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<span style="font-size:13.333333969116211px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">Arabic-L: Thu 17 Oct 2013</span><br style="font-size:13.333333969116211px;font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:13.333333969116211px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <</span><a href="mailto:dilworth_parkinson@byu.edu" style="font-size:13.333333969116211px;font-family:arial,sans-serif" target="_blank">dilworth_parkinson@byu.edu</a><span style="font-size:13.333333969116211px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">></span><br style="font-size:13.333333969116211px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">
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<br style="font-size:13.333333969116211px;font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:13.333333969116211px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">1) Subject: New Dissertation: </span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"> New Dissertation: 'Towards a Sociohistorical Reconstruction of Pre-Islamic Arabic Dialect Diversity'</span><br style="font-size:13.333333969116211px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">
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<span style="font-size:13.333333969116211px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">1)</span><br style="font-size:13.333333969116211px;font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:13.333333969116211px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">Date: </span><span style="font-size:13.333333969116211px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">17 Oct 2013</span><br style="font-size:13.333333969116211px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">
<span style="font-size:13.333333969116211px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">From: </span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Alexander Magidow <<a href="mailto:amagidow@gmail.com" target="_blank">amagidow@gmail.com</a>></span><br style="font-size:13.333333969116211px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">
<span style="font-size:13.333333969116211px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">Subject: </span><span style="font-size:13.333333969116211px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">New Dissertation: </span><span style="font-size:13px;font-family:arial,sans-serif"> New Dissertation: 'Towards a Sociohistorical Reconstruction of Pre-Islamic Arabic Dialect Diversity'</span><br style="font-size:13.333333969116211px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">
<br style="font-size:13.333333969116211px;font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Institution: University of Texas at Austin</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Program: Department of Middle Eastern Studies</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Dissertation Status: Completed</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Degree Date: 2013</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Author: Alexander Magidow</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Dissertation Title: Towards a Sociohistorical Reconstruction of Pre-Islamic Arabic Dialect Diversity</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Dissertation URL: </span><a href="http://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/21378" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px" target="_blank">http://repositories.lib.<u></u>utexas.edu/handle/2152/21378</a><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Dissertation Director:</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Kristen Brustad</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Patience Epps</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Dissertation Abstract:</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">This dissertation establishes a framework for a reconstruction of the</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Arabic dialects that existed immediately prior to the Islamic conquests and</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">tests that framework with a reconstruction based on the demonstrative</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">pronouns and adjectives used in over sixty modern spoken dialects of Arabic</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">dialects.</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">The dissertation develops a framework, drawing on work in sociolinguistics,</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">in which the unit of reconstruction is the speech community rather than the</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">'language' or 'dialect.' Speech communities are defined as groups of</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">speakers connected by networks as well as by a sense of allegiance, and may</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">have diverse repertoires which include multiple languages. Speech</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">communities are easier to situation historically since their boundaries</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">often coincide with those of political or social entities reported in</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">non-linguistic texts. We can diagnose the existence and extent of</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">pre-historical speech communities by the way their boundaries limit the</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">diffusion of innovations.</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">In order to link the historical reconstruction to the history of Arabic</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">speaking communities, the dissertation investigates the historical and</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">social circumstances of the pre-Islamic Arabian Peninsula and of the</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">post-Islamic colonization of the Middle East and North Africa by Arabic</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">speakers. It questions the whether a 'tribe' is identical to a speech</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">community, as assumed in earlier literature, and argues that the success of</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">the Arabic-speaking minorities in the conquered was largely related to</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">patterns of settlement that segregated Arabs from non-Arabs. It also</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">questions the traditional chronology of the settlement of North Africa and</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">the division between pre- and post- 'Hilalian' dialects.</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">The dissertation then reconstructs the Arabic demonstrative pronouns and</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">adjectives, and shows that Arabic dialects can be classified primarily</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">based on how they mark gender differentiation in the singular and by the</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">form of their plural demonstratives. Linking the reconstruction of the</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">demonstratives to the historical data, the dissertation suggests that</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">following origins for modern Arabic dialects: the rural dialects of the</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Levant and Iraq, with c. pl. *haː-ula, originally hailed from the southern</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Hijaz, though an older layer of unknown origin, with f. sg. taː, is still</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">detectable. The same speech community gave rise to the dialects of the</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Northern Yemeni plateau. The dialects of Levantine and Iraqi cities, with</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">m. pl. *haːðawla, f. pl. *haːðanna (< *haːðalla) represents later dialect</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">shift, the origins of which are unclear. Modern (northern) Egyptian Arabic,</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">characterized originally by m. pl. *ðawl, f. pl. *ðayl , originated on the</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Yemeni Tihama coast. The pre-Islamic origin of North African dialects,</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">characterized by c. pl haːðuː demonstratives, is less clear, but speakers</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">of these dialects colonized Upper Egypt as well, though only traces of that</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">period remain. Classical Arabic demonstratives show a great deal of</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">diversity, and may reflect the process of its development as a literary koiné.</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Finally, the dissertation concludes by arguing that theories about the</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">original homeland of Arabic obscure the importance of the geographical and</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">linguistic variation present in Arabic immediately prior to the Islamic</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">conquests. The conclusion also argues that much more research is needed on</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">the dialectology of the Arabian Peninsula, particularly the Red Sea coast,</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">in order to develop a clearer picture of the history of the Arabic language.</span><br style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px"><div style="font-size:13.333333969116211px;font-family:arial,sans-serif">
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End of Arabic-L: 17 Oct 2013</div></div>