Editing Classical Arabic (section)

==History==
{{see also|Pre-classical Arabic}}
[[File:Distribution of the Arabic language before the Rashidun islamic conquests.png|thumb|Distribution of Arabic dialects before the [[Rashidun Caliphate|Rashidun]] [[Early Muslim conquests|Islamic conquests]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Einführung |first1=Eine |title=Arabische Dialektgeographie |date=2005 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-47-40649-5 |page=27 |url=https://brill.com/view/title/11696?language=de&contents=toc-43627 |access-date=7 April 2021}}</ref>]]
The earliest forms of Arabic are known as [[Old Arabic]] and survive in inscriptions in [[Ancient North Arabian]] scripts as well as fragments of pre-Islamic poetry preserved in the classical literature. It is hypothesized that by the late 6th century AD a relatively uniform intertribal "poetic [[koiné]]", a [[synthetic language]] distinct from the spoken vernaculars, had developed with conservative as well as innovative features, including the case endings known as [[ʾIʿrab|''ʾiʿrab'']].<ref name="The Arabic Language">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2tghviSsrF8C&q=poetic+koine+arabic&pg=PA46 |title=The Arabic Language |last1=Versteegh |first1=Kees |last2=Versteegh |first2=C. H. M. |date=1997 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-11152-2 |language=en}}</ref> It is uncertain to what degree the spoken vernaculars corresponded to the literary style, however, as many surviving inscriptions in the region seem to indicate simplification or absence of the inflectional morphology of Classical Arabic. It is often said that the [[Bedouin]] dialects of [[Najd]] were probably the most conservative (or at least resembled the elevated intertribal idiom morphologically and lexically more than the other contemporary vernaculars), a view possibly supported by the romanticization of the ‘purity’ of the language of the desert-dwellers (as opposed to the "[[language change|corrupted]]" dialects of the city-dwellers) expressed in many medieval Arabic works, especially those on grammar, though some argue that all the spoken vernaculars probably deviated greatly from the supraregional literary norm to different degrees, while others, such as [[Joshua Blau]], believe that "the differences between the classical and spoken language were not too far-reaching".<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n8ZiAAAAMAAJ |title=On Pseudo-corrections in Some Semitic Languages |last1=Blau |first1=Joshua |date=1970 |publisher=Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities}}</ref>

The [[Arabic script]] is generally believed to have evolved from [[Nabataean script|local]] [[cursive]] varieties of the [[Aramaic script]], which have been adopted to write Arabic, though some, such as [[Jean Starcky]], have postulated that it instead derives direct from the [[Syriac script]] since, unlike Aramaic, the scripts of Arabic and Syriac are both cursive. Indigenous speculations concerning the [[History of the Arabic alphabet|history of the script]] sometimes ascribe the origins of the script, and oftentimes the language itself also, to one of the ancient major figures in Islam, such as [[Adam]] or [[Ishmael]], though others mention that it was introduced to Arabia from afar.<ref name="The Arabic Language"/> In the 7th century AD the distinctive features of [[Old Hijazi]], such as loss of final short vowels, loss of [[hamza]], lenition of final /-at/ to /-ah/ and lack of [[nunation]], influenced the consonantal text (or ''[[rasm]]'') of the [[Qur'an]] (and also many of its readings also) and the later normalized orthography of Classical Arabic as a standard literary register in the 8th century.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Putten |first1=Marijn van |last2=Stokes |first2=Phillip |title=Case in the Qurˀānic Consonantal Text. Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 108 (2018), pp. 143–179 |url=https://www.academia.edu/37481811 |journal=Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes |date=January 2018 |language=en}}</ref>

