Modern Arabic

All students of the Arabic language will welcome this revised and updated edition of the highly praised Modern Arabic by Clive Holes. He traces the development of the Arabic language from Classical Arabic, the written language used in the 7th cetury for the Qur'an and poetry, through the increasingly symbiotic use of Modern Standard Arabic or MSA (the language of writing and formal speech) and dialectal Arabic (the language of normal conversation). He shows how Arabic has been shaped over the centuries by migration, urbanization, and education. Modern Arabic illustrates the use of the Arabic language in real life, whether in conversation, news bulletins and newspaper articles, serious literature, or song. This new edition takes into account research published in several areas of Arabic linguistics since the first edition was published in 1995. It includes more extensive comment on the North Arabic vocabulary of Modern Standard Arabic, more information about "mixed" varieties of written Arabic that are not in MSA (especially in Egypt), updated references, explanations, and many new examples. All Arabic is transcribed, except for an appendix presenting the Arabic alphabet and script. Students of the Arabic language will find Modern Arabic without peer-as will those general linguists who are interested in discovering how Arabic compares structurally and sociolinguistically with European languages.

Clive Holes is Khalid bin Abdallah Al-Sa'ud Professor for the Study of the Contemporary Arab World at the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford, and a Fellow of Magdalen College. He is also a Fellow of the British Academy.

List of Figures and Tables

x

Foreword to the Georgetown Classics Edition

xi

Preface to the Second Edition

xiii

Preface to the First Edition

xiv

Transliteration Conventions, Gloss Lines, and Abbreviations

xv

Introduction

1

(8)

0.1 Where is Arabic spoken?

1

(2)

0.2 Varieties of Arabic

3

(3)

0.3 Aims of this book

6

(1)

Notes

7

(2)

1 Brief History of Arabic

9

(47)

1.1 Arabic as a Semitic language

10

(1)

1.2 Arabic at the dawn of Islam

10

(8)

1.2.1 Pre-Islamic poetry

11

(3)

1.2.2 The Koran

14

(3)

1.2.3 Evidence from the modern Bedouin dialects

17

(1)

1.2.4 Summary

18

(1)

1.3 The spread of Arabic

18

(18)

1.3.1 The language situation on the eve of the conquests

19

(3)

1.3.2 The early linguistic results of the conquests

22

(14)

1.4 Middle Arabic, the modern dialects, and the evolution of Modern Standard Arabic

36

(10)

1.5 The contemporary linguistic situation

46

(4)

Notes

50

(6)

2 Phonology

56

(43)

2.1 The phonology of MSA

58

(11)

2.1.1 Segmental phonology

59

(2)

2.1.2 Syllable structure

61

(1)

2.1.3 Neutralization

61

(1)

2.1.4 Stress

62

(1)

2.1.5 Pausal and junctural phenomena

63

(5)

2.1.6 "Secular" and "religious" pronunciation

68

(1)

2.2 The phonology of the dialects

69

(12)

2.2.1 Segmental phonology

69

(7)

2.2.2 Aspects of suprasegmental dialectal phonology

76

(5)

2.3 Phonological variation in the dialects

81

(8)

2.3.1 /q/

81

(5)

2.3.2 Hybridization and language level

86

(3)

2.4 Phonology and script

89

(6)

2.4.1 MSA phonology and orthography

89

(3)

2.4.2 Dialect and orthography

92

(3)

Notes

95

(4)

3 Verb Morphology

99

(46)

3.1 General principles

99

(1)

3.2 Root and morphosemantic patterns: MSA

100

(6)

3.2.1 Pattern I: The root pattern C1C2C3

100

(1)

3.2.2 Pattern II: Lengthen the middle radical = C1C2C2C3

101

(1)

3.2.3 Pattern III: Lengthen the short v between C1 and C2 = C1V:C2C3

102

(1)

3.2.4 Pattern IV: Prefix ? = ?C1C2C3

102

(1)

3.2.5 Pattern V: Prefix t to Pattern II = tCIC2C2C3

102

(1)

3.2.6 Pattern VI: Prefix t to Pattern III = tCIv:C2C3

103

(1)

3.2.7 Pattern VII: Prefix n to Pattern I = nCIC2C3

104

(1)

3.2.8 Pattern VIII: Insert t after CI = CItC2C3

104

(1)

3.2.9 Pattern IX: Lengthen C3 = CIC2C3C3

104

(1)

