1. The evidence for Old Arabic

The term ‘Old Arabic’ (vieil-arabe, Altarabisch), like the terms ‘Old English’, ‘Old Aramaic’, etc., refers to the earliest surviving examples of the Arabic language, from which, it is assumed, the later forms evolved. This early stage almost certainly existed as a number of spoken dialects, used at various times in the pre-Islamic period in different parts of the Arabian Peninsula, the…