Introduction

This volume brings together eleven peer-reviewed articles on Arabic linguistics. The contributions fall under three areas of linguistics: Phonology and phonetics; syntax and semantics; and language acquisition, language contact, and diglossia.

They reflect some various perspectives and emphases. Including data from North African, Levantine, and Gulf varieties, Standard Arabic, as well as Arabic varieties spoken in diaspora, these articles address issues that range from sibilant merging, raising, lexicalization, agreement, to diglossia, dialect contact, and language acquisition in heritage speakers.

The book is valuable reading for linguists in general and for those working on descriptive and theoretical aspects of Arabic linguistics in particular.