The Arabic Language

Further reading
One of the best introductions to the pre-Islamic dialects of West Arabia is still 
Rabin (1951), who has several maps to show the distribution of certain phenomena 
in the 
Jāhiliyya
; also Kofler (1940–2), ʾAnīs ([1952] 1973), al-Jindī (1983) and 
Al-Sharkawi (2010); see also Rabin’s article (1955) on the origin of Classical Arabic, 
and his article in 
EI(2)
ʿArabiyya
(1960). On the 
ʿArab
,
 
see Retsö (2003; a summary in 
Retsö 2006); on the difference between 
ʿArab
/
ʾAʿrāb
, see also Marbach (1992); on 
kaškaša 
and 
kaskasa
,
 
see Al-Azraqi (2007). Sībawayhi’s use of Bedouin informants is 
discussed by Levin (1994), but see below, Chapter 5, p. 71, on Gouttenoire’s (2010) 
critical analysis of the reports about Bedouin informants.
On the genealogy of the Arabs and their provenance, see 
EI(2)
(
ʿArab
, 
Dj
azīrat 
al-ʿArab
); an interesting approach is Dagorn’s (1981) investigation into the 
popularity of the proper name ʾIsmāʿīl in early Islam as an index of the adoption 
of a new genealogy for the Arabs.
The discussion about diglossia in the pre-Islamic period is a complicated one, 
and it is hardly possible to expect an impartial account, since most authors have 
taken a strong position in this debate. For an historical survey of the different 

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Arabic in the Pre-Islamic Period 
59
points of view, see Zwettler (1978). The evidence of pre-Islamic inscriptions in the 
peninsula is discussed by Macdonald (2000, 2010b). The controversy concerning 
the functional yield of the declensional endings in Old Arabic is found in Corriente 
(1971b) and Blau (1972–3). Arguments against diglossia are given by Fück (1950), 
Blau (1977), Versteegh (1984: 1–15), and to a certain extent by Nöldeke (1904). For 
arguments for diglossia, see Vollers (1906), and also the arguments given by Wehr 
(1952) and Spitaler (1953) in their reviews of Fück (1950); see also Diem (1978, 
1991) and Corriente (1971b, 1975). Owens’s (2006) position has been discussed 
in this chapter; see also Chapter 8, pp. 139f. The first occurrences of wrong case 
endings in papyri are discussed by Diem (1984: 268–73).
For the textual history of the 
Qurʾān
, see Nöldeke and Schwally (1961). The 
relevance of Qurʾānic orthography, the pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions and 
the Aramaic/Nabataean inscriptions for the question of the case endings was 
discussed by Diem in a series of articles (1973a, 1976, 1979b, 1980a, 1981). For the 
evidence of the pausal forms in poetry and the 
Qurʾān
,
 
see Birkeland (1940). On the 
significance of the pronominal suffixes see Diem (1991) and Owens (2006: 230–65). 
The relationship between the posited poetic language in eastern Arabia and the 
Arabic spoken by the Nabataeans is analysed by Knauf (2010). The function of 
language and poetry in pre-Islamic society is discussed by Hoyland (2001: 211–28).
The speech of the Bedouin in the Islamic empire and its relationship with the 
standard Classical language is dealt with by Fleisch (1964); and cf. also below, 
Chapter 5, pp. 71–3.

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