Ilm al-Lugha Muqaddima lil-Qari al-Arabi
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- Dar Al-Fikr Al-Arabi
Ilm al-Lugha: Muqaddima lil-Qari al-Arabi (Linguistics: An Introduction for the Arabic Reader) is an introductory treatise on modern general linguistics by the Egyptian linguist Mahmud al-Saaran, first published in 1962 . The work systematically introduces the foundational theories, terminology, and analytical branches of modern linguistic science to an Arabic-reading audience .
Background and Purpose
In his preface to the first edition, al-Saaran noted that while ancient Arabs made substantial contributions to language study, linguistics had developed over the preceding half-century in Europe and North America into an autonomous, specialized scientific discipline . He observed that whereas Arab researchers had engaged productively with modern Western literary and critical methods, modern scientific linguistics remained relatively unfamiliar and vaguely defined in the Arab world . Having earned his doctorate at the University of London in 1951 under the British linguist J. R. Firth, al-Saaran composed the book to present the principles and analytical frameworks of the field in a clear, accessible manner while situating them within their historical context .
Structure and Contents
The work opens with an introductory prolegomenon entitled "We and Linguistics" (Nahnu wa-Ilm al-Lugha), which explores the nature of language as an object of scientific inquiry, the state of linguistic research in the Arab East, and the challenges facing the discipline . The remainder of the book is organized into five main divisions (abwab), concluding with a bilingual glossary of linguistic terms (Mu'jam al-Mustalahat) and reference bibliographies of Arabic and English sources :
- Part One: Linguistics—Its Subject Matter and Nature examines the definition of language, debates over language origins, speech as an acquired cultural and non-instinctive human function, language as a conventional semiotic system, and the relationship of linguistics to psychology and philosophy .
- Part Two: Phonetics and Phonology details the history of phonetic study, modern experimental and acoustic phonetics, phonetic transcription, vocal anatomy and articulatory mechanisms, speech sound classification, suprasegmental features (prominence, stress, and intonation), and functional phonetics (phonology) .
- Part Three: Grammar addresses sentence-based thinking, the transition from phonological to grammatical analysis, and descriptive, historical, and comparative grammatical methods .
- Part Four: Semantics or the Study of Meaning characterizes semantics as the culmination of linguistic inquiry . It analyzes the limitations of purely lexical or dictionary definitions, highlighting the role of extra-linguistic and social context—such as the speaker, interlocutor, and surrounding circumstances—in determining utterance meaning . It also classifies types of semantic change (pejoration, amelioration, specialization, generalization, and shift to antonymic senses) and surveys semantic theories from Michel Bréal onward .
- Part Five: History of Linguistic Studies traces linguistic thought through antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the twentieth century .
Publication and Reception
The book was first issued in 1962 by Dar al-Ma'arif in Egypt . It saw subsequent printings and editions, including releases by Dar al-Nahda al-Arabiyya in Beirut and Aleppo University Press in 1994 . A second major edition was introduced three decades after al-Saaran's death by his former student Hilmi Khalil, professor of linguistics at the University of Alexandria, who emphasized the text's enduring pedagogical value as an accessible foundational work for Arab students of modern linguistics .
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