The Arabic LanguageColumbia University Press, 1997 - 277 pages This general introduction to the Arabic Language, now available in paperback, places special emphasis on the history and variation of the language. Concentrating on the difference between the two types of Arabic - the Classical standard language and the dialects - Kees Versteegh charts the history and development of the Arabic language from the earliest beginnings to modern times. The reader is offered a solid grounding in the structure of the language, its historical context and its use in various literary and non-literary genres, as well as an understanding of the role of Arabic as a cultural, religious and political world language. Intended as an introductory guide for students of Arabic, it will also be a useful tool for discussions both from a historical linguistic and from a socio-linguistic perspective. Coverage includes all aspects of the history of Arabic, the Arabic linguistic tradition, Arabic dialects and Arabic as a world language. Links are made between linguistic history and cultural history, while the author emphasises the role of contacts between Arabic and other languages. This important book will be an ideal text for all those wishing to acquire an understanding or develop their knowledge of the Arabic language. |
Contents
Arabic as a Semitic Language | 9 |
The Earliest Stages of Arabic | 23 |
Arabic in the PreIslamic Period | 37 |
The Development of Classical Arabic | 53 |
The Structure of Classical Arabic in the Linguistic Tradition | 74 |
The Emergence of New Arabic | 93 |
Middle Arabic | 114 |
The Study of the Arabic Dialects | 130 |
IO The Dialects of Arabic | 148 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Akkadian Arab world Arabic dialects Arabic grammarians Arabic language Arabic script arabicisation Arabophone Aramaic became Bedouin dialects Behnstedt Beirut Berber bilingual borrowed broken plurals century Chapter Christian Classical Arabic code-switching colloquial language common conquests consonants Coptic culture declensional endings derived dictionary diglossia Egypt Egyptian Arabic Egyptian dialects examples feminine French genitive grammar Greek guage Hebrew imperfect verb influence innovations inscriptions instance interdentals Judaeo-Arabic Kitāb large number later lexical lexicon linguistic situation literary literature loans loanwords Maghreb Maltese marker modern Modern Standard Arabic Moroccan Arabic morphology Muslim Nabataean nomads North Africa nouns original orthography pattern peninsula period Persian phonemes phonological poetry pre-Islamic prefix Qur'an realisation regarded region scholars sedentary dialects Semitic languages sentence sociolinguistic South Arabian speakers speech spoken Standard Arabic standard language structure study of Arabic suffix Syrian Arabic term translations tribes Turkish varieties varieties of Arabic verbal vernacular Western words writing written
Popular passages
Page 259 - Association internationale pour la Dialectologie Arabe held at Trinity Hall in the University of Cambridge 10-14 September 1995. — Cambridge : Univ.