THE ARABIC KOINE

Abstract

0. It has usually been assumed' that the modern Arabic dialects are on the whole lineal descendants of Classical Arabic or of a variety very similar to this.2 Stated differently, this assumption holds that apart from borrowings and innovations the linguistic substance of the modern dialects is a direct continuation of an earlier stage of Arabic substantially identical with the Classical Arabic of the grammarians, with only a few isolated instances in which one or more of the modern dialects seem to preserve archaisms antedating the codification of the Classical language. Until clear contradictory evidence is produced, this assumption will have to stand as the most reasonable working hypothesis. The purpose of the present study is to offer one important refinement to this hypothesis, namely that most modern Arabic dialects descend from the earlier language through a form of Arabic, called here the koine,3 which was not identical with any of the earlier dialects and which differed in many significant respects from Classical Arabic but was used side by side with the Classical language during early centuries of the Muslim era. It is well known that there were great dialect differences in Arabia in preIslamic times, and it is widely accepted4 that the Classical language, the 'Arabi-

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