Versteegh Kees et al. Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, in 5 Vols

Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2006-2009. — Vol. I (A-Ed): xiii, 671 p. — Vol. II (Eg-Lan): vii, 716 p. — Vol. III (Lat-Pu): vii, 742 p. — Vol IV (Q-Z): viii, 767 p. — Vol. V (Index): 287 p. — ISBN 90 04 14976 2 (Set).Editor in Chief:
Kees Versteegh (University of Nijmegen)Editors:
Mushira Eid (University of Utah)
Alaa Elgibali (University of Maryland)
Manfred Woidich (University of Amsterdam)
Andrzej Zaborski (University of Cracow)The Encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics is intended in the first place as a reference tool for linguists working with Arabic, but also for scholars from many other disciplines (Islamic studies, Arabic literature, social sciences), whose fields of research frequently intersect with that of linguistics, if only because Arabic as the language of the Qur'ān plays such a pervasive role in the entire Arab and Islamic world. Beyond this, the EALL will also be a reference tool for general linguists. In an article on the importance of Arabic for general linguistics, Comrie (1991:29) points out that Arabic incorporates a wealth of fascinating data relating to the variation among the many vernaculars. Yet, this material is underrepresented in general linguistics because of the lack of authoritative and accessible sources. By bringing together data on all varieties of Arabic, the EALL contributes to the dissemination of knowledge about one of the world’s major languages.
Perhaps the most important category of users targeted by the EALL is that of students, especially those at the graduate and the postgraduate levels. For this reason, when presented with a choice between succinctness and a surplus of information, the editors have accepted the resulting overlaps. Another aspect of the didactic side of this policy decision is that the use of abbreviations has been avoided as much as possible; names of varieties of Arabic, for instance, are always written out in full, and even in grammatical contexts the use of abbreviations has been restricted, except in morph-by-morph translations, where standard coding has been used.
The EALL is an encyclopedic handbook covering all relevant aspects of the study of Arabic and dealing with all levels of the language (pre-Classical Arabic, Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic, Arabic vernaculars, mixed varieties of Arabic), both synchronically and diachronically. It will be published in four volumes with a total of two million words, distributed over approximately 500 entries. The treatment includes both the external and the internal history of the language, as well as the structural analysis of the different varieties of the language, the interaction between varieties in mixed levels (such as Middle Arabic), the linguistic contacts between Arabic and other languages, and the place of Arabic within larger language groups.