<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>Arabic-L: Tue 09 Aug 2011<br>Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <<a href="mailto:dil@byu.edu">dil@byu.edu</a>><br>[To post messages to the list, send them to arabic-l@byu.edu]<br>[To unsubscribe, send message from same address you subscribed from to<br><a href="mailto:listserv@byu.edu">listserv@byu.edu</a> with first line reading:<br> unsubscribe arabic-l ]<br><br>-------------------------Directory------------------------------------<br><br>1) Subject: New Book:Arabic Dialectology<br><br>-------------------------Messages-----------------------------------<br>1)<br>Date: 09 Aug 2011<br>From: Moha Ennaji [mennaji2002@yahoo.fr] (reposted from LINGUIST)<br>Subject: New Book:Arabic Dialectology<br><br>Title: Modern Trends in Arabic Dialectology <br>Publication Year: 2011 <br>Publisher: Langues et Linguistique<br><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span> <a href="http://y.ennaji.free.fr/fr/">http://y.ennaji.free.fr/fr/</a><br><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span><br>Editor: Mohamed Embarki<br>Editor: Moha Ennaji<br><br>Paperback: ISBN: 1569023476 Pages: 242 Price: U.S. $ 29.95<br><br><br>Abstract:<br><br>The relevance of this book is highlighted first by the fact that<br>language-based approaches are still lacking in Arabic dialectology. The<br>classification of Arabic dialects is not yet entirely satisfactory.<br>Geographical and sociological layers were traditionally based on the<br>assumption that the saliency of some features in the Modern Arabic dialects<br>is the product of two different processes: diffusion and innovation.<br>However, this traditional approach is not consistent with the history of<br>Arabic. For instance, the saliency of some features that support the<br>classification of the Modern dialects varies according to features that can<br>be traced back to Classical Arabic, Islamic dialects, Old Arabic dialects,<br>or proto-Arabic.<br><br>Another explicative process has been, to some extent, neglected in the<br>study of Arabic dialects, namely inheritance. Some phonological features<br>currently present in Modern Arabic dialects cannot be explained by any of<br>the two terms of this paradigm. As long as the mapping of Western<br>approaches on Arabic dialects seems to be relatively unsatisfactory,<br>diffusion and innovation are found to be incomplete to explain the extreme<br>variability of the linguistic features of the Arabic dialects. Since some<br>features appear in very distant isolated isoglosses, they are consistent<br>neither with diffusion nor with concomitant innovation; only their<br>underlyingly inherited nature could provide a logical scheme. <br><br>Introducing the process of inheritance, besides diffusion and innovation,<br>aims to enlarge our knowledge of the history of the Modern Arabic dialects.<br>The threefold paradigm is more accurate to perform satisfying explanations<br>of the features of similarity and dissimilarity between Old Arabic and<br>Modern Arabic dialects, at the synchronic and diachronic levels. This<br>division necessitates evaluating actual geographical and sociological<br>classifications of Modern Arabic dialects, as well as our interpretations<br>of the similarity and dissimilarity of linguistic features in the Arabic area.<br><br>Even if language-specific approaches to Arabic dialects are lacking, and<br>the mapping of Western constructs unappealing, this fact should not justify<br>per se constructing new completely compartmentalized trends in Arabic<br>dialectology. Cross-cultural outlooks as widely experienced in the first<br>stages of the Arabic empire in the Orient as well as during the Islamic<br>kingdoms of Spain, remain an essential motor that must lead to build up<br>specific approaches for the study of Arabic dialects.<br><br>This book aims to shed light on recent trends in Arabic dialectology.<br>Cross-cultural analyses are provided by scholars from different origins<br>(Arabic native speakers and excellent Arabists) and from different<br>linguistic backgrounds (Arabic, Berber, English, French, Hebrew, Spanish).<br>The chapters are all devoted to produce systematic descriptions and<br>analyses of Arabic dialects. The book is divided into three thematic<br>sections: (a) Theoretical and Historical Perspectives and Methods in Arabic<br>Dialectology; (b) Eastern Arabic Dialects; and (c) Western Arabic Dialects. <br><br><div>--------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>End of Arabic-L: 09 Aug 2011</div></body></html>