Motke: The word "mouse" in Syriac/Aramaic and Hebrew v The word "mouse" in Arabic

Submitted by dhimmi no more (United States), Jan 15, 2020 at 16:23

Hi Motke,

The pre-Islamic Arabic is indeed a puzzle. Check the case of the word "mouse" In Classical and Modern Arabic the word is الفار also الفأر.

However, in Hebrew it is Akhbar and in Syriac/Aramaic it is ܥܽܘܩܒܪܳܐ or 'auqbara very similar indeed but why would it be any different in Arabic?

Now if you check in Lisan al-'Arab you will discover that the mouse in Arabia is really يربوع (in English Jerboa) also جربوع (as you shall see below) which could very well be a metathesis (which is very common in Arabic where Syriac words undergo metathesis in Arabic) of the Syriac/Aramaic word for mouse (see above)

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%B9

More? The Egyptian Arabic insult جربوع means skinny/filthy/disgusting but it also means mouse

Of course I cannot prove that Muhammad's Arabic must have been very different at times from the Arabic that we have now from the Persian Mufasereen, but it makes one wonder

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".