Middle Arabic and Mixed Arabic

In recent scholarship, the connection between Middle Arabic and Mixed Arabic is studied in a more systematic way. The idea of studying these two varieties in one theoretical frame is quite new, and was initiated at the conferences of the International Association for the Study of Middle and Mixed Arabic (AIMA). At these conferences, the members of AIMA discuss the latest insights into the definition, terminology, and research methods of Middle and Mixed Arabic. Results of various discussions in this field are to be found in the present book, which contains articles describing and analysing the linguistic features of Muslim, Jewish and Christian Arabic texts (folklore, religious and linguistic literature) as well as the matters of mixed language and diglossia.

Contributors include: Berend Jan Dikken, Lutz Edzard, Jacques Grand’Henry, Bruno Halflants, Benjamin Hary, Rachel Hasson Kenat, Johannes den Heijer, Amr Helmy Ibrahim, Paolo La Spisa, Jérôme Lentin, Gunvor Mejdell, Arie Schippers, Yosef Tobi, Kees de Vreugd, Manfred Woidich, and Otto Zwartjes.

E.W.A. (Liesbeth) Zack, PhD (2009), is Assistant Professor of Arabic Language and Culture at the University of Amsterdam. Her main research interests are: historical sources of the Egyptian Arabic dialects, Middle Arabic, and modern Egyptian Arabic.

Arie Schippers, PhD (1988), Semitic and Romance languages student (1966-74) and researcher (1974-76) at Leiden University, taught Hebrew at Nijmegen University (1976-77), and Arabic at the University of Amsterdam (1977-2012). He has published on Arabic and Hebrew literatures in connection with Romance literatures.

"The papers collected here represent the best of the conference volume genre, comprising a sharing of findings in an ongoing research enterprise with the broader scholarly community. The contributors are all active scholars in the field, most with long publication records." David Wilmsen, Linguist List, 09-12-2012, http://linguistlist.org/issues/23/23-5132.html.