A Project to Collect and Study the Language of a Group of Contemporary Tihama Al-Hijaz Tribes

Abstract

A project aimed at collecting and studying the language of a group of contemporary Tihama tribes in the Hijaz, namely: Fahm tribe, Hudhayl tribe, and Banu Kinana (Al-Jahadla). These tribes inhabit the southern region of Makkah al-Mukarramah in the western part of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and reside in close proximity, despite the scattered nature of their homes, as indicated by demographic and geographical studies. Renowned for their eloquence, these tribes' language holds significant importance in contemporary linguistic research. The project is structured around two main aspects, each branching into secondary auxiliary facets: firstly, gathering linguistic material used by the mentioned tribes in various daily life situations and communication contexts, and secondly, conducting a linguistic study on the phonetic, morphological, grammatical, and semantic levels based on the collected field data. The research addresses a fundamental problem: monitoring linguistic phenomena in the study sample to answer key questions such as the roots of these phenomena in the classical level of Arabic, their developmental trajectory, and the pathways they traversed to attain their present-day usage. The study yielded crucial results, notably the abundance of morphological phenomena within the tribes, with some maintaining their traditional form while others have evolved. These variations appear in patterned forms in the contemporary dialects of the study environment. The research also revealed the presence of phenomena influenced by multiple linguistic sources. Emphasizing the significance of linguistic geography in achieving planned results, the study recommends further scientifically valuable research in the realm of applied linguistics. Additionally, it suggests that specialized research centers and language academies focus on dialects within the realms of first eloquence.