Arabic-L:LING:New Book

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Mon 08 Oct 2001
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1) Subject: New Book:History of Arabic Language

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1)
Date:  08 Oct 2001
From: Ignacio Ferrando Frutos <ignacio.ferrando at uca.es>
Subject: New Book:History of Arabic Language

A new book on the history of Arabic language (in Spanish) written by
Ignacio Ferrando (Cadiz University, Spain).
A new book has appeared dealing with the history of Arabic language:
Its title is "Introducción a la historia de la lengua árabe. Nuevas
perspectivas", Zaragoza, 2001 (270 pages). It offers a comprehensive
view of the main phases of the Arabic language, starting from its
position within the Semitic languages phylum, following with the
contrast between Southarabic and Northarabic, Protoarabic
inscriptions, Arabic before Islam (ancient dialects), the emergence
of the so-called poetic koiné, the Coran and preislamic prose and
poetry, the work of Arabic grammarians and their efforts to
standardize the language, the emergence of diglossia and the
Neo-Arabic lingual type, Middle Arabic, the emergence of Neo-Arabic
dialects, Modern Standard Arabic and the nowadays linguistic
situation in the Arab world. It includes, at the end of each chapter,
a "further reading" section, and also a commented comprehensive
bibliography (45 pages). As an appendix, readers will find a
selection of ten texts edited in Arabic and translated into Spanish
dealing with some aspects of the history of Arabic, trying to bring
the reader closer to Arabic sources and critical studies.
The overall aim of the book is to present a critical review of what
we know about Arabic language through its history. In doing so,
attention is constantly paid to the dialects of Arabic, for classical
standard Arabic, in spite of its historic and cultural primary
importance, is nothing but another variety of Arabic, and it is well
known that many an archaic linguistic feature is better preserved in
the dialects than in classical usage. So it is important not to
forget the data provided by Arabic dialects in trying to explain
diachronic development.

Orders may be sent to Portico Librerias (e-mail
portico at zaragoza.net). The current prize is 22.84 € euros (about 20
U.S. $).

Ignacio Ferrando
Area de Estudios Arabes
Facultad de Filosofía y Letras
Universidad de Cádiz

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End of Arabic-L:  08 Oct 2001