Arabic language history and the comparative...

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Arabic language history and the comparative method Jonathan Owens University Of Bayreuth ﻣﻠﺨﺺ إن ﺗﺎرﯾﺦ اﻟﺪراﺳﺎت اﻟﻌﺮﺑﯿﺔ واﻟﺴﺎﻣﯿﺔ ﻓﻲ اﻟﻐﺮب ﻟﻢ ﯾﻌﻂ أﯾﺔ أھﻤﯿﺔ ﻟﻠﮭﺠﺎت اﻟﻌﺮﺑﯿﺔ ﺳﻮى ﻣﻨﺬ وﻗﺖ ﻗﺮﯾﺐ ﻣﻦ ﺣﯿﺚ اﻟﻀﻮء اﻟﺬي ﯾﻤﻜﻦ أن ﺗﺴﻠﻄﮫ ﻋﻠﻰ اﻟﺘﺎرﯾﺦ اﻟﻠﻐﻮي. ﯾﺘﺠﻠﻰ ھﺬا اﻷﻣﺮ ﻓﻲ ﺛﻼث ﻧﻘﺎط. أوﻻ، ﻟﻢ ﯾﺤﻆ ﺗﺎرﯾﺦ اﻟﻠﻐﺔ ﺑﺎھﺘﻤﺎم اﻟﻠﻐﻮﯾﯿﻦ اﻟﻌﺮب أﻧﻔﺴﮭﻢ، إذ ﺑﻘﻲ اﻟﻤﻮﺿﻮع ﻋﻨﺪھﻢ رھﯿﻦ اﻟﺠﺪل اﻟﺴﯿﺎﺳﻲ واﻟﺜﻘﺎﻓﻲ. ﺛﺎﻧﯿﺎ، ﻟﯿﺲ ھﻨﺎك اﻗﺘﻨﺎع راﺳﺦ ﺑﺄن ﺗﺎرﯾﺦ اﻟﻠﮭﺠﺎت اﻟﻌﺮﺑﯿﺔ ﯾﻤﻜﻦ أن ﯾﺴﺎھﻢ ﻓﻲ ﻓﮭﻢ ﺗﺎرﯾﺦ اﻟﻠﻐﺎت اﻟﺴﺎﻣﯿﺔ ﺑﺼﻔﺔ ﻋﺎﻣﺔ. ﻢ ﻋﺎدة ﺑﺄن ﺛﺎﻟﺜﺎ، ﯾﺴﻠ ﻟﻜﻞ اﻟﻠﮭﺠﺎت ﺗﺎرﯾﺦ ﻣﻦ اﻟﺘﻐﯿﺮ اﻟﻠﻐﻮي، وھﻮ ﺗﻘﻠﯿﺪﯾﺎ ﻣﻮﺿﻮع اﻟﻠﺴﺎﻧﯿﺎت اﻟﺘﺎرﯾﺨﯿﺔ، دون اﻷﺧﺬ ﻓﻲ اﻟﺤﺴﺒﺎن ﺑﺄن ﺗﺎرﯾﺦ ﺑﻌﺾ اﻟﻠﮭﺠﺎت ﻗﺪ ﯾﺸﯿﺮ إﻟﻰ أن اﻟﻠﻐﺔ ﻗﺪ ﺗﺒﻘﻰ ﻣﺴﺘﻘﺮة ﻛﺬﻟﻚ. وﺗﺎرﯾﺦ اﻟﻠﮭﺠﺎت اﻟﻌﺮﺑﯿﺔ ﯾﻤﺘﺪ ﻋﻠﻰ اﻗﻞ ﺗﻘﺪﯾﺮ إﻟﻰ اﻟﻘﺮن اﻟﺴﺎﺑﻊ اﻟﻤﯿﻼدي، وھﻲ ﻓﺘﺮة زﻣﻨﯿﺔ ﺗﻘﺎرب ﺗﺎرﯾﺦ اﻟﻠﻐﺎت اﻟﺠﺮﻣﺎﻧﯿﺔ اﻟﻐﺮﺑﯿﺔ أو اﻟﻠﻐﺎت اﻟﺴﻼﻓﯿﺔ. وﻟﺬﻟﻚ، وﺑﻐﺾ اﻟﻨﻈﺮ ﻋﻤﺎ ﯾﻤﻜﻦ أن ﯾﻘﺎل ﺑﺨﺼﻮص اﻟﻌﺎﻣﻠﯿﻦ اﻷوﻟﯿﻦ، ﻓﺈن دراﺳﺔ ﺗﺎرﯾﺦ اﻟﻠﮭﺠﺎت اﻟﻌﺮﺑﯿﺔ ﯾﻌﺪ ﻣﺸﺮوﻋﺎ ﻓﻜﺮﯾﺎ ﻣﮭﻤﺎ ﻓﻲ ﺣﺪ ذاﺗﮫ. ﻓﻲ ھﺬا اﻟﻤﻘﺎل، ﺳﺄﺑﯿﻦ ﻛﯿﻒ أن اﻟﻤﻨﮭﺞ اﻟﻤﻘﺎرن ھﻮ اﻷداة اﻟﺘﻘﻠﯿﺪﯾﺔ اﻻﺳﺎﺳﯿﺔ ﻓﻲ اﻟﻠﺴﺎﻧﯿﺎت ا ﻟﺘﺎرﯾﺨﯿﺔ، وﯾﻤﻜﻦ أن ﯾﻌﺘﻤﺪ ﻋﻠﯿﮭﺎ ﻓﻲ ﻣﻘﺎرﺑﺔ ﺗﺎرﯾﺦ اﻟﻠﮭﺠﺎت اﻟﻌﺮﺑﯿﺔ اﻟﻤﻌﺎﺻﺮة. ﺳﺄﻧﻄﻠﻖ ﻣﻦ ﺗﺼﻨﯿﻒ رﺑﺎﻋﻲ ﻟﻠﻨﺘﺎﺋﺞ اﻟﺘﻲ ﯾﻤﻜﻦ أن ﯾﺤﺼﻞ ﻋﻠﯿﮭﺎ اﻋﺘﻤﺎدا ﻋﻠﻰ اﻟﻤﻌﻄﯿﺎت اﻟﻤﺘﻮﻓﺮة ﻟﺪﯾﻨﺎ، ﺳﻮاء ﻣﻦ اﻟﺤﺎﺿﺮ أو ﻣﻦ اﻟﻤﺼﺎدر اﻟﻠﻐﻮﯾﺔ اﻟﻌﺮﺑﯿﺔ. Abstract In the long western tradition of the study of Arabic and Semitic languages the Arabic dialects have, if at all, only recently been taken seriously as entities which can contribute to the understanding of language history. There are three crucial aspects to this reality. For one, the issue of language history from the perspective of the Arabic linguistic tradition is largely irrelevant, subservient for the most part to constructs based on language and culture politics. For the second the jury is still, as it were, out. This is the degree to which Arabic dialectal history will elucidate the history of Semitic in general. For the third, the answer is in, and that is that dialects not only have a history, but from the perspective of general historical linguistics, a linguistic history which offers special insights into not only how languages change, traditionally the key question in historical linguistics, but also how languages remain stable. This is because a relatively transparent reconstructibility within a single language is available which is minimally datable to the seventh century CE, a chronological period comparable to the entire historical linguistic era of West Germanic or Slavic. Thus, regardless of the results relating to the first two issues, the historical study of Arabic dialects is an interesting intellectual enterprise in its own right. In this article I illustrate how the traditional, but for historical linguistics, basic instrument of the comparative method can be applied in the study of an historical linguistics which begins with the contemporary Arabic dialects. I offer an initial four-point typology for the different kinds of results which can be obtained relative to the different sources which are available to us, both from the contemporary era, and from the rich thinking of the Arabic linguistic tradition. © The International Journal of Arabic Linguistics (IJAL) Vol.1 Issue 1 (pp. 1-27)

Transcript of Arabic language history and the comparative...

