Preface

Despite widening international interest in Arabic language and culture, few resources exist for a systematic introduction to the linguistics of Arabic and for teaching the basics of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics. This is true despite the fact that distinguished works exist in Arabic, English, and other languages examining and documenting Arabic language history, structure, and processes. Works by Aoun, Badawi, Bateson, Beeston, Bohas, Carter, Eid, Holes, Owens, Parkinson, Stetkevych, Talmon, Versteegh and others have contributed vastly to understanding the linguistics of Arabic. However, there is a place for an organized overview, both as a reference tool and as a foundational textbook for learning about the field.

For teaching courses on Arabic linguistics, I have used books and articles by all the above-mentioned authors. In particular, I have found Bateson’s Arabic Language Handbook, Beeston’s The Arabic Language Today, and Stetkevych’s The Modern Arabic Literary Language useful for concise summaries of key topics. These books originally date from 1967 (Bateson) and 1970 (Beeston and Stetkevych). Holes’ Modern Arabic (2004) is a more modern and comprehensive approach, but I have found that it is less useful as a textbook than as a reference work, and I usually assign only certain parts of it. Versteegh’s The Arabic Language (1997), provides historical background for key developments in the Arabic language but does not analyze the actual linguistic structures and processes of contemporary modern standard Arabic (MSA). Owens’ many excellent works on the history of Arabic and Arabic grammatical theory are focused primarily on premodern developments. Thus none of these books – despite their many merits – forms by itself a framework for a course in contemporary Arabic linguistics, and there is a distinct need for a more pedagogically focused work that includes discussion topics, questions, and suggestions for further readings on specific subjects. This book aims to meet the challenges of teaching elements of Arabic linguistics to students and teachers-in-training who may know little about linguistic theory, and for classes where there are mixed levels of ability in the language and in academic background.