Search

In many parts of the developed and developing world, traditional children’s rhymes are under threat. The disappearance of these traditional rhymes could impact children’s phonological development (Di Liberto et al., 2023, Harper, 2011), awareness of their natural environment, and their appreciation (and later composition) of poetry by older speakers. While rhymes in literate societies are often documented and can thus can be retrieved, this is not the case for the Mahrah and other exclusively oral societies. In this paper, we examine traditional children’s rhymes in Mehri, an endangered Modern South Arabian language (MSAL), focusing on rhymes and riddles and the significance of their impending loss within al-Mahrah governorate in Yemen. We conclude by suggesting ways in which the Mehri community, in collaboration with native-speaker and non-native-speaker researchers, can revitalize this genre of poetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of emotions has been studied from numerous perspectives in psychology, the history of emotions and religion. This study sheds light on the linguistic devices implemented to articulate emotions in the Qurʾān by taking the emotion verb xāfa ‘to fear’ or ‘to be afraid’ (and its derivatives) as a case study. In both modern and classical dictionaries of the Arabic language as well as in Quranic exegesis, the verb xāfa is often replaced by another verb that expresses fear such as xašiya ‘to be afraid’ or ‘to be in awe’. Here it is shown that the verb xāfa occurs in certain syntactic structures and has specific meanings that are not denoted by other verbs expressing fear in the Qurʾān. Specifically, when the verb xāfa is followed by a subordinate clause that starts with the particle ʾan, it can be rendered as ‘to fear’ or ‘to be afraid’ since the cause of this fear is a probable event. When the verb xāfa is followed by the preposition ʿalā it denotes ‘to fear for [the wellbeing of] someone (e.g., a family member)’ because of a situation in which they are likely to be found. When it is followed by the noun rabb ‘Lord’ or Allāh ‘God’, the verb refers to ‘fear of God’, where fear of His punishment motivates the people to worship Him. When the verbal noun xawf has no object and is used in conjunction with the verbal noun ʾamn (‘security’) it can be interpreted as ‘insecurity about something’. Because the verb xāfa is central to the religious concept of fear of God, it is used in the Qurʾān to express a general and collective attitude of fear or awe. However, xāfa is also used to express individual experiences of fright at specific times or places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of the Bible in Arabic has become a topic of increasing interest among scholars of the intellectual history of the Islamic world, as well as Christianity in areas under Islamic rule. Nevertheless, most Arabic Bible manuscripts remain largely, or even totally, unstudied. While the textual and theological dimensions of these translations are attracting increasing scholarly attention, their linguistic analysis remains dominated by a traditionalist approach now completely outdated. This paper has two goals, one descriptive and one methodological. First, we aim to fully describe the Arabic Gospel manuscript Sinai Arabic MS 68, traditionally dated to the 14th century CE but which we date to the 16th century CE, perhaps in the aftermath of the fall of the Mamluk empire. Our description focuses on the linguistic nature of the manuscript, but includes discussions of its history and materiality as well. Second, we propose a methodological approach to studying the language of the text that takes seriously non-Classical components and contextualizes these features within what is known from other such nonClassical compositions, including especially Christian manuscripts. We conclude that the manuscript was produced by artisans and a scribe with significant courtly experience, and shows evidence of multiple normative linguistic registers, which argues strongly for the importance of broadening the framework within which scholars interpret such ‘Middle Arabic’ texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jewish dialects of Algerian Arabic remain terra incognita within Arabic dialectology. This paper addresses this lacuna and examines specific syntactic aspects within the critically endangered Jewish dialect of Wad-Souf. The study selectively focuses on the topics relevant to the ongoing discussions in the field of Arabic dialectology and the sub-field of Judaeo-Arabic. This research builds on my prior work concerning the phonology and morphology of Jewish Wad-Souf, emphasising linguistic traits that align with Bedouin dialects and showcasing historical connections to sedentary Jewish dialects. The article includes glossed text samples and analytical sections exploring noun, verb and pronoun syntax. While presenting tendencies rather than rigid rules, this research lays the groundwork for future studies on the Jewish dialect of WadSouf and on Algerian Judaeo-Arabic in general, forming a basis for a deeper understanding of its syntax and linguistic nuances. The data were obtained during three periods of fieldwork in Israel between March and December 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fann is a genre of oral poetry in the vernacular Arabic of the Alawi community in the Antioch/Hatay province of Turkey. Until recently, it has hardly been mentioned in academic literature. Poetic form and rhythm structure are largely fixed in this genre and it is almost always performed in a similar way; when it comes to the quality of the voice, including a more or less clear melodic shape, there is more left up to the performer. During performances, the rhythmical element dominates the essence of melodic aspects. A preliminary comparison with