice/sound; to cry, bark (dog); (= IV) to inform, tell, make s.o. know’ that can be traced back to protSem *NBʔ ‘to name, proclaim, summon’ (Huehnergard2011). There are theories that connect this Sem/Ar NBʔ to roots that show M instead of B (cf., e.g., Eg MK nmj ‘to scream, yell, roar’, Ar namma, naʔama ‘to whisper’, naʕama ‘to say yes’, Hbr nᵊʔūm ‘utterance’, √NʔM ‘to make a speech; to utter a prophecy’, √NWM ‘to speak’); others regard it as an extension from a biconsonantal nuclear root *NB, and some also found an AfrAs (and even Nostr) background.
▪ The value ‘to utter a faint sound; to inform, make known’ is only one of a number of other values appearing in ↗√NBʔ. The relation of this value to the others (‘to be high’, ‘to withdraw’, ‘to wander around’, etc.) is still subject to discussion.
▪ Closely related to this discussion is the question whether the word for ‘prophet’, ↗nabiyy, should be derived from Ar nabaʔa ‘to be high’ (the prophet as ‘the excellent one’), or (via Hbr or Aram) from Sem *NBʔ ‘to name, proclaim, summon’ (prophet = ‘person called by God’), if not from ↗NBW.

hist

▪ eC7 1 (news, tidings) Q 33:20 yasʔalūna ʕan ʔanbāʔik-kum ‘seeking news of you’, 38:67 huwa nabaʔun ʕaẓīmun ‘it [the Revelation] is a momentous message’; 2 (story, tale, narrative) Q 5:27 wa-’tlu ʕalay-him nabaʔa ’bnay ʔādama bi’l-ḥaqqi ‘and relate to them in truth the tale of the two sons of Adam’; 3 (disclosures, revelations) Q 11:49 tilka min ʔanbāʔi ’l-ġaybi nūḥī-hā ʔilay-ka ‘these are some of the disclosures of the hidden [knowledge] that we have revealed to you’; 4 (lessons to be learned, examples) Q 54:4 wa-laqad ǧāʔa-hum min-a ’l-ʔanbāʔi mā fī-hi muzdaǧar ‘and from examples [of past generations] has come to them that in which [should be] a deterrent’; 5 (prophecy) Q 6:67 li-kulli nabaʔin mustaqarrun wa-sawfa taʕlamūn ‘every prophecy has its fixed time to be fulfilled (or: certain endurance), you will come to realise’; 6 (replies, responses, arguments) Q 28:66 fa-ʕamiyat ʕalay-him-u ’l-ʔanbāʔu yawmaʔiḏin ‘all answers will escape (lit., not find) them on that Day’

cogn

▪ Huehnergard1999: Akk nabû (< nabāʔu) ‘to name, invoke, summon, proclaim’,¹ Ar nabaʔa ‘to speak in a low voice; to announce’, Sab (tD) tnbʔ ‘to promise’, Mhr nəbō (also caus. anōbi) ‘to inform’, Soq (caus.) ə́nbəʔ ‘to name’, Jib (caus.) enbé ‘to name, announce (that one will fast)’.
▪ Calice1936#59 (cognates of Eg MK nmj ‘to scream, yell, roar’): Ar nabaʔa ‘to announce’, nabʔaẗ ‘faint noise’, Ar nabba ‘to bark’, Gz nababa ‘to growl’, Akk nabû ‘to call, name’, Sab nbʔ ‘to proclaim’, Hbr √NBH ‘to prophesy’; cf. also Ar naʔama ‘to whisper’, naʕama ‘to say yes’, namma ‘to whisper’, Hbr √NʔM ‘to say’.²
▪ Militarev2006#603: For unknown reasons the author does not mention Ar NBʔ in this entry. But since the Sem evidence he gives parallels the one to be found elsewhere, the reference is repeated here, in order to connect it with alleged extra-Sem evidence and, hence, document a possible AfrAs dimension] Akk nabû ‘to call’, Hbr nbʔ, SAr nbʔ, Gz nbb ‘to speak’, Soq nbʔ, Jib enbe ‘to nominate’. – Outside Sem: [WCh] (1 lang) nabi ‘to read, count’, [Omot] (1 lang) nabi, naabi ‘name’.

