A New Perspective on the History of

Arabic Variation in Marking Agreement with

Plural Heads*

R. Kirk Belnap

Abstract
This paper examines Variation in marking agreement in Arabic. In particular, the investigation
focuses on the Variation between plural and feminine singular agreement with plural head nouns.
Tape-recorded naturalistic Speech from sociolinguistic Interviews conducted in Cairo constitute
the data for the study of agreement in New Arabic. These results are compared to agreement
patterns found in a corpus of Old Arabic texts. Some have suggested that the agreement Variation
fbund in New and Old Arabic varieties is random and meaningless. However, multivariate analy-
sis of the Cairene and the Old Arabic patterns indicate both are systematic and that the two are
similar in many respects. The agreement patterns in question appear to be a resource which
Speakers exploit to classify referents.
It is generally agreed that the language contact Situation resulting from the spread of Islam
had a profound effect on the development of vernacular varieties of Arabic. Some have argued
that the process of language shift to Arabic was rapid, resulting in deep-reaching changes in
spoken varieties of Arabic. On the other hand, the formal variety of Arabic that came to be Clas-
sical Arabic is touted äs having changed little. This study suggests that Classical Arabic, too,
appears to be the result of some contact induced change and that the agreement System of Cairene
is, in some ways, closer to that of early Old Arabic than is that of its standardized cousin, Modern
Standard Arabic. From the standpoint of agreement, it would appear that varieties such äs Cairene
have changed less and that Classical Arabic changed more than one might suppose. These find-
ings suggest that a re-examination of the history of Arabic is in order.

L Introduction to agreement in Arabic

Patterns of agreement in Classical Arabic (CA), Modern Standard Arabic
(MSA), and most dialects of Arabic, are similar in many ways to those found in
Indo-European languages. Head nouns are modified by adjectives and demon-
stratives, which agree with them according to familiär categories such äs gender
and number; verbs generally agree with their grammatical subject in like man-
ner. MSA, the only surviving variety of Old Arabic, exhibits a particularly high
degree of regularity — or, äs its name suggests, standardization. Patterns of

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agreement with nouns referring to human beings show the greatest degree of
symmetry: masculine Singular forms occur with masculine Singular modifiers,
feminine Singular forms with feminine singular modifiers, masculine plural
forms with masculine plural modifiers, and feminine plural forms with feminine
plural modifiers, äs in (1) and (2).
(1) a. mudiir saabiq b. mudiir-uun saabiq-uun
director.M.so former.M.SG director-M.PL former-M.PL
'a former director' 'former directors'
(2) a. mudiir-a saabiq-a b. mudiir-aat saabiq-aat
director-F.SG former-F.SG director-F.PL former-F.PL
'a former director (f.)' 'former directors (f.)'
There are two basic types of Arabic plural forms. Plural nouns and adjectives
are both traditionally referred to äs either sound plurals or broken plurals.
"Sound plural" refers to the formation of the plural form by suffixation, äs in
mudiir 'director', mudür-uun 'directors'. "Broken plural" refers to a plural
formed by alteration of the stem, äs in rajul 'man', rijaal 'men'. Tfypically, a
given singular form has either a corresponding broken plural or a sound plural,
though occasionally both. While sound plurals could be said to be "regulär",
broken plurals are more frequent, i.e. the plural of most nouns is of the broken
type. A plural head (broken or sound) may occur with either an accompanying
broken plural or sound plural modifier or both, äs in (3) where the head and first
adjective are broken plurals but the second adjective is a sound plural.
(3) wuzaraa? judud ka6iir-uun
ministers.PL new.PL many-M.PL
'many new ministers'
With reference to Classical Arabic, Wright observed that broken plurals "differ
entirely from the sound plurals; for the latter denote several distinct individuals
of a genus, the former a number of individuals viewed collectively, the idea of
individuality being wholly suppressed" (1974:i, 233). In other words, histori-
cally, there appears to have been a semantic distinction between broken and
sound plurals. The degree to which this distinction has survived in MSA is a
matter in need of further investigation.
A distinctive syntactic feature of many varieties of Arabic is the use of
feminine singular forms to agree with some types of plural heads. In MSA, ad-
jectives preserve the masculine and feminine grammatical gender distinction
when agreeing with singular, nonhuman head nouns, äs in (4a) and (5a); how-
ever, adjectives modifying plural nonhuman head nouns show no corresponding
differentiation, instead, only feminine singular forms are used, whether the head
is a broken plural (4b) or a sound plural (Sb).1 In other words, the gender dis-
tinction found in the singular is maintained in plural agreement with human
heads, äs in (1) and (2), but not with non-human heads, äs in (4) and (5). In
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MSA, feminine Singular agreement is essentially categorical for all forms (at-
tributive and predicative adjectives, demonstrative pronouns, verbs, and ana-
phoric pronouns) occurring with nonhuman plural heads, regardless of the gen-
der of the corresponding Singular of the head noun.
(4) a. kitaab jadiid b. kutub jadiid-a
book.M.SG new.M.so books.PL new-F.so
*a new book' *new books'
(5) a. sayyaar-a jadiid-a b. sayyaar-aat jadiid-a
car-F.so new-F.SG car-F.PL new-F.SG
4
a new car' 'new cars'
Unlike MSA, most other varieties of Arabic exhibit considerable Variation in
their patterns of agreement. This is true of other varieties of Old Arabic (e.g.,
the Pre-Islamic poetic koine of the 6th-7th Century and the language of the
Qur'an, also 7th Century) äs well äs New Arabic (e.g. Cairene, Damascene, and
Tunisian). (See examples (6), (7), and (8) from Cairene, and note that it and
many other varieties of New Arabic exhibit no gender distinction in marking
agreement with plural heads, that is, the categories of agreement are: masculine
Singular, feminine Singular, and common plural.) In many vernacular varieties
of Arabic, nonhuman plural heads usually occur with feminine Singular agree-
ment, though plural agreement is not uncommon, äs in (6). Human head nouns,
on the other hand, generally occur with forms exhibiting plural agreement, but
feminine singular agreement also occurs, especially with broken plurals, äs in
(7). If a head noun (human or non-) occurs with a numerical quantifier, plural
agreement is nearly categorical, äs in (8) (Belnap 1993:104-106).
(6) biyuut kabiir-a (kubaar)
houses.PL large-F.SG large.PL
'large houses'
(7) riggaala kuwayyis-iin (kuwayyis-a)
men.PL nice-PL nice-F.sc
'nice men'
(8) talat sitt-aat kuwayyis-iin
three women-F.PL nice-PL
'three nice women'
The complexities of this agreement Variation have been the topic of a number of
studies or have figured prominently in the discussion of specific topics, par-
ticularly in recent years the history of Arabic. A representative sample might
include: Belnap (1993), Blanc (1970), Ferguson (1989), Mitchell (1973), Owens
& Bani-Yasin (1987). Such studies represent a variety of perspectives or orien-
tations. Some have proposed ' Solutions'; others offered largely descriptive ac-
counts, sometimes extolling the richness of the complexity. This paper examines
patterns of agreement Variation in a modern vernacular variety, Cairene Arabic
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(Section 2). These patterns are compared with those in a corpus of Old Arabic
texts (Section 3). We then discuss the implications of this study for the history
of Arabic (Section 4).