Arabic language history and the comparative method Jonathan Owens

University Of Bayreuth

ملخص

إن تاریخ الدراسات العربیة والسامیة في الغرب لم یعط أیة أھمیة للھجات العربیة سوى منذ وقت قریب من حیث الضوء الذي أوال، لم یحظ تاریخ اللغة باھتمام اللغویین العرب أنفسھم، . األمر في ثالث نقاطیتجلى ھذا . یمكن أن تسلطھ على التاریخ اللغوي

ثانیا، لیس ھناك اقتناع راسخ بأن تاریخ اللھجات العربیة یمكن أن . إذ بقي الموضوع عندھم رھین الجدل السیاسي والثقافيلكل اللھجات تاریخ من التغیر اللغوي، وھو تقلیدیا ثالثا، یسلم عادة بأن . یساھم في فھم تاریخ اللغات السامیة بصفة عامة

. موضوع اللسانیات التاریخیة، دون األخذ في الحسبان بأن تاریخ بعض اللھجات قد یشیر إلى أن اللغة قد تبقى مستقرة كذلكاللغات الجرمانیة الغربیة وتاریخ اللھجات العربیة یمتد على اقل تقدیر إلى القرن السابع المیالدي، وھي فترة زمنیة تقارب تاریخ

ولذلك، وبغض النظر عما یمكن أن یقال بخصوص العاملین األولین، فإن دراسة تاریخ اللھجات العربیة یعد . أو اللغات السالفیة .مشروعا فكریا مھما في حد ذاتھ

لتاریخیة، ویمكن أن یعتمد علیھا في االساسیة في اللسانیات ا في ھذا المقال، سأبین كیف أن المنھج المقارن ھو األداة التقلیدیةسأنطلق من تصنیف رباعي للنتائج التي یمكن أن یحصل علیھا اعتمادا على . مقاربة تاریخ اللھجات العربیة المعاصرة

.المعطیات المتوفرة لدینا، سواء من الحاضر أو من المصادر اللغویة العربیة

Abstract

In the long western tradition of the study of Arabic and Semitic languages the Arabic dialects have, if at all, only recently been taken seriously as entities which can contribute to the understanding of language history. There are three crucial aspects to this reality. For one, the issue of language history from the perspective of the Arabic linguistic tradition is largely irrelevant, subservient for the most part to constructs based on language and culture politics. For the second the jury is still, as it were, out. This is the degree to which Arabic dialectal history will elucidate the history of Semitic in general. For the third, the answer is in, and that is that dialects not only have a history, but from the perspective of general historical linguistics, a linguistic history which offers special insights into not only how languages change, traditionally the key question in historical linguistics, but also how languages remain stable. This is because a relatively transparent reconstructibility within a single language is available which is minimally datable to the seventh century CE, a chronological period comparable to the entire historical linguistic era of West Germanic or Slavic. Thus, regardless of the results relating to the first two issues, the historical study of Arabic dialects is an interesting intellectual enterprise in its own right.

In this article I illustrate how the traditional, but for historical linguistics, basic instrument of the comparative method can be applied in the study of an historical linguistics which begins with the contemporary Arabic dialects. I offer an initial four-point typology for the different kinds of results which can be obtained relative to the different sources which are available to us, both from the contemporary era, and from the rich thinking of the Arabic linguistic tradition.

© The International Journal of Arabic Linguistics (IJAL) Vol.1 Issue 1 (pp. 1-27)

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1. Status of dialects in intellectual traditions studying Arabic

In the western tradition, the linguistic history of Arabic has traditionally been defined as

an appendage of Classical Arabic. Brockelmann’s Grundriss sets the tone for Arabic, and for

Semitic languages in general, in that chronology defines historical linguistics, with the Classical

language situated within a diachronic linearity to the contemporary spoken dialects. Thus Arabic

dialects in the Middle Ages are known “…only by way of meager notes” (I: 25,

“nurausspärlichen Notizen”), while contemporary dialects were first treated by European scholars

(“ersteuropäische, namentlich deutsche Gelehrte des 19. Jahrhundert”). The stages of language

history appear to follow diachrony in Brockelmann’s laconic summary. This rests on a western

Arabicist tradition where the main linguistic parameter by which the difference between Classical

Arabic and the dialects is defined is that of written = Classical vs. spoken = dialect. As late as

1980 the Arabic dialects were not considered relevant to mainstream Semitic language history

(Moscati et al 1980: 14). In this tradition the two varieties are customarily termed Altarabisch vs.

Neuarabisch. This dichotomy, however, is based not on comparative linguistic parameters, but

rather on the parameter Old = written, Neo = spoken. The difference is in the first instance based

on mode and medium, not methodology.

This designation alone creates the impression that there is a direct historical relation, from

the Old to the New. In reality, (Owens (2009, 2013c: 454), after Brockelmann there were few

attempts to actually define the so-called neo-Arabic varieties in a comparative linguistic sense

(see below). Bergsträsser (1928: 156) is one of the few Arabicists who defined the key parameter

by which the historical relation between the dialects and Classical Arabic could be given

historical linguistic substance, arguing that the dialects derive from a unitary basis (“einheitliche

Grundform”) vs. the Classical language. However, Bergsträsserhimself did not define what the

unitary basis was, and as soon as attempts were made to give linguistic substance to this unitary

basis, as with Ferguson (1959) and Fischer and Jastrow (1980: Introduction), the ‘Venn

diagrams’ turn out not to add up in a particularly clear fashion. By way of comparative

orientation, there are relatively few features shared by all the ‘Arabic dialects’ set, to the

exclusion of the Classical Arabic segment. The Venn diagram intersecting the features common

both to all dialects and to Classical Arabic would look something like Figure 1a with a large

number of intersecting features in the middle.

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Figure 1: Intersection of shared features, Dialects and Classical Arabic

In fact, what are typically cited as features distinguishing Classical Arabic from the dialects are

those which in fact identify only some of the dialects against CA, such as the lack of a

morphological FPL in many dialects (e.g. Cairene, Damascus; see Retsö 2013).This point will be

exemplified in greater detail in section 3.2 and 3.3 below.