1. Cf. CAD nabû ‘to name, give a name; to invoke; to summon, call a person (to exercise a function), to appoint a person to an office; to decree, proclaim, command, make known; to count among’, nabû (nabiʔu) ‘called’, nibītu ‘name; pronunciation and spelling; call, vocation; person called (by the gods), chosen’, nību (var. nimbu, nīpu) ‘name; amount, number; spokesman (?), utterance’, nibûtu ‘name’ 2. BDB1906: nāʔam ‘to utter a prophecy, speak as a prophet’, nᵊʔūm ‘utterance’. Klein1987: √NʔM ‘to make a speech, utter, give an address; to utter a prophecy, speak as a prophet’: probably related also: √NWM ‘to speak’.

disc

▪ Huehnergard2011: Sem *NBʔ ‘to name, proclaim, summon’.¹
▪ Gabal2012 assumes one basic value for all meanings of NBʔ that occur in the Qurʔān: ‘sudden/unexpected appearance or occurrence of s.th., preceded or accompanied by some secrecy/hiddenness (ẓuhūr ʔaw ṭurūʔ, musbaq ʔaw maknūf bi-ḫafāʔⁱⁿ mā)’. This, he says, is the case in nabʔaẗ ‘elevation, protrusion’ (= appearing above the surface, of a height that more limited than one would have expected) as well as in nabaʔ ‘news’ (information that one receives unexpectedly).
▪ Albright1927#47 notices that Ar √NBʔ obviously has two values: a) ‘to be high, raised up’ (Ar ↗nabaʔa; cf. also ^†nabiʔ ‘height, mound’, ^†nabāwaẗ ‘high ground’, etc.), b) ‘to make a noise; to proclaim, announce, call by name’ (^†nabʔaẗ ‘barking of dogs’; nabaʔ ‘news’, nabīʔ [sic!] ‘prophet’, etc.). Therefore, the author holds, »there must evidently have been a confusion of the two distinct root-meanings«. NBʔ ‘to make noise, etc.’ is treated as an extension from an original *NB, cf. Ar ^†nabba (i – nabīb, nabb, nubāb) ‘to utter a sound, or cry, [or rattle,] when be excited by desire of the female, or at rutting-time (said of a goat)’ (Lane).
▪ Calice1936#59 mentions Ar nabaʔa ‘to announce’, nabʔaẗ ‘faint noise’ together with Ar nabba ‘to bark’, Gz nababa ‘to growl’ and the Sem vb.s Akk nabû ‘to call, name’, Sab nbʔ ‘to proclaim’, Hbr √NBH ‘to prophesy’ as cognate with Eg (MK) nmj ‘to scream, yell, roar’. Akin to the latter and, according to Calice, thus also to nabaʔa, are also Ar ↗naʔama ‘to whisper’ (WehrCowan1979: ‘to sound, resound, ring out; to groan, moan’), naʕama ‘to say yes’, namma ‘to whisper’ and Hbr √NʔM ‘to say’ (BDB1906: nāʔam ‘to utter a prophecy, speak as a prophet’, nᵊʔūm ‘utterance’. Klein1987: √NʔM ‘to make a speech, utter, give an address; to utter a prophecy, speak as a prophet’: probably related also: √NWM ‘to speak’).
▪ Ehret1989#95 does not mention NBʔ among the root extensions he gives for the bi-consonantal “pre-Proto-Semitic” (pPS, i.e. preSem) root *NB ‘to call, cry’, but the semantics clearly allow us to group nabaʔ and related items here. For extensions from the same pre-Sem nucleus that Ehret did list, cf. ↗NBː (NBB) ‘to bleat from rut’, ↗NBḤ ‘to bark, bellow, hiss’, ↗NBR ‘to shout to, drive away by cries or shouts’, ↗NBZ ‘to give one a nickname, revile’, ↗NBṢ ‘to speak’.
▪ Militarev2006 (#603) reconstructs Sem *n˅b˅ʔ‑ ‘to call; to speak; to nominate’, WCh *nab‑ ‘to read, count’ and Omot *nab‑ ‘name’, all from a hypothetical AfrAs *nab‑ ‘to call by name’.
▪ Dolgopolsky2012 reconstructs Sem *NBʔ ‘to name, give a name’. – The semantics of Ar nabaʔa, nabbaʔa ‘to announce’ may be influenced by Ar nabīy ‘prophet’ (which the authors considers a borrowing from Hbr). – Dolgopolsky further juxtaposes Sem *NBʔ ‘to name, give a name’ and IE *‘no(ː)m-n(-) / *‘n̥m-n(-) ‘name’, and alleged cognates in other macro-families, deriving all from a hypothecial Nostr *‘nimʔ˅‑ ‘name’ (with dissimilation of Sem *NB from Nostr *NM).

