Cover not available
Article published In:
Historiographia Linguistica
Vol. 8:2/3 (1981) ► pp.249–265

The legitimate fathers of speech errors

| Kuwayt University

The history of speech errors is reviewed in the West and traced back to its origin in Medieval Arabic linguistics. It is claimed that Rudolf Meringer (1859–1931), the Austrian linguist was not the first scholar to start speech error studies. Some western as well as many Arab linguists were interested in speech errors long before him. It is claimed that Meringer may have been under the influence of Arabic books on speech errors since he thaught at the Orientalische Akademie in Vienna and was in touch with Orientalists interested in speech-error studies. The paper also points out how the interest of Arab linguists in this area emanated from their fear that such errors may lead to the corruption of Arabic and misunderstandings of the Qu’ān. Arab linguists collected speech errors made by educated and uneducated people from different parts of the Arabic-speaking world. Such errors were related to language use, social setting, and cultural factors. Linguistic explanations were also provided such as assimilation, substitution, nearness of point of articulation, anticipation, deletion, addition, and analogy as well as hypercorrection. This helped greatly in the development of empirical studies of phonetics, grammar, lexicography, dialects, the Arabic writing system, and scholarship concerning the Qur’ān.

Published online: 1 January 1981
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.8.2-3.03anw
References

A.Primary sources

’Abū l-Ṭayyib ’Ibdāl
= ’Abū l-Ṭayyib cAbd al-Raḥmān b. cAlī al-Lughawī. Al-’Ibdāl Ed. by cIzz al-Din al-Tanūkhī. Damascus 1961.Google Scholar
’Anbārī Bayān
= ’Abū l-Barakāt cAbd al-Raḥman b. Muḥammad al-’Anbārī. Al-Bayān fī gharīb ’icrāb al-Qur’ān Ed. by Ṭāhā cAbd al-Ḥamīd Ṭāhā. Cairo: Dār al-Kitāb al-cArabī 1969.Google Scholar
cAskarī Sharḥ
= ’Abū ’Aḥmad al-Ḥasan b. cAbdallāh al-cAskarī. Sharḥ mā yaqacu fīhi al-taṣḥīf wa-l-taḥrīf Ed. by cAbd al-cAzīz ’Aḥmad. Cairo: Muṣṭafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī 1963.Google Scholar
BaṣrīTanbīhāt
’Abū l-Qāsim cAlī b. Ḥamza al-Baṣrī. Al-Tanbīhāt calā aghālīṭ al-ruwāt. Ms. Egyptian National Library no. 502 (language).
Ḥarīrī Durra
= ’Abū Muḥammad al-Qāsim b. cAlī al-Ḥarīrī. Durrat al-ghawwāṣ, fī ’awhām al-khawāṣṣ Ed. by Heinrich Thorbecke (1837–1890) Leipzig 1871.Google Scholar
Ibn Barrī Ghalaṭ
= ’Abū Muḥammad cAbdallāh Ibn Barrī. Ghalaṭ al-ḍucafā’ min al-fuqahā’ Ed. by Charles Torrey. In: Orientalische Studien Th. Nöldeke gewidmet. Giessen 1906 I1, 211–24.Google Scholar
Ibn al-’Imām Jumāna
= Ibn al-’Imām. Al-Jumāna fī ’izālat al-raṭāna Ed. by Ḥasan Ḥusnī cAbd al-Wahhāb. Cairo: Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale 1953.Google Scholar
Ibn al-Jawzī Taqwīm
= ’Abū l-Faraj cAbd al-Raḥmān b. cAlī Ibn al-Jawzī. Taqwīm al-lisān Ed. by cAbd al-cAzīz Maṭar. Cairo 1966 (Ms. Egyptian National Library no. 247 language.)Google Scholar
Ibn Jinnī Khaṣā’iṣ