In a classic comparative linguistic sense, however, without a single innovation, or better,

sets of innovation, characterizing an entire branch, there is no justification for joining all

members into a single entity, such as ‘neo Arabic’. The thinking of many Arabicists appears to

run as follows: D1 is a dialect, D2 is a dialect, if feature F1 is found in D1, and F1 differs from

Classical Arabic, D2 must also differ from Classical Arabic. For instance, if Cairene = D1 lacks a

feminine plural (= F1), and Nigerian Arabic is also an Arabic dialect, D2, then Nigerian Arabic

must also differ from Classical Arabic, even though Nigerian Arabic happens to have a

morphological feminine plural. In the final analysis, the entity customarily referred to as ‘neo-

Arabic’ is a circular construct defined against the temporal parameter that whatever is spoken

today as a native Arabic variety is neo-Arabic.

Turning to the Arabic linguistic tradition there never developed a fully-fledged historical

linguistic consciousness. However, there are indications at least of such thinking in the Fiqh al-

Luɣa tradition which crystallized in the late 4th/10th centuries in the works of Ibn Faris and

Thaʕaalabi. Ibn Faris (Ṣaaħibi: 76-86) does recognize the idea of lexical change, for instance

noting that kafara ‘show disbelief’ has a meaning in the Islamic era which developed from an

earlier one meaning ‘cover’. Such incipient historical linguistic thinking, however, served not to

define an independent domain of research (contrary to many other linguistic sub-domains in the

ALT, Owens 2014: 125), but rather to set off a presumed Classical Arabic from other languages

(e.g. Gə’əz, Syriac, Farsi) and other varieties of Arabic. Arabic dialects, in this tradition were

defined out of existence, not for historical linguistic reasons, but simply because they were

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considered sub-standard against the parameters of Ibn Faris’ idealized Classical Arabic. In this

ALT sub-domain, language policy determined the status of linguistic variants.

In this paper I would like first to briefly sketch in section 2 how the comparative method

can be applied to an understanding of Arabic language history. In section 3 I illustrate four types

of historical linguistic statuses which can be defined across contemporary Arabic dialects. Given

the newness of the approach developed here, there is no claim to comprehensiveness. Indeed,

examples are chosen to show how diverse the issues addressed are. In section 4 I outline broad

relations which obtain between Arabic dialects and dialectology and sociolinguistics and

summarize in section 6.

2. The comparative method

The comparative method is retrospective in that it deduces where forms arose on the basis

of observed outcomes. I term the relation one between ‘successor’ and ‘antecedent forms’. The

observed outcomes are the successor forms, the antecedents customarily the reconstructed forms.

There is no chronological time limit as to which periods the comparative method can be applied

to. Successor forms may themselves be quite ancient. For instance, it is often postulated

(Zimmern 1898: 98, Moscati et. al. 1980: 139) that the proto-Semitic first and second person

singular forms should be reconstructed as *k and *t, respectively (ignoring the vowels). This

conclusion is based, inter alia, on the fact that Gəʕəz, south Semitic had -k in both first and

second person (-kuu, -kaa, -kii) whereas northwest Semitic, going as far back as Ugaritic, had –

tin both persons, with Northwest Semitic generalizing *-t, south Semitic *-k throughout. Though

Gəʕəz (about 300 BCE) is attested some 1,600 years after Ugaritic, as far as reconstruction goes

both languages are on an equal footing for making inferences about proto-Semitic.

The results of applying the comparative method to successor forms are limited by

innovations and splits, which themselves are determined by the comparative method. This point

may be illustrated with a small case study which fits in type 3.4 below. Simplifying the situation

somewhat, Western Sudanic Arabic(=WSA), the Arabic of western Sudan, Chad, far northern

Cameroon and northeastern Nigeria shows the following alternation.

(1) 1/2MSG

(a) C-t-V or V:t

(b) C-#

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mašee-t ‘I went’

gul-t-a ‘I said it’

gul-Ø ‘I said’

The 1SG perfective verb has the alternation –t ~ Ø, with –t occurring (inter alia) after a

long vowel or before a suffix, otherwise Ø in word-final position. It is clear that the –t is in some

sense present even in its absence, as the customary short forms of weak medial verb occur even

when no –t suffix actually is realized. (2) is the normal imperative, and hence contrasts with the

1SG.

(2) guul ‘say!’

The alternation in (1) is limited to western Sudanic Arabic, and given that all other

varieties of Arabic have –t throughout the paradigm, a constant *-t may be reconstructed for

ancestral WSA as well. What one cannot do in this case is to argue that WSA (1) represents an

original situation, with all other varieties acquiring a –t in condition (1b). In comparative

linguistic terms, WSA is characterized by an innovative split, shown in Figure 2. The split ushers

in a new phase of language history, which encompasses all WSA varieties, and only these.

Having established its linguistic reality, it cannot in turn be used to argue for its presence prior to

the reconstructed split.

Figure 2, development of 1, 2SG in WSA

-*t

-t -t, ~ Ø

The left branch is what is found outside of WSA, the right the innovation which marks all of the

WSA region (NE Nigeria, northern Cameroon, through central Chad, western Sudan). In this

case, the great majority of dialects continue the antecedent form.

As historical linguists have often noted, the comparative method can return messy results

(see Ross 1996 for a classic exposition of the problem). Moulton (1954: 38) points out that, on

the one hand, genetic relation (inheritance), change via contact and independent parallel

development, are in a constant interpretive tension with one another. On the other hand, Moulton

is equally adamant that without the assumption of the efficacy of the comparative method,

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historical linguistics as we know it would not exist (see sections 3.2, 5 for further discussion

along these lines). Moreover, one important issue not usually given attention in historical

linguistics at all, and which falls outside the purview of the comparative method, is addressed in

3.1. Nonetheless, the comparative method is probably the most important methodological tool in

historical linguistics,1 without which the sub-discipline would not exist in anything like the rich

form we know it today.

3. A typology of historical linguistic outcomes

Arabic is vast language. It is spoken today by approximately 300 million individuals, the

overwhelming majority of these native speakers. It is attested in the rich Classical tradition

stretching back to the seventh century, and very sporadically in inscriptions before that date. In a

democratic world all of these varieties feed into a linguistic history of the language. It is precisely

these two attributes of Arabic, its geographic breadth and the ability to link present-day

populations to old migrations which led me to suggest (1998b) that the comparative method

should be applied to Arabic itself, an idea which Versteegh (2010: 241) noted, “In Arabic

linguistics, has never been popular”. This is despite the fact that the period covered by the

diasporic era, ca. 610-present, some 1400 years, begins only slightly after the period assumed for

proto West Germanic (ca. 300-500 CE), and extends over a far larger geographical area.

The comparative method, by definition, leads to the concept of a proto-Arabic. Note that

the linguistic world which developed in the wake of the Arabic-Islamic expansion is very much

that of Dixon’s (1997) punctuated equilibrium, which creates an ideal situation for linguistic

reconstruction.2In this section I introduce a basic typology for dealing with this diversity.