3.2.10 Pattern X: Prefix st = stCIC2C3

104

(1)

3.2.11 Other patterns: X-XV

105

(1)

3.2.12 Quadriliteral roots

105

(1)

3.3 Morphosyntactic patterns of the finite verb: MSA

106

(3)

3.3.1 Pattern I

106

(1)

3.3.2 Augmented patterns

107

(2)

3.4 Verbal affixes

109

(1)

3.5 Morphophonological adjustments

110

(7)

3.5.1 Semivowels

111

(5)

3.5.2 C2 = C3

116

(1)

3.6 Dialectal verb morphology

117

(25)

3.6.1 Introduction

117

(2)

3.6.2 Losses and gains in inflectional categories and morphosyntactic patterns

119

(6)

3.6.3 Morphosemantic developments in the dialect verb

125

(17)

Notes

142

(3)

4 Noun Morphology

145

(32)

4.1 The verbal noun

146

(3)

4.2 Participles

149

(6)

4.3 Other categories of the singular noun

155

(7)

4.3.1 "Primitives"

155

(1)

4.3.2 Derivatives

155

(7)

4.4 Number

162

(9)

4.4.1 Pluralization by suffixation

163

(5)

4.4.2 Broken plurals

168

(3)

4.5 Case and definiteness

171

(3)

4.6 Gender

174

(1)

Notes

175

(2)

5 Beyond Root and Pattern: Pronouns and Deictics

177

(18)

5.1 Personal pronouns

177

(7)

5.1.1 Forms

177

(2)

5.1.2 Uses

179

(5)

5.2 Demonstratives

184

(6)

5.2.1 Forms

184

(2)

5.2.2 Adjectival and pronominal uses

186

(2)

5.2.3 Presentative and emphatic uses

188

(1)

5.2.4 Textual uses

189

(1)

5.3 Interrogatives

190

(2)

5.4 Temporal, locative and manner deictics

192

(1)

Notes

193

(2)

6 Syntax and Semantics I: Phrase Structure

195

(55)

6.1 The noun phrase

196

(20)

6.1.1 Determination of nouns

196

(5)

6.1.2 Agreement in noun-adjective phrases

201

(3)

6.1.3 The construct phrase

204

(6)

6.1.4 Comparative constructs

210

(2)

6.1.5 Mensurative constructs and numbers

212

(4)

6.2 The verb phrase

216

(23)

6.2.1 Aspect and factuality

217

(6)

6.2.2 Mood and modality

223

(9)

6.2.3 Time and tense

232

(7)

6.3 Negation

239

(6)

Notes

245

(5)

7 Syntax and Semantics II: Sentence Structure

250

(55)

7.1 Word order

250

(14)

7.1.1 The functions of word order

250

(12)

7.1.2 Word order and agreement

262

(2)

7.2 Clause order and type

264

(36)

7.2.1 Coordinated sentences

266

(12)

7.2.2 Complex sentences

278

(22)

Notes

300

(5)

8 Lexical and Stylistic Developments

305

(36)

8.1 Foreign borrowing into Arabic

305

(4)

8.2 The language academies

309

(5)

8.2.1 Protecting the "purity" of the language

310

(1)

8.2.2 Adapting Arabic to the needs of the modern world

311

(3)

8.3 The language of the media

314

(18)

8.3.1 Periphrastic passives

317

(2)

8.3.2 Agent passives

319

(1)

8.3.3 Tendency to nominalization

320

(3)

8.3.4 Negativization

323

(1)

8.3.5 Word order, time reference, and text type

324

(4)

8.3.6 Certain morphosemantic developments

328

(4)

8.4 Repetition and parallelism

332

(6)

Notes

338

(3)

9 Language Level

341

(50)

9.1 Introduction

341

(3)

9.2 Language levels in Cairo

344

(4)

9.3 Level switching

348

(15)

9.3.1 Monologues

348

(5)

9.3.2 Conversation

353

(10)

9.4 Co-occurrence phenomena and level

363

(10)

9.4.1 Constraints within p-stem verb phrases

366

(3)

9.4.2 Constraints within the sentence

369

(4)

9.5 Dialogue and dialect in literature and journalism

373

(9)

9.5.1 Literature

374

(6)

9.5.2 Journalism

380

(1)

9.5.3 "Mixed" written style

381

(1)

Notes

382

(9)

Appendix: The Arabic Script

391

(6)

Bibliography

397

(10)

Index

407

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Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials