Lexical and Lexical-Semantic Comparisons of Classical Arabic and Dialects

Authors

  • Hossameddine Abouzahr Living Arabic Project
  • Mohammed Abouzahr

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.34874/PRSM.ijal-vol11.53535

Keywords:

Arabicdialects, diglossia, dictionaries, lexical similarity, orthography, synonym

Abstract

In this paper we assess measurements of lexical and lexical-semantic similarities between varieties of Arabic, Classical and seven dialects, using The Living Arabic Project's database. A driving educational question behind this study is whether this overlap can be utilized to help learners bridge from their native dialect to learning in Classical Arabic (CA), as suggested in a 2021 report published by the World Bank that calls for harnessing words that are the “same” and “similar” between dialects and CA to improve the teaching of the latter while acknowledging that “further research is needed to quantify the degree of overlap in each context.” Our approach to measuring overlap yields more robust measurements of those similarities compared to hitherto popular approaches by trying to resolve challenges created by non-standardized orthographies for dialects and sample limitations. The Living Arabic Project's database also offers a fruitful angle to study lexical and lexical-semantic overlap between dialects by employing data curated using a standardized approach from primary and secondary sources. Nevertheless, we find that using the smaller datasets from some of the newer, less complete dialect dictionaries may lead to overestimating lexical and lexical-semantic overlap with Classical Arabic. 

Author Biographies

Hossameddine Abouzahr, Living Arabic Project

Hossameddine Abouzahr launched The Living Arabic Project in 2013, which is the largest online database of Arabic dialect dictionaries, to support learners’ ability to bridge between dialects and Standard Arabic (SA or al-Fusha). The project has grown from 10,000 entries to over 200,000 and covers SA and seven dialects. From 2012-2022 he worked in the Washington, DC area and abroad on human rights, development, and political analysis pertaining to the Middle East and North Africa region. He currently works in research development for applied artificial intelligence at the University of Michigan. He has a master’s in Middle East Studies and a second Public Policy and is a graduate of the Center for Arabic Studies Abroad (CASA).

Mohammed Abouzahr

Mohammed Abouzahr obtained his Ph.D. in Philosophy and Master's in Computer Science at Wayne State University, and his Bachelor's in Mathematics from Eastern Michigan University. As the founder of the non-profit Open Social Resources, Mohammed employs model development, analysis, and software implementation for public benefit. Such projects range from developing dialect analysis tools to helping local businesses increase their web presence. He currently works as a senior full stack developer for the University of Michigan's School of Information. 

References

AbuKwaik, K. et al. (2018). “Alexical distance study ofArabic dialects”. In: Procedia computer science 142, pp. 2–13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2018.10.456 (cit. on pp. 67, 70, 71, 76).

Abunasser, M. (2015). “Computational measures of linguistic variation: a study of Arabic varieties”. Phd Dissertation. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (cit. on pp. 67, 70).

Al Batal, M. (2002). “Identity and language tension in Lebanon: TheArabic of local news at LBCI”. In: Language contact and language conflict inArabic. Ed. byA. Rouchdy.Taylor & Francis Group, pp. 109–133 (cit. on p. 72).

Arak, M. (2024). “Digital Transformation and Its Impact on Arabic Language Evolution in Social Media”. In: ICRRD Quality Index Research Journal 5.4 (cit. on p. 72).

Badawi, E. (1973). Mustawayāt al-ʿarabiyya al-muʿāṣira fī miṣr (Levels of Modern Standard Arabic in Egypt). Dār al-Maʿārif (cit. on p. 72).

Bella, G., K. Batsuren, and F. Giunchiglia (2021). “Adatabase and visualization of the similarity of contemporary lexicons”. In: Text, Speech, and Dialogue: 24th International Conference Proceedings. Springer, pp. 95–104 (cit. on pp. 69, 70, 78, 89).

Brustad, K.(2000).The syntax of spoken Arabic: A comparative study of Moroccan, Egyptian, Syrian, and Kuwaiti dialects. Georgetown University Press (cit. on p. 73).

Cadora, F. J (1976). “Lexical relationships among Arabic dialects and the Swadesh list”. In: Anthropological linguistics 18.6, pp. 237–260. DOI: https://https://www.jstor.org/stable/30027581 (cit. on pp. 67, 70).

Ferguson, C. A. (1959). “Diaglossia”. In: Word 15, pp. 325–340 (cit. on p. 72).

