Arabic in the context of comparative studies

Abstract

The paper discusses certain characteristics of Arabic that define its position in Semitic comparative studies and are determined not only by Arabic language structures at different levels , but also by extra-linguistic factors, viz. socio-cultural and psychological. This combination of both linguistic and extra-linguistic factors makes Arabic a special phenomenon among languages of the world. Before discussing the place of Arabic in Semitic studies, I present a brief overview of the history of intra-Semitic comparisons prior to the emergence of contemporary comparative linguistics and to the role of Arabic medieval grammar tradition in this respect. The next section focuses on the role of Arabic as a model for proto-Semitic reconstructions and on the drastic changes that it underwent over the history of comparative Semitic studies. The last section discusses certain specific features of Arabic and Semitic phonetics and lexicon and their correlation with the standard Neogrammarian paradigm of comparative linguistics. These issues deserve special attention, since theories based on these phenomena contradict the standard paradigm of comparative linguistics, and the Arabic language may be regarded as an archetypal case of these phenomena. In this paper, I would like to discuss the place and role of Arabic in Semitic comparative studies and historical reconstructions. In the beginning we shall focus on the history of intra-Semitic comparisons and the role that Hebrew-Aramaic biblical studies and medieval Arabic grammar traditions play within this framework. Following that, we shall discuss the status of Arabic as a model in Semitic reconstructions at different stages of development of Semitic comparative historical linguistics. In the early period of modern Semitic studies standard Ara-bic was duly considered the most archaic of the living Semitic languages. Although the task of establishing regular sound correspondences between classical Semitic languages was accomplished , these correspondences were, in fact, graphic and not phonetic in the proper sense of the word; their phonetic value was established mostly on the basis of classical Arabic pronunciation. Only at the later stages were the data from Modern South Arabian and Ethiopian Se-mitic included into comparative Semitic studies on par with classical languages, and this brought serious changes to the comparative panorama of Semitic. Special attention will be paid to the reconstruction of the Semitic verbal system according to the model worked out by the present author, as well as the place of Arabic in this model. Finally, particular attention will be devoted to the evolution of the status of Arabic as a model for proto-Semitic reconstructions. The last part of the paper is dedicated to different attempts to consider certain features of Arabic and Semitic phonetics and lexicon as a source for inferring glottogonic processes. These trends contradict standard Neogrammarian paradigms and deserve special discussion.