Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines developments in the syntax of negation and indefinites in a range of Afro-Asiatic languages, focussing especially on Arabic dialects and the other Afro-Asiatic languages that have been in contact with them. Evidence is presented showing that the occurrences of Jespersen’s cycle in Arabic, Berber, Coptic, and Modern South Arabian are all linked by language contact. A similar pattern is observed among several Afro-Asiatic languages of the Horn of Africa. The chapter also describes the varying extents to which the indefinite systems of a number of Arabic dialects, as well as Hebrew, Aramaic, and Ethiopian Semitic languages, have been restructured over time.

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