related genres in the region demonstrates that both the form and performance practice of fann resemble genres in neighbouring Arab countries. Comparison also finds that there is hardly any connection with any Turkish and Kurdish singer-poem tradition as practised in nearby regions. Only recent changes indicate influences from contemporary Turkish music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a first study of numeral reduplication in Jordanian Arabic, which uses a syntactic strategy of numeral reduplication not previously recognized in other languages. This involves the reduplication of a numeral implies reduplication of the Noun Phrase (NP) that follows it (Num NP Num NP). Semantically, and at first glance, numeral reduplication mandates distributives readings. We show that numeral reduplication is in fact a marker of pluractionality (event plurality), and the distributive readings are the consequence of separating plural events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article will analyze the use of the noun nafs ‘soul’ with the firstperson possessive pronominal suffix, through the corpus of Andalusi texts gathered in Nafḥ al-ṭīb by the North-African author Shihāb al-Dīn al-Maqqarī (d. 1632). The aim is threefold: one, to identify patterns of the use of nafsī in the Nafḥ, their semantic performance, and diachronic evolution; two, to compare the use of the term in this corpus with its use in lists of collocates in the macro corpora KSUCCA and arTenTen of Classical and Modern Standard Arabic; and three, to show that linguistically systematizing self-expression is adequate for the identification of highly subjective texts in a corpus. Analysis will show that the notions of the ‘divided self’, sacrificing oneself, and yearning change towards a closer relationship between the subject and the self over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to clearly outline the features that distinguish Ruʾūs al-Jibāl Arabic (also called Šiḥḥī Arabic, Musandam Arabic) spoken on the Omani peninsula from surrounding dialects. Comparison with nearby Arabic varieties yields a few areal features (in segmental phonology) that establish a dialect continuum from the coasts of northern Oman to Musandam. A large number of phonological similarities between Ruʾūs al-Jibāl Arabic and Dhofari Arabic are then documented here for the first time. This robust but discontinuous link re-frames many of the peculiarities of Ruʾūs al-Jibāl Arabic as vestiges of a coastal southern Arabian dialect group. This finding fits a wellknown ancient pattern of northward population movements out of south Arabia, and allows for a more effective delineation of innovations unique to Ruʾūs al-Jibāl. It also offers a direction forward for an expanded framework for the classification of the Arabic dialects of southeastern Arabia, incorporating Oman's peripheries at Dhofar and Musandam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a study of emphasis in an attempt to determine its acoustic correlates in Central Mount Lebanon Lebanese Arabic (CMLL), an urban colloquial variety of Arabic spoken in Lebanon. Several analyses of emphasis exist in the literature, which largely focus on neighbouring vowels and either investigate, or make use of, a link between F2 lowering and emphasis. This study, based on acoustic data from 11 speakers, considers various possible consonantal as well as vocalic correlates. The vocalic analyses make use of statistical modelling in linear mixed effects, and generalised additive mixed modelling. This study finds significant F2 lowering in vowels preceding the emphatic voiceless sibilant /ṣ/. It argues that, in terms of the acoustics, emphasis is a vocalic rather than consonantal phenomenon, and that, in CMLL, the phonological feature 'emphasis' is consonantal, but is realized phonetically as a colouration of the adjacent vowels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The area northeast of Mosul, a collection of villages with varying topography and terrain, is known for being a mosaic of ethnic and religious minorities. The village of Mērgī, the focus of interest in this paper, is one of the historical Christian settlements in the area, located on the southern foot of the Mount Maqlūb. Based on a fieldwork carried out in 2022 in Mērgī, this article investigates the linguistic situation in this village and carries out comparisons with the other well-documented related dialects in the vicinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses epenthesis and vowel intrusion in the Central Dhofari variety of Mehri, one of six endangered Modern South Arabian languages indigenous to southern Arabia. Mehri is spoken by members of the Mahrah tribe in southern Oman, eastern Yemen, parts of southern and eastern Saudi Arabia and in communities in parts of the Gulf and East Africa. The estimated number of Mehri speakers is between 100,000–180,000. Following Hall (2006), this study distinguishes between two types of inserted vowels: epenthetic vowels, which repair illicit syllable structures, and intrusive vowels, which transition between consonants. The paper examines how the properties of epenthetic and intrusive vowels as proposed by Hall relate to Mehri. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arabic dialects west of Libya stand out within Arabic and Semitic languages more generally for using a fairly productive verb pattern FʕāL for change-of-state quality verbs, since before the 12th century. This has long been identified with Classical Arabic's Form IX (iFʕaLLa) or XI (iFʕāLLa), but does not regularly correspond to either, and shows a rather different lexical distribution. This article proposes a new explanation for its unexpected form, greater productivity, and uniquely Western distribution, based on contact with Berber. Across most Berber varieties, a verb pattern whose perfective stem may be reconstructed as *ăFSāL > *əFSāL is regularly used for change-of-state verbs. The originally accidental similarity in form and function would have allowed first-language Berber speakers learning Arabic in the Umayyad period to identify this with Arabic Form IX/XI, and therefore to extend its use to their Arabic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the evolution of morpho-syntactic mood in Arabic, examining insights gained from the analysis of early Christian Arabic gospel manuscripts. It explores recent advancements in the understanding of Arabic's linguistic history, particularly regarding modal inflection in the imperfect conjugation. It also discusses the implications of these findings for understanding the breakdown and loss of verbal mood inflection.

