A Sociophonetic Study of Early Egyptian Arabic in the Mamluk and Early Ottoman Periods in Selected Egyptian Folk Epics

Abstract

This study is a of early Egyptian Arabic during the Mamluk and Ottoman periods, as represented in selected folk epics like Sirat Al-Zaher Beibers, and Seef bin Zi-Yazin, in addition to other historical documents. The study aims at exploring morphological and phonological alternations and changes that affected some Classical Arabic words via examining an approximant number of 600 words. It employs the theory of Lexical Phonology, as an analytical tool, under the scope of sociophonetics. The study also sheds light on the role of external instigators of the change, such as language contact, substratum effect, and relevant induced phenomena such as code switching and borrowing. Chapter one presents some of the basic concepts that are of relevance to the current study. It gives an account on language change tradition chronologically, initiating, thus, by highlighting the earlier philological tradition, as well as referring to the emergence of sociohistorical linguistics as a modernized version that compensate for philology shortcomings. In addition, sociophonetic investigation the chapter offers definitions of sociolinguistics, in addition to scrutinizing its substantial beliefs, purposes, and sub-branches, such as sociohistorical linguistics, and language variation and change. Furthermore, the chapter alludes to to English language, being one of the