3.1. Plus ça change, plus ça reste la même

One of the most banal, yet overlooked facts of Arabic is that it exhibits a high degree of

structural stability over long chronological periods. The most dramatic instance of this is what I

1Internal reconstruction, epigraphic and written attestations are, for instance, other important aspects of historical linguistics. In my view, grammaticalization theory is helpful in providing a general metaphor of language change, but it is of only marginal value in the detailed reconstruction of individual language histories (see special issue of Languages Sciences, 2001 for critical review of grammaticalization theory, Owens, ms. 2014). Non-standard abbreviations used are: ALT Arabic linguistic tradition, EA Emirati Arabic, EM emphasis marker, N ‘intrusive –n, T heavy ‘n’ or energic, WSA western Sudanic Arabic. 2 While to balance the equation, the pre-diaspora period was marked largely by equilibrium, creating conditions for contact among dialects and between Arabic and co-territorial languages.

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have termed the ‘miraculous paradigm’, simply the perfect and imperfect verb systems. A

segment of this paradigm serves as illustration.

Table 1: The miraculous paradigm

Uzbekistan Emirati Moroccan Nigerian Classical

1 a-ktib a-ktib nə-ktəb a-ktub a-ktub-u

2M ti-ktib ti-ktib (tə-ktəb) ta-ktub ta-ktub-u

2F ti-ktib-iin ti-ktib-iin tə-kətb-i ta-ktub-i ta-ktub-iin

3M yi-ktib yi-ktib yə-ktəb i-ktub ya-ktub-u

3F ti-ktib ti-ktib tə-ktəb ta-ktub ta-ktub-u

Period of first settlement in region

710-800 pre-Islamic 700-1200 1400 Islamic

The elements of the paradigm hardly require explanation in this journal. One observes the same

inflectional elements (e.g. a-,3 t-, y-) in the same sequence (t- … -iin), clustered around the same

type of stem in variety after variety. What is notable is the geographical expanse of these

elements, as can be read across the top of the table, coupled with the long periods of

chronological separation among them, as can be read off the bottom line.

Whereas historical linguistics has traditionally been concerned with explanations of

language change, there has been far less attention given to linguistic stability. In many cases, to

be sure, issues of long-term stability are difficult to follow. The vast majority of languages of the

world are very small, under 5,000 speakers, and they are generally found in geographically

contiguous areas, so that drawing historical inferences based on geographical separation is

difficult, frequently impossible. Arabic represents a very different situation. As noted above, the

Arabic-Islamic expansion beginning in the early 7th century took Arabic well outside its original

Middle Eastern homeland so that how much a given variety has changed, relative to its peers, can

be ascertained against a fixed chronological timeline. In the current case, there has been

effectively no change at all in the basic verbal morpho-syntactic categories over a period of

approximately 1,400 years.

3 With allowance for the North African 1SG n- (Owens 2003).

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The historically contingent fate of Arabic4 gives linguists an object for investigating basic

issues of language stability. Without going into details here, it would be circular to claim that the

complex morphological paradigm in Table 1 is the reason for its great stability. Rather, its

stability is to be found in large part in the discourse function of the individual members of the

paradigm. In particular, Arabic is a language which, in its native, spoken guise, obeys the general

pragmatic dictum that grammatical subjects should not be overtly expressed unless they need be,

which can be understood as a Gricean reflex, be brief, avoid prolixity. The discourse conditions

for expressing subjects in Arabic have been described in a number of articles (Owens et al. 2009,

2010, 2013). In an exchange such as the following (from Al-Rawi 1990: 121) there is only one

overt subject in the three clauses.

(3) Emirati Arabic excerpt

… (-6)

- wu yaa iθ-θaani

- and came.M DEF-other

- And the other came

- Ø rigad

- Ø slept.M

- And he slept

- wu Ø ya-t

- and Ø came-F

- And she came(Al-Rawi 1990: 121) 6 clauses before, no overt subject

The overt subject, iθ-θaani, is new. The following 3MSG verb continues this same referent,

without an overt subject(avoid prolixity). A shift in subject in the next clause is, however, not

signalled by an overt subject (against Gundel et al. 2010: 1782), but simply by a FSG verb form.

In the discourse context of this narrative, it is an easy matter for the interlocutors to know that the

referent is to be found in the feminine referent, last mentioned some six clauses back, who has

played a major role in the story. The paradigm in Table 1, in short, is a referent-tracking device

which supports the ‘minimalist’ representation of subjects which is a basic trait of spoken Arabic.

4 I.e. it is assumed that the ‘success’ of Arabic as a regional and world language depends on historically-explicable, but ultimately accidental forces of history, in the same way the current success of English as a global language is due to historically definable, but ultimately accidental forces of history.

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To give one brief, concrete idea about how the paradigm in Table 1 works in conjunction with the

realization of subjects in discourse, two of the dialects mentioned in it were chosen and tagged

for a number of discourse categories (as in Owens et al. 2013; Nigerian Arabic texts taken from

Owens and Hassan online corpus). About six hours of texts were tagged for various discourse

variables, divided equally between EA and NA.

Emirati and Nigerian Arabic are minimally separated from one another by about 1,200

years. This chronology follows from the historically attested migrations from the Gulf region to

Upper Egypt in the 8th-10 centuries. From Upper Egypt Arabs migrated to the Lake Chad region

and to present-day NE Nigeria in 1400 (see Figure 4). Although indirect, there is a plausible

demographic historical link between the two populations.

Figure 3 Route of ancestral migration, Gulf (Emirati) – NE Nigeria, via Upper Egypt

When the degree of occurrence of null and overt subjects with verbal predicates in a parallel

sample of about three hours per dialect is taken, it emerges that the distributions are nearly

identical between the two dialects. These are given in Table 2.

10

Table 2: Token count, null and overt subjects

Overt subject with verb Null subject with verb

EA 638 985

NA 644 873

What is extrapolated from this is that the postulated correlation between occurrence of null and

overt subjects and the deployment of the person-marked verbal forms is constant between the two

dialects. That is, parallel to the near-identity of paradigms in Table 1, there is a near identity in

the way the individual forms correlate in actual discourse with null and overt subjects.

Forsaking greater detail at this point,5 the hypothesis can therefore be put forward that in

historical linguistic terms, the paradigm in Table 1 should be viewed not as an isolated paradigm,

but rather the reflex of a structure held in place by the requirement of subject expression in

spoken Arabic. The fact that both the paradigm and basic conditions defining it in discourse

usage is the same in two widely separated dialects, both geographically and chronologically,

allows one to reconstruct the underlying discourse structure to at least ca. 800 CE, the

approximate period when the ancestral Emirati and NA populations would have split.

The general lesson that is drawn from this first example is that correlating traditional

paradigmatic classes – verbs as here, plural classes, demonstratives, object pronouns, the list is

long – with their usage in discourse allows an historical linguistics to be queried which

necessarily has escaped us to this point. Necessarily because it is only by studying actual oral

usage, i.e. the contemporary language, that inferences can be drawn about the relation between

morphological forms and their discourse support. What is particularly interesting, from a purely

linguistic perspective in the case of Arabic is that change and stability in language can be studied

over a very long chronological period.

