Grammaticalized uses of the verb ṛa(a) in Arabic: a Maghrebian specificity?

Abstract

In Arabic, especially in dialects, cases of grammaticalization of verbs are extremely common. They are used to express time / aspectual / modal values, which often characterize dialectal areas more or less extended. We studied the grammaticalization of a verb which originally had the sense of 'to see'. This meaning is preserved in literary Arabic (where its pattern is rāˀa) and a number of modern dialects, but the word most commonly in use in this sense is now šāf. The replacement of the first word by the former is an important question for the history of dialects (Ferguson 1959, Cohen 1962, Kaye 1976). But at the same time there is another question to be asked about the grammaticalized uses of ṛa(a). When followed by an affixed pronoun, it was observed that it is often used in North Africa to introduce sentences like original demonstrative particles (Fischer 1959). The article first summarizes the studies of Moroccan and Algerian Arabic, where the phenomenon is well (but differently) developed as enunciative particle. It then shows that the grammaticalized uses of ṛa(a) are not limited to the western part of North Africa, or even the only Maghreb, especially if one considers the forms in (a)raˤ(a/i), whose origin is controversial. A remarkable variety of patterns and values is observed through the whole area dialect. This diversity of evolutions is very interesting to analyse, both for the study of the phenomena of grammaticalization and for the history of Arabic dialects of Africa.