Iraqi Arabic

This chapter focuses on the Iraqi Kurdish response to the rapid and devastating advance of ISIS. Of course, the Iraqi Kurdish response to the ISIS advance has been a multifaceted, complex, and evolving one that includes military strategy, pragmatic politics, and aspirations of independence. Leaving aside the fact that the ISIS advance has granted the Iraqi Kurds unprecedented access to Iraq’s rich oil reserves and the fact that the initial Kurdish reaction was to ramp up their rhetoric toward complete secession from Iraq, this chapter focuses on two further dimensions of the Iraqi Kurdish response. Firstly, it documents the Iraqi Kurdish seizure of the so-called “disputed territories,” especially
Kirkuk, and their stated intent to hold a referendum on the future of these
regions (effectively to force a resolution to Article 140 of the constitution). Secondly, the chapter documents the Iraqi Kurdish use of the ISIS advance as leverage to enhance Kurdish relations dramatically with the US and Europe via direct military support (including airstrikes and weapons supply) and to become the key launchpad
in the fight against ISIS planned for 2015. The chapter concludes by briefly assessing the efficacy and wisdom of the Kurdish strategy of leveraging the ISIS onslaught to advance their own interests.

Irak Türkmenleri denildiği zaman hafızamızda ilk olarak Kerkük ve Musul canlanır. Fakat Osmanlı İmparatorluğunun dağılmasından sonra maalesef Türkler için hüznün ve acının adeta merkezi haline gelmiştir. Bu acılar dokunaklı bir şekilde halk edebiyatına ve o bölgenin türkülerine de yansımıştır;

“Yıktılar kal’amızı
Sürdüler balamızı
Daha can boğazdayken
Çektiler sâlamızı
Ah Kerkük yüz ah Kerkük
Her zaman yüz ak Kerkük
Ölseydim düşmeseydim
Men senden uzak Kerkük...”
 