This paper examines how Quranic text treats the construction of a participle in predicative position when it is followed by a direct object. While the medieval grammarians typically say that the participle may be either followed by the object in the accusative or form a construct phrase with it regardless of the definiteness of the object, close examination of the behaviour of participles in predicative positions in the Quranic text shows that a clear correlation presents itself. Indefinite objects are marked with the accusative, whereas definite objects are formed through a genitive construction. This thus means that the linguistic register of the Qurʾān, different from other forms of Classical Arabic, represents a kind of differential object marking on the objects of predicative participles, differentiating between indefinite and definite objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the term xabar. It focuses on cases where xabar, or the dyad ism-xabar, is used at variance with canonical theory. These cases suggest that the triad X + X's ism + X's xabar (familiar when X = ʾinna, kāna and their 'sisters') was used to accommodate tripartite configurations whose so-called xabar is not a predicate, or whose ism and xabar are generally taken to be mubtadaʾ and xabar. This syntactic model, which differs significantly from the canonical theory of sentence types in the Arabic grammatical tradition, was most probably designed for pedagogical aims. This alternative model analyzes sentences according to their surface structure, with focus on initial constituents, whereas canonical syntactic model's point of departure is a distinction between sentence types, based on the concept of predication and taking into consideration word order variation. An appendix on the little-known grammarian al-Quhunduzī examines the history of the figure, who has in modern scholarship been confused with another author. Pinning down his identity and the period in which he lived dispels confusion about the figure, allowing us to better place his work in the scholarly record. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the tenets of translanguaging and with a focus on Arabic as a diglossic language, we examine the fluid and dynamic practices that transcend the boundaries between/among Standard Arabic, Arabic dialects, and English in content-based instruction in an advanced Arabic literature course. Using conversation analysis, we show how translingual practices in learner–learner and teacher–learner interactions and discussions utilize the available linguistic repertoires in the classroom discourse. These practices broke the priori established boundaries that set Standard Arabic as the target language. The use of Arabic dialects and English in the literature course promoted the negotiation of complex concepts, facilitated the engagement with and critical interpretation of literary texts, and enhanced the meaning-making process at large. The utilization of these translingual practices has maximized Arabic learners' gains. The article theoretically enriches recent discussions about the role of available linguistic repertoires in the ideological divide between language and content courses in language programs. It also advances the position that pedagogical translanguaging destabilizes the status of standard varieties as the target in diglossic languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with Central Urban Sudanese Arabic, or ‘Sudanese Arabic’ for short—by which I mean, more specifically, the urban dialect spoken in Greater Khartoum (Khartoum, Khartoum North and Omdurman), and in other urban areas of central Sudan, roughly to the towns of Atbara in the north, Sennar on the Blue Nile and Kosti on the White Nile.2,3 It considers the relationship between the definite particle al- (plus allomorphic variants), for example in al-bēt ‘the house’, and what I shall argue is zero (Ø) commuting with al- (amongst other things), for example in bēt ‘a house’, as contrasted with al-bēt ‘the house’.4 What I term here, the ‘definite particle’ is more traditionally termed the ‘definite article’. For reasons why ‘definite particle’ is to be preferred to ‘definite article’ in the description of Sudanese Arabic, see Dickins (2009b; and Section 4 below). Henceforth, I shall, for brevity, refer to the definite particle as al-. I consider (i) Ø and (ii) al- in relation to (iii) pronoun suffixes, and (iv) annexes (‘genitives’).5 I use the following terminology: annexion-head meaning roughly the same as muḍāf (cf. Badawi, Carter and Gully 2015: 131) in traditional Arabic terminology (also termable annexed term, e.g. Watson 1993: 173, or genitive head in English), and annex (Watson 1993: 173) meaning roughly the same as muḍāf ilay-hi (cf. Badawi, Carter and Gully 2015: 131) (also termable genitive modifier in English). The entire phrase involving annexion I shall refer to as an annexion structure. I argue that not only do Ø and al- com-mute with one another, but that they also commute with pronoun