Arabic and the vernaculars
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With this post, I will begin a series on the nature of the Arabic group of languages. My reason for doing so is that many people are badly confused about just what "Arabic" (a Semitic group) signifies when it comes to language, almost as badly confused as most people are about "Chinese" (linguistically more properly referred to as Sinitic).
For a basic, foundational statement, here are the opening two paragraphs of the Wikipedia article on "Arabic":
Arabic (اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ, al-ʿarabiyyah [al ʕaraˈbijːa] (
listen) or عَرَبِيّ, ʿarabīy [ˈʕarabiː] (listen) or [ʕaraˈbij]) is a Semitic language that first emerged in the 1st to 4th centuries CE. It is the lingua franca of the Arab world and the liturgical language of Islam. It is named after the Arabs, a term initially used to describe peoples living in the Arabian Peninsula bounded by eastern Egypt in the west, Mesopotamia in the east, and the Anti-Lebanon mountains and northern Syria in the north, as perceived by ancient Greek geographers. The ISO assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic, including its standard form, Modern Standard Arabic, also referred to as Literary Arabic, which is modernized Classical Arabic. This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā (اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ "the eloquent Arabic") or simply al-fuṣḥā (اَلْفُصْحَىٰ).
And here are the first and third paragraphs of the Wikipedia article on "Classical Arabic", with the first clause and last sentence highlighted in red by me:
Classical Arabic (Arabic: ٱلْعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ, romanized: al-ʿarabīyah al-fuṣḥā) or Quranic Arabic is the standardized literary form of the Arabic language used from the 7th century and throughout the Middle Ages, most notably in Umayyad and Abbasid literary texts such as poetry, elevated prose and oratory, and is also the liturgical language of Islam.
…
Modern Standard Arabic is its direct descendant used today throughout the Arab world in writing and in formal speaking, for example prepared speeches, some radio broadcasts and non-entertainment content. Whilst the lexis and stylistics of Modern Standard Arabic are different from Classical Arabic, the morphology and syntax have remained basically unchanged (though Modern Standard Arabic uses a subset of the syntactic structures available in Classical Arabic). In the Arab world little distinction is made between Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic and both are normally called al-fuṣḥā (Arabic: الفصحى) in Arabic, meaning 'the eloquent'.
For detailed clarification, I asked my Arabist colleagues, not just at Penn, but around the world, the following questions:
I think that many people, including even linguists and specialists in other languages, are confused and misguided about the nature of Arabic. Please help me set things straight by writing a concise, clear Language Log post concerning the following:
1. Is there such a thing as "Classical Arabic"? If there is, how do we describe / define it?
2. What is "Standard Arabic"?
3. What is Quranic Arabic? How different is it from Standard Arabic?
4. How many vernacular Arabic languages are there? Egyptian? Syrian? Lebanese? Are they quite different from Standard Arabic? Are they mutually intelligible? Do they customarily have written forms and a flourishing literature?
Grateful for any replies you may offer.
My colleagues have kindly and generously responded. During the coming days and weeks, I will share their illuminating thoughts on "Arabic: classical, standard, and vernacular".
Selected readings
- "Perso-Arabic and Sinitic Literacy" (6/19/09)
- "The same text but in Arabic" (8/22/20)
- "Arabic as a macrolanguage" (10/21/18)
- "A purported Hindi-Arabic round-trip word" (3/6/21)
- "Manglish 'lah' and its affinity to Arabic 'muhibbah'" (3/10/21)
- "Singlish 'lah', with a possible deep connection to colloquial Arabic" (3/9/21)
- "Roll out of here, Mubarak" (4/3/11)
- "Accuracy of sheep meat" (5/26/20)
- "Arablish" (9/23/18)
- "Mutual intelligibility" (5/28/14)
- "Sinitic is a group of languages, not a single language" (10/12/17)
- "Cantonese and Mandarin are two different languages" (9/25/15)
Tom Dawkes said,
March 6, 2022 @ 2:00 pm
For starters, look at this web page…
https://www.wob.com/en-gb/books/clive-holes/modern-arabic/9781589010222?gclid=CjwKCAiA1JGRBhBSEiwAxXblwamXZEoG8pFL569SaEME4dbD0XDX5fR0iA8hqlt3-FekPLJlssXCHhoCeaIQAvD_BwE
Victor Mair said,
March 6, 2022 @ 2:19 pm
This website twice refers to "the symbiotic use of Modern Standard Arabic", once as "increasingly symbiotic". I'm having a hard time figuring out what is meant by this linguistically.
