s="h3color tiny">This review is from: The Arabic Language (Paperback)

   I just finished reading Versteegh's book and I thought it was a good read for those interested in knowing the background of the Arabic language. There's information regarding the relationship between Arabic and Aramaic, as well as Hebrew and Arabic. A student of Arabic, like myself, would find this book to be a review of the origins and similarities between the semetic languages.The most interesting chapters are those of the Arabic dialects. The book goes into detail about the Maghrebi, Egyptian, Levantine, and Yemenese dialects. It covers their similiarities, differences, and multiple hypotheses on why FusHa has died out before and during the colonial period in the M.E. and why it is now making a comeback due to fundamentalism.Those interested in the linguistical diffusion of Arabic into other languages (i.e. Spanish, Turkish, Persian, Hindi, Indonesian languages) will find a brief chapter summarizing all of this info.I finished the book in 2 days,...Read more