The Arabic language across the ages represents a significant contribution to Arabic linguistics and philology. The book provides a variety of studies that address different aspects of the Arabic language. Some of the contributions are diachronic, focusing on the status quo of the language while others explore its history and development. It also provides text-analysis as well as geographical-based studies. Moreover, the relationship between Arabic and other languages is underlined. More specifically, the book presents studies on Arabic dialectology (e.g., Arabic North-African dialects), morphology (e.g., The Arabic plural), lexicology and lexicography (e.g., culinary lexicon), phonetics and phonology (e.g., vocalization), syntax (e.g., the function of the particle bi-), sociolinguistics (e.g. A lexical atlas of the Arab world), and history (e.g., dialects of Arabic before and after Classical Arabic). The present book is intended to be the first of a forthcoming series of publications on different aspects of the Arabic language, history and culture. The topics addressed offer a balanced treatment of the Arabic of today and the Arabic of the past. The book can be of great interest for linguists of Arabic, the students of Arabic as a native language or a foreign language, professors and students at departments of Semitic studies, Islamic studies and Middle Eastern studies at all universities. It can be also of interest for scholars studying the history and culture of the Arab world. Needless to say, general linguists may find some of the linguistic issues addressed quite relevant and of universal significance (e.g., Arabic broken plural). Dialectologists and researchers interested in language varieties will, undoubtedly, find some of the studies quite interesting since some understudied historical and current dialects of Arabic are investigated. This specific aspect of Arabic linguistics offers infinite number of research possibilities due to the diglossic relationship between Modern Standard Arabic or Classical Arabic and its various dialects as well as the rich variety of dialects spoken throughout the Arab World. The contributions presented in this book are simply eye opening, whetting our appetite for more. They definitely demonstrate that the Arabic language is still almost a virgin field of study, providing various research ideas to pursue.
