A Linguistic History of Arabic

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1 University Press Scholarship Online You are looking at 1-7 of 7 items for: keywords : Old Arabic A Linguistic History of Arabic Jonathan Owens Published in print: 2006 Published Online: September 2007 ISBN: eisbn: acprof:oso/ A widespread interpretation of the history of Arabic is that of Old Arabic, roughly Classical Arabic of the 9th and 10th centuries, developing into the contemporary Neo-Arabic dialects. This development involved a simplification of grammar and a spread of analytic as opposed to synthetic structures. This idea, first propounded in 1854, constitutes interpretations of Arabic language history until today. This book takes a very different interpretive perspective. Arguing that the historical comparative method has never been systematically applied to explain the development of contemporary spoken Arabic (the dialects), it is shown through a number of case studies that in many respects contemporary spoken Arabic has moved relatively little from a reconstructed proto-arabic. This book, providing major methodological innovation as far as Arabic historical linguistics goes, aims to incorporate wide-ranging comparative data from the modern dialects, together with a detailed reading of the classical sources, in particular the works of the grammatical tradition and the Koranic variants. It is shown that many presumed innovations in the modern dialects are, in fact, well-attested in detail in the classical descriptions. It is suggested that the results will require a re-thinking of Semitic historical linguistics, and points to the need for a broader Sociolinguistic history of the Arabic language. Introduction: A Language and Its Secrets Jonathan Owens in A Linguistic History of Arabic Published in print: 2006 Published Online: September 2007 ISBN: eisbn: acprof:oso/ Page 1 of 5

2 This introductory chapter situates the study in two contexts. First, the two kinds of sources used for the interpretation of Arabic are described. On the one hand are the written Arabic sources which become available in a significant volume towards the end of the 2nd/8th centuries; particularly important are the early Arabic grammars. On the other are reconstructions using the comparative method derived from the contemporary Arabic dialects. These lead to a reconstruction of what is termed, pre-diasporic Arabic, an Arabic reconstructible to the 7th century, i.e., the era before Arabic spread outside of its Arabian borders. The second context is an overview of western approaches to the study of the history of Arabic. It is suggested that these rarely have applied the comparative method systematically, but rather have been developed on the basis of non-historical dichotomies, such as analytic vs. synthetic, or have assumed that Classical Arabic may be regarded as a protolanguage. Arabic, Culture, and Ethnicity Greg Fisher in Between Empires: Arabs, Romans, and Sasanians in Late Antiquity Published in print: 2011 Published Online: May 2011 ISBN: eisbn: acprof:oso/ This chapter explores the function of the Arabic language and its influence on notions of ethnic identity. It begins by establishing the lowkey role that ancient authors assigned to language in this regard, noting that the high profile connection between language and identity is very much a modern phenomenon. It surveys the evidence for Old Arabic, and revisits the Nemara inscription one of the oldest Arabic inscriptions to ascertain what it might say about Arab identity. The chapter also examines the role of Arabic in Nabataea, the function and importance of other Arabic inscriptions in Syria, the pre Islamic oral poetry corpus, and so called Ishmaelite and bedouin identities. The chapter notes that the lack of evidence precludes a definite statement of how any use of Arabic reflected any concrete notion of identity, but links its use and the evidence for increased political confidence, status, and visibility of Arab elites examined in chapter three. Page 2 of 5

3 Provincia Arabia: Nabataea, the Emergence of Arabic as a Written Language, and Graeco-Arabica Zbigniew T. Fiema, Ahmad Al-Jallad, Michael C. A. Macdonald, and Laïla Nehmé in Arabs and Empires before Islam Published in print: 2015 Published Online: September 2015 ISBN: eisbn: acprof:oso/ This chapter focuses on the Roman province of Arabia and late antique Palaestina III/Salutaris through the lens of two of its most important cities, Petra and Ḥegrā (Madāʾin Ṣāliḥ). These two provinces play a key role in much of this volume as a base of Jafnid power, and through their link with numerous developments, including the emergence of the Arabic script. Also covered here is the dialogue between Greek and Arabic, and transitional, Nabataeo-Arabic inscriptions. On the age and origins of spoken Arabic vernaculars: An unresolved question David Wilmsen in Arabic Indefinites, Interrogatives, and Negators: A Linguistic History of Western Dialects Published in print: 2014 Published Online: December 2014 ISBN: eisbn: acprof:oso/ The labels Old Arabic, Middle Arabic, and Neo-Arabic used in Arabic linguistics give the impression of a chronological sequence, implying that the oldest form of Arabic is something like the language that was codified as the Arabic of writing in the 8th 10th centuries AD. Not based in any linguistic principles, these labels have tended to channel inquiries into the history of Arabic into narrow, predetermined conclusions, one being that negation in the relatively young dialects of Arabic follows a Jespersen s Cycle. Yet the Arabic dialects retain many archaic Arabic features, now rare in modern Arabic writing. Furthermore, they exhibit features shared with other Semitic languages that written Arabic lacks, indicating that the dialects, too, are old. Page 3 of 5

4 Between Empires: Arabs, Romans, and Sasanians in Late Antiquity Greg Fisher Published in print: 2011 Published Online: May 2011 ISBN: eisbn: acprof:oso/ This book examines the relationship between the Roman Empire, the Empire of Sasanian Iran, and their Arab clients, the Jafnids, Nasrids, and Hujrids, at the end of antiquity. Building on recent work in the field, it offers new conclusions about the role played by these two empires in the development of Arab political and cultural identity before Islam, and places the Jafnids, Nasrids, and Hujrids within the framework of current debates on the history and culture of Late Antiquity. Exploring three distinct areas religious and cultural life (particularly Christianity), political activity, and the role of Old Arabic, the work traces the increasing political and cultural visibility of Arab elites at the edges of the Roman and Sasanian empires, and explains these changes from the perspective of the effects and influences of imperial alliance. In its exploration of how some aspects important for the later development of Muslim Arab identity were embedded in the context provided by the two empires of Rome and Sasanian Iran, the study emphasises the importance of the world of Late Antiquity for the our understanding of Arab history and identity. Arabs and Empires before Islam Greg Fisher (ed.) Published in print: 2015 Published Online: September 2015 ISBN: eisbn: acprof:oso/ This book collects nearly 250 translated extracts from an extensive array of ancient sources, which, from a variety of different perspectives, illuminate the history of the Arabs before the emergence of Islam. These sources are drawn from a broad period from the eighth century BC to the Middle Ages, and include texts written in Greek, Latin, Syriac, Persian, and Arabic, inscriptions in a variety of languages and alphabets, and discussions of archaeological sites from across the Near East. More than 20 experts, drawn from the fields of archaeology, classics and ancient history, linguistics and philology, epigraphy, and art history, provide detailed commentary and analysis on this diverse selection of material. The book provides a comprehensive examination of what ancient sources had to say about the politics, culture, and religion of the Arabs in the Page 4 of 5

5 pre-islamic period. It offers a full consideration of the traces which the Arabs have left in the epigraphic, literary, and archaeological records, and sheds light on their relationship with their often more powerful neighbours the states and empires of the ancient Near East. Page 5 of 5

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