1. Called an »uncomplicated reconstruction« already in Huehnergard1999.

west

–

deriv

► wakālat al-ʔanbāʔ or ^†maktab al-ʔanbāʔ, n., news agency, wire service

► nabbaʔa, vb. II, to inform, notify, tell, advise (s.o. ʕan or bi‑ of s.th.), let (s.o.) know (ʕan or bi‑ about), make known, announce, impart, communicate; to be evidence (ʕan of), show, indicate, manifest, bespeak, reveal, disclose (ʕan s.th.): caus./ints. of *I, probably denom.
► ʔanbaʔa, vb. IV, to inform, notify, tell, advise (s.o. bi‑ of), let (s.o.) know (bi‑ about), make known, announce, impart, communicate: denom.
► tanabbaʔa, vb. V, to predict, foretell, forecast, prognosticate, presage, prophesy (bi‑ s.th.); to claim to be a prophet, pose as a prophet: denom. from *nabīʔ (= ↗nabiyy) ‘called one, appointed (by God)’.
► ĭstanbaʔa, vb. X, to ask for news, for information; to inquire (DO after), ask (DO about): requestative, denom.

► nabʔaẗ, n.f., faint noise, low sound: This word, in pre-MSA also meaning the ‘(faint) barking (of a dog)’, is perhaps the last remnant in MSA of an earlier stage in the semantic history of NBʔ, when the latter emerged as an extension of biconsonantal *NB- + modifyer *‑ʔ; cf. the fact that Gz nababa ‘to speak’ originally was ‘to growl’ (Calice1936, Klein1987).
► nubūʔaẗ, pl. ‑āt, n., prophecy; prognosis: not derived directly from nabaʔ, but belonging to the same Sem root, cf. ↗nubuwwaẗ.
► ^BP#4823nubuwwaẗ, n.f., prophethood, prophecy: belonging to the complex Sem/Ar NBʔ,¹ though probably not derived directly from nabaʔ but via Hbr or Aram, see s.v.
► ^BP#813nabiyy (= nabīy), pl. ‑ūn, ʔanbiyāʔᵘ, n., prophet: belonging to the complex Sem/Ar NBʔ,² though probably not derived directly from nabaʔ but via Hbr or Aram, see s.v. | ḫašab al-ʔanbiyāʔ, n., guaiacum wood.
► ^BP#3290nabawī, adj., prophetic, of or pertaining to a prophet or specifically to the Prophet Mohammed: nsb-adj. of nabiyy.³
► ʔinbāʔ, pl. ‑āt, n., notification, information, communication: vn. IV.
► tanabbuʔ, pl. ‑āt, n., prediction, forecast, prognostication; prophecy; prognosis: vn. V.
► tanabbuʔī, adj., prognostic, predictive: nsb-adj. from the preceding.

1. But grouped s.r. NBW in WehrCowan1979, probably for formal reasons. 2. But grouped s.r. NBW in WehrCowan1979, probably for formal reasons. 3. Grouped s.r. NBW in WehrCowan1979, probably for formal reasons.

Permanent link

http://www2.hf.uio.no/common/apps/permlink/permlink.php?app=polyglotta&context=record&uid=da8440e0-06ff-11ee-937a-005056a97067

Choose languages

Choose images, etc.

Choose languages

Choose display