A Socio-morphological Study of Selected Egyptian Place Names with Special Reference to Booij's Construction Morphology

Abstract

Arabic is one of the most prevalent languages in the world, and it forms a major member of the Semitic language family. This language family is part of a wider language toponymy known as “the Afro-Asiatic phylum”. According to Loprieno (1995), the Afro-Asiatic language phylum spreads in the eastern Mediterranean, northern Africa, and western Asia. Hallen (1998-1999) declares that this language family was traditionally identified as the Hamito-Semitic language family. Thus, “the Hamitic branch included Ancient Egyptian (an extinct language known as Coptic in its final stages), Berber, and Cushitic, while the Semitic branch included the well-documented Arabic, Hebrew, and Akkadian” (n.p.).As for Arabic, it has about 35 varieties. Watson (2002) states that it is basically located at the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa. Akidah (2013) adds that Arabic is used by about 400 million speakers across the world. The emergence of Islam by the end of the sixth Century CE helped in spreading the Arabic language. Watson (2002) explains that "the new Islamic state spread rapidly through the Peninsula, and within one hundred years had extended north into the Levant, east into