Possible Arabic pidgin
Maridi Arabic was a possible Arabicpidgin apparently spoken in the upper Nile valley around 1000 CE. If legitimate, it would be the oldest record of a pidgin. It is known from just fifty words in an 11th-century text.
In 1068,Andalusī geographerAbū ʿUbayd al-Bakrī published the words of a traveler fromAswan, who had complained to theCaliph in Egypt that in the town of "Maridi", black Africans had "mutilated" theArabic language.
It appears that the text may be a caricature of an actual pidgin, or at least of partially acquired Arabic. It shares several features withJuba Arabic andNubi Creole: a complete lack of inflection, including articles, possessive markers, and agreement; a single negative marker;ʔmny for the third-person dual pronoun, and perhaps the use ofjaʿal 'make' rather than colloquialqaʿad 'stay' for the progressive.
It is not known where "Maridi" was. It has been concluded that it was in Mauritania, with the single non-Arabic word in the text (below),kyk (people?), hypothesized to be fromSonghai-koi 'people who' plus the Arabic plural-k. However, there are also indications that it was located in Upper Egypt or northern Sudan, as several of its features are found today only in that region. Specifically, Classicalq has becomeʿ (ʿayn),fwq "on" has becomefwʾ, andj has becomed. The last is a sound correspondence found today only in Upper Egypt.
The only account of the language is the following text.
| by | wħd | ywm | rādwl | dwmā | lw | ʔsm. |
| LOC | one | day | man | Jumuʕa | to.him | name |
- One day there was a man whose name was Jumuʿa.
| dml | lw | ʔw | w | bn | lw | ʔw. |
| camel | to.him | he | and | son | to.him | he |
- He had a camel and a son.
| ʔmny | dy | rwħ | ʔʕdny | by | mħl |
| they.two(?) | CONT | go | stay.two(?) | LOC | place |
- They were going to stay in a place.
| kyk | lw | ʔwl | ħrm | ʔnt | brbr. |
| people(?) | to.him | say | shame | you | barbarian |
- People(?) said to him, "Shame! You are a barbarian!
| bn | nw | rwħ | ʔnt | brbr | lw | ʔʕdw |
| son | not | go | you | barbarian | to.him | sit/stay.him(?) |
- Your son should not walk, you barbarian, seat him!"
| ʔmny | dml | fwʔ | ʔw |
| they.two(?) | camel | upon | he |
- They were on the camel.
| kyk | lw | ʔwl | ħrm | ʔnt | brbr. |
| people(?) | to.him | say | shame | you | barbarian |
- People(?) said to him, "Shame! You are a barbarian!"
| bn | ʔʕd | dwmā | rwh-. |
| son | sit/stay | Jumuʕa | go |
- The son sat and Jumuʿa walked.
| kyk | lw | ʔwl | ħrm | ʔnt | brbr. |
| people(?) | to.him | say | shame | you | barbarian |
- People(?) said to him, "Shame! You are a barbarian!"
| dwmā | ʔwl | kyk | mw | dyd | my | mhy. |
| Jumuʕa | say | people(?) | not | good | not | important |
- Jumuʿa said, "People(?) are neither good nor important."