suffixes and genitive annexes (incorporating also recursive elements), to give one form of syntax. In the linguistic model underpinning this paper—extended axiomatic functionalism (Dickins 1998; 2009a; 2020a)—this can be termed lexotactic. I also show, however, that these structures can be subject to a second, different, form of syntactic analysis in extended axiomatic-functionalism, termed delotactic. I finally consider in more detail the nature of definiteness and indefiniteness in Sudanese Arabic, justifying the grounds for definiteness which I identified in Section 2.2. Up to the end of Section 3 and in Section 5, this article draws heavily on Dickins (2013), which deals with Standard Arabic, having much the same structure as that article. The two articles can accordingly be partially read together, to provide a structural comparison between Standard Arabic and Sudanese Arabic in the relevant areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the first study that investigates polysyllabic shortening in Arabic. It aims to find out the extent to which Modern Standard Arabic employs this phonetic mechanism, which is usually associated with stress-timed languages. Data were collected from 10 Jordanian speakers reading 6 sets of words representing the six monophthongs in Arabic in a carrier sentence. Based on the acoustic analysis of 180 vowels, it was found that the vowels in monosyllabic words were significantly longer than their counterparts in polysyllabic words. However, the differences between the vowels in disyllabic and trisyllabic words were much smaller. Findings suggest that polysyllabic shortening is not invoked as a mechanism to maintain the stress-timed rhythm of stress-timed languages. Rather, it seems to be a universal phonetic feature that applies in different degrees that are commensurate with the rhythm of the language in question [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on John Donne's relatively unexplored Arabic learning, shedding light on his interactions with the Arabic language and the sources he may have used. It examines specific instances in his sermons where Donne referred to Arabic translations and paraphrases of the Bible, highlighting his limited grasp of the language but the depth of his engagement with available materials in Latin.

Health literacy (HL) is an essential component of public health. Few tools are used to measure HL in Arabic-speaking countries, essentially the Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults and the Single Item Literacy Screener. The new 12-item version of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-Q12), has not been validated in the Arabic language. This study aimed to translate the English version of HLS-Q12 into Arabic, test its structure and explain any variance in HLS-Q12 scores, allowing its use in Arabic-speaking healthcare contexts. A forward–backward translation was adopted. Reliability was assessed using Cronbach's α. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and Rasch Model evaluated the model fit of the Arabic version of HLS-12. The effects of different patient-related variables on HLS-Q12 scores were tested using linear regression. A total of 389 patients visiting the site hospital outpatient clinics participated in the study. HLS-Q12 mean ± SD score was 35.8 ± 5.0, 50.9% of the participants showed an intermediate HL score. Good reliability (α = 0.832) was observed. CFA confirmed the scale unidimensionality. Rasch analysis indicated HLS-Q12 items to be within the fit acceptable thresholds except for Item 12. The only item that displayed unordered response categories was Item 4. Most of the items were considered relatively easy by respondents. Linear regression revealed age, education, healthcare-related education and income to have effects significantly different from zero on HLS-Q12 score. Interventions targeting the most health-disparate groups of individuals with characteristics contributing to lower HL, are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a phonological analysis of a hitherto unexamined endangered Arabic dialect, that of the Jews of Gabes in Southern Tunisia, combining a comparative examination of various phonological phenomena in selected Arabic dialects of the region. The primary aim of the study is to establish the features distinguishing Jewish Gabes from other Jewish North-African dialects, and, since no south-Tunisian Jewish dialect has been studied to date, to produce a thorough analysis of the sound system of this variety. Special attention was paid to the alternations of sibilants in the region, which distinguish North-African Arabic from the dialects spoken East of Egypt. Moreover, this article constitutes the very first attempt at acoustic analysis of the emphatics and vowels in North-African Arabic. Based on the data obtained by means of the Praat software, it has been shown that the emphatic consonants in Jewish Gabes have different levels of spreadability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examines debuccalization in Gulf Pidgin Arabic (GPA), which targets pharyngeal fricatives,/ʕ/and/ħ/, based on the analysis of feature geometry and Optimality Theory (henceforth OT). This study relies on data elicited from interviews with 10 GPA speakers from two linguistic backgrounds, Bengali and Malayalam. This study concludes that/ʕ/is debuccalized to [ʔ] and/ħ/to [h] in onset position. Debuccalization is also seen as a step prior to the deletion of pharyngeal fricatives in the coda position. The process of debuccalization is shown through a feature geometric representation of which the Retracted Tongue Root [RTR], as an articulator feature dominated by the pharyngeal place node in pharyngeal fricatives is prone to inertness. [RTR] inertness and the loss of pharyngeal place node are peculiar to the deletion of