Linguistic Studies & Arabic Varieties

Linguistic Studies in Memory of Richard Slade Harrell

• The book is titled "Linguistic Studies in Memory of Richard Slade Harrell"
• It was edited by Don Graham Stuart
• Published by Georgetown University Press, Washington, D.C.
• Publication date: 1967
• The book is a collection of linguistic studies.

Some Contrasts Between Classical and Egyptian Arabic

• Diglossia: Two varieties of a language coexisting, each serving different social functions.
• Classical Arabic (CA): Also referred to as Literary, Standard or Written Arabic. It hasn't changed significantly in 1300 years due to grammatical and pronunciation rules established by the Koran's reciters.
  • Used for religious sermons, literary works, speeches, news broadcasts, etc.
• Egyptian Arabic (EA): A colloquial variety, also called Vernacular or Spoken Arabic. It developed from classical Arabic or an earlier Arabic Koine.
  • Used in everyday conversation, movies, plays, songs and for interactions between family, colleagues and others.

Phonology

• Phoneme inventory: Classical Arabic has 35 phonemes (29 consonants and 6 vowels), while Egyptian Arabic has 36 phonemes (26 consonants and 10 vowels).
• Consonants: Egyptian Arabic has fewer affricates and fricatives and more stops compared to classical Arabic. It also has a tendency towards back consonants (like dentals or alveolars).

Vowels

• Vowel inventory: Classical Arabic has 3 short and 3 long vowels, while Egyptian Arabic has 4 short and 6 long vowels.
• Vowel changes: Variations in Egyptian Arabic include shortening final long vowels before specific linguistic features, lengthening short vowels before certain suffixes, and the elision of vowels in unstressed positions.

Morphology

• Grammatical variations: Egyptian Arabic has simpler grammatical categories compared to Classical Arabic, such as less inflection in verbs (perfect, imperfect, indicative, subjunctive, energetic, imperative), less use of voices, distinctions in voicing or gender. It can also exhibit optional assimilation or apocopation of words, especially the definite article 'al'.