2. Agreement Variation in New Arabic (Cairene)

2.7 The data: The Cairene corpus and its analysis

The vernacular data for this study come from 26 sociolinguistic Interviews col-
lected in Cairo in 1990. The interviewees, 12 males and 14 females, represent a
ränge of occupations, ages, and educational backgrounds. A sample from the
second half of each interview constitutes the corpus for this study and is referred
to äs "the sample". Specifically, the data taken from each tape consists of the
first 20 consecutively occurring head nouns having plural reference and all ac-
companying agreement loci. The resulting corpus amounts to a total of 520
heads with 873 agreement loci (245 adjectives, 272 verbs, 268 anaphoric pro-
nouns, 88 demonstrative pronouns). Each token was coded for both linguistic
factors relating to the head and locus, äs well äs factors relating to the individual
Speaker's identity.
The resulting data set was statistically analyzed using Goldvarb (version
2.0), the Macintosh Implementation of the variable rule program developed by
David Sankoff and others (Sankoff & Labov 1979). The variable rule program,
a logistic-linear multivariate analysis is based on the well-established statistical
concept of maximum likelihood. It is for use with nominal data and compen-
sates well for skewing in the data, which is common in linguistic data sets. The
variable rule program assigns relative weights to factors, linguistic and nonlin-
guistic, according to the degree to which they favor or disfavor the application
of a "rule", the occurrence of one form or structure instead of one or more oth-
ers. In our case, the rule in question is the realization of feminine singular äs
opposed to plural agreement. A factor with a weight of .788, for example, favors
the application of feminine singular agreement much more so than would a
factor whose value is .295.
The variable rule analysis program takes äs its input only variable data. As a
result, factors which determine or correlate with categorical application of a rule
must be excluded from the data set for the purpose of statistical analysis. For
example, in the sample all co-ordinated heads containing a singular noun (a
singular noun with one or more other nouns, singular or plural) occurred with
accompanying plural agreement; äs a result, these tokens were removed from
the data set used äs input to the variable rule analysis program. Factors which
show near categorical application of a rule can overwhelm other factors; äs a
result, it is advisable to exclude such tokens äs well. It was necessary, therefore,
to exclude a number of tokens in order to run the variable rule program. This
accounts for the fact that the total number of tokens shown in Table l included
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for the variable rule analysis is less than the total number of tokens in the sam-
ple, These excluded tokens are set aside only for the purpose of the variable rule
analysis; they are crucial to the total analysis but due to the constraints of the
variable rule program they must be dealt with separately. (See Belnap (1991:57-
61, 157-165) for more Information on the interviewees and the interview proc-
ess and for a more detailed account of the coding procedures and the statistical
analysis.)

