The Northern Fertile Crescent

Abstract

This chapter attempts to reconstruct the linguistic history of the Arabic dialects spoken in south-eastern Turkey and the northern parts of Syria and Iraq. This area is characterized by religious pluralism and by a high linguistic diversity. It can be seen as a transitional zone between the archaic Iraqi-Anatolian dialects and the more innovative Syrian sedentary and Arabian bedouin dialects. The chapter discusses both common features, and striking innovations shared by all or most dialects of the region. The latter in particular may indicate that the sedentary dialects spoken at the northern edge of the Fertile Crescent may have a common origin. Many dialects of the region exhibit a high degree of both preservation and generalization of old features. The region also stands out because of contact-induced innovations that are partly the result of the significant influences that Aramaic, Kurdish, and Turkish had and still have on the local Arabic varieties.