= ’Abū l-Fatḥ cUthmān Ibn Jinnī. Al-Khaṣā’iṣ Ed. by Muḥammad cAlī al-Najjār. 31 vols. Cairo: Dār al-Kutub 1952–56 (Repr., Beirut: Dār al-Hudā, n.d.)Google Scholar
Ibn Khālawayh Laysa
= ’Abū cAbdallāh al-Ḥusayn b. ’Aḥmad Ibn Khāla-wayh. Laysa fī kalām al-cArab Ed. by Hartwig Derenbourg (1844–1908) In: Hebraica 101 (1892) 88–105. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ibn Makkī Tathqīf
’Abū Ḥafs cUmar b. Khalaf Ibn Makkī. Tathqīf al-lisān wa-talqīḥ al-janān. Ms. Murad Mulla Library no. 1753.
Ibn Qutayba ’Adab
= ’Abū Muḥammad cAbdallāh b. Muslim Ibn Qutayba. ’Adab al-kātib Ed. by Max Grünert (1849–1929) Leiden: E. J. Brill 1901.Google Scholar
Ibn Qutayba Gharīb
’Abū Muḥammad cAbdallāh b. Muslim Ibn Qutayba. Gharīb al-Qur’ān. Ms. Egyptian National Library no. 1200.
Ibn al-Sikkīt Qalb
= ’Abū Yūsuf Yacqūb Ibn al-Sikkīt. Al-Qalb wa-l-’ibdāl Ed. Beirut: Heffner 1903.Google Scholar
Ibn al-Sikkīt ’Iṣlāḥ
= ’Abū Yūsuf Yacqūb Ibn al-Sikkīt. ’Iṣḷāh al-manṭiq Ed. by ’Aḥmad Muḥammad Shākir and cAbd al-Salām Hārūn. Cairo: Dār al-Macārif 1956.Google Scholar
’Isfahānī Tanbīh
= ’Abū l-Ḥasan al-’Iṣfahānī. Al-Tanbīh calā ḥudūth al-taṣḥīf Ed. by Muḥammad Ḥasan ’Āl-Yāsīn. Baghdad: Al-Naḥda Bookshop 1967.Google Scholar
Jāḥiẓ Bayān
= ’Abū cUthmān cAmr b. Baḥr al-Jāḥiẓ. Kitāb al-bayān wa-l-tabyīn Ed. by cAbd al-Salām Muḥammad Hārūn. Cairo: Al-Khānjī 1950.Google Scholar
Jawālīqī Takmila
= ’Abū Manṣūr Mawhūb b. ’Aḥmad al-Jawālīqī. Al-Takmila fīmā talḥanu fīhi al-cāmma Ed. by Hartwig Derenbourg (1844–1908) In: Morgenländische Forschungen (Festschrift Fleischer) Leipzig 1875:107–66.Google Scholar
Khalīl cAyn
= al-Khalīl b. ’Aḥmad al-Farāhīdī. Kitāb al-cayn Ed. by cAbdallāh Darwīsh. Vol. I1. Baghdad: Maṭbacat al-cĀnī 1967.Google Scholar
Kisā’ī Mā talḥanu
= ’Abū l-Ḥasan cAlī b. Ḥamza al-Kisā’ī. Mā talḥanu fīhi al-cawāmm Ed. by Carl Brockelmann (1868–1956) In: Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 131 (1915) 29–46.Google Scholar
Lakhmī Madkhal
= ’Abū cAlī Muḥammad b. ’Aḥmad Ibn Hishām al-Lakhmī al-Sabtī. Kitāb al-madkhal ’ilā taqwīm al-lisān wa-taclīm al-bayān Ed. Cairo 1896.Google Scholar
Qālī ’Amālī
= ’Abu cAlī ’Ismācīl b. al-Qāsim al-Qālī. Al-’Amālī. 21 vols. Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyya 1926.Google Scholar
Rāzī Zīna
= ’Aḥmad b. ’Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī. Kitāb al-Zīna fī l-kalimāt al-’islāmiyya al-carabiyya Ed. by Ḥusayn al-Hamadānī. Cairo: Dār al-Kitāb al-cArabī 1957.Google Scholar
Ṣafadī Taṣḥīḥ
Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn ’Abū l-Ṣafā’ Khalīl b. ’Aybak. Taṣḥīh al-taṣḥīf wa-taḥrīr al-taḥrīf. Ms. Egyptian National Library no. 37 (language).
Sībawayhi Kitāb
= ’Abū BishrcAmr b. cUthmān Sībawayhi. Al-Kitāb Ed. by cAbd al-Salām Muḥammad Hārūn. 61 vols. Cāiro: Dār al-Kitāb al-cArabī 1968.Google Scholar
Thaclab Faṣīḥ
= ’Abū l-cAbbās ’Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā. Kitāb al-faṣīḥ Ed. by Jacob Barth (1851–1914) Leipzig 1876.Google Scholar
Zubaydī Laḥn
= ’Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-Zubaydī. Laḥn al-cawāmm Ed. by Ramaḍān cAbd al-Tawwāb. Cairo: Dār al-Macārif 1964.Google Scholar

