Jonathan Owens
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199290826
- eISBN:
- 9780191710469
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199290826.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
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 ...
More
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.Less
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.
Jonathan Owens
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199290826
- eISBN:
- 9780191710469
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199290826.003.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
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 ...
More
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 proto-language.Less
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 proto-language.
