Preface to Second Edition
xi
As always, Manfred Woidich (Nördlingen) supported me by providing infor-
mation on everything
related to Arabic dialects, in particular Egyptian, but most
of all by setting an example of dedicated research. I wish to thank Jan Hoogland
(Rabat) for information about the linguistic situation in Morocco. Nagato Youichi,
who is preparing a Japanese translation of the book, sent
me a long list of mistakes
in the first edition, for which I am most grateful. I can only say that I am glad that
some of these mistakes do not seem to have been picked up by the reviewers (the
worst mistake being that I had given Hamadan as Sībawayhi’s birthplace!). I am
grateful to Muhammad Sharkawi for suggestions he made in preparing the Arabic
translation of the book, which appeared in 2003 under the ti
tle al-Luġa al-
ʿ
Arabiyya
.
The staff of Edinburgh University Press, in particular Michelle Houston and
Jenny Peebles, are to be thanked for their patience in waiting for the revision
to be realised and for their confidence in its successful completion. During the
production
stage Nicola Ramsey, Lyn Flight, Eddie Clark and Rebecca Mackenzie
all contributed to a smooth sailing.
Batenburg, July 2013