INTRODUCTION

The t i t l e o f th is book could be m islead ing. There is in fa c t no North East Arabian group o f d ia le c ts and the designation North East Arabian is used here t e r r i t o r i a l l y ra ther than g e n e t ic a lly in d ica tin g that the d ia le c ts are found in the north -eastern corner o f the Arabian peninsula and the areas o f southern Iraq and P ers ia ad jo in ing i t . L in g u is t ic a l ly these d ia le c ts f a l l in to two main groups, an Arabian and a Mesopotamian one. The Arabian d ia le c ts examined here include those o f the Gulf Coast in the area o f Kuwait and al-Hasa, the northern parts o f Saudi Arabia and the d ia le c ts o f the bedouins o f the western borderlands o f Iraq . Mesopotamian d ia le c ts examined are those o f the r iv e r lands o f southern Iraq and Khuzistan in southern P e rs ia . In a gen era l way they share ce rta in c h a ra c te r is t ic s and can be classed as North A rab ian (1) in con trast to ( i ) the South Arabian type o f Yaman, Hadhramawt, Oman and the S h i'a d ia le c ts o f Eastern Arabia and ( i i ) the West Arabian group comprising those o f H ija z , S y r ia , Jordan, P a le s t in e , Lebanon and Egypt.