باجوق

It remains unexplained why the verb بَزَق (bazaʔ, “to spit”) still exists and has not shifted to *بَجَق (*bajaʔ). Notably, a separate verb بَجَق (bajaʔ, “to vocalize”) does exist and presumably lent itself to deriving بَاجُوق (bājūʔ, “big mouth, loud voice”) and other terms of the root like بَجَق (bajaʔ, “loud, irritating voice”, noun), بَجَّق (bajjaʔ, “to speak in a loud, irritating voice”), and بَجَقَة (bajaʔa, “having a loud, shrill voice”, invariable adjective). This could point to a phonemic split from the root ب ز ق (b z q) into two roots ب ز ق (b z q) and ب ج ق (b j q), or it could mean that this speculative etymology is unfounded and the North Levantine Arabic root ب ج ق (b j q) is in fact from a different source entirely.

In the same vein, one shaky explanation for the shift of ز (z) to ج (j) is that it was part of a chain shift ص (ṣ) > ز (z) > ج (j), noting that three of four examples of Arabic ص (ṣ) > ز (z) are also in the vicinity of ق (q): Classical Arabic لَزِقَ (laziqa, “to stick”), بَزَقَ (bazaqa, “to spit”) and North Levantine Arabic زَقَّف (zaʔʔaf, zaqqaf, “to clap”) < Arabic صَفَّقَ (ṣaffaqa, “to clap”). If this explanation is accurate, it could be another argument against the proposed etymology in *بَازُوق (*bāzūq), as the fact that this root was originally ب ص ق (b ṣ q) suggests that it ought to have stopped participating in the chain shift after reaching ز (z).

However, noting the time difference between the development of Arabic لَزِقَ (laziqa, “to stick”), بَزَقَ (bazaqa, “to spit”) and the development of North Levantine Arabic زَقَّف (zaʔʔaf, zaqqaf, “to clap”), it is possible that ق (q) has caused two separate shifts Arabic ص (ṣ) > ز (z) throughout Arabic's history, allowing North Levantine Arabic *بَازُوق (*bāzūq) to have been created after the former in time to participate in the latter. In this case, it only remains to be explained why similar terms like لَزَق (lazaʔ, lazaq, “to stick, to slap”) did not develop analogous variants in ج (j) like *لَجَق (*lajaʔ, *lajaq).