Connecting the Lines between Old (Epigraphic) Arabic and the Modern Vernaculars

Abstract

This paper investigates three linguistic features—wawation, the 1CS genitive clitic pronoun, and the relative pronoun—that are shared between the ancient epigraphic forms of Arabic and modern dialects, to the exclusion of Classical Arabic. I suggest that these features represent the earliest linguistic layer of the modern dialects.

Keywords

• historical linguistics
• Arabic dialectology
• Arabic epigraphy