The current language of sedentary is different from the Mudar

The usual form of address used among the urban and sedentary population is not the old Mudar language nor the language of the (present-day) Arab Bedouins.

It is another independent language, remote from the language of the Mudar and from the language of presentday Arab Bedouins. It is more remote from the former (than from the latter).

It is an independent language by itself. The fact is attested by the changes it shows, which grammatical scholarship 1353 considers solecisms. Moreover, it is different in the various cities depending on the differences in terminologies used by their (inhabitants). 1354 The language of the inhabitants of the East differs somewhat from that of the inhabitants of the West.

The same applies to the relationship of the language of the Spaniards to either of them. All these people are able to express in their own language whatever they want to express, and to explain their ideas. That is what languages and dialects are for. Loss of the vowel endings does not disturb them, as we have stated in connection with the language of present-day Arab (Bedouins). 1355

The fact that (the language spoken in present-day cities) is more remote from the ancient (Arabic) language than the language of present-day Arab Bedouins is conditioned by the fact that remoteness from the (ancient Arabic) language is due to contact with non-Arabs.

More contact with non-Arabs means greater remoteness from the original language. For, as we have stated, a (linguistic) habit results only from instruction, and the (new) habit is a mixture of the ancient (linguistic) habit of the Arabs and the later (acquired linguistic) habit of the non-Arabs.

The longer people listen to non-Arab (speech) and the longer they are brought up in such a condition, the more remote from the ancient habit do they become.

In this connection, one may compare the cities of Ifriqiyah, the Maghrib, Spain, and the East. In Ifriqiyah and the Maghrib, the Arabs had contact with the non-Arab Berbers who constitute the bulk of the population (‘umran) of (those countries).

Hardly any city or group was without (Berbers). Therefore, the non-Arab (element) there gained preponderance over the language of the Arabs.

Thus, there originated another, mixed language in which the non-Arab (element) was preponderant, for the reasons mentioned. (The language spoken there) is more remote from the ancient language (than other dialects).

Likewise, in the East, the Arabs gained superiority over the Persian and Turkish nations there. They had contact with them.

These languages circulated among them in (the speech of) farmers, peasants, and captives whom they used as servants, wet nurses, and foster mothers. Thus, their (linguistic) habit was corrupted. With that, their language (also was corrupted, and) eventually it came to be another language.

The same (happened to) the Spaniards in their relations with the non-Arab Galicians and European Christians. The entire urban population of those zones came to speak another language, one peculiar to them and different from the language of the Mudar.

It also showed (dialectical) differences within itself, as we are going tomention. 1357 In a way, it was another language (and no longer Arabic), in as much as the habit of it became firmly rooted among those people (in Spain).

Instruction in the Mudar language

The habit of the Mudar language has disappeared and become corrupted at this time. All Arab Bedouins speak a language that differs from the Mudar language in which the Qur’an was revealed.

It has become another language through the admixture of non-Arab elements, as we have stated before.

However, since languages are habits, as mentioned before, 1 360 it is possible to learn them like any other habit.

The obvious method of instruction for those who desire to obtain the habit of the ancient (Mudar) language is to acquire expert knowledge of the linguistic documents (written) in it, such as the Qur’an, the traditions, the speeches in rhymed prose and verse of the ancients and of outstanding Arabs, as well as the statements of (early) men of mixed Arab and non-Arab parentage (muwallad) in all disciplines.

Eventually, the student obtains expert knowledge of a great amount of such poetical and prose material.

As a result, he is like a person who grew up among the (old speakers of Arabic) and learned from them how to express what he wants to express.

After that, he may try to express his own thoughts with the expressions and in the style they would have used and to follow their ways and word arrangement, of which he has, by now, an expert knowledge. His expert and practical use (of the material) gives him the habit of (the old language). With the increase in (his knowledge and practical use of the material, 1364 his habit) becomes more firmly rooted and stronger.

In addition, the student needs a healthy disposition and a good understanding of the aspirations and ways of the Arabs in (their) word combinations and in (their) efforts that those word combinations should conform to the requirements of the given situation.

Taste attests to the fact that (these things are needed by the student), for it originates as the result of the (existence of the proper linguistic) 1366 habit and of a healthy disposition.

The more the student knows by heart and the more he uses (the material), the better will his utterances in prose and verse turn out to be. The (student) who has obtained these (linguistic) habits knows the Mudar language. He has a critical understanding of what constitutes good style (eloquence) in it.