الفهرس 
Ancient Egyptian and CopticOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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periods, as represented in selected folk epics like Sirat Al-Zaher Beibers, and Seef bin Zi-Yazin, in addition to other historical documents.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 most momentous models to be observed in diachronic oriented studies.
The chapter further examines both early Arab linguists’ contribution to sociolinguistics, and sociolinguistics’ contribution to Arabic language in modern eras. Additionally, it addresses sociolinguistic notions, such as diglossia, and borrowing as consequences of language contact in relation to the Arabic situation. The chapter ends with investigating the sociohistorical state of Mamluk and Ottoman Egypt, followed by inspecting the correlation between such a state and the condition of language in Egypt at that time.Chapter two outlines some of the premises of Classical Arabic, and Egyptian Arabic phonemic, and morphemic systems. In addition, it presents sociophonetics as the general framework under which lexical phonology is assigned as the device for analysing morphological and phonological alternations. Finally, the chapter reviews some studies that are of relevance to the current research.
Chapter three starts with spotting the contexts of selected instances of code switching in the epics. The rest of the chapter is devoted to examining various cases of glottal stop alternations. Such alternations are studied with respect to certain criteria that are specific to each case, such as word category, templatic form, and the nature of each alternation. They are then subjected to morphological-phonological analysis using the theory of Lexical Phonology under sociophonetics. Consequently, rules are graphed out for evident systematic occurrences of certain processes. In addition, each alternation is traced both synchronically and diachronically.
Chapter four introduces different cases of morphological and phonological alternations manifested in the data extracted from the epics. The processes addressed in this chapter encompass vowels’ quantitative alternations, i.e. shortening and lengthening, historical phonemic substitutions, as well as changes resulting from assimilation, dissimilation, and metathesis. The miscellaneous processes spotted are examined within the scope of the theory of Lexical Phonology, where rules’ domain of application is scrutinized, along with inspecting the sociohistorical dimensions.
The findings show that some of the depicted alternations were used as variants in Al-Jaziira Arabic dialects, such as glottal stop alternations. Other alternations are presumed to be a result of false analogical application of originally Classical Arabic rules, such as initial glottal stop insertion, (i.e. hamzatu-l-WaSl); the Coptic influence on Egyptian Arabic, e.g. the case of interdental sounds’ conversion, and for ease of articulation. Moreover, the results reflect the adequacy of Lexical Phonology as an analytical tool when dealing with such cases of sound variation, where each phenomenon shows a number of evidence that determines the component of grammar to which it is affiliated.