A Comparative Lexical Study of Qur?anic Arabic

PAST LEXICAL STUDIES 27
Reference has already been made to D. Cohen's lexicostatistical
study. In its final section, the study analyses the relationship between
Qur'anic Arabic and five dialects of Arabic, namely San'ani, Cairene,
Maltese, Tunisian (Jewish dialect), and Hassan (Mauritania). 57 This
study concludes that the percentages of common terms in the language
dyads (Cairene-Maltese, Cairene-Tunisian, etc.) are very close
to each other and fall within 69% and 75.5%. 58 In fact, the average
percentage of common terms is 72.5%, a figure which is indicative
of a separation which took place a little more than a thousand
years ago. 39
Another lexicostatistical study covering dialectal varieties of Arabic
is Blanc's analysis of the relationship between Baghdad's three colloquial
varieties, namely Muslim, Christian and Jewish Baghdadi. 60
192 items out of Swadesh's 200 word-list (96%), are cognates in the
three varieties. Furthermore, reference can also be made to the study
conducted by Ferguson and Sa c ld which centres on a list of 278
words for the comparison of Rabati, Damascene, Cairene and Baghdadi
varieties of Arabic. 61 In general, the end-results are very similar to
those reached by Blanc.
Finally, Cadora's thesis regarding the interdialectal lexical compatibility
among Syro-Lebanese varieties and their relationship with
Classical Arabic, Casablancan, Cairene, Jiddan and Baghdadi deserves
to be included in this general overview. 62 Cadora carries out
a first analysis, based on the Swadesh list, with a view to establishing
the extent of the non-contrastive compatibility of the varieties
under consideration. A second analysis, based on the Ferguson-Sa c ld
list, assesses the contrastive compatibility of the dialectal varieties.
The first study reveals that, except for the Deir ez-Zor variety, the
selves, interesting, ". .. ma non si dimentichi mai che siamo al di fuori della evoluzione
storico-culturale del popolo Arabo la cui influenza sul linguaggio . . . e stata forse
percentualmente differente da quelle influenze che hanno agito sulle espressioni elementari
della parlata comune considerabili nella test-list."
57 1970: 26-30.
58 1970: 29.
39 1970: 29 ". . . plus precisement: 1066 ± 181 annees."
60 1964.
61 1958. Unlike Swadesh's list which focusses on the basic vocabulary, the Ferguson-
Sa'rd list is based on the frequency criterion and on maximum differentiation in
the four dialects. It also takes Modern Classical Arabic into account. Of the 278
lexical items, 176 are nouns, 19 adjectives, 43 verbs and 40 particles.
62 1966.