THE POLYGENESIS OF THE NEO-ARABIC DIALECTS

This paper presents a framework within which the study of the devel-opment of neo-Arabic may be carried out. The present analysis inves-tigates relative and demonstrative pronouns in peripheral neo-Arabic in light of NW Semitic isoglosses and suggests that the contemporary dialects originated in two Old Arabic dialect clusters. However, the distribution of the relative and demonstrative features in most neo-Arabic dialects indicates that there has been significant historical con-tact between the proposed original clusters. Thus, a conventional tree diagram is not capable of describing their development. This analysis suggests that the neo-Arabic dialects should be regarded as sedimen-tary structures, containing both genetic and koine features. In light of this, the author proposes that the diachronic study of neo-Arabic should be divided into two modules: the first is the study of the de-velopment of innovations found in neo-Arabic, regardless of dialect