Türkünün dizelerinden de anlaşılacağı gibi Türkmenler maalesef kaderine terkedilmiş ve geçen yıllar boyunca adeta bir mum gibi yavaş yavaş bölgede asimile politikaları ile erimektedirler. Bu konuya değinmeden önce bölgedeki Türk varlığını incelemekte fayda vardır. Türklerin Irak’a ilk girişleri H. 54 / M. 674 tarihlerine kadar uzanmaktadır. Emevi Halifesi Muaviye tarafından Horasan’a gönderilen Ubeydullah bin Ziyad ile Buhara prensesi Hatun emrindeki Türk kuvvetleri arasında yapılan çarpışmadan sonra bir barış yapılmıştır. Bu barıştan sonra Ubeydullah yanına aldığı Türk askerlerini Irak’a götürüp, Basra’ya yerleştirmiştir. Türklerin Irak’a gelişleri Abbasi döneminde, Halife Memun ve Halife Mutasım’ın iktidarı sırasında meydana gelen siyasi gelişmelerden dolayı daha da sıklaşmıştır. Emevi ordularında olduğu gibi Abbasi ordularında da yer alan Türkler, üstün savaşçı yetenekleri ile maharetlerinden dolayı üst mevkilere getirilmişlerdir. Ayrıca H. 211 / M. 836 ’da Halife Mutasım’ın emriyle Türk kumandanı Türk hassa askeri için Somerna şehri kurulmuştu. 25 Aralık 1055’te Bağdat’a giren Selçuklu hükümdarı Tuğrul Bey Büveyhoğulları’nın Irak’taki hakimiyetine son verilmiştir. Tuğrul Bey Bağdat ve Oğuzların yayıldığı Irak’ı Selçuklu Ülkesine katmıştır. Bu tarihten sonra Oğuz boylarına mensup birçok Türk, bu bölgeye yerleştirilmiştir. Böylece bölgede Büyük Selçuklular ile Türk hakimiyeti başlamıştır. Türklere daha önce yalnızca Etrak (Türkler) diyen Araplar, “Etrak-u Bağdat” (Bağdat Türkleri) demeye başlamışlardır.  1258 Moğol istilası ile Abbasi hilafeti son bulmuş, bölge Moğolların eline geçmiştir. Ayrıca bu bölgede Moğollarla birlikte çok sayıda Türk askeri gelmiştir. 1258 – 1336 İlhanlılar, 1338 – 1360 Celayirliler, 1360 – 1469 Karakoyunlular ve 1470 tarihinden itibaren de Akkoyunlular hakimiyetinde kalan bölge 1508 yılında Safevilerin eline geçmiştir. Safeviler’in Çaldıran’da (1515) Yavuz Sultan Selim Han’a yenilmesi ve Kanuni Sultan Süleyman Han’ın da 1534’te Bağdat’ı almasıyla bugün Irak olarak anılan bölge Osmanlı hakimiyetine geçmiştir. Osmanlılar Irak’ı, Bağdat, Basra, Musul, Şehrizor ve el-Ahsa olmak üzere beş bölgeye ayırarak idare ettirmişlerdir. 1623’te bölge tekrar Safeviler’in eline geçmiş ve Safeviler binlerce kişiyi katletmişlerdir. Sultan IV. Murad Han’ın 1638’de Bağdat’ı tekrar geri almasıyla Kasr-ı Şirin Antlaşması yapılmış ve kesin sınır çizilmişti. Böylece Musul-Kerkük bölgesi de dahil olarak I. Dünya Savaşı sonuna kadar bölge Osmanlı hakimiyetinde kalmıştır. Sonuç olarak Kanuni Sultan Süleyman Han ve Sultan IV. Murad Han zamanında Anadolu’dan getirilen çok sayıda Türk de bölgeye yerleştirilmiştir. I. Dünya Savaşından itibaren Irak’ın işgal edilmesi ve 1926 Musul Meselesi görüşmeleri sonucu Musul ve Kerkük’ün Irak’a bırakılmasıyla Musul ve Kerkük Irak’la birlikte İngiliz sömürgesi haline gelmiştir. 1920 – 1932 yılları arasında Irak’ın İngiliz Mandası altında bulunduğu dönemde Türkler baskı ve zulüm dolu bir devre yaşamışlardır. Irak’ın 1932 ’de Milletler Cemiyeti’ne kabul edilip bağımsızlığına kavuşmasından sonra da Irak Türkleri rahat yüzü görmemiş, baskı ve şiddet daha da artmıştır. Bütün bu baskı ve sindirme politikalarının Irak’ta bulunan Türk varlığını yok edemediği 1937 Sadâbâd Paktı’yla ortaya çıkmıştır. 27 Haziran 1937’de imzalanan Sadâbâd Paktı için bölgedeki Türkler büyük bir sevinç yaşasalar da pakttan sonra polis tarafından yapılan işkence ve zulme maruz kalmışlardır. II. Dünya Savaşı’nın sıkıntıları sebebiyle savaşı sakin geçiren Türkler savaştan sonra yeni bir katliamla karşılaştılar. 1946 yılında Gavurbağı’nda Kerküklü işçiler polis kuvvetleri tarafından yaylım ateşine tutulmuşlardır. Yine Bağdat Paktı’nın imzalanacağını duyan Türkler, bölgelerinde büyük bir sevinç yaşamışlardır. Fakat yine paktın imzalanmasından sonra Türklere yapılan baskılar artmıştır. Irak’ta 14 Temmuz 1959 Cumhuriyet’in birinci yılı kutlamalarında sokağa dökülen Kerkük Türkleri komünistler tarafından katliama uğramışlardır. 3 gün süren bu katliamda soydaşlarımız inanılmaz derecede zulüm ve işkenceye maruz kalmışlardır. Yaklaşık 1500 yıl kadar bu topraklarda varlığını gösteren Türkler I. Dünya Savaşı’ndan sonra batılı devletlerin bölgedeki çıkarlarından dolayı sistematik olarak çeşitli haksızlık, baskı ve katliama uğramışlardır. Emperyalist güçlerin özellikle yer altı bakımından zengin olan kuzey Irak’taki emellerinden dolayı bölgede yaşayan Türkler birçok zorlukla karşılaştıysa da bunlar karşısında Türk hükümeti ise maalesef hiç bir etkinlik göstermemiştir.

The purpose of the present paper is to give first notes on the yet-undiscovered qǝltu-dialects spoken in the towns of Ṣīnīya, Bēǧi, and Širqāṭ near Tikrīt. With the exception of the very few notes on the dialect of Bēǧi in Jastrow (1994, 1989, 1983), these dialects have so far remained unnoticed in the literature. It is therefore the objective of this paper to shed more light on the historical and linguistic situation of the dialects spoken in these three towns. The data used here were gathered partly by questioning locals on their own speech and partly by discussing their tribal heritage with some local notables.

In order to meet their needs and perceptions, the children's early words have their origin Mama and Papa are acquired by German-born preschool children, who are commuting between Iraq and Germany. The study will be primarly contrastive in nature and focuses mainly on the characteristics of these parental terms in two different language communities. Furthermore, light will also have to be shed on this less researched and discussed issue by touching upon the learning challenges and difficulties of the kinship terms in Iraqi-Arabic and how could they be overcome. The data come from the author's daily observation of his German-born children, a four-years-old daughter, and a boy, who is three years old. In order to supplement and enrich the study, I conducted interviews with parents and their children that I personally know.