2.2 Animacy and morphology

In this paper, we focus on the two factor groups contributing most to the choice
of agreement type. We begin with factors related to the head noun. The discus-
sion in the literature on agreement in Arabic focuses generally on agreement
Variation with non-human head nouns. Some accounts would leave one to be-
lieve that this Variation is primarily restricted to non-human head nouns. One
does find frequent reference to feminine Singular agreement with naas 'people'
(e.g. Ferguson, 1989:12), äs in (9), and often one or two other human heads,
such äs riggaala *men', sittaat 'women', or banaat 'girls' (Tomiche 1964:179).
However, even when this Variation is discussed, it is often relegated to marginal
Status.2
(9) kull in-naas Tayaan-a bi-s-sukkar wi-bi-yi-??ud-u li-wahd-u-hum
all the-people sick-F.sc with-the-sugar and-3.M.-sit-PL by-themselves.PL
'All the people are sick with diabetes and stay alone.'
(Ahlam, f., 50, housewife)
Variation with human heads proved to be far more extensive in the Interviews
than the literature would generally lead one to suspect, that is, the Variation was
not restricted to non-human heads and a few exceptional human heads. In the
sample, the human head nouns that occurred with feminine singular agreement
loci include (the numbers in parentheses following each item indicate the num-
ber of heads occurring with associated feminine singular agreement loci / the
total number of heads occurring with either feminine singular or plural agree-
ment): naas 'people' (42/75), sittaat 'women' (l/l), banaat 'girls' (2/4), talaba
'students' (1/3), fiyaal 'children' (4/10), Yawlaad/wilaad 'boys, children'
(4/17), giraan 'neighbors' (2/3), and subbaan 'young men, youths' (l/l). For
example, see (10). The same is also true of collective nouns such äs sabaab
'youth(s), young people', which occurred once with feminine singular agree-
ment and once with plural agreement. Additional broken plurals from the inter-
views (but not found in the sample) occurring with feminine singular agreement
include: ?agaanib 'foreigners', fummaal 'workers', safayda 'Upper Egyptians',
fazwaag 'husbands', sanayfiyya 'craftsmen', riggaala 'men', rigaal 'men', and
dakatra 'doctors'. There was one instance of feminine singular agreement with
the collective form hariim 'women'.
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(10) ?awlaad-u kibr-it wi-banaat-u tgawwiz-it

boys-his grown up-F.SG and-girls-his married-F.SG
'His sons have grown up and his daughters have married.'
(Ahmad, m., 55, retired civil servant)
The results for the animacy/head-type factor group are found in Table l.3
Inanimate nouns markedly favor feminine Singular agreement while human
nouns favor plural agreement. The nine tokens of heads denoting animals (oc-
curring with 20 agreement loci) patterned between human and inanimate, sug-
gesting an animacy hierarchy. In other words, the relevant categories do not
appear to be human/non-human, äs in Modern Standard Arabic and äs suggested
by some for Cairene, but rather human/animal/inanimate.
Table 1: Anitnacy, head type and feminine singular agreement

Head %F.Sg. Agr. Probability N

inanimate broken plurals 97 .932 191
inanimate sound plurals 96 .816 144
animal broken plurals 65 .412 20
naas 'people' 40 .189 154
human broken plurals 10 .030 140
human sound plurals 6 — 34
Total: 683

Table l also indicates that broken plurals are more likely to occur with feminine
singular agreement loci than are sound plurals. In the sample only one human
sound plural head (sittaat 'women') occurred with feminine singular agreement
(two feminine singular verbs).4 Eight sound plural heads that refer to men (or to
men and women) occurred in the sample, all with plural agreement. The litera-
ture leads one to believe that these human sound plural heads categorically re-
quire plural agreement. This is not so, however. There were a few instances in
the Interviews of such human sound plurals occurring with feminine singular
agreement; however, these examples did not occur in the sample used for the
variable rule analysis. Three Speakers used feminine singular verbal agreement
with fallahiin 'farmers', yarbiyyiin 'Westerners', and mufattisiin 'inspectors'
(see example (11)). The feminine sound plural sittaat 'women' was much more
likely to occur with feminine singular agreement. Ten Speakers used feminine
singular agreement with sittaat 'women.'
(11) ?il-fallah-iin kaan-it hilw-a
the-farmer-PL were-F.sc sweet-F.sc
'The farmers were great.' (Kawthar, f., 55, maid)
In a general treatment of agreement, including a broad survey of agreement
phenomena in a diverse sample of languages of the world, Barlow (1988) con-
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cluded that agreement may function äs a secondary marker or classifier (See

