Lughat al-Jarāʾid “The Language of the Newspapers”: Arabic Grammar during the Nahḍa

This article examines the grammatical features of Arabic in the print media of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries through a systematic analysis of a series of essays entitled Lughat al-Jarāʾid “The Language of the Newspapers” written by Ibrāhīm al-Yāzijī and published in al-Ḍiyāʾ (“The Gleam”) between 1898 and 1906. These articles constitute an important primary source for studying Arabic during the Nahḍa, a source that documents developments in written Arabic and the grammatical problems and variations associated with the rapid growth of the press. Al-Yāzijī’s sustained attention to language reflects his view of journalism as a means of reviving and disseminating modern Arabic and as a potential source of linguistic change. This study explores the syntactic, morphological, and lexical phenomena discussed by al-Yāzijī, including verb valency, word formation, agreement, and the influence of colloquial Arabic and foreign languages, as well as his approach to grammatical issues including his reliance on Classical Arabic grammarians and classical dictionaries.