5 A more detailed quantitative examination of six discourse categories based on Owens et al. 2013 realized by overt/null subjects in the two samples shows that the relative ranking of the six factors is identical between Nigerian Arabic and Emirati. In both, for instance, a pronominal subject (quantifiers, pronouns) is most likely to be overt while subjects continued from a previous clause are most likely to be null (as in (3) above).

11

3.2. Linking the contemporary and the classical

In the previous section an example was given as to how certain historical inferences can

only be drawn from the contemporary language. The data is necessarily contemporary since

spoken discourse requires sound recordings. Any written source, even the Middle Arabic genre,

will necessarily have orality filtered through normed writing conventions.

A second type of historical inference which can be drawn from contemporary data is

interesting because it can be shown to link up with what in the Classical tradition also exists,

though as a subsidiary set of data. One such example was discussed in Owens (2006/9: chapter

7), where it is shown that the imaalat al-alif, the long /aa/ imaala such as described by Sibawaih

replicates conditioning factors found in such diverse dialects as Andalusian, Eastern Libyan,

Maltese and Lebanese. Rather than see the contemporary reflexes of imaala as massive

independent parallel development, it was argued that the contemporary cases stand in a direct

historical relation to the population of imaala speakers described by Sibawaih. In this section I

would like to extend this to another case, namely the affrication of *k, based on Owens (2013a).

In this case there are two independent samples to describe. One is Sibawaih. Sibawaih, I

have argued, dealt with the *k > č shift in two separate places. One is relatively well known,

namely the form of the 2FSG object/possessor suffix, which Sibawaih (II: 322-3), described as –

ši, -kiš or –kis (besides –ki). The second place Sibawaih discussed affrication phenomenon is his

phoneme inventory (II: 452-5) where he sketches a three-tier system of variants, the standard 29

sounds, six sounds sanctioned in poetry and Koranic recitation, and eight sounds which are

unsanctioned. Among the inventory of the proscribed sounds are the ‘jiym like a kaaf’ and ‘jiym

like a shiyn’. The plethora of jiym-like sounds is explicable if his designations are understood as

a shorthand in which the sounded likened to (‘like a’) represents the voicing parameter, the sound

itself the place and manner parameters. A ‘jiym like a shiyn’ is therefore a devoiced jiym.

Establishing the identity of Sibawaih’s jiym is itself an issue, but assuming that it was /dž/, this

would give /č/.

Putting two and two together, as it were, from Sibawaih’s two separate treatments (2FSG

and non-canonical sounds), it can be concluded that Sibawaih was describing affricated *k > *č

12

variants, that is, that the affrication of kaaf was already in place by the late eighth century

(Sibawaih 177/789).6

Turning to a contemporary perspective it is striking that an affricated *k is attested across

nearly the entire span of the Arabic-speaking world. Three main variants can be distinguished.

In the eastern Arabian peninsula, including parts of Yemen, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and

Oman the FSG suffix is –iš. As both Fischer (1956) and Holes (1991) note, this is probably a

separate phenomenon from the generalized affrication of *k, as it is largely limited to this one

morpheme.

There are two types of *k > *č variants, one conditioned, the other unconditioned.

Roughly speaking, conditioned *k > č occurs in the context of front vowels, so that splits of the

type (e.g. Baghdadi) čin-it ‘I was” vs. akuun ‘I am’ arise. The conditioning is not always

foolproof (e.g. one has abuu-č ‘your.F father’ after back /uu/), but it serves as a general

orientation. Conditioned *k > č is attested in Khorasan (Seeger 2002), Baghdadi Arabic, Horan

and in the Sharqiyya eastern delta area of Egypt (Behnstedt and Woidich1984: 17). A second *k

> č is unconditioned, i.e. all k’s go to č. This is attested in the Kabylie and in Jijel, northern

Moroccan (Jebli) dialects and among Jewish speakers in Tlemcen (realization *k > ç; Heath

2002: 139, Vicente 2007: 131, Cantineau 1960: 66). The unconditioned shift is also attested in

the eastern ‘bəkuulu’ dialects in rural Palestinian and in some Syrian dialects (Grotzfeld 1980:

174, Behnstedt 1997: 30). The Najdi *k >ts shift is analogous to the conditioned *k > *č. The

distribution can be summarized as follows.

(4) *k > č or ts

(-iš: eastern Arabian peninsula (Oman, Yemen)

-(i)č:

– Conditioned: Khorasan, eastern Sharqiyya, Iraq (Baghdadi), Horan

– Unconditioned: Jijel, Tlemcan, Jebli (N. Morocco), Sukne (Syria), rural West bank

– (i)ts: Najdi

Clearly there are many instances of affrication of *k in Arabic. A question which can be asked,

and colleagues of mine have made such a case to me (p.c.), is that what one is dealing with is not

a unitary phenomenon, but rather multiple independent development. The argument here goes

6 For detailedarguments as to why Sibawaih for the 2FSG identified –kiš and –kis, rather than –č and –ts, see Owens 2013a: section 5).

13

that affrication of *k is universally common, and therefore is would not be surprising to find it

springing up in multiple locations.

This point, parallel independent development, one that is often encountered in questions

of historical developments in Arabic (see also 3.3 below), and in historical linguistics generally

(see discussion of Moulton in section 2 above), can be addressed in three ways. First, in principle

a single origin is always to be preferred to parallel independent development, since postulating a

single innovation, then spread, is simpler than requiring different, independent populations to

innovate in exactly the same way. Chance alone favors a single innovation. This point may be

termed the ‘single innovation + dispersal’ explanation. The argument has all the more force in a

language like Arabic, where it is known that populations did indeed spread from a relatively

central dispersal point in the Middle East. The fact that such ‘single innovation + spread’ events

are often discontinuous is discussed in section 4 below. Indeed, in the next section further

evidence is adduced showing that there are attestations of discontinuous, shared innovations

which can only be explained by a single innovation plus dispersal. In short, the onus of proof in

cases such as this is on those who claim parallel independent development.

Further to this point, looking more closely at the distribution of palatalized *k, the dialect

map is even more complicated than that given in (4). In Jordan, conditioned palatalized *k > č is

attested not only in the Horan, but also in populations in Kerak (Enam Al-Wer, p. c.). A strict

independent development view would explain these as independent events. In Syria, Behnstedt’s

Sprachatlas (1997: 30-1) shows palatalized *k in various locations. It occurs throughout eastern

Syria, but it also occurs in three locations between Hamaaʔ and Aleppo (sample points 231, 255,

230/212), in one location in Hatay province in Turkey (point (94), and in one location north of

Damascus (point 362). The parallel independent development position would hold that each place

it occurs, it occurred independently, hence twice in Jordan and seven times in Syria. This reduces

by one if the *k > č change in the Horan is considered to be a common innovation which

antedates the formation of the national boundary, but this still leaves many independent events.