also Barlow (this volume).). For languages whose inflectional morphology
marks a singular/plural distinction, agreement may function to further indicate
the classification or perception of referents äs a group or collection, or äs indi-
viduated entities. In light of this, the results in Table l suggest that agreement is
a grammatical resource available to Speakers of Cairene Arabic to classify refer-
ents. The more salient the referent (human beings, for example) the more likely
it is that plural agreement will obtain. Further investigation has confirmed this
hypothesis.
All factors predicted to influence Speakers* perception of referents äs
grouped or unindividuated proved to statistically favor feminine singular
agreement in the interview data. Tokens which are non-specific in reference and
types whose referents are generic both favored feminine singular agreement
(Belnap 1991:76-80). We see in Table l that the collective noun naas 'people',
the most generic term used to refer to human beings, was much more likely to
occur with feminine singular agreement than other human head nouns. Abstract
nouns — such äs hagaat 'things', ?asbaab 'reasons', and qiyam 'values' —
were also found to favor feminine singular agreement over concrete heads
(1991:80-81). On the other hand, the presence of a numerical quantifier, which
tends to emphasize the individuated nature of the referent, strongly favors plural
agreement (1991:68-74). Further confirmation of this phenomenon comes from
agreement patterns with co-ordinated heads where plural agreement predomi-
nates (1991:81-83). The results of a psycholinguistic experiment designed to
investigate the correlation between agreement type and perception of the refer-
ent suggest that Speakers are able to use agreement to more narrowly classify
referents (1991:105-111).

2.3 Distance between head and locus of agreement

Distance and order have proven to significantly figure in studies of other lin-
guistic variables. For example, distance between the head and gap favors the
non-standard resumptive pronoun relativization strategy in spoken Brazilian
Portuguese (Tarallo 1986). In a quantitative study of agreement in Slavic, Cor-
bett (1983) examined the effect of word order, syntactic position, and distance.
Corbett argued for an "agreement hierarchy" based on syntactic position. How-
ever, he also briefly discussed "real distance" and notes that his hierarchy could
be restated on the corpus, rather than sentence, level äs: "The further a target is
from its Controller, the more frequently semantic agreement will occur"
(1983:74).
The variable rule run ranked the factor group of distance between head and
locus of agreement to be the second factor group, in terms of strength of effect.
In (12), the feminine singular pronoun -ha is six words from its head while the
plural pronoun -hum is eleven words distant. In (13), a feminine singular verb
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form immediately precedes its subject head and the plural pronoun -hum imme-
diately follows.
(12) siwayyit hag-aat ... mis bi-tartiib ?ahammiyyit-ha
few thing-PL not by-rank importance-their.F.SG (6)
wi-baideen ni-§uuf ?iza kun-na ni-rattib-hum
and-afterward we-see if were-we we-order-them.PL(ll)
'... a few things ... not in order of their importance ... and afterward we'll
see if we were ordering them.' (Riham, f., 21, Student)
(13) yoom masal-an t-iigi 1-iiyaal ?a-?ul-lu-hum
day example-ADV F.SG-come the-children I-say-to-them.PL
One day, for example, the children come and I teil them...'
(Magdi, m., 30, skilled construction worker)
Table 2 presents the factored effect of distance on agreement. Negative numbers
indicate an agreement locus occurring in prenominal position, such äs in a verb-
subject construction. For example, the verb preceding its subject head in (13) is
counted äs -1. Positive numbers refer to the distance of a given locus from the
head it follows, äs in (12).
Table 2: Distance of agreement locus from head

Distance from Head %F.Sg. Agr. Probability N

-3&-2 83 .852 6
-1 78 .805 18
1 79 .719 276
2 64 .611 115
3-5 57 .426 141
6-8 53 .207 57
9-45 9 .027 64
Total: 677

The effect of distance is clear. The closer the locus of agreement is to the head
the greater the frequency of feminine Singular agreement. The pre-nominal po-
sitions favor feminine Singular agreement most.5 Although functional explana-
tions often fall short (Labov 1994:547-568), it would appear there may be a
functional basis to the hierarchy discussed here, äs concerns the recoverability
of Information. The nearer an agreement locus is to its head the more immediate
is the association between the two: feminine Singular agreement is far less likely
to interfere with the interlocutor's perceiving the grammatical relationship be-
tween the head and locus. The more distant the locus is from its head, the
greater the potential for confusing the relationship between the head and the
locus. Related discourse processing constraints appear to influence the type of

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agreement that obtains in Tsez (Polinsky & Comrie, this volume; see also Bar-
low's discussion of the discourse function of agreement in this volume.).
The results reported here and elsewhere for Cairene indicate the non-
random nature of its agreement Variation. They indicate that a high correlation
obtains between the morphology and animacy of a head noun and the type of
agreement that obtains. Further research has demonstrated that plural agreement
is used with heads that are perceptually more salient or perceived äs distributed
plurals and that feminine Singular agreement is used with heads that would ap-
pear to be less salient or perceived äs non-distributed plurals. Speakers appear to
be able to exploit this agreement Variation to classify referents. The effect of
distance between the head and its locus of agreement underscores the reality of
the human discourse processing factor.

