The Arabic Language

by Kees Versteegh

Overview

This comprehensive work presents a compelling and much needed synthesis of linguistic theories, considering both the historical development of Arabic, and its modern structure and usage. Versteegh describes Arabic's three main dialects: Arabic proper, typified by the archaic dialects of the Bedouins of the Arabian Peninsula; Eastern dialects spoken in Iraq, Syria, and Egypt; and Latinized dialects spoken in Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781399542692
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	01/31/2026
Pages:	520
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Kees Versteegh (1947) is Emeritus Professor of Arabic and Islam at the University of Nijmegen (the Netherlands). He studied Classical languages and Semitic languages and obtained his Ph.D. with a dissertation Greek elements in Arabic linguistic thinking (Brill, Leiden, 1977). From 1973 till 2010 he taught Arabic at the University of Nijmegen; in between, he served from 1987 to 1989 as director of the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo. His research focuses on historical linguistics, the history of linguistics and processes of language change and language contact, dealing with topics such as the beginnings of the Arabic grammatical tradition, early Qur'anic commentaries and the emergence of Arabic pidgins and creoles.

His books include The Arabic language (Edinburgh UniversityPress, Edinburgh, 1997, revised edition 2014). The Arabic linguistic tradition (Routledge, London, 1997), Arabic grammar and Qurʾānic exegesis in early Islam (Brill, Leiden, 1993), and Pidginization and creolization: The case of Arabic (Amsterdam, Benjamins,1984). He was co-editor of the three-volume Handbuch für die Geschichte der Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft (de Gruyter, Berlin, 2000-2006), served as editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics (five volumes, Brill, Leiden, 2006-2009), and with Jan Hoogland and Manfred Woidich, edited the Dutch-Arabic and Arabic-Dutch dictionary (2 volumes, Bulaq, Amsterdam, 2003).

Table of Contents

Preface to the First Edition
Preface to the Second Edition
Preface to the Third Edition
List of Figures, Maps and Tables
Note on Transcription and Glossing

1. The Study of Arabic
2. Arabic as a Semitic Language
3. Arabs and Arabic: The Epigraphic Record
4. The Language of the Arabian Tribes
5. The Emergence of New Arabic
6. The Development of Classical Arabic
7. The Structure of Arabic
8. The Arabic Linguistic Tradition
9. Middle Arabic
10. The Study of the Arabic Dialects
11. The Dialects of Arabic
12. The Emergence of Modern Standard Arabic
13. Diglossia: Language Variation
14. Bilingualism: Language Choice
15. Arabic as a Minority Language
16. Arabic Pidgins and Creoles
17. Arabic as a World Language

Bibliography
List of Abbreviations
Index

Editorial Reviews

Versteegh (Arabic and Islam, U. of Nijmegen, the Netherlands) explores the structure of the language, its history, and its uses in various literary and non-literary circles. He distinguishes the classic Arabic of the "Quran" and literature from the many dialects that are spoken throughout the Middle East, Mediterranean, and Africa. He assumes no knowledge of Arabic or linguistics, and includes both the original and a translation of quotations. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

This absorbing work brings together for the first time the results of an ever-expanding body of research, and can be recommended immediately and enthusiastically as a reliable introduction to the extensive literature on all aspects of the Arabic language, its origins, history, structure, dialectology and distribution, not forgetting the cultural, religious and political dimensions. In short, it is an indispensable survey of all the major topics in the field."

M. G. Carter

This is an important book, impeccably documented, with an up-to-date bibliography critically viewed in the ‘further readings’ at the end of each chapter, with a useful index and especially with exciting points of view, the outcome of the author’s long-standing interest in the Arabic language and its various aspects.

Nadia Anghelescu

This is a very useful handbook, both for general linguists interested in various aspects of the history and present state of Arabic and for Arabists and/or Semiticists who wish to update their bibliographical knowledge of fields within Arabic linguistics in which they may not be specialists.

Lutz Edzard

Kees Versteegh is internationally renowned for his erudition as a historian of the development of Arabic grammatical thought. In this new and welcome handbook he casts his net wider and gives us an outline account of the historical development of the Arabic language from its earliest beginnings ... Each of Versteegh’s fourteen chapters provides not merely a good general introduction to its subject, but an excellent jumping-off point for further study ... He writes with a transparent mission to explain for the benefit of the specialist and non-specialist alike, and the result is an excellent introduction to the subject.

Clive Holes

An up-to-date textbook in English as an introduction to the history of Arabic has been a desideratum for a long time.... The author is to be congratulated on giving us a work that should become the standard handbook for years to come.

International Journal of the Sociology of Language

This is a very useful handbook, both for general linguists interested in various aspects of the history and present state of Arabic and for Arabists and/or Semiticists who wish to update their bibliographical knowledge of fields within Arabic linguistics in which they may not be specialists.

Die Welt des Islams - Lutz Edward

This is a very useful handbook, both for general linguists interested in various aspects of the history and present state of Arabic and for Arabists and/or Semiticists who wish to update their bibliographical knowledge of fields within Arabic linguistics in which they may not be specialists.

— Lutz Edward

Die Welt des Islams