Arabic Dialects

From phonological variation to grammatical change. Evidence from Jordanian dialects

by Bruno Herin

Draft, comments and suggestions most welcome

This paper illustrates how the loss of a marginal phoneme can have an impact on a core grammatical area This paper illustrates how the loss of a marginal phoneme can have an impact on a core grammatical area

The dialect of Salt (Jordan)

by Bruno Herin

Published in Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics on-line. Leiden: Brill

This paper is a grammatical sketch of the Arabic dialect of the town of Salt in central Jordan. The dialect of Salt is... more This paper is a grammatical sketch of the Arabic dialect of the town of Salt in central Jordan. The dialect of Salt is a good representative of the sedentary varieties of Arabic spoken in Jordan. It belongs to southern Levantine dialects and shares several features with neighbouring Bedouin varieties.

Euphemism - التأنق اللفظي

by Yousuf B. AlBader

Placing Shibboleths at the Institutional Gate: LADO tests and the construction of asylum seekers' identities

by Joachim Detailleur

Co-author Dr. Massimiliano Spotti (University of Tilburg/University of Jyvaskyla)
Tilburg Papers in Culture Studies - Working Paper 8
Tilburg University, The Netherlands
16 November 2011

The lifecycle of Qaf in Jordan

by Bruno Herin

Co-authored with Enam Al-Wer. Published in Langage et société (138), December 2011. Edited version available on request

The Arabic variable Qaf is often described as the ‘best studied sociolinguistic variable’ in Arabic, but it is... more The Arabic variable Qaf is often described as the ‘best studied sociolinguistic variable’ in Arabic, but it is noticeable that our knowledge of the progression from Form A to Form B in relation to this variable has crucial gaps. For instance, the evaluation problem (Weinreich et al. 1968) is too often resolved by appealing to notions of ‘prestige’, ‘stigma’, ‘femininity versus masculinity’, ‘urban versus rural’ without prior analysis of the empirical factors which have led to the emergence of these social values, or their evolution. On the basis of linguistic data gathered by the authors in a number of localities in Jordan, including the capital city Amman, and an analysis of the relevant socioeconomic and political developments in the country, the article investigates the lifecycle of this variable, addressing questions of the inciting causes of the variation in the first place, transition from one social group to another, and the embedding of the change as it progresses in the social system of the community. The value of an explanation that provides a rigorous analysis of the linguistic data in relation to the social context lies in its generality. The aim is for the analysis we put forward to provide such possibilities of generalisation.

Do Jordanians really speak like Palestinians

by Bruno Herin

Draft only

A common belief is that Jordanian Arabic is mostly similar to Palestinian Arabic. Basing myself on original data, I... more A common belief is that Jordanian Arabic is mostly similar to Palestinian Arabic. Basing myself on original data, I intend to show that although dialects of the eastern and western bank of the Jordan river are rightly classified as Southern Levantine, there is compelling evidence that the sedentary varieties spoken in Jordan did not originate from Palestine, but rather from the North, more precisely from Ḥōrān, an ancient settlement area of the Levant located between what is now Jordan and Syria.

Dialects of dative shift proofs

by David Wilmsen

Dialects of the Dative Shift: A re-examination of Sībawayhi’s dispute with the naḥwiyyūn over ditransitive verbs with two object pronouns, in Bilal Orfali (ed.) In the Shadow of Arabic: the centrality of language to Arabic culture. Leiden: Brill. 2011, 299—321.

These are galley proofs; as such, this paper does not exactly represent the final published version, where a few changes have been made. Notably, on p. 299, where the current text speaks of "prepositional" the published text has been corrected to read "pronominal".

The western spoken vernaculars are all constrained to treat the two pronominal objects of a ditransitive verb with a... more The western spoken vernaculars are all constrained to treat the two pronominal objects of a ditransitive verb with a prepositional dative construction, while the eastern vernaculars usually treat them with a pronominal double object accusative, marking the direct object with the so-called "accusative pronoun" iyyā-. The hypothesis is presented here that the Arabic dialects exhibiting a categorical use of the dative shift are descended from western Peninsular dialects. This helps to explain a dispute that the early grammarian of Arabic Sībawayhi had with unnamed colleagues who were apparently presenting to him a dative construction, one that he, misreading, marked as ungrammatical.

I rapporti tra berbero e arabo in Nordafrica

by Vermondo Brugnatelli

in: E. Banfi (a cura di), Percorsi socio- e storico-linguistici nel Mediterraneo, Trento: Dip. di Sc. Filologiche e Storiche 1999, 365-383 [ISBN 88-86135-87-4].

In appendice: «Bibliografia di base su politiche linguistiche e descrizioni grammaticali in Nordafrica, con particolare riguardo alla problematica del berbero».

