(37) Arabic Language. Arabic Dialects.

Great attention is paid to accuracy of grammar and purity of diction throughout Arabia; yet something of a dialectic difference may be observed in the various districts. The purest Arabic, that which is as nearly as possible identical in the choice of words and in its inflections with the language of the Koran, is spoken in Nejd, and the best again of that in the province of Sedeyr. Next in purity comes the Arabic of Shomer. Throughout the Hejaz in general, the language, though extremely elegant, is not equally correct; in Hasa, Bahreyn, and Oman, it is decidedly influenced by the foreign element called Nabathaean, that removes it still further from its original character. In Yemen, as in other southern districts of the peninsula. Arabic merges insensibly into the Himyaritic or African dialect of Hadramaut and Mahrah. The Arabic spoken by the nomads or Bedouin tribes, especially those of the north, is tolerably correct, but the pronunciation is often inexact . See SEMITIC LANGUAGES.





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Arabia - Table of Contents

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