A Linguistic History of Arabic

A Linguistic History of Arabic presents a reconstruction of proto-Arabic by the methods of historical-comparative linguistics. It challenges the traditional conceptualization of an old Classical language evolving into the contemporary Neo-Arabic dialects. Professor Owens combines established comparative linguistic methodology with a careful reading of the classical Arabic sources such as the grammatical and exegetical traditions. He arrives at a richer and more complex picture of early Arabic language history than is current today and in doing so establishes the basis for a comprehensive linguistically-based understanding of the history of Arabic. The arguments are set out in a concise case by case basis making it accessible to students and scholars of Arabic and Islamic culture as well as to those studying Arabic and historical linguists.