[paper in Italian]
A survey of the complex linguistic situation of North Africa, where Berber faces Arabic (both... more [paper in Italian]
A survey of the complex linguistic situation of North Africa, where Berber faces Arabic (both literary and spoken) and French.

White Athena, ovvero: il vuoto epistemologico del Nordafrica (paper in Italian)

by Vermondo Brugnatelli

Opening lecture for the course of "Languages and Literatures of North-Africa" (2009-2010)

The Author shows the lack, in western cultures, of an autonomous conceptual framework as far as North-Africa is... more The Author shows the lack, in western cultures, of an autonomous conceptual framework as far as North-Africa is concerned. This part of the world is neither "Black Africa" nor a simple part of the Arabic (i.e. Asian) world. This epistemological blank prevents a real understanding of what really are and will its inhabitants.

Arabe et berbère à Jerba

by Vermondo Brugnatelli

in: A. Youssi, F. Benjelloun, M. Dahbi, Z. Iraqui-Sinaceur (eds.), Aspects of the Dialects of Arabic Today. Proceedings of the 4th Conference of the International Arabic Dialectology Association (AIDA). Marrakesh, Apr. 1-4.2000. In Honour of Professor David Cohen, Rabat : Amapatril, 2002, pp. 169-178

[article in French]

A short survey of linguistic contacts between Berber and Arabic in Jerba, taking into account field notes on the... more A short survey of linguistic contacts between Berber and Arabic in Jerba, taking into account field notes on the Berber language of Guellala and Behnstedt's articles on the Arabic spoken in Jerba. Interestingly, Arab borrowings in Berber belong to an ancient layer of Arabic dialects, showing pre-Hilalian features, while nowadays Arabic displays typical Hilalian features.

Les thèmes verbaux négatifs du berbère : quelques reflexions

by Vermondo Brugnatelli

in: K. Naït-Zerrad (éd.) Articles de linguistique berbère. Mémorial Werner Vycichl, Paris: L'Harmattan, 2002, pp. 165-180

An essay on the origins of the negative forms of verb in Berber (both in the perfective and in the imperfective... more An essay on the origins of the negative forms of verb in Berber (both in the perfective and in the imperfective stems). Since they usually display shortening of the first syllables and lengthening and/or fronting of the last vowel of the stem, the origin might be linked to the presence of postponed particles (not always attested today), possibly containing a front vowel (Vycichl already suggested a case of Umlaut). A parallel evolution can be found in some Egyptian Arabic dialects.

Pidgins and Creoles

by Stefano Manfredi

Forthcoming. In Jonathan Owens (ed.), The Handbook of Arabic Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (in collaboration with Mauro Tosco, University of Turin).

White Athena, or: the epistemological blank concerning North-Africa (English translation)

by Vermondo Brugnatelli

Opening lecture for the course of "Languages and Literatures of North-Africa" (2009-2010)

The Author shows the lack, in western cultures, of an autonomous conceptual framework as far as North-Africa is... more The Author shows the lack, in western cultures, of an autonomous conceptual framework as far as North-Africa is concerned. This part of the world is neither "Black Africa" nor a simple part of the Arabic (i.e. Asian) world. This epistemological blank prevents a real understanding of what really are and will its inhabitants.

Rendok: a youth secret language in Sudan

by Stefano Manfredi

Estudios de dialectologia norteafricana y andalusi, n. 12 (2008), pp. 113-129

Counter-assertive focus in Kordofanian Baggara Arabic

by Stefano Manfredi

Studi Maghrebini (N.S. 2008) VOL.VI, pp. 183-194

The Ditransitive Dative Divide in Arabic: Grammaticality assessments and actuality

by David Wilmsen

in Reem Bassiouney and Graham Katz (eds.), Arabic Language and Arabic Linguistics. Washington: Georgetown University Press. 2012.

An examination of data from written Arabic corpora reveals regional preferences in the ordering of pronominal objects... more An examination of data from written Arabic corpora reveals regional preferences in the ordering of pronominal objects of di-transitive verbs in modern Arabic writing divided along an axis extending eastward or westward from Egypt, with writers from Egypt and North Africa favoring one ordering of pronominal objects and writers from the Arab East favoring the other.

Arabic di-transitives may take two nominal objects, a nominal and pronominal object, or two pronominal objects. When both objects are nouns, the sequencing of the two is somewhat flexible; in the preferred sequence, the indirect object (the beneficiary) precedes the direct object (the patient) (أعطيت عليا المال). With either object expressed as a pronoun, the word order becomes fixed according to whichever is expressed pronominally; if the beneficiary is a pronoun, the word order must be verb + pronominal beneficiary + nominal patient, (or V-IO-DO): (أعطيته المال). If, on the other hand, the patient is expressed as a pronoun, the order is reversed and a dative construction is prescribed: verb + pronominal patient + li- + nominal beneficiary (V-DO-IO): (أعطيته لعلي). If both are expressed as pronouns, either can precede the other but then the pronoun that is not affixed to the verb must be affixed to something. If the patient, it is affixed to the free object pronoun [iyyā-]: (أعطيته إيّاه); if the beneficiary, to the dative preposition [l-]:  (أعطيته له). 

