{"id":383,"date":"2010-04-13T10:00:25","date_gmt":"2010-04-13T08:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elanguage.net\/blogs\/booknotices\/?p=383"},"modified":"2010-02-11T12:47:33","modified_gmt":"2010-02-11T10:47:33","slug":"a-reference-grammar-of-egyptian-arabic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/?p=383","title":{"rendered":"A reference grammar of Egyptian Arabic"},"content":{"rendered":"
A reference grammar of Egyptian Arabic. <\/strong>By Ernest T. Abdel-Massih<\/strong>, Zaki N. Abdel-Malek<\/strong>, El-Said M. Badawi<\/strong>, <\/strong>with Ernest N. McCarus<\/strong>. <\/strong>Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2009. Pp. 337. ISBN 9781589012608<\/a>. $29.95.<\/div>\n

Reviewed by Peter Freeouf<\/strong><\/a>, Chiang Mai University<\/em><\/p>\n

Organized in the fashion of Paul Newman\u2019s monumental grammar of another Afroasiatic language, Hausa (The Hausa language: An encyclopedic reference gramma<\/em>r, New Haven: Yale, 2000), with topics arranged in English alphabetic order, this reference grammar is much shorter, less extensive, and less detailed than Newman\u2019s work. From the preface it appears that this grammar was originally conceived as the third of four volumes of a wider study of Egyptian Arabic and was designed to be an explanatory glossary of grammatical terminology for the language. As a reference grammar, this volume stands on it own quite well. In the forward it is claimed that this work is the only reference grammar of this variety of spoken Arabic that is described in English; the only other reference grammar of Egyptian Arabic written in a Western language is in German and has not been translated into English.<\/p>\n

This type of format, an alphabetical arrangement according to grammatical topic, requires some getting used to. It is not organized in the traditional order of phonology\/orthography, morphology, and syntax, as is the case for William Wright\u2019s grammar of the classical language (A grammar of the Arabic language<\/em>, Cambridge: Cambridge University press, 1967) or other reference grammars of Arabic, written or spoken, such as Mark W. Cowell\u2019s Reference grammar of Syrian Arabic <\/em>(Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 1964). The first topic is active participles<\/strong> (3\u201315), and the final topic is a very short one, writing system<\/strong> (329\u201330). An index (331\u201335) follows the final grammar topic. This index is very helpful since it lists all the topics and subtopics and takes the place of a comprehensive table of contents, which is of course impossible in a grammar organized in this way. A very short bibliography (337) with only nine entries finishes the volume.<\/p>\n

Some topics are cross-referenced; for example, under manner adverbs<\/strong> and Masdar<\/strong> (125) the reader is referred to adverbs of manner<\/strong> and verbal noun<\/strong>, respectively. The entries range from the simple, such as velum<\/strong> and velar<\/strong> (261), to those with much more detailed coverage, such as the various subcategories of verbs, which are listed alphabetically (261\u201398). The verbs are followed by verbal nouns<\/strong>, which are similarly categorized with various subtopics (299\u2013314). This specific arrangement of verbs followed by verbal nouns matches more or less the traditional arrangement. However, these topics are followed by vocative particles<\/strong> (315), voicing<\/strong> (315\u201316), and vowels<\/strong> (316\u201327), each with several subtopics. The entry under passive<\/strong> (189\u201395) contains subtopics that vary from the morphological (e.g. verb formation<\/strong>; 194\u201395), to the syntactic (e.g. meaning<\/strong>; 189\u201390 and syntax<\/strong>; 193\u201394). This works out fairly well but requires some familiarity with the layout and organization.<\/p>\n

Egyptian Arabic is geographically central in the Arabic-speaking world and has by far the largest number of speakers of any variety of spoken Arabic; therefore, it occupies a preeminent position culturally and politically. The Arabic examples, which are provided in a standard transcription, nicely illustrate each topic. This grammar provides a good summary of the main points of spoken Egyptian Arabic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A reference grammar of Egyptian Arabic. By Ernest T. Abdel-Massih, Zaki N. Abdel-Malek, El-Said M. Badawi, with Ernest N. McCarus. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2009. Pp. 337. ISBN 9781589012608. $29.95. Reviewed by Peter Freeouf, Chiang Mai University Organized in the fashion of Paul Newman\u2019s monumental grammar of another Afroasiatic language, Hausa (The Hausa language: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":384,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383\/revisions\/384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}