The Classification of Arabic Dialects: Traditional Approaches, New Proposals, and Methodological Problems

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue intends to deal with the classification of Arabic dialects in the broadest possible sense. The question of how to classify the different varieties of spoken Arabic is a long-standing problem in the fields of Arabic and Semitic linguistics, and it has been addressed by several authors and from a number of different perspectives.

The classic study by Rosenhouse (1984), for instance, deals with the traditional division of Arabic dialects into Bedouin and sedentary ones. This classification method, however, is far from unproblematic, to the point that it has been described by Watson (2011: 869) as being “both an oversimplification and of diminishing sociological appropriacy”.

Geographical approaches have been attempted as well, but—although possibly functional at very small scales—they can provide at best very general trends when applied to larger areas. The subdivision of Arabic dialects into areal macrofamilies (such as Levantine, Peninsular, etc.) is ultimately unsatisfactory.

Hybrid systems of classification, based on a combination of social, historical and geographical factors, are also commonly employed. An example of this comes from the well-known subdivision of Maghrebi dialects into pre-Hilali and Bedouin ones, and of the latter into Hilali, Sulaymi and Maʕqili. These labels have been recently problematized by Taine-Cheikh (2017) and Benkato (2019: 3-4), who goes as far as to say that it is impossible to find “linguistic argument or detailed linguistic evidence” to support this system of classification (a system, furthermore, not devoid of influences from colonial thought).

The synchronic and diachronic dimensions are often conflated as well. This is most evident in the long-standing tradition of separating a “conservative and synthetic” Old-Arabic type from an “innovative and analytic” Neo-Arabic one (see, for instance, Fischer and Jastrow, 1980). This approach also shows its limitations, however. Retsö (2013: 366) has taken issue with this, claiming that the overlapping of the two temporal planes causes “a confusion [that] tends to blur distinctions”. Bettega (2019) has shown that, from the point of view of certain syntactical features, contemporary dialects are closer to the Old-Arabic type than Modern Standard Arabic is—Old-Arabic’s allegedly closest relative. Similar views are expressed in Pat-El (2017: 467), who claims that dialects “can also be conservative, while the standard can be counter-conservative”.

Pat-El (2019), in particular, has recently shown how the implementation of a typological approach to the study of Semitic languages could represent a promising line of research. Unfortunately, works focused exclusively on Arabic dialects that adopt a comparative and typological perspective remain very few (see, for instance, Brustad 2000).

All in all, when taken as a group, all these approaches appear rather discontinuous, and though each one of them can be of help in addressing certain theoretical points, they are all also dysfunctional on some level. Owens (2013: 23) has effectively summarized this point by stating that “if till today simple models for classifying Arabic dialects elude us, it is no doubt in large part because an originally diverse proto-situation has continued to diversify across the vast geographical region where Arabic is spoken”. Moving from similar considerations, Retsö (2013) has taken a deconstructivist approach to its extremes, ending up showing that even the very notion of what can be considered “Arabic” is not entirely uncontroversial.

As can be seen, even this brief and non-comprehensive survey is enough to show that the classification of Arabic dialects represents a multifaceted, highly complex object of inquiry. We feel that a collective reflection on the way in which Arabic dialects are labeled and grouped could represent an important step forward for Arabic dialectology as a discipline, and one that could also help to bridge the gap between this area of research and general linguistics.

Papers on all aspects of the classification of Arabic dialects are welcome, either focused on a specific subgroup of dialects or specific area, on a single phenomenon across different dialects, or more general in scope. We particularly welcome contributions that deal with the following themes:

