Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/349

 10 s. x. OCT. 10, 1908.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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has no existence in that language. The Sul- tan's name is Abdul Aziz, or, more correctly, 'Abdu-'l-'AzIz, which is compounded of 'Abd, a slave, and Al-'Aziz, one of the names of God, signifying the Mighty One who over- comes everything, in the pleonastic language of the Arabic lexicographers. His rival fares still worse. He figures in one paper as Moulai Hafid, in another as Moulai el- Hafid, in a third as Mulai al-Hafid, and so on. Not one gives his correct name of Abdul Hafid, or, as I should prefer to write it, 'Abdu-'l-.Hafidh, in which the last con- stituent is also one of the names of the Almighty, signifying the Protector of all created things. El-Hafid is wrong, because no Musulman could call a human being by the name of his Creator. With regard to pronunciation, the last letter is difficult for an Englishman, as it is unrepresented in any European language. In Arabia and Northern Africa the nearest approach to it is dth, while in Persia and India it is pro- nounced as z. We may call it Hafid, re- membering that the stress is on the second syllable, not the first Hafeed, not Hafid.

Maulai, a lord, is the word generally spelt in Persian as Maulawi, which Englishmen in India usually turn into Moulvie.

I saw in the papers a few weeks ago that two Arab girls were charged with shoplifting, their names being given as Mariam ben Mahomed and Fatima ben Habass the nearest sound the reporter got to 'Abbas, I presume. The word ben, or more properly bin, means a son in Arabic, as in Hebrew. It is strange that newspapers of high standing should not know this. A daughter in Arabic is bint, and the young ladies in question should have been thus designated. If some farsighted head master had the courage to institute a class for Arabic in his school, the example might possibly be followed, and we might in course of time be spared such solecisms as these.

W. F. PRIDE AUX.

ARABIC VOWELS : THEIR TRANSLITERATION. Different entries in ' N. & Q.' show that readers unacquainted with Arabic are some- times puzzled by finding the same Arabic name transliterated in various ways (see ' Muhammed or Mohammed,' 9 S. xi. 509 ; xii. 55 ; " Badr " or " Bedr," 10 S. ii. 475). Sometimes variants occur even on the same page. I have before me as I write one of the volumes of the " Bibliotheca Indica," of which the title reads : ' History of Mu- hammad's Campaigns by Aboo 'Abd Ollah Mohammad 'Bin Omar Al-Wakidy.' Here

we have in two consecutive lines Muhammad and Mohammad, both of which differ from, the forms above. The differences arise from the fact that Arabic possesses only three symbols fetha, kesra, and damma to represent the eight short vowel-sounds a, e, e, i, I, u, o, o. If a writer is content to transliterate for the eye alone, then fetha, kesra, and damma will be represented respec- tively by a, i, and u. But if he wishes to indicate more correctly the native pronun- ciation, then the following rules must be observed :

1. When preceded or followed by the strong gutturals or the emphatic consonants, fetha, is pronounced like the a in ask," kesra like the i in " bird," damma like an obscure o, approaching to o with the gutturals.

2. In shut syllables (i.e., syllables ending in a consonant) in which there are no guttural or emphatic consonants, and in open syllables (i.e., syllables ending in a vowel) which do not commence with nor precede a guttural or an emphatic consonant, fetha has the sound of a in " hat " or of e in " men," kesra has the sound of i in " pin," damma that of win " bull."

3. Before and after r doubled orf following a or u, fetha keeps its sound of a.

It is evident, therefore, that to be able to transliterate correctly the Arabic vowels or to give them their correct pronunciation, however transliterated, one must know the consonants. " The proper shades of sound in the three vowels come without effort when the consonants are spoken rightly and naturally " (Wright's ' Arabic Grammar,* 3rd ed., vol. i. p. 8, foot-note).

ALEX. RUSSELL, M.A.

Stromness, Orkney.

BEES AND LUCKY DAYS. From the follow- ing passage in Wang Shi-Chin's ' Chi-pei- yau-tan,' completed in 1691 (Brit. Mus. 1533 1. e. 3, lib. iii. fol. 3b), it is manifest that some Chinese of old entertained a belief in bees living in direct contact with the gods (cf. Mr. Gomme's work quoted at 10 S. ix 433, col. 2) :

"The inhabitants of certain mountains south of Yau-yiie are all in a lifelong ignorance of the calendar, but in its stead they observe punctually every morning and evening the hives which every family keeps. Whatever day the bees happen to swarm, is deemed unfailingly lucky, and business of all kinds is favourably transacted on it. Should some business chance to be unfinished in the day, it- is put off till another occasion of bees swarming. On such a day also are celebrated ordinarily the ceremonies of marriage and of beginning buildings. Thus, swarm in whose house the bees may, the neighbours and servants go round the place with