بردي

See also: بردی

Arabic

FWOTD – 3 October 2022

Alternative forms

• (cattail): بُوط (būṭ), بُوطَة (būṭa)
• (paper reed): بَرْبِير (barbīr)

Etymology

Together with Latin buda (“cattail”) declared a Berber borrowing; though a connection to Old Armenian պրտու (prtu, “paper reed”) complicates this; maybe both the Armenian and Arabic have been mediated by Aramaic, considering that the particular meaning of paper reed is distributed right in the historical Aramaic language area, and that Persian بوری (buri), بوریه (buriya), بوریه (buriye, “split reed, marsh reed; reed mat”) is expected from a source word ending -ītā in the emphatic state. Vollers lists the Arabic term under the “secure borrowings from Egyptian”, perhaps thinking about a semantic interference of Coptic ⲃⲱ (bō, “bush”) from Demotic b (/⁠*βoːʔ⁠/, “bush”) from Egyptian bꜣt (/⁠*ˈbaːʀat⁠/, “bush, especially paper reed”); in Corriente’s last dictionary instead ⲡⲓ-ⲣⲱⲧⲓ ~ ⲣⲟϯ (pi-rōti ~ roti, “overgrowths”) is suggested. But forms فَافِير (fāfīr), فَفِير (fafīr), بَابِير (bābīr), بَبِير (babīr) employed for paper reed are secure borrowings from Ancient Greek πάπυρος (pápuros).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bur.dijj/, /bar.dijj/

Noun

بُرْدِيّ or بَرْدِيّ • (burdiyy or bardiyy) m

1. cattail (Typha spp.)
2. (Egypt, Palestine) paper reed (Cyperus papyrus)
   • 977, أبو القاسم بن حوقل, edited by Michael Jan de Goeje, كتاب مسالك والممالك [kitāb masālik wa-l-mamālik] (Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum; 2)‎^[1], Leiden: E. J. Brill, published 1873, page 86:

     قد غلب عليها البربير وهو البرديُّ المعمول منه الطوامير ولم أعلم لما بمصر من هذا البربير نظيرًا بوجه الأرض إلّا ما بصقلّيَّة منه وأكثره يفتل حبالًا للمراكب وأقلُّه يعمل للسلطان منه طوامير لا تزيد على قدر كفايته

     [And the swamplands of Palermo] were abounding in papyrus, that is paper reed, from which the scrolls where made. I know none on the face of the earth looking like that of Egypt except that of Sicily. From the bulk one plaits hawsers for the ships, and a rather small share is processed into scrolls for the ruler just as meets his demand.

   • 1179, أبو الخير الإشبيلي [Abū al-Ḵayr al-ʾIšbīliyy], edited by Joaquín Bustamante, Federico Corriente y Mohand Tilmatine, كتاب عمدة الطبيب في معرفة النبات لكل لبيب [Libro base del médico para el conocimiento de la botánica por todo experto] (Fuentes Arábico-Hispanas), volume I, Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional, published 2004, Nr. 973, page 87:

     بَرْدِي: واحدة بردية، ويسمى الأباء والحَفَأ، وهو الخوص عند بعض الرواة، والخُوص أيصا هو القصب مثل البردي، […]

     Paper reed, one is bardīya, is also called abāʾ and ḥafaʾ, it is fronds amongst some pastoralists, and fronds is also a rush like the paper reed.

Declension

Declension of noun بُرْدِيّ (burdiyy)‎; بَرْدِيّ (bardiyy)

Singular	basic singular triptote
	Indefinite	Definite	Construct
Informal	بُرْدِي‎; بَرْدِي burdī‎; bardī	الْبُرْدِي‎; الْبَرْدِي al-burdī‎; al-bardī	بُرْدِي‎; بَرْدِي burdī‎; bardī
Nominative	بُرْدِيٌّ‎; بَرْدِيٌّ burdiyyun‎; bardiyyun	الْبُرْدِيُّ‎; الْبَرْدِيُّ al-burdiyyu‎; al-bardiyyu	بُرْدِيُّ‎; بَرْدِيُّ burdiyyu‎; bardiyyu
Accusative	بُرْدِيًّا‎; بَرْدِيًّا burdiyyan‎; bardiyyan	الْبُرْدِيَّ‎; الْبَرْدِيَّ al-burdiyya‎; al-bardiyya	بُرْدِيَّ‎; بَرْدِيَّ burdiyya‎; bardiyya
Genitive	بُرْدِيٍّ‎; بَرْدِيٍّ burdiyyin‎; bardiyyin	الْبُرْدِيِّ‎; الْبَرْدِيِّ al-burdiyyi‎; al-bardiyyi	بُرْدِيِّ‎; بَرْدِيِّ burdiyyi‎; bardiyyi

Descendants

• Maltese: bordi
• → Catalan: albardí
• → Indonesian: bardi
• → Medieval Latin: palperium, palpedrum (Italy from 13^th century)
• → Persian: بردی (bardi)
• → Spanish: albardín
  • → French: alvarde

References

• Bertoldi, Vittorio (1948) “Quisquiliae Ibericae”, in Romance Philology‎^[2] (in Italian), volume 1, number 3, pages 193–196
• Casanova, Paul (1913–1919) Essai de reconstitution topographique de la ville d’al Fousṭât ou Miṣr (Mémoires publiés par les membres de l’institut français d’archéologie orientale du Caire (MIFAO); 35), Cairo: Imprimerie de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale, page MXVIII footnote 6 of fasc. 3, says without reason he deems the form بَرْبِير (barbīr) “incorrect”
• Corriente, Federico, Pereira, Christophe, Vicente, Angeles, editors (2017), Dictionnaire du faisceau dialectal arabe andalou. Perspectives phraséologiques et étymologiques (in French), Berlin: De Gruyter, →ISBN, page 122
• Dozy, Reinhart Pieter Anne (1881) “بردي”, in Supplément aux dictionnaires arabes‎^[3] (in French), volume 1, Leiden: E. J. Brill, page 67a
• Michael Jan de Goeje, editor (1879), Indices, glossarium et addenda et emendanda ad part. I–III (Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum; 7)‎^[4] (in Latin), Leiden: E. J. Brill, published 1879, page 186
• Mercati, Silvio Giuseppe (1970) Collectanea Byzantina (in Italian), volume II, Bari: Dedalo Libri, →ISBN, page 168
• Schuchardt, Hugo (1909) “Zur Wortgeschichte: 1. Lat. buda; tamarix; mlat. tagantes”, in Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie‎^[5] (in German), volume 33, Halle: Max Niemeyer, pages 347–351
• Schuchardt, Hugo (1918) Die romanischen Lehnwörter im Berberischen (Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Akademie der Wissenschaften; 188, IV^th treatise)‎^[6] (in German), Wien: In Kommission bei Alfred Hölder, page 16
• Simonet, Francisco Javier (1888) Glosario de voces ibéricas y latinas usadas entre los mozárabes (in Spanish), Madrid: Establecimiento tipográfico de Fortanet, page 59
• Vollers, Karl (1896) “Beiträge zur Kenntniss der lebenden arabischen Sprache in Aegypten”, in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft‎^[7] (in German), volume 50, page 653
• Qaṭar e-Nature – بردي – Typha domingensis
• “البَرْدِيُّ في التراث العربي”, in Al-Jazīra‎^[8], 2015 October 16