• The traditional approaches: Arabic dialectology has traditionally employed a number of rather heterogeneous tools to classify and subdivide Arabic varieties. These subdivisions tend to conflate linguistic and non-linguistic facts, such as geography (the Maghreb/Mashreq split, or areal subgroupings such as Levantine dialects, Peninsular dialects and so on), social organization (the Bedouin/sedentary divide), urbanization (urban/rural/nomadic varieties), and religion (Christian, Jewish and Muslim dialects; Sunni and Shiite dialects). The distinction between diachronic and synchronic analyses becomes often blurred, so that historical facts come to play a role as well (this is most notably the case in the Neo-Arabic vs. Old-Arabic distinction, but this tendency can be observed in the aforementioned categories as well). Can these categories still be fruitfully employed? Did recent developments in the field of Arabic studies contribute to reinforce them, or have they shown their inadequacy? Is it possible to further refine these subdivisions, both in light of new data, and by combining them with tools coming from different disciplines, such as linguistic typology? Should our (admittedly expanding) knowledge of the history of Arabic affect our evaluation of the synchronic distribution of its dialects? Is genealogy to be factored in a classification of Arabic dialects?
• Recent developments: In recent decades, a wealth of new data has been brought to light by dedicated scholars from all over the world. Well-known dialects have been the objects of new, more detailed studies, and previously unknown dialects and dialect areas have been described and brought to the attention of the academic community. Has this affected the way in which Arabic dialects have traditionally been conceptualized? If so, in which way? Is a re-thinking of received classificatory systems in order, on several different local scales as well as on a pan-Arabic one? Are we in need of new systems to be built from scratch?
• Typology: A large-scale typology of Arabic dialects, with an exclusively synchronic approach and based on the tools of modern linguistic theory, remains a desideratum. This is unsurprising, considered the huge amount of work that such an undertaking would entail. However, a few separate attempts in this direction have been made, showing promising results. Could the adoption of typological tools provide us with new insights on the relations that exist between the different Arabic dialects, and on the way we envision and classify them? How would an exclusively typological classification of Arabic dialects interact with previous classificatory systems? Would they overlap, coexist, or simply be incompatible with one another? What are the most promising lines of research in the field of the typology of Arabic dialects?
• Methodology and theory: Existing proposals for the classification or Arabic dialects all have their limitations, in that they can often account for a great number of phenomena and/or dialects, but not for all of them. Exceptions seem always to exist. Is the aspiration to develop a one-size-fits-all classificatory system a legitimate one? Can the multifaceted reality of linguistic phenomena be captured in its entirety by any given theoretical framework? And if not, how does this impossibility impact research? To what extent do classifications represent useful though abstract conceptual tools, which help us to better understand and conceptualize the object of our research, and to what extent are they the manifestation of actual real-world phenomena?

Tentative Completion Schedule:

• Abstract submission deadline: November 20th, 2020
• Notification of abstract acceptance: January 10th, 2021
• Full manuscript deadline: June 10th, 2021

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400-600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the guest editors (simone.bettega@unito.it & r.morano@leeds.ac.uk) or to /Languages/ editorial office (languages@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the special issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

Bibliographical references:

Benkato, A. (2019), “From Medieval Tribes to Modern Dialects: on the Afterlives of Colonial Knowledge in Arabic Dialectology”, in Philological Encounters, 4: 2-25

Bettega, S. (2019), “Rethinking Agreement in Spoken Arabic: the Question of Gender”, in Annali, Sezione Orientale (AION), 79: 126-156

Brustad, K. (2000), The Syntax of Spoken Arabic. A Comparative Study of Moroccan,
Egyptian, Syrian and Kuwaiti Dialects, Washington, D.C., Georgetown University Press

Fischer, W., Jastrow, O. (1980), Handbuch der arabischen Dialekte, Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz

Owens, J. (2013), “A House of Sound Structure, of Marvelous form and Proportion: An
Introduction”, in Owens, J. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Arabic Linguistics, Oxford, Oxford University Press: 22-36

Pat-El, N. (2017), “Diggin Up Archaic Features: ‘Neo-Arabic’ and Comparative Semitic in the Quest for Proto Arabic”, in Al-Jallad, A. (ed.), Arabic in Context. Celebrating 400 Years of Arabic at Leiden University, Leiden, Brill: 441-475

Pat-El, N. (2019), “The Semitic Language Family. A typological perspective”, in Huehnergard, J., Pat-El, N. (eds.), The Semitic Languages. Second edition, New York, Routledge : 80-94

Retsö, J. (2013), What is Arabic?, in Owens, J. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Arabic Linguistics, Oxford, Oxford University Press: 361-373

Rosenhouse, J. (1984), The Bedouin Arabic dialects: General problems and a close analysis of North Israel Bedouin dialects, Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz

Taine-Cheikh, C. “La classification des parlers bédouins du Maghreb: revisiter le
classement traditionnel,” in Ritt-Benmimoun, V. (ed.), Tunisian and Libyan Arabic Dialects: Common Trends, Recent Developments, Diachronic Aspects, Zaragoza, Instituto de Estudios Islámicos y del Oriente Próximo: 15-42

Watson, J. (2011), “Arabic Dialects: general article”, in Weninger, S. (ed.), The Semitic Languages. An international handbook, Berlin and Boston, De Gruyter Mouton

Dr. Simone Bettega
Dr. Roberta Morano
Guest Editors

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