inguistic literature, hence the warranted skepticism concerning its linguistic change and history Its internal semantics is synchromcally justified, however On die other hand, all authorities believe muad'dtb must be Arabic in origin, but no Arabic source verifies its Atreidean meaning of adapted kanga roo mouse of Arrakis *i-Famni (in Vol IV of tee Too/) says dial most probabl) it is a vulgar corruption of the Arabic dib wolf Semantic shifts m animal terminology are known from all the sietch warrens of Dune, such as cielago from an older Harmonthepic compound ciel water plus lako fowl A competing explanation is that offered by Gnvit in Kisaa u s Lexicon that muad dib is the result of a different semantic shift Gnvit notes that a legend originating on Gamma Vertis Vn concerns the apotheosis of the hetman Sharkala, m the story the ruler is transformed at his death into the constellation called Sharkala or, from his fame as a law giver The Preceptor Sneakers of Tailara worked beside the Fremen on Bela Tegeuse and the Fremen translation of preceptor is mu addib When the Fremen were transported to Rossak they retained the name of the constellation and when later they moved to Arrakis they named the kangaroo mouse after the constellation Gnvit notes collections of ancient Fremen sayings that direct children to observe and imitate the desert wise ways of the mouse ^e rls dichotomy quite well known m histon cal dialectology and the subject of a lengthy study by Hoont Kaunip ( Rfiotacism in pre Atreidean Fremen Fremen Studies 5 109 150) is demon strated in Fremen by such pairs as musky vs murk) In fact, Kaunip uses this pair as one of the determiners of the isoglosses m his dialect maps of Arrakis 4Nomadic Fremen (called Bedwme in their own dialect) reversed Fremen m and u in Appendix B of the Taaj 1 Famni states that the nomads had preserved the original shape of the Arabic letter (grapheme) which for some unknown reason be came reversed in what developed as the standard language This obvious error has been frequently challenged A K and J Q Further references Abd I Zubaidii / Waduh An Introduction to Fremen Arrakis Studies 3 (Grumman United Worlds) Ibin Ahmad 1 Khalil Kitaab I amaalii Written Atreidean Fremen (Salusa Secundus Morgan and Sharak) FREMEN LANGUAGE History It is rightly said that the history of a language is the history of its people In the language are preserved their victories and defeats not so much on the field of battle, but in the quieter yet more important struggles of life from day to day The language may bear no trace of kings or ministers but it does tell us of people-what they ate what they wore what they worried over, and what they rejoiced in And this hidden history can often be found only in the language These assertions are true of Fremen, de FREMEN LANGUAGE 239 FREMEN LANGUAGE spite a unique difference in the history of that language Formerly, the language of Dune represented something