3. Agreement Variation in Old Arabic

In this section we examine possible roots of the nonrandom agreement Variation
found in the Cairene data. MSA does not exhibit the complex variable agree-
ment patterns found in spoken varieties such äs Cairene (Belnap 1991:116-130,
Owens & Bani-Yasin 1987). MSA, however, is not representative of earlier us-
age. A number of scholars have noted the once rather variable agreement pat-
terns found in Old Arabic. Beeston (1975) suggested that öl der patterns of pre-
dominantly plural agreement gave way to the present System of feminine sin-
gular agreement with nonhuman plurals. Since the earliest extended texts of
Arabic are poetry others have attributed much of the agreement Variation äs
occurring due to the demands of poetic meter (Ibrahim 1970:178, 193). Whether
or not Cairene Arabic is a continuation of earlier patterns or a subsequent inde-
pendent development is an empirical question, one that needs to be examined on
its own merits.

3.1 The data: The Old Arabic corpus

The Old Arabic data for this study come from texts previously analyzed and
described in Belnap (1991:117-119; 129-130) and Belnap & Gee (1994:125-
126). The corpus attempts to represent early Old Arabic, texts predating the
language contact Situation arising due to the spread of Islam outside the Arabian
Peninsula. Table 3 lists the texts represented in the corpus.
The same methods used in analyzing the Cairene data were followed in
analyzing the Old Arabic data. However, prenominal verbal agreement tokens
were excluded from the analysis presented here due to the fact that such verbs
are categorically singular in Old Arabic and this paper deals with the Variation
between feminine singular and plural agreement. Variation does occur in this
Position but only between masculine and feminine singular forms.

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Table 3: Texts induded in the early OldArabic dato, base

Author/Text Century Text Type
Imru' al-Qays 6th poetry
Tarafa 6th poetry
Antara 6th poetry
Al-Xansa' 7th poetry
Qur'an 7th scripture

3.2 Animacy and morphology

The distribution of tokens according to agreement type and morphol-
ogy/animacy of the head are given in Table 4.
Table 4: Animacy, head type andfrequency of feminine Singular agreement
Broken Plural Heads Sound Plural Heads
inanim. anim. human inanim. anim. human
Imru' al-Qays 33% 14% 0% 50% 50%
6th Century (10/30) (1/7) (0/8) (1/2) (1/2) (0/0)
Tarafa 74% 64% 0% 0% 0%
6th Century (20/27) (7/11) (0/14) (0/1) (0/2) (0/0)
Antara 73% 50% 32% 100% 100% 17%
6th Century (40/55) (7/14) (12/38) (5/5) (2/2) d/6)
Al-Xansa' 46% 0% 22% 33% 0%
7th Century (16/35) (0/3) (6/27) (1/3) (0/3) (0/0)
Qur'an 77% 4% 76% 0%
7th Century (37/48) (0/0) (1/23) (13/17) (0/0) (0/14)
Total 63% 43% 17% 71% 33% 5%
(123/195) (15/35) (19/110) (20/28) (3/9) (1/20)

The sample from the Qur'an included no plural heads referring to animals.6 As a
result, and due to the fact that the agreement Variation with human plural heads
in the Qur'an sample was confmed almost entirely to instances of prenominal
verbs, only the Pre-Islamic poetry tokens were included in the variable rule sta-
tistical analysis. The results for animacy/head-type of the variable rule run are
found in Table 5.7

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Table 5: Pre-Islamic Texts: Anitnacy, head type and feminine Singular agreement

Head %F.Sg. Agr. Probability N

inanimate broken plurals 59 .725 147
inanimate sound plurals 64 .630 11
animal broken plurals 43 .501 35
animal sound plurals 33 .361 9
human broken plurals 21 .178 87
human sound plurals 17 .158 6
Total: 295