Gibson, M. (2013). “Dialect levelling in Tunisian Arabic: Towards a new spoken standard”. In: Language contact and language conflict in Arabic. Ed. by A. Rouchdy. Routledge, pp. 42–58 (cit. on p. 73).

Gregory, L. et al. (2021). “Advancing Arabic Language teaching and learning: A path to reducing learning poverty in the Middle East and NorthAfrica”. In: DOI: https://hdl.handle.net/10986/35917 (cit. on p. 67).

Hachimi, A. (2013). “The Maghreb-Mashreq language ideology and the politics of identity in a globalized Arab world1”. In: Journal of Sociolinguistics 17.3, pp. 269–296. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/josl.12037 (cit. on p. 73).

Heeringa, W. et al. (2013). “Lexical and orthographic distances between Germanic, Romance and Slavic languages and their relationship to geographic distance”. In: Phonetics in Europe: Perception and production. Ed. by C. Gooskens and R. van Bezooijen. PIE-Peter Lang, pp. 99–137 (cit. on p. 69).

Hinds, M. and E. Badawi (1986).ADictionary of EgyptianArabic:Arabic-English. Librairie du Liban (cit. on p. 75).

Hoijer, H. (1956). “Lexicostatistics: a critique”. In: Language 32.1, pp. 49–60. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/410652 (cit. on p. 69).

Holes, C. (2004). Modern Arabic: structures, functions, and varieties. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press (cit. on p. 72).

Houtzagers, P., J. Nerbonne, andJ.Prokić(2010).“Quantitative and traditional classifications of Bulgarian dialects compared”. In: Scando-Slavica 56.2, pp. 163–188. DOI: https: //doi.org/10.1080/00806765.2010.530801 (cit. on p. 69).

Mugglestone, L. (2005). Lost for words: The hidden history of the Oxford English Dictionary. Yale University Press (cit. on p. 74).

Myhill, J. (2014). “The effect of diglossia on literacy in Arabic and other languages”. In: Handbook of Arabic literacy: Insights and perspectives. Ed. by E. Saiegh-Haddad and R. M. Joshi (cit. on pp. 67, 90).

Nasution, A. H., Y. Murakami, and T. Ishida (2016). “Constraint-based bilingual lexicon induction for closely related languages”. In: Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC’16), pp. 3291–3298 (cit. on p. 68).

Russell, L. R. (2018). Women and Dictionary-Making: Gender, Genre, and English Language Lexicography. Cambridge University Press (cit. on p. 74).

Saiegh-Haddad, E. and B. Spolsky (2014). “Acquiring literacy in a diglossic context: Problems and prospects”. In: Handbook of Arabic literacy: Insights and perspectives. Ed. by E. Saiegh-Haddad and R. M. Joshi. Springer, pp. 225–240 (cit. on pp. 71, 88, 90).

Salameh, M., H. Bouamor, and N. Habash (2018). “Fine-grained Arabic dialect identification”. In: Proceedings of the 27th international conference on computational linguistics, pp. 1332–1344 (cit. on p. 67).

Salloum, W. and N.Habash (2012). “Elissa: A dialectal to standard Arabic machine translation system”. In: Proceedings of COLING 2012: Demonstration papers, pp. 385–392 (cit. on p. 67).

Shendy, R (2022). “Learning to Read in an “Estranged” Language: Arabic Diglossia, Child Literacy, and the Case for Mother Tongue-Based Education”. In: Creative Education 13, pp. 1247–1301. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4236/ce.2022.134077 (cit. on pp. 67,

, 90).

Swadesh, M. (1950). “Salish internal relationships”. In: International Journal of American Linguistics 16.4, pp. 157–167. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/464084(cit.onpp.68, 69).

S’hiri, S. (2002). “Speak Arabic please!:Tunisian Arabic speakers’ linguistic accommodation to middle Easterners”. In: Language contact and language conflict in Arabic: Variations on a sociolinguistic theme. Ed. byA. Rouchdy. Routledge Curzon NewYork, pp. 149–174 (cit. on p. 73).

Tadmor, U. (2009). “Loanwords in the world’s languages: Findings and results”. In: ed. by M. M.Haspelmath and U. Tadmor. De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 55–75 (cit. on p. 68).

Versteegh, K. (2014). Arabic language. Edinburgh University Press (cit. on p. 91).

Downloads

Published

07-04-2025

Issue

Vol. 11 (2025)

Section

Articles