Some modern writers assess the DO-IO sequence with pronouns as ungrammatical or at least disfavored. One reason for this may be that the only pronominal sequence accorded much discussion by early grammarians beginning with Sibawayh is constructions involving verbs with two affixed object pronouns (أعطيتكه), which are rare in modern writing, or those involving the free object pronoun [iyyā-]. Here, the semantic notion of the pronouns appears to be secondary to the purely structural prescription that the first person pronoun must precede the second person, which must precede the third person. Indeed, Sibawayh implies that if both pronominal objects are third person, either ordering of the beneficiary and patient is acceptable. What is more, examples from the earliest Arabic writing  to the present may be found in which either the patient or the beneficiary is affixed to the free object pronoun.

Moreover, in spoken vernaculars east of Egypt, the sequence IO-DO, with the patient affixed to the free object pronoun [iyyā-], is preferred but not obligatory, a dative construction being an option as well. Meanwhile, from Egypt westwards, the DO-IO sequence with pronominal objects using a dative construction, with the beneficiary affixed to [l-], is obligatory. Modern writers from each region appear to be assessing written grammaticality according to intuitions drawn from their spoken vernaculars, with those from the East buttressing their assessments with an ambiguous prescription from the classical grammatical tradition.

Glottalisation and Neutralisation in Yemeni Arabic and Mehri

by Alex Bellem

Towards a Comparative Typology of Emphatics: Across Semitic and into Arabic Dialect Phonology

by Alex Bellem

Bellem, Alex. 2008. Towards a Comparative Typology of Emphatics: Across Semitic and into Arabic Dialect Phonology. PhD dissertation. SOAS, University of London.

*SINGLE-SPACED VERSION*

Please note that the page numbering in this version is different from the original, and any acknowledgement made to this work should refer to it as the single-spaced version.

This thesis investigates the role of emphatics within the Semitic sound system as the basis for a typology of Semitic... more This thesis investigates the role of emphatics within the Semitic sound system as the basis for a typology of Semitic emphatics.

In seeking to define the term ‘emphatic’, since emphatics are realised in some Semitic languages as ejectives, and in others as ‘pharyngealised’, or ‘backed’, the phonetic aspects of both are investigated. I present acoustic analyses of Tigrinya and Arabic (Peninsula Arabian and Iraqi) emphatics, paying particular attention to perceptual salience. Firstly, the notions of ‘noise-lag’ and ‘stop-lag’ are discussed and exemplified in relation to ejectives; secondly, I present and evaluate analyses of VOT in Arabic, showing that there is dialectal variation in the voicing series (i.e. two-way vs three-way). Further to this, I discuss the phonological composition of the various emphatics and gutturals, proposing structural representations broadly within an element-theoretic framework.

I then take a diachronic angle, looking at Proto-Semitic and the development of the sound systems of the Semitic languages, in particular the Semitic triads, and the development of ‘backed’ emphatics as a product of changing sound systems. I argue that Proto-Semitic laterals were not part of the ‘triad’ system and that the voiced lateral fricative was ‘backed’. The emphatic trajectory hypothesis is evaluated and theoretically contextualised, and I show that dialectal variation in the voicing series of Arabic is relevant to the variant phonological systems of the dialect types discussed.

A preliminary comparative investigation into Arabic dialect sound systems is then presented. I discuss dialect classification and detail a set of key variables for each dialect group. The thesis then discusses the issue of ‘emphasis spread’, analysing data from four different dialect types. The data is discussed in terms of sound systems, and the traditional analysis of ‘emphasis spread’ is disputed. I show how the various sound systems of Arabic are characterised by resonance patterns, which are a crucial part of what is normally taken to be ‘emphasis spread’, and that there is an active process of ‘fronting’ (im¢ala) which is crucial to an analysis of ‘emphasis’ (tafx³m).

The thesis concludes with an evaluation of the research, stressing the need for systematic and consistent cross-dialectal analyses of both the phonetics and the phonology of Semitic emphatics. I outline how this can be used in future work to develop a comprehensive comparative typology, towards which this thesis is a preliminary contribution.

La versione del Piccolo Principe in arabo tunisino

by Giuliano Mion

in E. Fazzini (a c. di), 'Didattica e ricerca tra due sponde' [= Quaderni del Mediterraneo, 1], Carabba, Lanciano, 2007, pp. 103-126.

Review of J. Owens, A Linguistic History of Arabic, Oxford, 2006.

by Giuliano Mion

published in "Rivista degli Studi Orientali" 79, 2006 [2008], pp. 250-253.