17.5 What has been written by Lebanese and/or about Lebanon?
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This article is from the Lebanon FAQ, by Alaa Dakroub dakroub@leb.net with numerous contributions by others.
17.5 What has been written by Lebanese and/or about Lebanon?
Stefan Wild, Libanesische Ortsnamen, Typologie und Deutung, Beirut 1973.
(Lebanese place names: their typoligie and meaning). This books belongs to a
series called: Beiruter Texte und Studien, vol. 9
Wild's book is in German :(, yet he has an excellent summary in English.
Here is a quotation from the summary:
"A very interesting feature [in Lebanese place names] is presented by
sound-shifts due to an etymologizing tendency. This phenomenon was called in a
recent most illuminating study by Joshua Blau (On Pseudo-Corrections in Some
Semitic Languages) 'hyper-correction due to over self assertion'. In
correction with Lebanese place-names it means that an Aramaic place-name, when
taken over by an arabophone population may be changed in its consonantic and/
or vocalic structure in accordance with an etymologically related Arabic model.
We find Sibliin < Aramaic Shibbliin 'ears (of wheat)' an Aramaic plural form,
with its initial 'sh' shifted to 's' under the influence of the etymologically
related Arabic 'sabal' with the same meaning. Another example is Biskinta <
Aramaic bee Shkinta 'house of dwelling', under the influence of the Arabic root
'skn'. The etymology is, of course, not necessarily 'correct' from a linguist's
point of view. A name like Nakhli most probably derives from the Aramaic
'naHla' 'valley, waadi'. Since Aramaic 'H' frequently corresponds to to Arabic
'kh', the Arabic word 'nakhl' 'palm-trees' could easily but wrongly be
associated with the Aramaic form..." (p.327)
"It is reasonably plausible to suggest that similar developments took place
when the Canaanite-speaking population gave way to Aramaic speakers, and even
before, when pre-Canaanite (pre-Semitic?) place-names were molded into
Canaanite. BUt our data are insufficient to quote examples." (pp.327, 328)
"The great majority of place names in Lebanon, in fact about two thirds, is now
Arabic. The rest are chiefly Aramaic, some Canaanite (not more than 2%) and a
sprinkling of Greek names like Traablus < Tripolis, Turkish names like Qashlaq
< Kishlaa 'winter quarters', and French like Bois de Boulogne...."
"This clear cut division [of place names into Arabic, Aramaic etc.] is,
however, misleading. A large number of names must have shifted morphologically
from Canaanite to Aramaic and/or from Aramaic to Arabic. This is demonstrable
in cases like 'Jbail'. This name sounds now like a purely Arabic toponym, a
very common 'f@ail'-diminutive of 'jabal' 'mountain'. We happen to know,
however that the same place is attested as 'ku-ub-la' in Sumerian texts of the
third millennium BC., a time when it is impossible to think of an Arabic
origin. While the original meaning of the name is unknown, the structure
makes it highly probable that it was a Semitic name, and we may be justified
in calling it Early Canaanite. If we did not know the pre-Arabic evidence, and
this is the point, we should be obliged to interpret 'Jbail' as a quite recent
purely Arabic name. The only was to prove that an existing Arabic-looking and
-sounding name is in reality pre-Arabic, is of course to find an attested
pre-Arabic form. As the majority of Lebanese place-names which can be attested
at all before the 20th. century, are to be found at best in late medieval
sources, a pre-Arabic origin can normally be suspected [as Frayha does], rarely
proved. There is however one further piece of circumstantial evidence
indicating that the shift of place-names must have frequently. We may safely
assume that the general ecological conditions determining, why names were given
to places remained fairly stable from Canaanite times up to the beginning of
industrialization in the 20th. century. We are therefore justified in assuming
that the proportion of compound place-names like '@ain'... 'spring of' or
'bait'... house of' was in early times as great as it is now. The most
important of the appelatives used to form place names are the same in
Canaanite, Aramaic and Arabic: @ain, @ainaa, @ayin 'source'; bait, baitaa,
bayit 'house'; karam, karmaa, kerem 'vineyard'; tall, tellaa, tel 'hill'; and
many others. The close structural and etymological relation between place-names
the three languages involved has made the transformation of place-names very
easy, and conversely often renders distinction between place-names of
Canaanite, Aramaic and Arabic origin very difficult. The place-names which have
preserved their Canaanite or Aramaic character are the exception rather than
the rule." (pp. 328, 329)
"... Place names show the Lebanon as a resort of te pious, where Canaanite
gods, Christian saints and Muslim sheikhs mingle. Valleys and rivers, springs
and forests, peaks and mountain stamp the life of the people. Place-names, the
linguistically petrified remnants of cultural history, preserve the memory of
the cedar, where there are no more cedars, and recall roaming wolves and bears
where is today no more than the occasional fox. Generations of hunters and
farmers, shepherds and hermits have left their unmistakable imprint on Lebanese
toponomy. At a time where, in the Syrian desert, the Bedouin are beginning to
use place-names like ij-jfuur (the pump-station H4), and the industrial age in
Lebanon is dawning, the spectrum of Lebanese place-names shows us an
enthralling and extraordinary vivid picture of yesterday." (p. 330)
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