4to. xiv, 179 pp., tables, cloth in d/w, appendices, biblio, copy in mint condition, American University of Beirut, Beirut, first edition, 1985.

Synopsis

The French Expedition to the ancient Phoenician city of Byblos, modern Jebeil, from 1928 to 1932 discovered a group of nine texts carved in stone or stamped on copper plates. The language of the texts appears from internal evidence to be a very archaic West Semitic, and antedates the separation of the Arabic and Canaanite branches of the Semitic language family. The author of this work conclude that Arabic originated in the coastal region of Eastern Mediterranean known in the classical period as Phoenicia and Palestine, in early Bronze Age before 2000 B. C.