If, on the other hand, it is allowed that in this region the *k > č populations are related to a

common origin, the question of where to draw the line with further shared innovations needs to

be addressed. Would one also consider Baghdadi to have innovated independently, Gulf Arabic,

and probably Khorasan, so that there are still multiple independent events leading to the same

result? Each of these in fact would need to be argued for. Thus, as soon as one thinks through the

14

‘palatalization happens all the time’ proposition as it might have played out in the Levantine

populations where it is attested today, a shared common origin looks attractive because otherwise

one is left to explain why the change just happened to occur among populations which either are

continuous or are separated from *k > č dialects by relatively short distances.

Secondly, in the current problem the argument of single innovation + dispersal has added

support in the fact that affrication is likely a phenomenon already described in Sibawaih. This

would have given ample time for the change to have become embedded in populations which

then carried them to their present-day attested distributions. It similarly would have given time

for some populations to have generalized an initial, conditioned *k > č split into an unconditioned

*k > *č as attested in both the eastern and western Arabic-speaking regions.

Thirdly, the argument that ‘affrication occurs all the time’ is overly simplistic by any

close reading of language history where affrication is attested. A well-studied case in point is Old

English. In Old English palatalization of *k, ending ultimately in /č/ (or /š/ in certain contexts,

esp. < *sk) occurred before front vowels /e/, /i/, /æ/, e.g. kin > čin ‘chin’ (cf. modern German

Kinn). This shift is often dated to have begun in the pre-English7 period, i.e. by the 5th century,

and to have run its course no later than the end of the Old English period (about end of 11th

century, Cercignani 1983: 314, 317). For the next thousand years or more, even though English

has front and back variants /k/ according to whether it occurs before a front or back vowel

([kiil]‘keel’ vs. [ḵuul]‘cool’), no palatalization has occurred. The conditioning factors are present,

the variation is present, yet there are no English dialects which have gone from /kiil/ to */čiil/ =

*‘the “keel” of a boat’ (where * here means ‘unattested’).

The English experience with palatalization of *k in fact provides a nice analogy to the

argument presented here for Arabic. *k palatalization is argued to have been a productive part of

Arabic no later than Sibawaih’s era, and most likely was in effect well before this time.8 It had to

have been in effect during the early Arabic-Islamic migrations in order to account for its

diasporic distribution. Note, for instance, that in the areas outside of the core Middle East,

7 Pre-English designates an era in English language history accessible only via reconstruction, before the earliest attested English documents in the seventh century (Moulton 1954: 24). Old English palatalization shares many similarities with the same phenomenon in Frisian. In a recent treatment of the subject, Laker (2007) argues for a shared palatalization of *k in the two languages, which would have the phenomenon in place by the 5th century CE, beginning before the earliest Germanic migrations into Britain. Intriguingly, the Old Frisian reflex of palatalized *k is /ts/, hence the English reflex /č/ and the Frisian reflex /ts/ together uncannily mirror the Najdi and non-Najdi /ts/, /č/ reflexes. 8 I.e., my dating of *k palatalization is far earlier than Holes (1991: 666).

15

Khorasan, and the Jebli, Tlemcen, Jijel regions the č-speaking populations are either ‘relics’

(Khorasan) or part of the early ‘pre-Hilalian’ migrations (North Africa). Subsequent to this early

era (whose end point is left undated) palatalization would have ceased to exist as a productive

phenomenon, except to the extent that it continues to have a dynamic wherever dialects meet (see

e.g. Abdel-Jawad 1981 on a detailed case of /č/ ~ /k/ variation from rural Palestinian Arabic in

Amman).

In this section it has been argued that important historical linguistic associations can be

drawn between contemporary dialects and the descriptions of Sibawaih. What is of particular

interest in the context of the current argument is that the existence of the *k > č shift in pre-

diasporic Arabic stands regardless of its attestation in Sibawaih. Indeed, one could imagine a

linguistic history in which we had only the phonetic description of Xalil, who did not describe

any sounds beyond the 29 of Classical Arabic (Sara 2013: 524). In this case one would simply

conclude that there were further varieties of Arabic outside of Xalil’s purview. Having the

detailed insights of Sibawaih fortunately adds further dimensions to the richness of language

history which can be deduced from Arabic.

3.3. Nuanced associations

In section 3.1 linguistic phenomena were discussed which, in detail, can only be treated

on the basis of contemporary, oral data. Section 3.2 went in the opposite direction, pointing out

that there are phenomena which converge equally from historical and from contemporary

information. In this section I will treat a third type of data, one where a case can be made for

association between historically attested and contemporary phenomenon, but where the

association requires interpretive nuance.

The example (based on Owens 2013b) pertains to the ‘intrusive -n’ (realized as -n or –nn,

according to phonological conditioning). This is a morpheme suffixed either to a verb or an

active participle, in some data sets, exclusively to the AP. In nearly all Arabic varieties where it

occurs it occurs only before a pronominal object suffix. In most dialects where it occurs, it occurs

only with an AP and again, in some dialects where it occurs, if an object suffix occurs, the

intrusive –n must be added.

(5) intrusive -n

Yemen, Dathiina (Landberg 1909: 720)

16

meħaalif-ínn-ak

(allied-N-you-M)

“[he is] your ally”

Nigerian, Bagirmi

kaatb-in-ha

written-N-it.F

‘he has written it’

Other dialects where –n occurs only with the AP include Bahrain, Khorasan (Seeger 2002: 635),

and it was reported in eastern Syrian by Wetzstein (1868: 192), though not from contemporary

data in this case. In addition, a complicated case of reinterpretation of the –n + object suffix to –n

+ subject suffix is attested in Uzbekistan Arabic (see Fischer 1961, Retsö 1988, Zimmermann

2009 for details). In Oman Holes (2011) and Eades (2008) report the –n + object suffix on finite

verbs.9

(6) yi-kaffi-n-na

3-enough-N-us

“it will be enough for us”

It is argued that this intrusive –n is cognate with the so-called al-nuwn al-ϴaqiyla ‘heavy –n’ (=

‘T’ in glosses), customarily termed the ‘energetic or energic’ in the western tradition. The form is

described in detail by Sibawaih (II: 403 ff.).

(7) wa-llaah-ila-a-fʕal-anna

by God-GEN EM-I-do-T

“By God I will do [it]” (II: 403.18)

In Owens (2013b) the formal similarity between the two is noted, as well as the fact that both -n’s

are suffixed to verbal predicates. In addition a corpus examination of the energic –n in the

Qurʔan(2013b: 231)reveals that there is a far greater than chance probability that in the Qurʔan

the –n occurs with an object pronoun than without one, as in (8), where –kum is suffixed to –

anna-.

