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  Introduction It is curious that one of the most fundamental concepts of historical linguistics, a discipline that came of age in the 19th century, the proto-language as a product of comparative reconstruction has never been systematically integrated into a historical linguistic interpretation of Arabic. One of the historical linguistic landmarks in the study of Arabic is found in an article by Fleischer (1854:155) in which the entities Old, Middle, and New (or Neo) Arabic are proposed. Fleischer…

Both Classical Arabic and modern spoken varieties of Arabic have what are customarily termed active and passive participles. Although nearly identical in form in both varieties, the semantico-syntactic status of the active participle differs. This entry summarizes the commonalities, particularly the morphological, then deals separately with the two varieties. 1. Common structures 1.1 Morphology Morphologically, both active and passive participles are regularly derived from a verb. The active/passive participles have the form fāʿil/mafʿūl in the basic form, and and i…

1. Arabic-based creoles Arabic-based pidgins and creoles have two profiles. The better-attested one consists of a range of varieties, more or less closely related historically, spoken, or once spoken, in the central and east African countries of the Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, and Chad. In this area the varieties are no older than about 150 years. In true pidgin/creole fashion, the varieties emerged within a short period of time and have developed into a language not mutually intelligible with any other variety of Arabic and having a radicall…