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صفحة: II
Towards a Comparative Dictionary of Beduin Arabic Alexander Borg 1 . Preliminaries Comparative lexicology remains to this day one of the least studied domains within the discipline of Arabic dialectology . Systematic research on the word stock of regionally significant dialectal varieties in the Arabic-speaking world focusing on historical and comparative aspects of the language has yet to address this longstanding lacuna . Given the long history of human settlement and the concomitant complex linguistic stratification in the Middle East and North Africa , a preliminary attempt at portraying lexical isoglosses characterizing the contemporary Arabic vernaculars would be an innovative contribution to the cultural and linguistic history of this region . The following remarks are intended to report on ongoing historical and comparative research relating to the word stock of Beduin Arabic vernaculars , and to demonstrate the significance of this pioneer project for a global diachrony of Arabic and other Semitic languages . The feasibility of a project on historical lexicography in relation to Arabic at the present time has been enhanced by the appearance , during the last few decades , of major dictionaries of Arabic vernaculars spoken in Yemen , Upper Egypt , Syria , Eastern Arabia , and S . E . Anatolia ( see bibliography ) . While there can be no doubt that the extensive synchronic data base now accessible to the dialectologist has inaugurated a new stage in the history of research on the Arabic dialects spoken by sedentaries , the fact remains that ( i ) the accessibility of new lexical data on Arabic vernaculars that were , until fairly recently , poorly attested or not at all , invites a serious engagement with general aspects of Arabic language history from a specifically lexical perspective that also takes within its ambit other relevant Semitic languages , especially Aramaic , since several varieties of this language are still spoken in different parts of the Arabic- speaking Middle East and beyond ; ( ii ) the lexicography of Beduin vernaculars has yet to attract the scientific attention it deserves . Research on Beduin vernaculars constitutes , at the present time , a scientific objective vested with a certain urgency given the advanced state of sedentarization of Beduin communities and the concomitant erosion of their
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مجمع اللغة العربية
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