A Linguistic History of Arabic challenges the traditional accounts of the progression of classical Arabic to contemporary dialects. It presents a rich and complex picture of early Arabic language history and establishes the basis for a comprehensive, linguistically-based understanding of the history of Arabic. The arguments are set out in a manner accessible to students and scholars of Arabic and Islamic culture, as well as to those studying Arabic and historical linguists.

1. Introduction: A Language and its Secrets 2. Old Arabic, Neo-Arabic, and Comparative Linguistics 3. Case and Proto Arabic 4. Al-Idgham al-Kabiyr and Case Endings 5. Pre-Diasporic Arabic in the Diaspora: A Statistical Approach to Arabic Language History 6. Nigerian Arabic and Reconstruction of the Imperfect Verb 7. Imala 8. Suffix Pronouns and Reconstruction 9. Summary and Epilogue Appendix References Index

Jonathan Owens , University of Maryland and Bayreuth University, Germany