al-Lugha
- Author died
- 1380 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Anjlū al-Miṣrīyah
al-Lugha (Language) is the Arabic translation of Le Langage, a foundational work on general linguistics written by the French linguist Joseph Vendryes (d. 1380 AH / 1960 CE) . Translated into Arabic by Abd al-Hamid al-Dawakhili and Dr. Muhammad al-Qassas, the work systematically analyzes human language through its physiological, psychological, and social dimensions .
Background and Context
Vendryes completed the composition of the original text in 1914, though its publication was delayed until the 1920s, requiring later additions to address subsequent works in general linguistics such as Ferdinand de Saussure’s Cours de linguistique générale and writings by Antoine Meillet . The book formed part of the L'Évolution de l'humanité series and included a foreword by the series director, Henri Berr, titled "Language and the Tool of Thought" (al-Lugha wa-adāt al-tafkīr) . Berr positioned the volume as an inquiry into the precise role language plays in mental development and the relationship between the individual and society in generating and refining speech .
Structure and Contents
The book is arranged progressively from basic linguistic units to complex social phenomena across an introduction, a prologue, five main parts, and a conclusion :
- Prologue: The Origin of Language (Aṣl al-lugha): Discusses the problem of the origins of speech as a subject extending beyond purely linguistic tools into early human prehistory, defining language as a conventional system requiring specific psychological and social conditions .
- Part I: Sounds (al-Aṣwāt): Divided into three chapters covering the physiological production of speech sounds, the phonetic system and its systematic variations through sound laws, and the acoustic word alongside the verbal image and sentence realization .
- Part II: Grammar (al-Naḥw): Contains five chapters analyzing words and morphemes (distinguishing relational markers from semantic roots), core grammatical categories (gender, number, tense, and verbal aspect), word classification (including nouns, verbs, and psychological taxonomies), affective language (al-lugha al-infi‘āliyya) and word order, and general mechanisms of morphological change .
- Part III: Vocabulary (al-Mufradāt): Comprises three chapters examining the nature and extent of vocabulary, how words change their meanings through specialization or generalization, and how ideas change names via phonetic wear, semantic decay, taboo, and euphemism .
- Part IV: The Formation of Languages (Takawwun al-lughāt): Contains five chapters exploring the concept of language and languages, dialects and specialized varieties (such as argots and religious languages), common standard languages (al-lughāt al-mushtaraka), language contact and extinction, and linguistic kinship and the comparative method .
- Part V: Writing (al-Kitāba): Covers the origins and evolution of writing systems (pictographic, ideographic, syllabic, and alphabetic) and examines the relationship between the written and spoken language alongside orthographic reform .
The work closes with a conclusion titled "The Progress of Language" (Taqaddum al-lugha), warning against applying literary notions of "perfection" to linguistic science and arguing that language evolution reflects social change rather than continuous structural perfection .
Method and Core Concepts
Vendryes adheres to empirical linguistic observation while rejecting the view that language is an idealized, autonomous entity operating independently of human society . He emphasizes that language is deeply embedded in human psychological life and social necessity . The work also highlights the functional tension between spoken and written registers, observing that a living language relies on the active usage of its speech community and adapts to contemporary intellectual demands .
Arabic Translation
The complete Arabic translation was carried out by 'Abd al-Hamid al-Dawakhili and Dr. Muhammad al-Qassas, both members of the Linguistic Society of Paris . Completed in December 1950, it was printed in Cairo by Maṭba‘at Lajnat al-Bayān al-‘Arabī and published by Maktabat al-Anjilū al-Miṣriyya . In their preface, the translators noted the difficulty of rendering specialized European linguistic terminology into Arabic and advocated for the establishment of specialized linguistic societies and journals across the Arab world .
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