B.Secondary sources

Anwar, Mohamed Sami
1979 “Remarks on ā Collection of Speech Errors”. International Journal of Psycholinguistics 61.59–12. (=Review article on Cutler & Fay 1978.)Google Scholar
Cutler, Anne, and David Fay
eds. 1978 Versprechen und Verlesen: Eine Psychologisch-linguistische Studie. By Rudolf Meringer and Carl Mayer. New ed. with an introd. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins.Google Scholar
Fleisch, Henri
1957 “Esquisse d’un historique de la grammaire arabe”. Arabica 41.1–22. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fromkin, Victoria
ed. 1973 Speech Errors as Linguistic Evidence. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Gabelentz, Georg von der
(1840–1893). 1891 Die Sprachwissenschaft: Ihre Aufgaben, Methoden und bisherigen Ergebnisse. Leipzig: T.O. Weigel.Google Scholar
Goldziher, Ignaz
(1850–1921). 1873 “Aus zwei Briefen Dr. Goldziher’s an Prof. Fleischer”. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 271.155–56.Google Scholar
1881 “Zur Literaturgeschichte des chata’ al-cāmma”. Ibid. 351.147–52.Google Scholar
Güntert, Hermann
1932 “Rudolf Meringer zum Gedächtnis”. Wörter und Sachen 141.II–IV.Google Scholar
Jeffery, Arthur
1937 Materials for the History of the Text of the Qur’ān. Leiden: E.J. Brill.Google Scholar
Jespersen, Otto
(1860–1943). 1894 Progressin Language with Special Reference to English. London: S. Sonnenschein.Google Scholar
Makram, cAbd al-cĀl Sālim
1965 Al-Qur’ān al-Karīm wa-’atharuhu fī l-di-rāsāt al-nahwiyya. Cairo: Dār al-Macārif.Google Scholar
1977 Al-Halqa al-mafqūda fi tārīkh al-nahw al-carabī. Kuwayt: Al-Wih-da Organization for Publication and Distribution.Google Scholar
Meringer, Rudolf
(1859–1931). 1908 Aus dem Leben der Sprache. Berlin: B. Behr.Google Scholar
Meringer, Rudolf, and Carl Mayer
1895 See Cutler & Fay 1978.Google Scholar
Paul, Hermann
(1846–1921). 1880 Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte. Halle/S.: M. Niemeyer. (5th ed. 1920.)Google Scholar
Peterson, David
1972 “Some Explanatory Methods of the Arab Grammarians”. Papers from the Eighth Regional Meeting, ed. by Paul Peranteau et al., 504–15. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar
Robins, Robert Henry
1967 A Short History of Linguistics. London: Longmans. (Repr., Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana Univ. Press 1968.)Google Scholar
Sellheim, Rudolf
1954 Die klassisch-arabischen Sprichwörtersammlungen insbesondere des Abū cUbaid. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Versteegh, C(ornelis) H. M.
1977 Greek Elements in Arabic Linguistic Thinking. Leiden: E.J. Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Cowan, William
1983.  Arab Linguistics: An Introductory Classical Text with Translation and Notes. Edited by Michael George Carter. Historiographia Linguistica 10:1-2 ► pp. 120 ff. DOI logo
Marx, Edeltrud
2001. Gewißt wu - gewußt wie! Was die Versprecherforschung über Sprachproduktion weiß. Psychologische Rundschau 52:4 ► pp. 195 ff. DOI logo
Prunet, Jean-François
2006. External Evidence and the Semitic Root. Morphology 16:1 ► pp. 41 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 30 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.