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Dissertation Information
| Title: | Towards a Sociohistorical Reconstruction of Pre-Islamic Arabic Dialect Diversity | Add Dissertation |
| Author: | Alexander Magidow | Update Dissertation |
| Email: | click here to access email | |
| Institution: | University of Texas at Austin, Department of Middle Eastern Studies | |
| Completed in: | 2013 | |
| Linguistic Subfield(s): | Historical Linguistics; | |
| Subject Language(s): |
Arabic, Tajiki
Arabic, Mesopotamian Arabic, Ta'izzi-Adeni Arabic, Hijazi Arabic, Omani Arabic, Cypriot Arabic, Tunisian Arabic, Gulf Arabic, Baharna Arabic, South Levantine Arabic, North Levantine Arabic, Algerian Arabic, Najdi Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, Uzbeki Arabic, Eastern Egyptian Bedawi Arabic, Hadrami Arabic, Libyan Arabic, Sanaani Arabic, Chadian Arabic, Andalusian |
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| Director(s): |
Kristen Brustad Patience Epps |
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| Abstract: | This dissertation establishes a framework for a reconstruction of the Arabic dialects that existed immediately prior to the Islamic conquests and tests that framework with a reconstruction based on the demonstrative pronouns and adjectives used in over sixty modern spoken dialects of Arabic dialects. The dissertation develops a framework, drawing on work in sociolinguistics, in which the unit of reconstruction is the speech community rather than the 'language' or 'dialect.' Speech communities are defined as groups of speakers connected by networks as well as by a sense of allegiance, and may have diverse repertoires which include multiple languages. Speech communities are easier to situation historically since their boundaries often coincide with those of political or social entities reported in non-linguistic texts. We can diagnose the existence and extent of pre-historical speech communities by the way their boundaries limit the diffusion of innovations. In order to link the historical reconstruction to the history of Arabic speaking communities, the dissertation investigates the historical and social circumstances of the pre-Islamic Arabian Peninsula and of the post-Islamic colonization of the Middle East and North Africa by Arabic speakers. It questions the whether a 'tribe' is identical to a speech community, as assumed in earlier literature, and argues that the success of the Arabic-speaking minorities in the conquered was largely related to patterns of settlement that segregated Arabs from non-Arabs. It also questions the traditional chronology of the settlement of North Africa and the division between pre- and post- 'Hilalian' dialects. The dissertation then reconstructs the Arabic demonstrative pronouns and adjectives, and shows that Arabic dialects can be classified primarily based on how they mark gender differentiation in the singular and by the form of their plural demonstratives. Linking the reconstruction of the demonstratives to the historical data, the dissertation suggests that following origins for modern Arabic dialects: the rural dialects of the Levant and Iraq, with c. pl. *haː-ula, originally hailed from the southern Hijaz, though an older layer of unknown origin, with f. sg. taː, is still detectable. The same speech community gave rise to the dialects of the Northern Yemeni plateau. The dialects of Levantine and Iraqi cities, with m. pl. *haːðawla, f. pl. *haːðanna (< *haːðalla) represents later dialect shift, the origins of which are unclear. Modern (northern) Egyptian Arabic, characterized originally by m. pl. *ðawl, f. pl. *ðayl , originated on the Yemeni Tihama coast. The pre-Islamic origin of North African dialects, characterized by c. pl haːðuː demonstratives, is less clear, but speakers of these dialects colonized Upper Egypt as well, though only traces of that period remain. Classical Arabic demonstratives show a great deal of diversity, and may reflect the process of its development as a literary koiné. Finally, the dissertation concludes by arguing that theories about the original homeland of Arabic obscure the importance of the geographical and linguistic variation present in Arabic immediately prior to the Islamic conquests. The conclusion also argues that much more research is needed on the dialectology of the Arabian Peninsula, particularly the Red Sea coast, in order to develop a clearer picture of the history of the Arabic language. |
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