As in the analysis of the Cairene corpus presented in Table l, an animacy hier-

archy is apparent in Table 5. Inanimate head nouns are more likely to occur with
feminine singular agreement than head nouns referring to animals; human head
nouns are least likely to occur with feminine singular agreement. Again, äs in
the case of Cairene Arabic, the relevant categories do not appear to be hu-
man/non-human, äs in Modern Standard Arabic, but rather human/animal
/inanimate.
The patterns of Cairene Arabic agreement Variation appear to have the same
source äs the Pre-Islamic patterns. In both varieties feminine singular agreement
is associated with perceptually less salient referents, with referents perceived äs
a group rather than a collection of individuals. In Section l, we quoted Wright's
reference grammar äs saying that broken plurals in Classical Arabic denote "in-
dividuals viewed collectively" whereas sound plurals refer to "distinct individu-
als" (1974:i, 233). Wright's comments go beyond traditional observations —
and are much more in line with our findings. In the literature one does find
mention of feminine singular agreement with human head nouns described äs
"ethnic collectives." For example, in the corpus material taken from the Qur'an
we find:
(14) wa-lan ta-rda fan-ka 1-yahuudu wa-la
and-NEG 3.F.SG-becontent with-you the-Jews.PL and-NEG ...
... n-nasaara hatta ta-ttabafa millata-hum
... the-Christians.PL until 2,SG-follow creed-their.PL
'Never will the Jews or the Christians be satisfied with thee unless thou fol-
low their form of religion.' (Qur'an, , 120)
The fact that a class of nouns referring to unindividuated groups of human be-
ings was discussed in connection with feminine singular agreement adds weight
to Wright's observations and our findings. However, analysis of the Old Arabic
corpus revealed that human head nouns occurring with feminine singular
agreement are by no means limited to "ethnic plurals" (Belnap 1991:129-131).

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180

For example, we find: rusul 'messengers, apostles', junuud 'soldiers', ?abtaal

'heroes', ?aqaarib 'relatives', and rijaal 'men'.
Some have argued that broken plurals in an earlier stage of Arabic were
originally Singular abstract nouns which later came to function äs collectives
and then plurals (Ibrahim 1970:223). This would account for the semantic dis-
tinction between broken and sound plurals, and for the fact that sound plurals
tend to occur with plural agreement more than broken plurals. Apparently, the
broken plural class, which tends to take feminine singular agreement, was al-
ready associated with a "grouped" perspective in Pre-Islamic Arabic.

33 Distance between head and locus of agreement

Table 6 presents the factored effect of distance on agreement. The factor of dis-
tance was not found to be statistically significant, that is, it was not selected in
the step-up/step-down run of the variable rule program. Nevertheless, there is a
clear trend. In an experimental run using a doubled version of the data set (each
token used twice to achieve a larger data set) this factor proved to be significant.
The effect of distance is clear and closely parallels the Cairene Arabic results
found in Table 2. Generally, the closer the locus of agreement is to the head the
greater the frequency of feminine singular agreement.8
Table 6: Pre-Islamic Texts: Distance of agreement locus from head

Distance from Head %F.Sg. Agr. Probability N

1 39 .586 114
2 65 .644 48
3-5 44 .388 84
6-8 36 .322 22
9-39 33 .379 27
Total: 295

4. Implications
The parallels between the Cairene and the early Old Arabic data sets are strik-
ing. This is particularly so in view of the fact that at least a millennium has
elapsed since New Arabic split off from Old Arabic. The similarities between
the two are also all the more significant given the differences in the Cairene and
the Pre-Islamic corpora (informal spoken conversation versus poetry). The dis-
tance effect in Old Arabic suggests that the Variation is not the result of the ran-
dom demands of poetic meter, but rather indicative that the corpus exhibits the
tendencies of natural language. The Old Arabic data, particularly the patterning
according to animacy and morphological constraints, suggest there is good rea-
son to believe the New Arabic Variation derives from the old, that it is a case of
stable Variation. This might appear so obvious äs to preclude further discussion.
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However, when we consider that MSA, the only surviving variety of Old Ara-
bic, does not exhibit similar patterns of agreement Variation, then what appeared
obvious raises questions. Why should a New Arabic variety such äs Cairene
preserve such patterns while its supposedly more conservative cousin MSA
does not?
It is generally agreed that the language contact Situation resulting from the
spread of Islam had a profound effect on the development of vernacular varie-
ties of Arabic (Fischer & Jastrow 1980:15-19). By the ninth Century, imperfect
learning of Arabic on the part of new converts (owing to this language contact
Situation) was perceived äs a threat to the correct transmission and future com-
prehension of the Qur'an. As a result, efforts were undertaken to preserve the
Qur'an and codify Classical Arabic. There is some debate äs to whether the
efforts of the early Arab grammarians were merely descriptive or whether they
were normative in nature. If they were normative then the language contact
Situation of the early Islamic era not only led to changes in spoken Arabic but
also, to some degree, to changes in what is generally referred to äs Classical
Arabic.
The most appealing solution to the puzzle äs to how Classical Arabic
agreement patterns came to be simplified would appear to be that this Variation
was essentially eradicated from the formal written language when Old Arabic
was codified and apparently standardized. Variable agreement patterns are well
attested in the Qur'an, the theoretical ideal for Arabic style and usage, but only
vestiges of this Variation remain in general written usage a few centuries later.
Standardization at the hands of the early Arab grammarians would account for
the facts of Old Arabic, but we have found no evidence that they ever addressed
the issues of agreement under consideration here. Given only the facts of Pre-
Islamic, Classical, and Modern Standard Arabic, one would be tempted to argue
that there was a change in progress (a tendency to use increasingly more femi-
nine singular agreement with non-human heads) that eventually resulted in an
essentially categorical rule soon after the spread of Islam outside the Arabian
Peninsula.9 The large numbers of nonnative Speakers and writers who came to
use Arabic during this period could easily have accelerated a process which was
already underway, a familiär phenomenon in language contact situations. Again,
this seems a straight-forward solution, were it not for the robust survival of such
patterns in many, if not most, varieties of spoken Arabic. Nonnative Speakers of
Arabic learned both the written and the spoken language. However, the simpli-
fication of the agreement patterns took place in the written language only.
Belnap & Gee (1994) argue that this apparently spontaneous Standardization
or regularization in the written language but not in the spoken language is the
result of L2 learning strategies, but with a twist. They argue that the new rule of
categorical feminine singular agreement with nonhuman heads was indeed the
result of learner overgeneralization. Research on probability matching in the
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182

