Arabic-L:LING:North American Schools with Arabic Dialectology Programs

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Fri 14 Dec 2012
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1) Subject:North American Schools with Arabic Dialectology Programs
2) Subject:North American Schools with Arabic Dialectology Programs

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1)
Date: 14 Dec 2012
From:Brustad, Kristen brustad at austin.utexas.edu
Subject:North American Schools with Arabic Dialectology Programs

I think we can be considered as having an Arabic dialectology program here
at UT Austin. We have a working group of 8 people with a range of dialect
backgrounds and interests who work individually and collaboratively.

**

Thanks, and best,****

Kristen****
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2)
Date: 14 Dec 2012
From:Stephen Franke <shfranke at hotmail.com>
Subject:North American Schools with Arabic Dialectology Programs

This is one especially-interesting query to me, since I am an Arabic
language teacher and dialectologist (largely circumstantial and
specializing in the Saudi, Gulf and Yemeni Arabic dialects).

Herewith some impressions (and I realize I may well be misinformed or
under-informed, so I look forward to the final listing you compile from the
replies by other list-members):

Overview - I know of no deliberate, full-blown **dialect-only** or
**dialect-prevalent** Arabic programs at either the undergraduate or
graduate levels at institutions in the US or Canada.

Much the same situation seems prevalent at institutions in UK, although I
have heard of occasional offerings by SOAS in low-density dialects of
Arabic (and preliterate non-Arabic languages of South Arabia) to prepare
doctoral students outbound to various host countries to do their field
research and thus they need better-than-superficial skills in
conversability, linguistics, or ethnography.

The Arabic language programs with which I am familiar are based on each
building and maintaining a strong foundation in MSA. Dialects seem
introduced, if at all, considerably later in a program and as almost-random
offerings or occasional electives. The "big three" (especially in US
Government linguist circles) Arabic dialects have been Egyptian (Cairene),
Syrian (Shaamii) and Iraqi (Baghdadi).

Institutions in the US which offer some courses in selected Arabic dialects
include:

[1] Georgetown - Egyptian, Syrian, Iraq, Maghrebi
(FWIW, the library there inherited -- from CAL when it closed its library
before its move from VA into DC -- some excellent, if not unique by now,
descriptive pubs for self-training on Libyan coastal and rural dialects.
Done under contract by some US universities which hosted groups of Libyan
students and engaged them as respondents, their design and contents were
very functional and intended for [ahem] field use by international aid
workers and technicians, such as USAID employees and the like.  Those
were/are "oldies but goldies" in my opinion, since there is so little
material around in English, Arabic, French, Russian, Italian or other
languages about Libyan Arabic.)

[2] U Michigan - Iraqi (at least)
Ernest McCarus would probably be the most-knowledgeable person there for
details on the status of those offerings.

[3] U of Arizona - Gulf [Emirati] Arabic, taught mostly by Hamdy Qafisheh
(if he is still teaching there).
I think he tried to set up some similar introductory courses there in
Yemeni (Sana'ni) Arabic, but that did not materialize due to low, or no,
interest and enrollment sufficient to make a class.

[4] The U of Texas at Austin - various dialects; ask Kristan Brustad.

[5] Florida State U - Iraqi (might be U of Southern Florida instead)

[6] A small university in Montana with a faculty member originally from
Yemen (I can track down the details).
He teaches basic undergrad classes in MSA and graduate linguistics seminars
on Arabic dialectology, contrastive linguistics & diglossia. He can develop
and deliver detailed descriptive courses about the major local dialects in
Yemen on request (he mentioned that no request from anywhere has appeared
to date).

-----------------------------------------------------------

FYI, the DLIFLC at Presidio of Monterey has been expanding its offerings of
Arabic dialects [albeit only for familiarization or transition, apparently]
in Yemeni (Sana'ani, not on Adeni or Hadarami), Maghrebi, and Sudanese (I
surmise Khartoumi).
[I was contacted earlier this year about becoming an over-the-phone tester
for Yemeni and Sudanese. I asked what materials are being used or were
under development; the reply about the work underway there sounded chaotic
and in "patchwork" mode due to tight time limits. I surmise those dialect
packages [for lack of a more-elegant  descriptor] are either:

-- [1] (this is only a "maybe" speculation) 14-week add-on portions
integrated during the last phases of the current 67-week resident basic
Arabic language [MSA-based] course there, or

-- [2] they are "stand alone" __i.e. "Headstart"-type__
familiarization-focused, multimedia modules, exportable to US military
units located elsewhere.

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Hope this helps. Khair, in shaa' Allah.

Regards,

Stephen

San Pedro, California

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