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Phillip W. Stokes @phillipwstokes.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Looking forward to contributing a paper to this and discussing the other papers, all of which are really strong and interesting!

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Marijn van Putten @phdnix.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

In 2025 @bnuyaminim.bsky.social and me taught a course on Comparative Semitics at the Leiden Summer School. After some cleaning up, we've decided to upload the syllabus and release it under a CC license for you and yours to peruse through. doi.org/10.17613/b4z...

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Phillip W. Stokes @phillipwstokes.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Not sure in Egypt, but in Jordan the use of miš + past tense verb is distinguished from mā + past tense in questions: ما حكيتلك هيك؟ "I didn't tell you that?" مش حكيتلك هيك؟ "Didn't I tell you that?" The first I'm not sure if I did or not; the latter implies I did and you forgot.

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Phillip W. Stokes @phillipwstokes.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

No problem! I can highly recommend Heselwood's work in general (and his co-authored work with Janet Watson) heartily. Really good stuff.

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Phillip W. Stokes @phillipwstokes.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

IIRC Barry Heselwood has a paper on the 'tight approximant' version, but with references to previous studies that have looked at this. There are both accoustic and sociolinguistic studies, I believe, some looking purely at articulation, others at the kind of speaker affect mentioned above.

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Marijn van Putten @phdnix.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

So it's really quite rare to get insight into the *why*, sadly. There are rare moments where we have reports that explain the rationale. For example for quran.com/11/68 al-Kisāʾī reads the Genitive ṯamūdin triptotic, instead of his usual ṯamūda. His student al-Farrāʾ retains his explanation:

quran.com

Surah Hud Ayah 68 - Read, Listen, Translation, Tafsir - Quran.com

Surah Hud Ayah 68 - كان لم يغنوا فيها الا ان ثمود كفروا ربهم الا بعدا لثمود

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Phillip W. Stokes @phillipwstokes.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

My initial instinct was to come at this hēk in Jordanian Arabic: اللي ببنوا حيطان بِحبِسوا حالهم فيهم "Those who build walls imprison themselves in them"

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Phillip W. Stokes @phillipwstokes.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Today is the last day to download my book for free!

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Phillip W. Stokes @phillipwstokes.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Thanks very much, Adam! I hope you find it useful/meaningful!

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Phillip W. Stokes @phillipwstokes.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

My new book is out! And it's freely-downloadable via the following link for the next two weeks. The Linguistic Nature of Early Christian Arabic Literature - www.cambridge.org/core/element...

cambridge.org

The Linguistic Nature of Early Christian Arabic Literature

Cambridge Core - Biblical Studies - New Testament - The Linguistic Nature of Early Christian Arabic Literature

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Gareth Roberts @garicgymro.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Here's an example of a linguistic fact that I think should be straightforward and obvious when pointed out, but which a lot of people seem surprisingly resistant to: Colloquial Latin never died. In fact it's spoken extremely widely across the world. 🧵

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Open Book Publishers @openbookpublish.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

It's true! 👀 NEW BOOK | A Multipolar Approach to Early Christian Arabic: Vatican Arabic Ms 13 in the Linguistic Landscape of Early Islam by @phillipwstokes.bsky.social Read freely online or buy a copy: www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.116... #OAbooks #SemiticSeries #OpenAccess

An image of the book in hardback on a colourful background next to text that says:

'A Multipolar Approach to Early Christian Arabic by Phillip W. Stokes

This volume offers the most comprehensive linguistic analysis to date of Vatican Arabic MS 13, a late 9th/early 10th-century Arabic Gospel manuscript. Combining meticulous quantitative study with wide-ranging comparative evidence, this book provides an in-depth examination of the manuscript's orthography, phonology, morphology, morpho-syntax, and syntax.

Crucially, the study does not treat MS 13 in isolation. Its features are systematically compared with those of other Christian Arabic manuscripts, Quranic traditions, medieval Arabic registers, early poetry, and modern dialects, challenging long-standing assumptions about 'Middle Arabic' and 'Classical Arabic'. By demonstrating that many features of MS 13 align with broader scribal and linguistic practices of the period, the book makes a compelling case that scribes drew creatively and pragmatically from a diverse repertoire of features and linguistic traditions, revealing a far more dynamic and multifaceted approach to written composition than previously recognised.

An outstanding and field-shaping contribution, this volume provides an essential model for future work on Christian Arabic, medieval Arabic varieties, and the history of Arabic.'

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Phillip W. Stokes @phillipwstokes.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Allāh ybārik fīk zamīlī l-ʿazīz

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Marijn van Putten @phdnix.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

So my translations of al-Dani's Taysir is out! So what is this text about? It is a description of seven canonical reading traditions of the Quran authored by the Andalusi polymath ʾAbū ʿAmr ʿUṯmān b. Saʿīd al-Dānī (371/981–444/1053).

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Marijn van Putten @phdnix.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

If all goes well, February 4th will be the day that my translation of al-Dani's Taysir comes out (and if not then, very very soon). It was a lot of work, but I'm very happy with the end result. And best of all: It'll be Open Access! www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.116...

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Phillip W. Stokes @phillipwstokes.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Excited to finally have the official cover of my forthcoming book, which will be in Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures Series (Open Book Publishers). For a blurb, see link below. No official date for publication yet, but hopefully within a month or so!

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Phillip W. Stokes @phillipwstokes.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

I'm very sorry. I lost my mom when she was 56, before my kids were born. Yesterday was her birthday; she would've been 72. It's still very hard without her. I know it is for you without him. I'm so glad that your dad was able to experience being a grandparent.

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Phillip W. Stokes @phillipwstokes.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

New publication: www.academia.edu/127029112/20... My attempt to investigate this feature in a corpus of early 'Middle' Arabic texts and say something more interesting than is typical. I interact with lots of good scholarship on this feature in other corpora, as well, which is worth reading

academia.edu

2024 – Gender and Number Agreement in Early Christian Arabic Manuscripts: A Historically 'Middle' Feature

The topic of gender and number agreement in Arabic has garnered significant interest in recent years, culminating in the recent monograph by Bettega and D'Anna (2023). The picture that has emerged...

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Dominique Bobeck @dombobeck.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

The interrogative 'why' in #Semitic languages: - Classical Arabic: li-māðā - Palestinian Arabic: (ʕa-)lē(š) - Modern Hebrew: la-ma - Syriac: l-mānā - Turoyo: l-mən - Old Ethiopic: bä-ʼəntä mənt - Amharic: lä-mən - Mehri: hɛːɬən ~ wə-koːh - Akkadian: ana mīni(m) ~ ammīni(m) (1/2)

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Phillip W. Stokes @phillipwstokes.bsky.social · 18/10/2023

My latest article, studying a unique gospel translation via three MS witnesses – is out in BSOAS: www.academia.edu/108303483/20...

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