Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics
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Subject: Language And Linguistics
Managing Editors Online Edition: Lutz Edzard and Rudolf de Jong
The Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics Online comprehensively covers all aspects of Arabic languages and linguistics. It is interdisciplinary in scope and represents different schools and approaches in order to be as objective and versatile as possible. The Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics Online is cross-searchable and cross-referenced, and is equipped with a browsable index. All relevant fields in Arabic linguistics, both general and language specific are covered and the Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics Online includes topics from interdisciplinary fields, such as anthropology, psychology, sociology, philosophy, and computer science.
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The Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics Online comprehensively covers all aspects of Arabic languages and linguistics. It is interdisciplinary in scope and represents different schools and approaches in order to be as objective and versatile as possible. The Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics Online is cross-searchable and cross-referenced, and is equipped with a browsable index. All relevant fields in Arabic linguistics, both general and language specific are covered and the Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics Online includes topics from interdisciplinary fields, such as anthropology, psychology, sociology, philosophy, and computer science.
Subscriptions: see brill.com
Dialect Geography
(4,952 words)
1. Introduction The Arabic-speaking area is dialectally fragmented, as only few other speech areas are, and many a region remains a terra incognita. This shortcoming is a result of the geographical aspect on one hand: not all localities and regions have been investigated to the same extent. Thus, Khurasan Arabic was discovered only recently (Seeger 2002; Afghanistan Arabic). On the other hand, the data are heterogeneous as for size, quality, and moment of investigation. This can be explained by the fact that Arabic …
Date:
2018-04-01
Dialect Koine
(3,059 words)
1. Introduction The term ‘koine’ comes from the Greek word
koinē ‘common’, referring to the variety of Greek that became the …
Date:
2018-04-01
Dictionaries
(10 words)
see Lexicography: Bilingual Dictionaries | Lexicography: Monolingual Dictionaries
Date:
2018-10-01
Diglossia
(6,211 words)
In his 2001 inaugural speech at the 67th conference of the Arabic Language Academy (19 March–2 April), Šawqī Ḍayf, the president of the academy, openly accused the media of being carelessly oblivious, noting that
fuṣḥā is “the language of all the peoples of the
ʾumma [
luġat šuʿūb al-ʾumma jamīʿan]” whereas the
ʿāmmiyya is the “daily language of a single people… the local language understood only by its people”. He argued that the …
Date:
2018-04-01
Diminutive
(1,825 words)
The diminutive is a morphological pattern which expresses diminution, reduction, or lessening. The common Arabic terms for diminution and diminutive are
at-taṣġīr or
al-ism al-muṣaġġar, and
at-taḥqīr and
al-ism al-muḥaqqar for a pejorative/deteriorative/contemptuous meaning which is sometimes implicit in the form. The diminutive may also be used to express endearment or charity (e.g. Wright 1896:166; Fleisch 1961:380–381, 392; Fischer 2002:51). Semitic languages, including Arabic, present series of noun patterns, i.e. substantives and adjectives, which e…
Date:
2018-04-01
Diptosis
(2,601 words)
1. Introduction Arabic is a language of case inflections (declension). The majority of nouns have three cases: /u/ for the nominative, /i/ for the genitive, and /a/ for complements. This three-case system, or triptosis, contrasts with a two-case system, in which nouns have /u/ for the nominative, and /a/ for the other functions. The most important categories of diptotic nouns in Classical Arabic are (Fleisch 1961:271–276): i.proper names: names of foreign origin (e.g.
ʾibrāhīmu ‘Abraham’); names of cities and regions (e.g.,
baġdādu ‘Baghdad’); names ending in
tāʾ marbūṭa, both mal…
Date:
2018-04-01
Djibouti/Eritrea
(1,797 words)
Arabic, though not native to the Horn of Africa, is widely spoken in two countries where it is not the majority language: the Republic of Djibouti and Eritrea. This region on the west coast of the Red Sea opposite the Tihama region of Yemen has always been one of contact and exchange. Links between the African and Arabian coasts are attested since antiquity and are doubtless much older. Arabic was spoken there before the arrival of Islam. The Christianization of Abyssinia was carried out by Arabic-speaking priests from Syria who began to evange…
Date:
2018-04-01