(8) fa-immaa ya-ʔtiy-anna-kum min-niy hud-an (Q 2:38)

and-when 3-come-T-you.MPL from-me guidance-ACC

“And when guidance comes to you from Me”

9 A form perhaps also present in southern Tihama Arabic, al-Qahtani 2015: 59.

17

As Testen (1993) noted, the ‘energic’ –n of the classical language is cognate with –n’s

throughout Semitic, and by association, so too is the intrusive –n of contemporary dialects.10It has

been assumed, e.g. Hasselbach (2006: 324) that dialectal –n is a parallel independent

development.11This is unlikely for two reasons. First, looking only at contemporary internal

Arabic sources, there is a near identity of form and distribution of –n across all dialects where it

occurs, namely, before an object pronoun suffix, and in most dialects, only with the active

participle. Linking this to the discussion in 3.1 above, it makes historical linguistic sense to see

the usage in Bagirmi Arabic in NE Nigeria (eastern part, bordering on Cameroon) linked to the

early migrations out of the Gulf region, into Upper Egypt and on into the Lake Chad area. Both

linguistic common sense and what we know of the history of Arabs in the Lake Chad area

dovetail to support the idea of a common origin. In this case, it is hard to see how the simple

innovation + dispersal model is not the correct explanation. The second step in the argument is to

relate the contemporary Arabic usage to other varieties/languages. The linkage to the classical

energic is an interpretive one, though plausible both in terms of form and distribution. Among

other Semitic languages cognation is easier to discern, where, as in the Arabic dialects, the

intrusive –n surfaces only before an object suffix, e.g. neo-western Aramaic subjunctive (Arnold

1990: y-ṭuʕn-enn-ax ‘he carries you.M’) and in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic (ca. 7th century CE)y-

qdm-in-k ‘he precedes you (SG)’, (Dalman 1905: 360).

The intrusive –n, as interpreted here, thus presents a case of interesting resilience, of a

morpheme which can take on different semantic values in different languages and varieties, but

which derives ultimately from a common source.

3.4. Innovations

As a final position on a preliminary taxonomy of historical linguistic outcomes it is clear

that contemporary Arabic often undergoes innovations of various kinds. The very idea of

‘dialect’ implies a differentiating history. In the case of Arabic, differences are either pre-

diasporic or post-diasporic. The usual interpretation, as seen above with

Brockelmann/Bergsträsser, is that differences arise in the post-Islamic era. This position,

10 See Owens (2013b) for historical reconstruction of –n in West Semitic. 11 As noted above, an assumption of parallel independent development is not, as many Arabicists and Semiticists often assume, an unmarked case. To the contrary, the assumption needs to be argued for on a case by case basis, particularly, as Hetzron (1976) would have argued, in instances such as the current one, where there is such a close formal similarity between the classical and dialectal realizations of –n.

18

however, is easily contradicted, as sections 3.1-3 have shown. One element differentiating the

Bagirmi dialect of Nigerian Arabic from most other dialects is the presence of an intrusive –n,

and this, it was seen, is undoubtedly a pre-diasporic element.

By the same token, post-diaspora developments abound. One example suffices, one

already introduced in (1) above. There it was seen that western Sudanic Arabic is characterized

by the conditioned development, -t (1SG/2MSG) >Ø. This is an innovation which clearly sets off

WSA from the rest of the Arabic-speaking world.

It is the fate of Arabic dialects that they rest between innovation of new elements and

maintenance of old. Bagirmi Arabic, at one and the same time, maintains old elements in unique

ways (3.3), and innovates uniquely in others. From this perspective the very idea of Old vs. Neo-

Arabic is misplaced. This contrast essentializes what, from an historical linguistic perspective,

cannot be essentialized. It essentializes in its insistence on contrasting complete entities,

‘languages’ one with another. The reality is that historical linguistics is a ‘bottom-up’ discipline.

Historical linguistic entities are defined against shared innovations. When, indeed, very large

numbers of shared innovations can be identified, one can transition from one language to another.

However, when the relevant entities, contemporary dialects in this case, sometimes innovate, and

sometimes do not, defining dichotomous categories may serve cultural and political purposes –

cf. Ibn Faris’ marginalization of certain variant forms – but it does only a disservice to a

linguistic understanding of the language.

The following brief example exemplifies the point made in the previous paragraph that

different grammatical features may have very independent linguistic trajectories, another of the

factors challenging a linear interpretation of language history. In section 3.1 it was seen that there

is a high degree of stability in the pragmatic factors governing the expression of subject as an

overt nominal (noun or pronoun) or as null across widely separated dialects. With the conditioned

change *t > Ø as in (1), the possibility can be entertained that there would be a higher degree of

overt subject marking to compensate for the loss of the overt inflection on the verb. This,

however, is not the case. For instance, the extremely low frequency of the overt 2MSG subject

pronoun, inta– occurring with only about 14% of all 2SG verbs in the sample - is maintained

whether the verb is or is not marked overtly by –t, gul ‘you said’ ~ gul-t-a ‘you said it’. In fact, in

the sample used none of the ten tokens of2MSG Ø-form perfects (like gul ‘you said’) have overt

pronoun subjects. While in matters such as this other factors need ultimately to be taken into

19

account, a preliminary look appears to confirm that what is, essentially, a phonologically

motivated cause of a more complex morpho-phonology, does not interact with the discourse

factors summarized in 3.1 to influence the expression of subject. The factors described in 3.1 are

independent of the morphological expression of the 1/2MSG perfect verb suffix.

4. Arabic historical linguistics and related sub-disciplines

In this section I would briefly like to remark on the relation between Arabic historical

linguistics and dialectology and sociolinguistic studies.12

As Al-Wer (2013: 251) has emphasized for sociolinguistics, a good dialectology is a

necessary precursor to any Arabic historical linguistics. As has been illustrated in section 3, there

in a sense cannot be an Arabic historical linguistics without an account of the dialects, or perhaps

better put, one goal of Arabic history is to explain how the contemporary dialects came to be as

they are, which implies historical treatment. Against this background, however, Arabic

dialectology has tended to eschew historical treatment. In the best case, this is an instance of

benign neglect. Good dialectology requires great investment of time, and often there is little of

this commodity left after a thorough dialectological study. One can suspect, however, that much

of the dialectological tradition has grown up in the shadow of what might be termed the

Fergusonian/Fückian model. I name this after two scholars who, in the manner of Brockelmann

and Bergsträsser, saw a more or less linear relationship from the Classical language to the

dialects. Ferguson in particular, as seen above, derived the dialects from CA. Fück (1950) had a

slightly more nuanced interpretation, with Classical Arabic itself arising as a koine. Nonetheless,

he did not see a role for the contemporary dialects in understanding Arabic language history.

Both perspectives are ultimately in the tradition of understanding the contemporary dialects to be

not only (and trivially) chronological successors of Classical Arabic, but comparative linguistic

ones as well.

What can be said about the importance of integrating historical thinking into dialectology

(or vice versa) can equally be said about sociolinguistics. This is relevant from two perspectives.

First, the contemporary world is witnessing unprecedented degrees of language contact, not only

12Leaving out completely the important, though very large question of contact and historical linguistics. This encompasses both contact between dialects and between Arabic and other languages. It will equally be interesting to ascertain how the growing corpus of epigraphic material bears on the interpretation of Arabic language history (e.g. al-Jallad 2015, al-Jallad and Manaser 2015).

