A comparative lexical study of Qur'anic Arabic

Abstract

The aim of this study is to conduct an empirical "mass comparison" exercise by which to assess the root-morpheme distribution in Arabic, Geez, Epigraphic South Arabian, Syriac, Aramaic, Hebrew, Phoenician, Ugaritic and Akkadian. The results accruing from such a task throw light upon the degree of intensity in the linguistic and historical links between these nine Semitic languages. For this purpose, Qur' anic Arabic has been adopted as the source for the lexical corpus. The first three introductory chapters, concerned particularly with past lexical studies of different Semitic languages as well as with the Qur' anic text, are followed by the lexical corpus in chapter 4. A considerable number of lexical cases are studied in chapter 5 which is dedicated to diachronistic semantic observations, followed by a general discussion (chap. 6) of the distribution patterns resulting from the lexical corpus and the lexical grid. This comparative study, confirms the high degree of lexical exclusivity in Arabic, whilst revealing its almost equidistant posture between North-West Semitic and South Semitic, with the hypothesis of its belonging to the southernmost flank of a "Central Semitic" conglomerate being greatly enhanced.