Klasifikasi bahasa Arab

Keluarga bahasa Arab dibagi menjadi beberapa kategori: bahasa Arab Kuno, variasi-variasi sastra, dan bahasa daerah modern.

Posisi silsilah bahasa Arab di tengah rumpun bahasa Semit merupakan masalah sejak lama.

Pandangan mengenai klasifikasi bahasa Arab 
Bahasa-bahasa Semit terbatas pada area geografis yang relatif sempit (Syam, Mesopotamia, dan gurun Arab) dan sering dituturkan di wilayah sekitarnya. Kontak permanen di antara para penutur bahasa-bahasa ini memungkinkan saling pinjam bahasa di antara mereka. Peminjaman bisa mengganggu sejarah proses perubahannya dan membuatnya sulit untuk menyusun kembali silsilah bahasa.

Dalam klasifikasi tradisional rumpun bahasa Semit, bahasa Arab berada dalam kelompok Semit Barat Daya, berdasarkan beberapa kemiripan dengan bahasa Arab Selatan Modern dan bahasa Ge'ez.

Kebanyakan sarjana tidak menerima percabangan Semit Barat daya di atas karena tidak ada inovasi bahasa sama sekali yang mendukungnya dan karena kemiripannya dengan Arab Selatan dan Etiopia hanya disebabkan oleh difusi wilayah.

In 1976, linguist Robert Hetzron classified Arabic languages as a Central Semitic language:

John Huehnergard, Aaron D. Rubin, and other scholars suggested subsequent modifications to Hetzron's model:

However, several scholars, such as Giovanni Garbini, consider that the historical–genetic interpretation is not a satisfactory way of representing the development of the Semitic languages (contrary to Indo-European languages, which spread over a wide area and were usually isolated from each other). Edward Ullendorff even thinks it is impossible to establish any genetic hierarchy between Semitic languages. These scholars prefer a purely typological–geographical approach without any claim to a historical derivation.

For instance, in Garbini's view, the Syrian Desert was the core area of the Semitic languages where innovations came from. This region had contacts between sedentary settlements—on the desert fringe—and nomads from the desert. Some nomads joined settlements, while some settlers became isolated nomads ("Bedouinisation"). According to Garbini, this constant alternation explains how innovations spread from Syria into other areas. Isolated nomads progressively spread southwards and reached South Arabia, where the South Arabian language was spoken. They established linguistic contacts back and forth between Syria and South Arabia and their languages. That is why Garbini considers that Arabic does not belong exclusively to either the Northwest Semitic languages (Aramaic, Phoenician, Hebrew, etc.) or the South Semitic languages (Modern South Arabian, Geʽez, etc.) but that it was affected by innovations in both groups.

There is still no consensus regarding the exact position of Arabic within Semitic languages. The only consensus among scholars is that Arabic varieties exhibit common features with both the South (South Arabian, Ethiopic) and the North (Canaanite, Aramaic) Semitic languages, and that it also contains unique innovations.

There is no consensus among scholars whether Arabic diglossia (between Classical Arabic, also called "Old Arabic" and Arabic vernaculars, also called "New Arabic" or "Neo-Arabic") was the result of the Islamic conquests and due to the influence of non-Arabic languages or whether it was already the natural state in 7th-century Arabia (which means that both types coexisted in the pre-Islamic period).

Arabic varieties 

 Old Arabic, the language of southern Levant and northwestern Arabia in the pre-Islamic period and its varieties:
 Nabataean Arabic
 Old Hejazi
 Hismaic
 Safaitic
 Classical Arabic, the liturgical language of Islam, which emerged in the 7th century AD
 Neo-Arabic, the descendants of spoken Old Arabic, including:
 Colloquial Arabic
 Maghrebi Arabic, also called Western Arabic
 Pre-Hilalian Arabic dialects
 Koinés
 Algerian Arabic
 Moroccan Arabic
 Tunisian Arabic
 Libyan Arabic
 Algerian Saharan Arabic
 Andalusian Arabic (extinct)
 Siculo-Arabic (extinct)
 Maltese
 Western Bedouin
 Hassaniya Arabic
 Algerian Saharan Arabic
 Northern Arabic
 Levantine Arabic
 North Levantine Arabic
 Syrian Arabic
 Lebanese Arabic
 Çukurova Arabic
 South Levantine Arabic
 Jordanian Arabic
 Palestinian Arabic
 Cypriot Arabic
 Levantine Bedawi Arabic
 Egyptian Arabic
 Saʽidi Arabic
 Mesopotamian Arabic
 Gelet
 Tigris dialect cluster
 Baghdadi Arabic
 Euphrates dialect cluster
 Khuzestani Arabic
 Qeltu
 Peninsular Arabic, also called Southern Arabic
 Gulf Arabic
 Kuwaiti Arabic
 varieties from Qatar and the UAE
 Shihhi Arabic
 Omani Arabic
 Dhofari Arabic
 Najdi Arabic
 Hejazi Arabic
 Rashaida
 Bahraini Arabic
 Yemeni Arabic
 Hadhrami Arabic
 Sanʽani Arabic
 Taʽizzi-Adeni Arabic
 Tihamiyya Arabic
 Somali Arabic
 Bareqi Arabic
 Central Arabic
 Sudanese Arabic
 Nubi Arabic (Sudanese Arabic-based creole)
 Juba Arabic (Sudanese Arabic-based creole)
 Modern Standard Arabic, the standardized variety of the general Arabic language used since the 19th century and modernized version of the liturgical language of Islam

See also 

 Arab (disambiguation)
 Etymology of Arab

Catatan kaki

Daftar pustaka 

 
 Cantineau, Jean (1955).  "La dialectologie arabe", Orbis 4:149–169.
 
 </ref>
 
 Kaye, Alan S., & Judith Rosenhouse (1997).  "Arabic Dialects and Maltese", The Semitic Languages. Ed. Robert Hetzron.  New York:  Routledge.  Pages 263–311.
 
 
 Scagliarini, F.,  (1999). "The Dedanitic inscriptions from Jabal 'Ikma in north-western Hejaz" Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies 29, 143–150