Terpomo said,
March 6, 2022 @ 4:37 pm
Probably in the sense of diglossia i.e. coexisting with the vernacular in different functions, no?
Victor Mair said,
March 6, 2022 @ 6:57 pm
I thought so too, but not sure.
cliff arroyo said,
March 7, 2022 @ 2:38 am
An Arabic speaking colleague (N Africa) distinguishes a variety of different types from local dialect, national dialect (both of which interact with MSA to various degrees), local MSA, less local MSA (I'm simplifying here).
It reminds me of Stewart's Creole continuum more than straight diglossia.
Also the Arabic equivalent of Dungan might be Maltese (a small language that functions in a way that contradicts much of the mythology of the mainstream language community).
Tom Dawkes said,
March 7, 2022 @ 2:52 am
Victor, the UPEnn libraries have hundreds of books on Arabic: "The Cambridge handbook of Arabic linguistics" [2021] is available online, and I'm sure would be a good introduction to the whole issue. See https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-handbook-of-arabic-linguistics/cambridge-handbook-of-arabic-linguistics/8D74D5A9B9AFF7A084EBC517D2093A4F#
Philip Taylor said,
March 7, 2022 @ 5:31 am
Tom — "is available online" only to a select subset of humanity. I am told :
Bob Hoberman said,
March 7, 2022 @ 10:35 am
The best brief description that I know is this one, from Hochsprache und Dialekt im Arabischen by Werner Diem (1974) (my translation):
“The linguistic situation in the Arabic area [obviously not including speakers of minority languages] is as follows:
All speakers without exception speak, from childhood, as their mother tongue, an unwritten form of Arabic, which differs from region to region. This language is used by the educated and the uneducated alike, in this language they think and feel, and in this language they conduct their everyday oral affairs.
Alongside this, the schools teach a written language with which the everyday languages, or dialects, are related: Standard or Literary Arabic, which is to be used in writing and in formal speech. This written language can be considered the modern form of Classical Arabic: it conforms to it almost completely in phonology and morphology [and syntax], and to a large degree also lexically; it is only with regard to style that the conformity is limited.
Whereas the dialects are held to be historyless, Literary Arabic looks back on a literary history of almost one-and-one-half thousand years.”
What's different about Arabic from other diglossic languages, at least in Europe, is that no Arabs, even the highly educated, conduct their conversations in Standard Arabic. When people from widely separated Arab countries talk with each other, they do not shift to Standard Arabic; they speak their own local dialects, just bleaching out a few of the local features that outsiders are least likely to understand. Even in formal journalistic interviews, the closest most people come to it is a mixture of Standard Arabic and colloquial.
cliff arroyo said,
March 7, 2022 @ 11:22 am
IME Arabs will go to great lengths to avoid speaking in Literary Arabic. They'll praise it to the skies and say everybody should speak it but…. whenever they have a choice….. they don't.
Many years ago, an Iraqi co-worker said they could easily understand the spoken Arabic of everywhere in Asia and up to Egypt but had far greater difficulties with anything west of that.
On the other hand I've head a Moroccan and Syrian speaking to each other just fine (each using their dialect) though they had known each other for years, so that helped.
Tom Dawkes said,
March 7, 2022 @ 12:03 pm
@Philip Taylor.
Philip, I was really suggesting that Victor could look at this book, as he has — I assume — staff access to the UPenn facilities. I'm only too aware of how many resources are available only to subscribers.
Vanya said,
March 7, 2022 @ 12:19 pm
"All speakers without exception speak, from childhood, as their mother tongue, an unwritten form of Arabic, which differs from region to region. This language is used by the educated and the uneducated alike, in this language they think and feel, and in this language they conduct their everyday oral affairs.
Alongside this, the schools teach a written language with which the everyday languages, or dialects, are related: Standard or Literary Arabic, which is to be used in writing and in formal speech. "
If you substitute "German" for "Arabic" that would describe the situation in Switzerland. Difference being that when Swiss talk to Austrians or Germans they usually do try to speak standard German. It is interesting that despite years of exposure to television shows and radio in MSA, people still don't want to speak it in real life. What is the explanation for that? Is the fear of making a mistake and embarassing oneself too strong?
Philip Anderson said,
March 7, 2022 @ 4:59 pm
@Vanya
“despite years of exposure to television shows and radio in MSA, people still don't want to speak it in real life.”
So do presenters speak MSA on such shows, since it seems interviewees rarely do?