pharyngeal fricatives in the coda position. Parallelism, as an OT model, is shown to be able to account for debuccalization in the onset in GPA while Harmonic Serialism, as another OT model, is capable of accounting for a serial derivation of which debuccalization of pharyngeal fricatives in the coda position represents the first step prior to consonant deletion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Referring to a specific object sometimes requires using several modifiers, such as adjectives with nouns to describe objects. The ordering of these adjectives is generally assumed to adhere to universal hierarchies. It is, therefore, predicted that prenominal (e.g. English) languages present preferred ordering, and postnominal (Arabic) languages are further expected to mirror the ordering observed in those prenominal languages. This paper investigates these predictions by providing a quantitative account of internal orderings of elements in some Arabic noun phrases in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Libyan Arabic (LA). The primary concern is with the relative ordering of adjectives, where both semantic adjective classes and functions (specifying~descriptive~classifying) are invoked. The study findings showed ordering preference in both MSA and LA, at both the global and refined functional levels, in line with the suggested hierarchies. Deviation from the preferred order also appeared possible but under certain circumstances which appear at a greater level in LA than MSA. These instances were, however, accounted for through factors such as contrastive environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the present paper is to show that the prominent grammarian Abū al-Faraj Hārūn (AFH), head of the Karaite Majlis in Jerusalem (first half of the eleventh century CE) was acquainted with the grammatical theory of the important Andalusian grammarian Yehudah Ḥayyūj (d. c. 1010 CE in Cordoba), whose writings had reached the Arabic-speaking east at an early stage, not long after his death. AFH described the grammar of Biblical Hebrew according to the accepted Karaite method and the classical Arabic grammatical theory, but also mentioned Ḥayyūj explicitly by name, and mentioned the latter's grammatical method in explanations of words in the Bible. In his al-Muštamil, especially in the chapters on the letters, AFH provided explanations using Ḥayyūj's method; he did not copy Ḥayyūj's words but described phonological and morphological phenomena in his own words, based on Ḥayyūj's theory. In other words, we will show that AFH was the first in the Arabic-speaking east to have used Ḥayyūj's grammatical terminology and concepts, examples and explanations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study takes a bidialectal perspective for the conceptualization of pragmatic competence and its development through illuminating the need for the field to move forward and overcome the standard language ideology in research on L2 pragmatic competence. To this end, it brings bidialectal practices to the forefront to investigate L2 Arabic pragmatic development in a short-term study abroad programme. In particular, bidialectal practices, or the ability to use one or more spoken varieties alongside Modern Standard Arabic, are explored in this study in relation to appropriateness and pragmatic strategies in the production of apologies, refusals, and requests. A spoken discourse completion task that included scenarios with varied power and social distance combinations were utilized to collect data from 36 participants (21 L2 Arabic learners and 15 L1 Arabic speakers) in an eight-week study abroad sojourn. Findings indicated an overall improvement of pragmatic competence over the period of eight weeks. Specifically, significant developments were demonstrated in appropriateness scores and learners' use of bidialectal practices in pragmatic strategies. Moreover, the qualitative analysis of strategies development identified areas in which learners converged towards or diverged from L1 speaker norms. Methodologically, the study shows that utilizing bidialectal practices to measure L2 Arabic pragmatic competence development is key to understanding learners' developmental trajectories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose to overcome the challenge of digesting opinions in a news article. Our objective is to provide a summary of opinions delivered by many sources about a main topic in an Arabic news article. In literature, several studies addressed issues related to opinion summarization. However, we noticed a lack of studies that address this problem in Arabic language. So, we have proposed two different methods: multi-criteria and machine learning-based methods. We proceed by comparing the results provided by the proposed methods for opinionated sentence extraction. The proposed methods were evaluated using two feature types: text-based features and opinion-specific features. Experimental results show the robustness of machine learning method to extract opinionated sentences with consideration of two sets of features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidentiality as a typological category pertains to the source of information from the speaker's point of view without specifying it. This information may be conveyed as non-witnessed, inferred or surprising (mirative), among other possibilities. Evidentiality strategies and mirativity strategies are usually secondary extensions of other primary functions, such as resultativity. These strategies may be grammatical, syntactic or discursive, and I also include here lexical items with no other function. In Traditional Negev Arabic, as spoken by elderly Bedouin in Southern Israel, grammatical evidentiality was noted in 1992. Since then, however, evidentiality in Arabic has only been recognized