By the 2nd century [[Hijri year|AH]] (9th century&nbsp;[AD]]) the language had been standardized by Arabic grammarians and knowledge of Classical Arabic became a prerequisite for rising into the higher classes throughout the Islamic world, since it was the [[lingua franca]] across the [[Middle East]], [[North Africa]], and the [[Horn of Africa]], and thus the region eventually developed into a widespread state of [[diglossia]]. Consequently the classical language, as well as the [[Arabic script]], became the subject of much mythicization and was eventually associated with religious, ethnic, and racial conflicts, such as the rise of many groups traditionally categorized under the broad label of [[Shu'ubiyya|al-Shu'ibiyya]] (roughly meaning "those of the nations", as opposed to Arab tribes), who, despite the remarkable differences in their views, generally rejected the stressed and often dogmatized belief that the Arabs, as well as their language, were far superior to all other races and ethnicities,<ref group=note>Such views were not held only by Arabs. Many Islamized Persians appear to have internalized similar beliefs, and they are expressed in the works of such renowned Persian scholars as [[al-Farisi]] and his pupil [[Ibn Jinni]].</ref> and so the term later came to be applied pejoratively to such groups by their rivals.<ref group=note>The term is used disparagingly in the introduction to ''Al-Mufaṣṣal'', a treatise on Arabic grammar by the Persian theologian and exegete [[al-Zamakhshari]], wherein he begins by attacking "al-Shu'ubiyya" and thanking Allah for making him "a faithful ally of the Arabs". However the term was also used positively as it derives from the Qur'an.</ref> Moreover, many Arabic grammarians strove to attribute as many words as possible to a "pure Arabic origin", especially those in the Qur'an. Thus, exegetes, theologians, and grammarians who entertained the idea of the presence of "impurities" (for example, naturalized loanwords) in the Qur'an were severely criticized and their proposed etymologies denounced in most cases.<ref group=note>Versteegh (1997) believes that early Medieval Arabic etymologists and philologists, be they exegetes, grammarians, or both, were noticeably far more eager to ascribe words to historically non-Arabic origins, and so he concludes that the spread of the association of "linguistic supremacy" with "etymological purity" was a later development, though he mentions [[al-Suyuti]] as a notable exception to this puristic attitude, which eventually became prevalent.</ref> Nonetheless, the belief in the racial and ethnic supremacy of the Arabs and the belief in the [[Holy Language|linguistic supremacy]] of Arabic did not seem to be necessary entailments of each other.<ref group=note>[[Abu Ubaidah (scholar)|Abu 'Ubayda]], a Persian philologist, exegete, and historian who was later accused of "hating Arabs", asserted that "the Qur'an was revealed in a clear Arabic tongue, and so whosoever claims that [the word] "[[Ta-Ha|taha]]" is [[Nabateans|Nabatean]] has committed a great error".</ref>

Poems and sayings attributed to Arabic-speaking personages who lived before the standardization of the Classical idiom, which are preserved mainly in far later manuscripts, contain traces of elements in morphology and syntax that began to be regarded as chiefly poetic or characteristically regional or dialectal. Despite this, these, along with the Qur'an, were perceived as the principal foundation upon which grammatical inquiry, theorizing, and reasoning were to be based. They also formed the literary ideal to be followed, quoted, and imitated in solemn texts and speeches. Lexically, Classical Arabic may retain one or more of the dialectal forms of a given word as variants of the standardized forms, albeit often with much less currency and use.<ref name="The Arabic Language"/>

Various Arabic dialects freely [[loanword|borrowed words]] from Classical Arabic, a situation similar to the [[Romance languages]], wherein scores of words were borrowed directly from [[Classical Latin]]. Arabic-speakers usually spoke Classical Arabic as a [[second language]] (if they spoke the colloquial dialects as their first language) or as a [[third language]] (if they spoke another language as their first language and a regional variety of colloquial Arabic as their second language). Nonetheless, the pronunciation of Classical Arabic was likely influenced by the [[varieties of Arabic#Phonetics|vernaculars]] to different degrees (much like [[Modern Standard Arabic]]). The differences in pronunciation and vocabulary in the regional Arabic varieties were in turn variously influenced by the native languages spoken in the conquered regions, such as [[Coptic language|Coptic]] in Egypt; [[Berber languages|Berber]] and [[Punic language|Punic]] in the Maghreb; [[Himyaritic language|Himyaritic]], [[Modern South Arabian]], and [[Old South Arabian]] in Yemen; and [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]] in the Levant.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1fr5t1KLL6oC&q=arabic+vernaculars+coptic+aramaic&pg=PT635 |title=The Handbook of Language Contact |last=Hickey |first=Raymond |date=2013-04-24 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-118-44869-4 |language=en}}</ref>