field of experimental psychology helps to account for the different outcomes in

the spoken and written varieties of the language (Belnap & Gee 1994:141-142).
In short, the high pressure context of writing in a second language — a language
held to be the vehicle of God's word, if not God's own language — would
readily induce the writer to avoid any usage deemed even potentially question-
able. Use of the predominant pattern (in this case, feminine singular agreement
with nonhuman heads) rather than the less frequent and more complex patterns
is a natural development. Native-like use of these variable patterns would have
required a sensitivity to morphological, semantic, and discourse factors — a
daunting task for even a highly skilled nonnative writer. Use of the spoken lan-
guage in informal contexts, on the other hand, would not have caused the same
degree of anxiety and tendency to resort to avoidance strategies. As a result,
Speakers were not under äs much pressure to "play it safe" and would therefore
be less likely to overgeneralize.
These fmdings challenge a number of common assumptions. Variability is
often associated with instability. Our research indicates that in spite of the fact
that New Arabic is the product of a language contact Situation in which Arabic
spread to sooner or later become the native tongue of millions outside the Ara-
bian Peninsula, nevertheless the variable agreement patterns found in Pre-
Islamic Arabic are alive and well far from their homeland. This suggests that the
spread of Arabic was not nearly äs disruptive äs has been ciaimed by many. It
also attests to the conservative nature of these Arabic dialects, which are popu-
larly believed to be much corrupted descendants of Classical Arabic. While
these spoken vernaculars are certainly the product of the spread of Arabic and
its contact with other languages, it is not widely conceded that formal Arabic,
too, was affected by its emergence from the protective haven of the Arabian
Peninsula. In sharp contrast to the stability of some aspects of agreement in
vernacular Arabic are the neat and tidy agreement patterns that are all but cate-
gorical in Modern Standard Arabic. The nonnative Arabic writers who swelled
the ranks of the early Muslim intellectual elite apparently left their mark on the
language, which helps to account for the fact that Classical and Modern Stan-
dard Arabic differ from the language of the Qur'an, on which they are theoreti-
cally based. These findings on the evolution of Old Arabic and the stability
evinced in New Arabic raise questions for the history of Arabic and suggest a
second look at other languages and their histories might be in order.

Address of the author

R. Kirk Belnap
Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages
Brigham Young University
Provo, Utah (USA)
e-mail: rkb@email.byu.edu