This paper introduces the heretofore undescribed urban dialect of Kbēse west of the Euphrates. The dialect is spoken in the oasis of Kbēse, a subdistrict of the district of Hīt, which so far remained unknown to linguists in the field of Arabic dialectology. The dialect is similar in many aspects to the ones spoken in Hīt and ʿĀna. However, unlike the dialects of Hīt and ʿĀna, and like most urban dialects on the Euphrates, the dialect of Kbēse is a non-autochthonous dialect that originated and developed outside the subdistrict.

This paper investigates the naming conventions in the gilit dialects of southern Iraq. The paper will first of all shed light on some previous studies which dealt with proper names in this southern dialect area. Particular attention will be given to the viewpoints of Al-Samrrài and Stefan Feld as they obviously attack the human dignity of the whole southern Iraqi population by tracing back the naming conventions to the backwardness and primitivism of the population in this region. I will show that most proper names in south Iraqi Arabic are deeply rooted in this region and they reflect the social and cultural environment of the indigenous population. The source material for this study comes from lists of more than 4000 student's names of the college of Arts/University of Basra.

The purposes of this paper are threefold. The first and the most general purpose is to provide an update of Ingham's analysis of the southern lexical features that is based on data gathered more than forty years ago (Ingham 1973). On this basis, I will reconsider the lexical link postulated by Ingham (2009: 101, 2007: 577) between the southern gǝlǝt-dialects, on the one hand, and the dialects of the Gulf Coast, on the other hand. The second purpose is to reconsider the hitherto maintained lexical frontiers of the southern continuum suggested by Ingham (1994), discussing a range of items that so far have always been treated as 'southern', though they are common in both gǝlǝt-and qǝltu-dialects of Iraq. The third purpose involves proposing the notions šrūgi and non-šrūgi as a new and efficient way of splitting the gǝlǝt-dialects into two different groups. At the end of this paper, a list of the šrūgi lexical features is given.

The question of what is the difference between borrowing and code-switching has attracted the attention of scholars far and wide and gave at the same time rise to a plethora of publications in order to draw a boundary between these two terms. In the most recent of these publications (Grosjean 1982, Poplack & Meechan 1995 & 1998; to name but a few), it has been often argued that borrowings are donor-language items that are integrated in the grammar of the recipient language at a community level, while code-switches take place at individual level and they retain the grammar of the language from which they derive. However, the current political and economic uncertainties in various regions of the world have been found to cause mass refugee movements to conflict-free places, where contact between newcomers and locals usually lead to some kind of linguistic interinfluencing. The current study discusses the contact-induced German-origin lone lexical items used by Iraqi-Arabic-speaking refugees in Germany. It is the aim of this study to show whether or not these lexical items can be considered as code-switches or established borrowings. The data I am analyzing come from spontaneous and elicited conversations of the first and second wave of Iraqi-Arabic-speaking refugees and asylum seekers to Germany as well as from online-and paper-pencil-questionnaires.

This paper tackles consonant cluster in Spoken Iraqi Arabic. Consonant cluster refers to a sequence of two or three consonant sounds in a single word. Spoken Iraqi Arabic shows such sequence, particularly that of two consonant sounds. Consonant clusters in Iraqi Arabic are either initial or medial. Most consonant sounds in Iraqi Arabic are likely to occur as initial clusters, except for a few sounds. First ,an introduction is given regarding the subject, followed by a background and a snap overview. Then ,consonant

Abstract: For many years now, the interest of linguistic research in greeting behaviors is growing exponentially (Eibl-Eibesfeldt 1977, Bach & Harnish 1979, Berg 1991, Ebsworth, Bodman & Carpenter 1996, Duranti 1992a, 1997, Bustorf 2005, among many others). There is, however, common agreement that greeting patterns differ markedly from culture to culture. South Iraqi Arabic (henceforth in this paper SIA) shows a variety of greeting patterns, but unfortunately no considerable research has so far been dedicated to the traditional greeting behavior in this area of the gilit dialects. For sociolinguistic reasons, greetings in spoken SIA differ radically in length and intensity from all other dialect areas of Iraq. Length and intensity of greetings, especially among people of the same sex, can be seen by the repetitive exchange of the synonymous greeting patterns. The aim of this paper is to examine some aspects of the sociolinguistic behavior of the synonymous repetition of greetings in SIA, paying special attention to the nonredundancy of such repetitive exchange of social greetings. The data come from the observation of people's conversations in the southern gilit dialect area as well as from recordings of some dialogues of public and private gathering in some houses of influential people such as tribal shaikhs and well-known religious authorities. 

