Exploring Pre-Islamic Arabic History: Tribes, Dialects, and Influence

1. A brief History of Arabic:The Pre-Islamic Period AbderrahimChalfaouat

2. Outline Introduction • Semitic Origins • Perishing Arab tribes • Ancient Arabic Dialects: • Old South-Arabian Dialects • North-Arabian Dialects • Influence of Adjacent Dialects • Influence of Adjacent Languages • Diglossia • Arabia in the 7th Century • Conclusion

3. Introduction Offspring of Sam son of Noah: Assyrians, Babylonians, Hebrew, Phoenicians, Aramians, Arabs and Ethiopians. Much interaction and exchange happened between them. Before Islam, Arabic was a minor language Arabs in the North lived in nomadic tribes while in the South they traded with other peoples. Writing was not as widespread a trade as speaking Proto-Arabic

4. Semitic Origins

5. by Elie Wardini on http://almashriq.hiof.no/general/400/410/Semitic-Lang-Map.html

6. What Do they Have in Common? The six vowel system: three long and three short Writing from right to left Vowels used for changing word category Infixation more frequent than pre- or suffixation Roots are mostly three lettered Singular- dual- plural Nouns and adjectives different between masculine and feminine

7. Ancient Arabic Dialects Perishing Arab tribes: Tribes that lived in the Empty Quarter Four main tribes: Tasm, Jadis, Ad and Thamud Little remains for linguistic study. Religious books mention them, but many myths are told especially by pre-Islam religious leaders. They perished because of wars and divine punishment.

8. Old South Arabian حسان بن ثابت: تعلمتم من منطق الشيخ يعرب أبينا، فصرتم معربين ذوي نفر و كنتم قديما ما لكم غير عجمة كلام، و كنتم كالبهائم في القفر ابن خلدون: ‘‘و لغة حمير لغة أخرى مغايرة للغة مضر في كثير من أوضاعها وتصاريفها و حركات إعرابها” Tribes that flourished in Yemen including the kingdoms of Saba, Himyar and Hadramaut. Descendants of Yareb Ben Qahtan, a progeny of Ad. They spoke many dialects of Himyarian Arabic. They were in constant contact with other Mediterranean civilizations. The Arab poet حسان بن ثابتconsidered them the teachers of Northern Arabs. Ibn Khaldoun in his Introduction mentions the linguistic differences between South and North Arabian.

9. Old South Arabian (cont) Archaeologists have discovered in Yemen a number of limestones, dating back to few centuries before the rise of Islam They generally account personal matters Some archaeologists doubt that those great traders did not record their history. Many of them moved Northward after successive draughts followed by the destruction of Maarib Dam. The Jorhom tribe were very became strong in North Arabia Ismail son of Ibrahim lived among them and learnt Arabic.

11. North Arabian Dialects Tribes such as Ghassassinide, Khuzaa, Aws, Khazraj, Tai, Manathiride immigrated from the South. Many of them reigned supreme in the region. North Arabia was home to nomadic tribes Tribes in remote areas were considered more eloquent and their Arabic purer. They generally spoke Adnanite Arabic

12. NorthArabicDialects (cont) Differences between tribal dialects took place at the level of vocabulary, pronunciation and word derivation.

13. Influence of Adjacent Languages Direct contact withother nations (Persians, Romans, etc) wasverylittle. Tradingcaravansbroughtwiththemtermsrelated to tools, trees, textile, and medicines. The transfer of Greek works took place through the Soryani translations by the Christian scholars mostly Nestorians and some Jacobites from the schools of Mesopotamia and Syria, during the 4th through the 9thcenturies A.D., but its influence occuredafter the rise of Islam.

14. Influence of Adjacent Languages It is generally accepted that the Arabic script developed from Nabataean, a dialect of Aramaic.

15. Diglossia The co-existence of two different varieties started before Islam Mecca became the center of the region for religious (pilgrimage), economic (trade) and poetic (Okad market) reasons. Mecca dialect became a lingua franca different from other tribal dialects Arab poetry and the Quran and Hadiths used Mecca dialect (the Koine theory). The written form simulates early versions The spoken forms changed with time to result in present day dialects

16. Arabia in the 7th Century Mecca became the heart of the area in terms of religion, economy and trade, literature, etc. Abraha tried to topple down the Old Mosque Much linguistic interaction took place. The circumstances were very ready for the start of a new era, language change and novel linguistic contacts included.

17. Conclusion The importance of Arabic occured mainly after Islam

18. Thank you

19. References • Bibliography • البستاني، بطرس. أدباء العرب في الجاهلية و صدر الإسلام. ج 1. بيروت: دار مارون عبود. 1979. • ابن خلدون، عبد الرحمن. مقدمة ابن خلدون. بيروت: المكتبة العصرية. 2004. • علي، جواد. المفصل في تاريخ العرب قبل الإسلام. بغداد: جامعة بغداد. ج 1. 1993 • De Lacy O. L., How Greek Science Passed to the Arabs. Chicago: Ares Publishers Inc. 1979). • Webliography http://www.indiana.edu/~arabic/arabic_history.htm http://almashriq.hiof.no/ http://linguistics.byu.edu/classes/ling450ch/reports/arabic.html