ABSTRACT
Introductory In the context of a study of the history of the Āl Ḍhafīr, and their migration through central Arabia ending in their location over the last century and a half in the northern desert, an examination of the nature of their dialect is useful in drawing the pattern of their relationship with their present neighbours and populations further afield. Areal studies of language have shown that dialects of a language can show resemblances which have evolved either through a common genetic1 origin, i.e. a historical relationship, or by the geographical spread of innovations from one dialect to a neighbouring one, i.e. an assimilative relationship. In general the spread of dialect features across a landscape occurs in waves out from centres of cultural influence and is characteristic of areas with a long history of stable settlement. The intrusion of dialect features from a distant region, on the other hand, is often indicative of a sudden displacement of population from one area to another. Early linguists such as the Neogrammarians of the nineteenth century were primarily interested in the second type which enabled them to reconstruct larger families of genetically related languages whose links were previously unsuspected. At a later stage dialectologists sought to show how geographical and social factors could influence the spread of features from one population group to the next. These two approaches have been termed the Family Tree theory and the Wave theory (Stammbaum theorie and Wellentheorie).
