Bertal

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Bertal arabice pascer ut in libro de doctrina arabica.


Apparatus:

Bertal (Bertal j) ABC ejp | Berbal f {‘t’ misread as ‘b’}
pascer AC f | passer B ejp
{doctrina} g’ca araca g. ms. j
{arabica} attempt to write ﺑﺮﻂﻞ /barṭal/ in Arabic script??


Translation:

Bertal is Arabic for Latin pascer {"sparrow"} as stated in the liber de doctrina arabica.


Commentary:

bertal:
Just like Berigil the word bertal is a Romance word which in this case entered through Mozarabic into the North-African varieties of Arabic. According to Corominas (1980-91: vol.ME – RE.397f), PARDAL is a word common to all three Ibero-Romance languages, i.e. Catalan, Castilian and Portuguese meaning "sparrow", although the meaning has generalised in some areas to "{small} bird in general". It is ultimately derived from Greek πάρδαλος /párdalos/ or πάρδος /párdos/ meaning "leopard". Corominas assumes that the dark colour of both animals is the naming motive and in fact pardo is an adjective in Spanish inherited via Latin pardus meaning i.a. "grey-brown" etc.

Simon's often quoted source, the Liber de doctrina arabica, has so far not been identified, but cf. what must be a similar glossary/dictionary - Vocabulista - (ed. Schiaparelli (1871: 36) [[1]]: ﺑﺮﻂﻞ /barṭal/ Paser [[2]]; ed. Schiaparelli (1871: 512): Paser; ﺑﺮﻂﻞ /barṭal/ {pl.} ﺑﺮﺍﻂﻴﻞ /barāṭīl/ [[3]]. Cf. Corriente (1989: 40): *PRTL (II)> barṭal … < pájaro {i.e. “bird”} (< pardālus). [paser].

Also de Alcalá (1883: 342): pardal o gorrion {2 Spanish words for “sparrow”} pártal a dár {/barṭal ad-dār/ “lit. “sparrow of the house”}.
pardal pequeño {“small bird, sparrow} puráytal a dar {burayṭal ad-dār}, diminutive form [[4]].

Cf. also for further witnesses Corriente (1989: 46, 47), s.v. *(PRṬL).

According to Dozy (1877-81: I.73): ﺑﺮﻂﻞ /barṭal/ - who quotes Vocabulista as one of his sources - is the result of two borrowings from Spanish, 1) portal which he glosses "vestibule, portique" {i.e. "portico"} and 2) pardal "moineau" {i.e. "sparrow"}. Contamination of the two lemmata explains the unexpected sound ﻁ /ṭ/ in ﺑﺮﻂﻞ /baral/ instead of */bardal/.

Cf also: Cf. also: de Prémare (1993-9: I. 191): ﺑﺮﻂﺎﻝ /bəṛṭāl/ … 1) "moineau, 'pierrot'; passereau" {all three terms meaning "sparrow"},


For further information see Corominas (1980-91: 398, 440) articles PARDAL and PARDO.

WilfGunther 18:02, 26 July 2014 (BST)


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