LINGUISTIC AND FOLKLORISTIC REMARKS ON TWO TEXTS IN THE DRUZE DIALECT OF ABU-SNĀN ON THE HOLY SITE OF THE PROPHET ZAKARIYYA

This article is vital folkloristically and linguistically since it gives us details on Druze dialects in Northern Israel. These dialects as a whole had not been well researched until now. The village of Abu-Snān is located some ten kilometers northeast of Acre. The holy site of the village is a mazār, and not a maqām. The prophet Zakariyya is vindictive by nature – a characteristic also manifested in the two texts presented in this article. Dialectologically, the Druze-Arabic dialect of Abu-Snān village shares common features with other Druze dialects in the Galilee region and in Lebanon, Syria and even in Jordan, yet it can be regarded as belonging to the sub-northern Palestinian coastal dialects in Israel which share also conjoint characteristics with some Moslem and Christian North-Palestinian dialects.