Agreement patterns in Omani Arabic: Sociolinguistic conditioning and diachronic developments
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.35650Keywords:
Omani Arabic, Gulf Arabic, agreement, diachronic morphosyntaxAbstract
This article treats the sociolinguistic factors, which play a role in determining agreement variation in Omani Arabic. Though the prescriptive rules of Standard Arabic are found to have an influence, this is by no means the only factor at play, and the type of variation observed in the data is (also) motivated by language-internal dynamics. The influence of more prestigious spoken varieties is also found to have a role in determining agreement. In the concluding paragraph, some insight are offered on how these facts could help reconstructing the historical development of agreement patterns in Arabic.
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Versteegh, K. (1984) Pidginization and Creolization: The Case of Arabic. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.33.
Beeston, A. F. L. (1975) Some features of Modern Standard Arabic. Journal of Semitic Studies 20: 62–68. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/XX.1.62.
Belnap, K. R. (1991) Grammatical Agreement Variation in Cairene Arabic. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.
Belnap, K. R. (1993) The meaning of deflected/strict agreement in Cairene Arabic. In M. Eid and C. Holes (eds) Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics I 97–119. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Belnap, K. R. and Gee, J. (1994) Classical Arabic in contact: The transition to near categorical agreements patterns. In V. Cantarino, M. Eid and K. Walters (eds) Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics VI 121–149. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.115.11bel.
Belnap, K. R. and Shabaneh, O. (1992) Variable agreement and nonhuman plurals in Classical and Modern Standard Arabic. In E. Broselow, M. Eid and J. McCarthy (eds) Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics IV 245–262. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.85.15bel.
Bettega, S. (2017) Agreement with plural controllers in Omani Arabic: Preliminary remarks. In S. Bettega and F. Gasparini (eds) Linguistic Studies in the Arabian Gulf 153–174. Torino: Università di Torino (= QuadRi ? Quaderni di RiCOGNIZIONI V).
Brustad, K. (2000) The Syntax of Spoken Arabic: A Comparative Study of Moroccan, Egyptian, Syrian, and Kuwaiti dialects. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Carter, M. (1981) Arabic Linguistics. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1075/sihols.24.
Corbett, G. G. (2006) Agreement. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cowell, M. (1964) A Reference Grammar of Syrian Arabic (based on the Dialect of Damascus). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Davey, R. J. (2016) Coastal Dhofari Arabic: A Sketch Grammar. Leiden: Brill. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004317437.
Eades, D. (2009) The Arabic dialect of a Šaw?w? community of northern Oman. In E. Al-Wer and R. de Jong (eds) Arabic Dialectology: In Honour of Clive Holes on the Occasion of his 60th Birthday 77–98. Leiden: Brill. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004172128.i-298.36.
Eades, D. (2012) Grammaticalization and the irrealis b-prefix in an Arabic dialect of Oman. In D. Eades (ed.) Grammaticalization in Semitic 103–122. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Eades, D. and Persson, M. (2013) Aktionsart, word form and context: On the use of the active participle in Gulf Arabic dialects. Journal of Semitic Studies 58: 343–367. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgt006.
Eades, D. and Watson, J. (2013) Camel Culture and Camel Terminology among the Omani Bedouin. Journal of Semitic Studies 58: 169–186. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgs044.
Ferguson, C. A. (1989) Grammatical agreement in Classical Arabic and the modern dialects: A response to Versteegh’s pidginization hypothesis. Al-?Arabiyya 22: 5–17.
Harrell, R. S. (2004) A Short Reference Grammar of Moroccan Arabic. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Holes, C. (1989) Towards a dialect geography of Oman. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 52: 446–462. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X00034558.
Holes, C. (1990) Gulf Arabic. London and New York: Routledge.
Holes, C. (2008) Omani Arabic. In K. Versteegh, M. Eid, A. Elgibali, M. Woidich and A. Zaborski (eds) Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics 478–491. Leiden: Brill.
Holes, C. (2016) Dialect, Culture and Society in Eastern Arabia, Volume III: Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, Style. Leiden: Brill.
Ingham, B. (1982) North East Arabian Dialects. London and New York: Routledge.
Jayakar, A. S. (1889) The Omanee Dialect of Arabic. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 21: 649–687. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00165839.
Khan, G. (1984) Object Markers and Agreement Pronouns in Semitic Languages. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 47: 468–500. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X00113709.
Mejdell, G. (2012) The elusiveness of lu?a wust? ? or, attempting to catch its “true nature”. In R. Bassiouney and G. Katz (eds) Arabic Language and Linguistics 157–167. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Owens, J. and Bani-Yasin, R. (1987) The lexical basis of variation in Jordanian Arabic. Linguistics 25: 705–738. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.1987.25.4.705.
Reinhardt, C. (1894) Ein arabischer Dialekt gesprochen in Oman und Zanzibar. Amsterdam: Philo Press.
Rhodokanakis, N. (1911) Der vulgärarabische Dialekt im ?ofâr (?fâr), Volume II: Einleitung, Glossar und Grammatik. Vienna: Hölder.
Ritt-Benmimoun, V. (2016) Agreement with plural heads in Tunisian Arabic: The Bedouin South. In Ritt-Benmimoun (ed.) Tunisian and Lybian Arabic Dialects, Common Trends, Recent Developments, Diachronic Aspects 261–287. Zaragoza: IEIOP.
Versteegh, K. (1984) Pidginization and Creolization: The Case of Arabic. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.33.
Published
2019-02-26
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Articles
How to Cite
Bettega, S. (2019). Agreement patterns in Omani Arabic: Sociolinguistic conditioning and diachronic developments. Sociolinguistic Studies, 12(2), 143-163. https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.35650