Keywords: Iraqi Arabic, gilit dialects, greeting, synonymous repetition, haptics, šlōnak-sentences.

This paper deals with the vowel system in Iraqi Arabic and in Classical and Modern Standard Arabic. It shows within the framework of the optimality theory the indispensability of the vowel system for the Classical and Modern Standard Arabic. This indispensability results from the multifunctionality of the Case system in these two variants of Arabic. In Case of the Classical and Modern Standard Arabic, the optimality theory has its own means to keep this vowel system unaltered in the output. The best way to be faithful to this vowel system is to put the faithfulness constraint of the optimality theory on the very left edge of the constraint hierarchy; this procedure ensures then that the output and the input will be identical. In contrast to Classical and Modern Standard Arabic, Iraqi Arabic does not exhibit case affixes on nominal phrases, therefore the ranking of the constraints hierarchy will look very different from that of Classical and Modern Standard Arabic. This dysfunctionality of the vowel system for the Iraqi Arabic can be shown by the lower-ranking of the faithfulness constrains on the hierarchy. As a result, vowel affixes must be syncopated

Abstract: Mit Jodeln werden in diesem Aufsatz Naturjodelformen gemeint, die in der südirakischen Region als eine Kommunikationsform von Mensch zu Mensch oder von Mensch zu Tier, als Teil eines Volksliedes oder als eine schamanische Technik zur Geistervertreibung gebraucht werden. Der Schatz an diesem Naturjodel wurde bisher weder wissenschaftlich erforscht noch dokumentiert. Angesichts der diesbezüglichen Knappheit an Materialgrundlage bleibt dem Forscher nichts anders übrig, als einerseits selbst Befragungen durchzuführen und Informationen von den Einheimischen in dieser Region zu sammeln, die seit Jahren in der Viehzucht tätig sind, sowie andererseits z. B. Mütter zu beobachten, die zur Vertreibung böser Geister ihren Kindern beim Schlafenlegen ein Lied vorjodeln. Als Materialgrundlage dienten dem Autor auch die gesungenen Volkslieder, die man oft in Musikläden
als Aufnahmen findet und die man immer noch aus dem Munde der Bauern hört.
Grundsätzlich sieht es in dieser Region so aus, dass der einfachste Jodelruf auf dem Viehlock- und Signalruf basiert. Man weiß jedoch nicht genau, wie das Jodeln in dieser Region entstand. Der vorliegende Beitrag ist ein Versuch, diesen noch unentdeckten Schatz anhand von einer Feldforschung und von Tonaufnahmen aus dieser Region zu untersuchen.

The Jewish dialect of Baghdad (JB) presents dozens of different types of grams which precede the verb and add a specific semantic essence to it. These grams, which are also referred to here as preverbal particles, can be roughly divided into those which act on the tense-aspect axis and those which color the discourse with a modal meaning. This dissertation is dedicated to the description of these grams.

EXPLORING THE CONVENTIONALIZED DIRECTIONAL GREETINGS WITH ''WHERE'' IN THE SOUTHEASTERN GILIT DIALECTS AREA.


Qasim Hassan
University of Basra

Abstract: Many studies have shown that in some cultures questions like 'Where are you going?' and 'Where are you coming?', or even 'Where are you?' do not necessary demonstrate that the initiator is really interested to know where the other party is actually going to, coming from, or where he is, but they are simply types of conventionalized directional greetings amongst people in some language communities (Firth 1972, Keenan 1976, Gregor 1977, Bach & Harnish 1979, Hoem 1993, Duranti 1997, Enfield & Comrie 2015; to name but a few). In the southeastern gilit dialects area of Iraq, however, 'Where are you?' and related greetings ('Where?' greetings, henceforth) are deeply rooted and remained strong throughout the years, although with some signs of softness due to the partly urbanization of these dialect communities, among other reasons. The aim of this study is to identify for the first time some of the key features and uses of the greeting questions in the southeastern gilit dialects area of Iraq. The data on which this study is based come from the author's daily observations of his own speech community as well as from recorded conversations with inhabitants in the remote southeastern rural
areas.
Keywords: southeastern Iraq, gilit dialects, greetings, directional greetings, Leave-taking.