in some peripheral dialects in contact with evidential languages. This study analyses the interaction and pragmatic-rhetorical effects of three strategies for evidentiality and mirativity in oral narrative texts in Traditional Negev Arabic: a grammatical strategy via the evidential participle; a lexical strategy via evidential particles; and a discourse-syntactic strategy via presentatives, combining visual evidence with mirativity and often inference. These strategies tend to cluster together in narrative peaks, creating saturated environments of high dramatic tension. Their complex interaction is highly effective in focalizing and achieving pragmatic and rhetorical ends in this understudied and rapidly disappearing oral narrative tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the overwhelming majority of Arabic dialects, and even in Modern Standard Arabic, the nominal feminine suffix /-at/ is pronounced without the final /-t/ unless it is in the construct state. This common development has apparently not--or at least only partially--occurred in some bedouin-type dialects of Arabia, particularly those of the Shammar confederation. This fact was discussed in a recent article by M. van Putten, who proposed the unusual sound shift *-t → -y to explain the Shammari pausal forms. This article challenges this view by discussing additional data from narratives and concludes that Shammari Arabic most likely took part in the usual development of Arabic. In the second part, dialects other than Shammari are analysed. These dialects either show a complete retention of /-t/ in feminine singular nouns in the absolute state except in pause, or a further development in which this phenomenon is restricted to noun-adjective phrases. In the conclusion it is argued that not all instances of the retention of /-t/ are archaic residues but in some cases are most probably later innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the structure and use of the existential verb baka in Rural Palestinian Arabic for the introduction of orientation sections and fragments in narrative discourse. In clause-initial position the existential verb presents a non-inflecting form, either the 3MSG perfect baka or the MSG active participle bāki. We argue that the non-inflectability of baka and bāki is indicative of their syntactic detached- ness from the following unit and is explained by their discourse-disjunctive function. We show that the existential baka/bāki serves to introduce both narrative-initial and narrative-embedded orientation. It may initiate utterances containing simple nominals or whole clauses. The distribution of the specific patterns is determined, inter alia, by the genre of the narrative told. Finally, we propose that the preference of the participle bāki over baka in folktales and in less committed instances of personal narratives may be related to the evidential function of the active participle in the dialects under examination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arabic has been spoken as a mother tongue in Iran since pre-Islamic times, but a number of the Arabic dialect groups scattered across the country have not been documented. In this study, we provide a first account of Arabic on Iran's southern coast, with a description of the dialect of Bandar Moqām in western Hormozgan Province. Using the Atlas of the Languages of Iran (ALI) linguistic data questionnaire as well as supplementary elicitation and oral texts, we have documented salient elements of its lexicon, phonology and morphosyntax. Our analysis confirms that Bandar Moqām Arabic fits into the wider Gulf Arabic dialect area, yet is internally heterogenous. On the one hand, it shares many features with the regionally dominant 'Bedouin' type Gulf Arabic koine, but it also aligns with distinctive structures--both retentions and innovations--in the more ancient 'Sedentary' Gulf dialects that originated in southern Arabia. Further, it exhibits a series of structures in common with Mesopotamian Arabic and its descendants that reached as far as Central Asia during the Arab conquest of greater Persia and are still spoken there today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study considers the function of the pattern of the so-called stem IV, primarily associated with causatives, in Soqotri (Modern South Arabian). It focuses on the correlation between the semantics of the source verb and that of the derived verb, examines the semantic classes which are compatible with the causative morpheme, and establishes several factors which influence the employment of stem IV. A special subsection deals with syntax of stem IV verbs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attempting to interpret palatalization of the feminine marker -at to -ay in the Shammari dialect of Najd, Putten (2017) assumes that such change constitutes evidence that this dialect cannot be derived historically from Classical Arabic, and that its development did not participate in the at > ah change in all positions. In this response, I view this change to follow the same path Classical Arabic came across, but with an additional internal change peculiar to this variety. I argue for an intermediate stage of -at > -ah > -ay in the Shammari dialect of Najd. Therefore, I consider this phenomenon an initial stage of imāla (an incipient imāla) wherein palatalization diffuses within certain lexically-conditioned categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The treatise שרח אם בחקותי by Nafīs al-Dīn Abū l-Faraj Ibn al-Kaṯār, also known as Shams al-Ḥukamāʼ, active circa the end of the thirteenth century ce, is written in Middle Arabic in the Arabic script. Verses of the Torah and quotes from Samaritan religious poems are written in Samaritan Hebrew letters. The treatise is extant in a number of Samaritan manuscripts kept in various libraries in Israel and abroad. While the title of this work is אם בחקותי , its contents encompass numerous topics in a variety of fields: linguistics, exegesis, religious law and more. Among the linguistic issues it addresses, for example are topics in phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. The present article discusses two interrelated linguistic issues in phonology and morphology, the first dealing with the conjugation of irregular verbs: the phonological discussion focuses on the concept of ʽiwaḍ (compensation) and in morphology we discuss I/y verbs and, by the way, also I/n verbs. In addition, I examine this work’s affinities with the grammatical theories expounded by the Samaritan grammarian Ibn Mārūṭ and the rabbinic grammarian Yehuda Ḥayyūj. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rajaz meter has always been folkloric, from its inception to this day. It is easy to compose verses in it, so that poets used it to express the concerns of their nation, especially following the consecutive political defeats which the Arab world has experienced. Modern Arab poets use this meter in poems that express the concerns of the common people and urge them to stand together in the face of defeats and despotic, oppressive regimes. The rajaz meter allows them to write in one voice that represents the collective as a whole. The Egyptian poet Ṣalāḥ 'Abd al-'abūr (1931-81) used the rajaz meter in an innovative manner, in a way that he succeeded in making an equilibrium between poetry and prose. This can be seen in his use of the rajaz meter to compose narrative poems, as we shall see in the present study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the contents of the seventh-century bce letter found on ostraca fragments at Meṣad Ḥashavyahu are relatively well understood, the proposed interpretation of one word has been too quickly accepted and should be challenged. This is the interpretation of תדהם, in line 14, as a form of דום, which is said to mean 'be silent'. The association with דום is not a foregone conclusion, however, and a survey of the biblical corpus demonstrates that a connection between II- ה and II- ו roots is exceptional rather than the norm. Furthermore, the existence of the root דום is itself uncertain, and the claim that it means 'be silent' is questionable rather than established. Finally, the only biblical use of the root דהם, in Jer. 14:9, seems to have similar connotations and should be used to help interpret דהם in the letter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers, in edition and translation, nine fragments from an otherwise lost Arabic compendium on doctoral responsibilities, titled Mā lā yasa῾u ṭ-ṭabīb a ǧahluhū 'What the Physician is not Allowed to Ignore'; the work was composed by a certain Ibn as-Sarī, presumably in the early decades of the eleventh century ce in northern Iraq. The extant fragments were selected by the Nestorian doctor 'Ubaid Allāh Ibn Buḫtīšūʽ (d. c. 1060 ce), and thus transmitted as an appendix to his famous epistle on psychosomatic medicine; they centre, like the latter, around the themes of passionate love, afflictions of the soul and the interplay between psychical and physical disorders. Framed by a short prologue and epilogue from the hand of 'Ubaid Allāh, the fragments consist of partially elaborated quotations ascribed to Greek, Byzantine and Arab philosophers, physicians and astrologers. The epistemological value of these fragments lies in highlighting the struggle of some farsighted medieval Arab scholars to define and establish psychology as a medical discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I investigate vocative expressions in Ibbi Arabic, a dialect of Yemeni Arabic, and a very under-investigated language variety. I examine this phenomenon in terms of functions, types and approach. The study shows that vocatives in Yemeni Arabic have several and various social/pragmatic functions, and that any constituent and any syntactic category including nouns, adjectives, deverbals, finite and nonfinite clauses, pronouns, etc. can be vocativized. The paper argues and provides empirical syntactic evidence for syntax as the most adequate approach to analysing vocatives in Yemeni Arabic, thus, supporting current mainstream thought in this regard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The changing attitudes of the Jewish population in Palestine, later The State of Israel, toward the Arabic language was affected by the historical and social changes that occurred in the Middle East and the changing relations between Jews and Arabs. From the beginning of the revival of the Jewish community in Palestine in the nineteenth century until the end of the twentieth century, one can perceive quite a sharp decline in the Jewish public’s attitude toward Arabic. From being an essential instrument for accommodation in the region and later an important source for the revival of Hebrew, up to a being a channel of hope for dialogue between Jews and Arabs, it eventually became amongst the Jewish Israeli public a language to be taught mainly for governmental needs. Still, appeals by Israeli intellectuals reverberated, calling for the teaching of Arabic for a better understanding of the Arab neighbours and the Middle East. