A linguistic history of Arabic / Jonathan Owens.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Owens, Jonathan.

Contributor:

Oxford Scholarship Online.

Class of 1932 Fund.

Series:

Oxford linguistics

[Oxford linguistics]

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Arabic language--History.

Arabic language.

History.

Historical linguistics.

Genre:

Electronic books.

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (ix, 316 pages) : maps.

polychrome

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2006.

System Details:

text file

Summary:

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. This work challenges the traditional accounts of the progression of classical Arabic to contemporary dialects. It presents a rich and complex picture of early Arabic language history and establishes the basis for a comprehensive, linguistically-based understanding of the history of Arabic.

Contents:

A language and its secrets

Old Arabic, neo-Arabic, and comparative linguistics

Case and proto-Arabic

Al-Idgham al-Kabiyr and case endings

Pre-diasporic Arabic in the diaspora : a statistical approach to Arabic language history

Nigerian Arabic and reconstruction of the imperfect verb

Imala

Suffix pronouns and reconstruction

Appendix 1 : list and short summary of dialects included in study

Appendix 2 : list of features used in comparison, Chapter 5, with brief exemplification

Appendix 3 : imala in Zamaxshari

Appendix 4 : table of suffix pronouns used in reconstructions in Chapter 8.

Notes:

Series statement from jacket.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Description based on print version record.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Class of 1932 Fund.

Other Format:

Print version: Owens, Jonathan. Linguistic history of Arabic.

ISBN:

9781429493055

1429493054

0199290822

9780199290826

OCLC:

171571904

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.