ABSTRACT
Peripheral Arabic dialects manifest various linguistic peculiarities that are mainly due to close linguistic contact with Iranian (Indo-European), Turkic languages, Aramaic, or Greek. This chapter focuses on Anatolian Arabic and Central Asian Arabic dialects, as well as brief discussions of Cypriot Maronite Arabic and Khorasan Arabic. It provides a historical background and a perspective on the situation of peripheral Arabic dialects. The chapter discusses the critical issues and topics in the study of peripheral dialects in a comparative manner. In many places, Sason Arabic is used as a point of reference, where this language is investigated as a case study illustrative of changes across many varieties. Linguistically, the study of peripheral dialects is significant since they exhibit rich materials for the study of problems of historical and general linguistics. The chapter concludes with a picture of the present situation in studies of peripheral dialects and suggests some future directions, along with concluding remarks.