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses two agricultural implements mentioned briefly in Talmud Yerushalmi (also known as ‘Palestinian Talmud’; edited c. 375 ce), in vernacular Jewish Palestinian Aramaic, namely (?bwyyn) and (mgzyyn). The former is a scraper used to clean dirt off the ploughshare. The latter is a pruning-hook. Both terms are analysed with regard to their lexical and morphological aspects. Special attention is paid to their Syriac cognates. Arabic vernaculars of the Levant are also examined in relation to these appliances, as they may contain remnants from Aramaic and Hebrew substrata. Although the linguistic level remains the main focus of the study, an attempt is made to identify both implements with actual tools known from archeological excavations, as well as from traditional farming methods still employed today; this is done in order to establish a firm link between the lexemes under discussion and material reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antonio de Nebrija's phrase, 'Language has always been the companion of empire,' from his 1492 Gramática castellana, has become synonymous with how control over language sustained Spanish colonial enterprises in the Americas. Nebrija's imperial ideals in 1492, however, focused on the recently conquered Muslim kingdom of Granada and the imposition of new language and law on those subjects. The aftermath of conquest in Granada witnessed the promulgation of complex language policies regarding both Spanish and Arabic, and the creation of bilingual power structures across local, royal, noble and church administration. In that setting, the Castilian priest Pedro de Alcalá learned Arabic and created a set of grammatical, lexical and religious materials in Arabic and Spanish that reflected and were instrumental for the reorganization of Granadan society. This article studies Alcalá's work as part of the religious and scholarly milieux connected to Ferdinand and Isabel's court and considers it alongside archival documents in Arabic and Spanish which testify to the social relations and institutions surrounding its production in Granada. The collaboration and competition behind the production of Alcalá's texts are an example of how missionary linguistics, translation and language policies shape political and social organization according to multiple agendas and perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on two Arabic paper folios kept in the manuscript collection of Hamburg State and University Library. The folios were tentatively identified by Oswald H. E. Khs-Burmester as the only Arabic manuscript witness to the Life of Adam and Eve, a biblical pseudepigraphon extant in several other ancient languages. As the Hamburg folios had been reported as missing, the accuracy of Burmester's identification could no longer be checked. However, the recent reappearance of the folios offered the author an opportunity to examine the text. This article shows that Burmester's identification is to be rejected, as the Hamburg leaves feature portions of another biblical pseudepigraphon about the life of the protoplasts, the Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan (CAVT 14). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Qatar expanded research funds over the past two decades. The use of competitive calls required researchers to prepare and submit proposals for team-based projects or time-limited research units. Identification of national priorities and societal challenges sought to rally research toward real-world problems, while larger grants encouraged a wider range of research activities and greater levels of ambition. Yet, the incentives within hiring organizations still determine how researchers allocate their time and effort, including whether they even seek external funding or collaboration. Selection and evaluation criteria privileged collaboration with distant, scientifically proficient partners abroad, in order to connect with global networks and rise in international rankings of academic quality. Moving forward, countries need to consider how funding opportunities shape the size and organization of distinct research efforts, and which arrangements are best suited to making meaningful progress on different problems of societal and scientific interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over centuries, Arabic lexicography had operated under a solid myth of pure linguistic origins rooted in the terra prima of the Arabian Desert. Buṭrus al-Bustānī's Muḥīṭ al-Muḥīṭ is the earliest Arabic lexicon that breaks with this tradition. In this modern lexicon, al-Bustānī recollected the biblical origins of key Arabic words. By introducing the Bible into the Lexicon, al-Bustānī revolutionized some conventions of Arabic lexicography which usually operated under a solid -- mainly Quranic -- notion of what constitutes a legitimate source for lexical elaboration. The inclusion of the Bible competitively decentred the foundational texts of the classical lexicon. Although al-Bustānī relied on conventional methodologies in his approach to lexicography, he succeeded in constructing an alternative, rival narrative about the biblical origins of the civilization of the Arabs. These changes went in tandem with al-Bustānī's contribution to the Christianization of Syro-Lebanese national identity in the nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Prize Paper Collections in the National Archives in Kew Gardens contain more than fifty-five Arabic letters and another two dozen accounts and other documents, which were seized in 1759 by British privateers as part of the loot on a Tuscan ship, set out from Livorno towards Alexandria. Virtually untouched since that time, they present a most exciting source of documentary Ottoman Arabic. The letters were written by Christian merchants trading in the Mediterranean and by Christian clergy in Rome to their co-religionists in Egypt and Turkey. This article presents an introduction to the Arabic Prize Papers, a short linguistic analysis of a preliminary corpus of eleven letters, the edition and translation of three sample letters. Particular attention is paid to the linguistic divergence between those letters written by merchants and those composed by church dignitaries, as well as to the sociolinguistic variation found in specific writers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]