This chapter seeks to re-interpret Iraqi politics after the US-led intervention of 2003 by examining the alternative discourses of democracy emanating from within Re-Colonial Iraq. It details the complex public sphere of the post-Saddam era and points to the inclusive nature of the positive developments that have occurred across the nation since 2003. The first part discusses the post-Saddam media landscape which has played a positive role in covering the nation’s difficult transition to democracy. The second part of this chapter documents and examines the Iraqi people’s exercise of their democratic right to protest and the influence these protests have had on the politics of the post-Saddam era. The chapter concludes that Iraqi citizens who play an active role in their own governance and participate in democratic mechanisms such as elections and mass demonstrations are helping to create a more robust democracy.

The fact that Iraqi nominal sentences are expressed without a verbal element has led the author to examine the status of the copula (be) in English. The aim is to reach at an explanation as to why Iraqi does not use a copula while English does. Explanation of this sort is significant because it has some direct implications on English language teaching and translation in Iraq. Using inductive method of reasoning, it has been established that tracing grammatical properties such as tense and agreement may lead to find-out the reason behind this cross-linguistic variation; and subsequently reach at a generalization that maybe applicable to other languages. The latter is an issue that remains open for further research. While placing the discussion within the parameters of the Government and Binding (GB) theory, the author concluded the reason as non-verbal predication in Iraqi, unlike English, can support a combination of these grammatical properties and thus rendering the need for a copula redundant.

The objective of this paper is to explore the quranic words that are almost no longer used by educated people such as Arabic teachers, university professors or even by intellectual peoples, but they are still very common in everyday use among the regular population in the southern gilit dialect area such as farmers, herdsmen, retail dealer etc. Based on a filedwork research, I have collected the quranic words that are currently used by regular people in this gilit-dialect area. I have then written the verses in which these words occur with examples of use from the southern dialect area for each word.

This article considers the significant role which the Society of Jesus had in the Iraqi secondary and higher education systems in the period 1932--1968. The Jesuits' Baghdad based school and university formed a part of the substantial Jesuit educational network established across the Middle East from the nineteenth century and this article seeks to bring the fields of Jesuit and Iraqi Studies together and to offer reflection of the Jesuit educational ``difference" which was made in and to Iraqi society. This contribution is in Western Christian and Latin Catholic contexts not well known and yet the continued influence which the Jesuit educational and pastoral ethos encouraged is strongly remembered and held in high esteem by both Muslim and Christian Iraqis into the present.

The Jewish dialect of Baghdad employs a particular construction to
mark constituents of the clause as arguments. This construction typically marks the argument twice—once by the morpheme l- and once
by a pronominal suffix that agrees with the argument. Syntactically,
the former has the properties of a flag and the latter of a person index.
The construction, which we call the argument flagging and
indexing construction, primarily assigns the argument with the
syntactic function of a direct or an indirect object, but it is also capable
of marking oblique and genitive arguments. This paper focuses on
the morpho-syntactic properties of the construction. It presents the
mechanism by which the argument is marked and describes how
the syntactic function is assigned.

The notion of superstitions, myths and other supernatural powers has been extensively viewed and interpreted in terms of cognitive and socio-cultural deficits. This study is about illusions and beliefs as a socio-cultural phenomenon. It attempts to find out the relationship between superstitions and the surrounding environment. A questionnaire was used to describe the participants' personal background and superstitious beliefs. Data are collected from thirty undergraduate students of Al-Maarif University College, Iraq, (15 males and 15 females) and thirty Academics (15 males and 15 females). The conclusion reveals that the use of superstitions is used by people regardless of their educational, social or religious backgrounds.

This chapter offers a bold critique of the notion that Baathist rule in Iraq was a product of a culture of authoritarianism in Iraq. It is important to acknowledge from the start that while this chapter does offer a more nuanced view of the Post-Colonial period, it is no way a defence of the tyranny of the Baath and the brutal megalomania of Saddam. Specifically, the first section examines the quashing of Iraq’s civil society and the tight restraints exerted over the nation’s media throughout the period. It also addresses the ways in which various Post-Colonial regimes, but especially the Baath, were adept at manipulating the discourses of democracy in order to mask their tyranny and coerce people into patriotism. Moving beyond this, however, the second section documents the various clandestine opposition groups that began to emerge across Iraq’s divergent ethno-religious and political divides who resisted Baathist oppression and agitated for democratic change. They produced their own media outlets which proved effective in voicing the various frustrations and grievances of Iraqis of all backgrounds and shades of opinion, giving way to a renewed public sphere. The Post-Colonial era, therefore, alternative history of Iraq from the mid-twentieth through to the early twenty-first century in which one finds a sophisticated political culture deeply concerned with the issue of democratic governance.