20

in the traditional urban melting pots, but increasingly through inter-medial contact. In healthy

reaction to this, increasingly language and dialect contact is being studied through the corpus and

quantitative filter of sociolinguistics. Indeed, one of the early studies in Arabic sociolinguistics,

Abdel Jawad (1981), documented the regression of the rural Palestinian *k > č reflex (ultimately,

of the ‘bəkuul’ complex of dialects) among immigrants in Amman. The micro study of language

change implies sociolinguistic methodology.

An arguably more significant application of sociolinguistic thinking pertains to the

conceptualization of dialects themselves. Whereas traditionally dialectology deals with linguistic

forms as represented in isoglosses (see Behnstedt and Woidich 2005), sociolinguistics has as its

basis speech communities. Labov (2007) operationalized this concept in drawing a distinction

between the opposed effects of change via transmission and change via diffusion. The former is

characterized by small, incremental changes, and is supported by a relatively closed,

interconnected speech community,13 whereas the latter is characterized by larger, sometimes

more irregular changes, and occurs where communities are in open contact with one another. The

importance of this perspective, beyond the potentially interesting sociolinguistic typology which

might arise from it, is that it embeds the study of language change in populations of speakers.

Given this a dialectal interpretation, dialects can themselves be conceptualized as speech

communities.14In this context it does have to be said that Arabic linguistics has far to go before a

socio-historical linguistics can be operationalized in a methodologically adequate manner (see n.

14). However, the importance of such a perspective is not only linguistic, but particularly in an

Arabic context, socio-political. As seen with Ibn Faris, what traditionally counts as Arabic is

anything but a dialect. From a purely linguistic perspective, however, marginalizing the very

entity which is at the core of contemporary Arabic precludes an historical linguistics right from

the onset. Recognizing their status as communities of speakers potentially puts a human and

13 “The transmission of linguistic change within a speech community is characterized by incrementation within a faithfully reproduced pattern characteristic of the family tree model…” (Labov2007: 344. 14Magidow’s ‘language community’ approach to historical linguistics is a similar idea and one worth developing. In Magidow (2013) it is not always clear where a traditional historical approach based on reconstruction, as advocated here, is enhanced by a circular socio-historical linguistics of the varieties he treats. As a practical, but crucial matter, as can be deduced from Labov (2007), the amount of realistic sociolinguistic data needed to explore a speech communities approach even in as well-studied a language as English, dealing with, compared to Arabic, a relatively short time frame (240 years in the case of Labov’s study), is immense. How confounding Arabic linguistic variation can be when measured against and correlated with language attitudes, social norms and networks is illustrated in Owens (1998a, chapters 9, 12).What I emphasize here is not only the idea that dialects imply speakers with variegated sociolinguistic attributes, but also that the varieties they speak can be conceptualized as emblematic of who they are.

21

social face on them, which is less easy to ignore than mere dialects. Furthermore, conceptualizing

Arabic dialects in this way I believe would make more palatable certain historical linguistic

constructs which have been advocated here. In particular, the idea of independent parallel

development, discussed in sections 3.2 and 3.3 above, is often adduced as an alternative to single

innovation + dispersal. How can it be, one might ask, that there are so many dialectal instances of

*k > č? Though circular, a plausible answer is that these changes were introduced in a relatively

small area, in a relatively small, closely connected community of speakers, which gradually

expanded, and began splitting and migrating. Once the change was established, the *k > č

becomes an inherited /č/ for successor generations, and once embedded in speech communities it

will be continued. An example on a more global scale is provided in section 3.1. Labov’s

emphasis on the sensitivity of linguistic form to a community of transmitters implies a socio-

historical perspective, with appropriate sociolinguistic constructs.

5. Conclusion: A comprehensive Arabic historical linguistics

The question of the status of contemporary dialects in my view goes to the very heart of

Arabic historical linguistics. By and large – there are notable exceptions as with Vollers 1906 –

the Arabic dialects have had no status as an historically legitimate object. This results as much

from the language ideologies that have evolved around what Arabic is, ideologies which in part

go back the Arabic grammarians themselves as seen above, as it does from actual comparative

linguistic analysis. The mere fact that there are aspects of historical linguistics which can only be

studied on the basis of the spoken language, for instance as described in 3.1 above, already

constitutes a strong argument against marginalizing native spoken Arabic from the purview of

Arabic language history. By the same token, a central role of the contemporary dialects in

linguistic history necessarily implies the basic standards of historical linguistic analysis – the

comparative method and attendant postulation of proto forms, the role of contact, and so on. Here

Magidow (2013: 425) misses the point when he asks: “it is not clear exactly what is gained by

referring to Proto-Arabic.”A proto language is the logical product of reconstruction based on the

comparative method.15Whether one is evaluating the relation between different languages, or the

15 Certainly there is always room for making finer distinctions. The immediate predecessor to English is often termed ‘pre-English’, though it is clearly a variety inferred via reconstruction from other West Germanic languages in general, and Frisian in particular. The role of the influence of cultural scholarly traditions most certainly plays a role

22

relation between dialectal variants separated, in the case of Arabic, by periods of time

comparable to the postulated period of Proto-West Germanic or Proto-Slavic, unless one

recognizes the comparative method as a basic tool of the trade, one is not doing historical

linguistics, and the comparative method by definition has a proto-variety as its goal. By the same

token, as Moulton (1954, see section 2) implies, the inquiry never stops there, and clearly Arabic,

along with the Semitic languages in general provide perhaps overly-fertile ground for exploring

the many facets of historical linguistics.

In this paper I have argued that one entity needed to understand Arabic language history

are the contemporary dialects, and that a basic tool for understanding this history is the

comparative method. Proceeding along these lines, a typology of four types of outcomes was

developed which illustrate the variegated results an application of the method yields. As far as the

methodology goes, three points can be emphasized. First, the method works from the ground up.

What one reconstructs in the first instance are individual features which, by their very linguistic

nature, will be prone to have quite different histories. The miraculous paradigm (section 3.1) is a

morpho-discourse paradigm of unexpected stability which has an historical trajectory

independent of the other features discussed here, *k > č, intrusive *-n, *t > Ø (sections 3.2-3.4).

Arabic like few other languages in the world is one where potential internal historical

dependencies can be observed, but bundling them together requires a treatment of individual

features and changes.

Secondly, the comparative method can be confounded by two other factors, contact, not

discussed here, and independent parallel development, discussed extensively in section 3.3. As a

third point, one which distinguishes Arabic against almost all languages of the world, ideally the

method links up with the rich classical tradition, the two sources complementing one another, as

illustrated in section 3.3.

One does not know in advance how far the comparative method goes in elucidating

Arabic language history, and in section 3.1 it was suggested that with the increasing availability

of spoken corpora, new dimensions for understanding will be opened up. Interestingly, this

inquiry imparts a status to varieties traditionally marginalized in both the Arabic and western

historical study of Arabic.

in the constructs, terms and entities which one postulates, so that one and the same methodology can lead to nominally different products

23

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