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 183

Notes
In order to lay the groundwork for this paper, Section 2 contains some material previously
published äs Belnap (1993). This material has, however, beer» updated and includes some
additional data, äs well äs a re-analysis of the data set.
The interaction of animacy with agreement marking is found in a number of languages. In
this volume, see Barlow's listing of types of feature discord, Corbett's discussion of Miya,
Polinsky & Comrie's treatment of Tsez, and van den Berg's analysis of Akusha Dargi. Al-
though not directly based on animacy, verbal agreement with neuter nouns is singular in
Classical Greek — äs well äs in Koine Greek, but not strictly so. For discussion of the possi-
ble influence of Greek on Arabic agreement patterns, see Belnap & Gee (1994:137-140).
Killean (1968) observed that the phenomenon of feminine singular agreement with non-
human plurals is similar to that of neuter gender found in other languages. One argument
against this analysis, which Killean mentions, is the fact that cardinal numbers and bidf
'several' do not agree with non-human plurals äs if they were feminine singular, but rather
show reverse agreement with the gender of the singular form of the noun, äs discussed
above. The following example shows feminine singular verbal and adjectival agreement
while the number agrees (or rather, disagrees) with the singular form of the head, which is
feminine in the singular:
(i) ?ittafaq-at 9alaa6 duwal ?arabiyy-a ?ala 1-masruuT
agreed-3.F.SG three.M nation.F.PL Arab-F.SG on DEF-project
'Three Arab nations agreed on the project.'
Abdel-Massih et al. noted that "some Speakers of E[gyptian] A[rabic] use the latter structure
[kutub kibiira 'big books' — a broken plural head followed by a feminine singular adjective]
even when the modified noun is human plural" and give äs examples ?a\vlaad kitiira 'many
boys' and banaat kitiira 'many girls' (1979:22). In the Interviews, 73% (19/26) of the inter-
viewees used feminine singular agreement at least once with human heads other than naas
'people* (with which all Speakers used feminine singular agreement to some degree).
Clearly, if 19 of 26 Speakers used scattered instances of feminine singular agreement with
human heads in the space of 90 minutes or less, it is certain that a longer sample would yield
a higher percentage of Speakers using feminine singular agreement. In other words, it is not
"some Speakers" who use feminine singular agreement with human heads, äs Abdel-Massih
et al. (1979) suggested, it is the majority — and probably all — who do so.
Sallam observed that the occurrence of feminine singular agreement with human plurals
is restricted to "some collocations" (1979:49). Tomiche (1964:179) suggested feminine sin-
gular agreement is rare and restricted to collectives (naas 'people') and feminine plurals
(banaat 'girls')· Again, the corpus clearly demonstrates that the Variation is not restricted to
these head types.
The probabilities in Table l differ from the percentages in that they correct for skewing in
the data set. For example, the probabilities given for animal broken plurals and for naas
'people' are much lower than the percentages listed. This is due to the fact that a dispropor-
tionate number of tokens in these two categories occurred nine or more words away from the
head, a position almost categorically favoring plural agreement (See Section 2.3.). As a re-
sult, the percentages are somewhat inflated.
Human sound plurals were excluded from the variable rule analysis due to the fact that they
present special complications and there were too few types and tokens in the sample to allow
an analysis which would take into account the differences between masculine sound plurals
and feminine sound plurals.
The monotonic decrease in the probability of feminine singular agreement äs one proceeds
from the farthest prenominal position to the most distant postnominal position in Table 2
suggests the possibility that the farther left the locus of agreement, the higher the probability
of feminine singular agreement. One may confidently conclude that this is the case for post-
nominal agreement loci; however the case of prenominal agreement loci warrants further in-
vestigation. The results for the left-most prenominal position are based on only six agree-
ment loci; while the results for this position are suggestive they are hardly conclusive.

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184

6 The Qur'an sample contained one head construction containing a singular collective refer-
ring to animals:
(i) fa-xud ?arba?atan min aHayri fa-sur-hunna ?ilay-ka
CONJ-take four of DEF-bird.coLL CONJ-incline-them.F.PL. to-you
Take four birds and make them come to you ...' (Qur'an, II, 260)
Note that plural agreement obtains, likely due to the presence of the numerical quantifier
which cancels the grouped nature of the collective and results instead in a distributed read-
ing.
7 A skewed distribution accounts for the higher percentage of feminine singular agreement
with inanimate sound plurals in Table 5. No agreement tokens for this category occur farther
than five words away from the head; 70% (7/11) occur to the immediate right of the head,
where feminine singular agreement is more likely to obtain (See Section 3.3.).
8 The low percentage for position l in Table 6 is due, again, to skewing of the data. Position l
is dominated by adjectives. Adjectives are far less likely to show feminine singular agree-
ment than verbs and pronouns. The frequencies of feminine singular agreement by locus
type for position l are: adjectives 10% (6/61), verbs 69% (22/32), pronouns 85% (17/20).
The locus type factor group proved to be statistically significant but is not discussed here äs
it falls outside the scope of this paper. The results in Table 6 appear to generally support
Corbett's agreement hierarchy (1983). However, when we hold distance constant, at least for
position l, the distribution of the frequencies according to syntactic category are the reverse
of what Corbett's agreement hierarchy would predict (1983). This suggests that the Variation
between feminine singular agreement and plural agreement may be more complex than sim-
ply a matter of syntactic versus semantic agreement. A more detailed analysis is needed. For
further discussion see Belnap (1991:87-89,123-128).
9 Some variable agreement patterns continued to be used after the spread of Islam, mostly in
literary works and much less so in expository prose (Belnap & Gee 1994:126-133). One relic
pattern in particular can be found in MS A prose of a recherche style (Belnap 1991:128-129).

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