This volume is dedicated to Professor Bruce Ingham, the renowned researcher of Bedouin dialects in the Arabian Peninsula and recently also of the American Indian Lakota language. Following the editors' preface and the list of Ingham's publications (pp. vii–xvi), the volume introduces papers on subjects related to Ingham's Arabic research. Eight of the eleven chapters study various Bedouin Arabic dialects, while the rest discuss grammatical topics (examined also by Ingham). Each paper begins with introductory sections that place each topic in its dialectological framework.
Peter Behnstedt and Manfred Woidich's chapter “About Bedouin tents and other tents, or ‘Tent terminology as an example of Semantic shift’” (pp. 1–21) reviews the huge variety of tent terminology in dialects spreading from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean and beyond. Many dialects share numerous terms, while other terms are dialect-specific or semantically different. The authors consider tent kinds and functions, e.g. tents for shepherds, military, weddings, urban and Bedouin, and the materials and tools used to put them up. Some terms are compared with their Hebrew, Berber, Greek or Turkish origins.
“Tense and aspect in Semitic: a case study based on the Arabic of the Omani Šarqiyya and the Mehri of Dhofar” by Domenyk Eades and Janet C.E. Watson (pp. 23–54) follows. The syntax of these two under-studied languages of Southern Arabia differs from Bedouin Arabic dialects of the Peninsula in many respects. However, they are similar in the use of s-forms (past) and p-forms (imperfect) in expressing aspects rather than tenses. The authors suggest that these features reveal their conservative Semitic nature (like Arabic), and that without adverbs or affixes the South Arabian verbs do not indicate time.
Chapter 3, “From phonological variation to grammatical change: depalatalization of /č/ in Salti” by Bruno Herin and Enam Al-Wer (pp. 55–73), describes the demographic and dialectal situation in Jordan with /k/ ~ /č/ as a case of dialect change. Salti speakers use /k/ ~ /č/ in various phonetic environments and sociolinguistic settings: traditional speech, intermediate level, Koineized speech, and ʿAmmani dialect imitation (Koineization). These examples reveal transition from phonetic to morphological levels, e.g. in bound pronoun forms. The authors then present additional grammatical changes in Salt following internal and external effects: marginalization of feminine forms, perhaps beginning with the /k/ ~ /č/ development, which probably yield changes in verb agreement after noun individuation. The peculiar Salti feature of /nās/ ‘people’ governing a singular masculine verb is discussed in relation to Brustad's individuation theory (K. Brustad, The Syntax of Spoken Arabic, Georgetown: Georgetown University Press, 2000).
Chapter 4, “Representation of women's language in Negev Bedouin men's texts” by Roni Henkin (pp. 75–85) discusses diminutives and exclamations of grief, characteristic of feminine style in narratives and pragmatic discourse, as recorded in men's imitation of women's speech.
Clive Holes' chapter 5 is “An Arabic text from Ṣūr, Oman” (pp. 87–107). It begins with a summary of the Bedouin and Sedentary features in dialects of Eastern and Southern Arabia, down to Yemen. This summary enables readers to appreciate the mixed features in the recorded speaker's text. In the end, Holes ponders the increasing urban Gulf dialects' impact on Omanis, which affects their “original” linguistic makeup and national self-consciousness.
Next is Otto Jastrow's “Grammaticalizations based on the verb kāna in Arabic dialects” (pp. 109–18) which presents the various grammatical functions that have developed from the inflected or fossil active participle, past and imperfect forms of the “existence” verb kāna ‘to be’. Jastrow comments on similarities between forms in Morocco and Iraq, unlike the geographically more central dialects of the Levant and Egypt, though he finds an opposite semantic development in škūn (‘who’ in Morocco vs. ‘what’ in Iraq).
Chapter 7 is “Texts in Sinai Bedouin dialects” by Rudolph de Jong (pp. 119–49). Following the background description of the Sinai Bedouin tribes' dispersion, inter-relations and dialects, the author presents transcribed texts by two speakers from different branches of the Tarabīn tribes, in Southern and North-Western Sinai. The footnotes and translations complement the texts' linguistic and historical background.
Chapter 8 presents Jérôme Lentin's “Lexical notes on the dialect of Mayadin (Eastern Syria) in the late 1970s, with Jean Cantineau's field notes of 1935”, (pp. 151–71). The introduction surveys the background of Arabic dialects and lexical research literature of Syria and nearby Iraq and Turkey in the context of Cantineau's Mayadin research and Lentin's later research. The following glossary (653 words, including 239 collected by Cantineau, 157 of which Lentin did not find in his later study) reveals lexical differences, accompanied by phonetic and semantic comments.
Chapter 9, “Chapter 504 and modern Arabic dialectology: what are Kaškaša and Kaskasa, really?” by Jonathan Owens (pp. 173–202) investigates Kaškaša/Kaskasa in light of language history and modern dialectology. Owens analyses Sibawayhis Arabic theory, surveys several related dialects and non-related languages with (or without) palatalized segments, and offers answers to the question of -kiš/-kis in Sibawayh's theory. Owens concludes that both /č/ and /k/ existed in Sibawayh's environment, but he proscribed /č/ based on his theory, preferring to describe it as /kiš/.
Chapter 10 brings “Interesting facts on ancient mounds – three texts in the Bedouin Arabic dialect of the Harran-Urfa region (Southeastern Turkey)” by Stefan Procházka (pp. 203–13). Before the texts and their translations, Procházka considers this dialect as arguably the northernmost mixed North Arabian Šāwi Bedouin dialect. The ancient mounds project out of the flat countryside and the speakers describe some of their uses.
The final chapter (11) “Antigemination as morphosemantic integrity in Arabic dialects” by Kirsty Rowan (pp. 215–32), an ex-student of Ingham, investigates gemination/lengthening of verb forms II and III (e.g., sajjal ‘he registered’, kaatab ‘he corresponded with’) and its deletion in certain morphological forms of MSA and Iraqi Arabic (e.g. sajlat ‘she registered’ vs. baddadat ‘she wasted’). Analysing much theoretical literature, she discusses antigemination aspects such as semantic homophony avoidance, reduplication, plurality and adjectival antigemination. She finally suggests that previous discussions missed the semantic aspects related to the subject.
Finally, there is a general index (pp. 233–41). In sum, this book presents miscellaneous topics related to Bedouin Arabic dialects, describing new under-studied or unstudied features and new explanations and insights to known features of Arabic dialects. Professor Ingham's effect on these studies is evident in this interesting and up-to-date collection in his honour. Let's hope he will continue to affect this field for a long time yet.
