The Arabic Language

Further reading
Many details of the Islamic conquests beyond the military account (for which see 
Donner 1981) are still unknown. There is no comprehensive account, for instance, 
of the process of Arabicisation, but see Al-Sharkawi (2010). For individual areas, 
we may refer to Poliak (1938, the Arabicisation of Syria), W. Marçais (1961, the 
Arabicisation of North Africa), Anawati (1975, the Arabicisation of Egypt), ʿUmar 
(1992, history of Arabic in Egypt) and Zarrinkūb (1975, the conquest of Persia). 
Several articles in Aguadé 
et al
. (1998) deal with the Arabicisation of the Maghreb, 
in particular in the urban centres, see Lévy (1998), Cressier (1998) and Rosen
-
berger (1998). For the role of the Bedouin in the process of Arabicisation, see 
Singer (1994). For the history of Persian in the Islamic empire, see Lazard (1975).
An extensive survey of the common features in the modern Arabic dialects 
is given in Fischer and Jastrow (1980: 39–48); most of the examples from Syrian 

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The Emergence of New Arabic 
151
Arabic quoted above have been taken from Grotzfeld’s (1965) analysis of the 
dialect of Damascus.
In view of the many conflicting theories about the emergence of the new type 
of Arabic, it is hardly possible to refer to an authoritative account. For a general 
overview, see A. Miller (1986). Owens’ (2006) theory on the linguistic history of 
Arabic, which was discussed in this chapter, contains a discussion of alternative 
models. The original theory of a monogenetic development was advanced by 
Ferguson (1959a) and repeated by him (1989); for a discussion of the fourteen 
features, see Kaye (1976: 137–70). Cohen’s article (1970) on convergence has 
already been referred to in this chapter (see also Diem 1978); a polygenetic model 
with convergence as the driving force behind the reduction of variants is applied 
by Edzard (1998) to the history of the Semitic languages and Arabic, see Chapter 
2, pp. 16f.
Diem’s survey of possible substratal changes (1979a) has been mentioned 
in this chapter. Some publications deal with the Coptic influence on Egyptian 
Arabic, for example, Sobhy (1950), Bishai (1960, 1961, 1962) and Palva (1969b); 
for a recent appraisal see Behnstedt (2006); on the word order in interrogative 
sentences, see Nishio (1996). Aramaic influence in Syrian Arabic is discussed by 
Arnold and Behnstedt (1993); for the issue of substratal influence in the personal 
pronouns in Syrian Arabic, see also Diem (1971). On Berber influence in the Arabic 
of Djidjelli, see Ph. Marçais (n.d.: 607–11). Versteegh’s (1984) proposal to interpret 
the development of the new type of Arabic in terms of a process of pidginisation/
creolisation is discussed in Chapter 16.
For special topics dealt with in this chapter, we may refer to the following 
publications: the 
laḥn al-ʿāmma
treatises: Molan (1978); Pérez Lázaro (1990 edition 
and critical study of Ibn Hišām al-Laḫmī’s treatise); for the anecdotes about the 
mawālī
, see above, Chapter 4, p. 57; the possessive construction in the Arabic 
dialects: Eksell Harning (1980; partly based on written texts that contain classi
-
cisms); the aspectual particles: Czapkiewicz (1975); pseudo-dual: Blanc (1970a); 
agreement rules: Ferguson (1989).
About variation in Juba Arabic, see Mahmud’s (1979) study on variation in this 
dialect; cf. also Versteegh (1993b), as well as the discussion in Chapter 16. On 
classicisation in Arabic dialects, see Palva (1969a).

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