Fusha: Research into its Categorization and Features

Abstract

Offering a comparative linguistic and historical archeology of the origins of Arabic as a Semitic language, this article investigates the main theories addressing the historical and linguistic formation of Arabic. The study traces its historical origins and determines how the Arabic language should be categorized within the Semitic family. It then explores the key features that define its Semitic origin on the phonetic, morphological, syntactic, and semantic levels, and discusses the features that distinguish it from the other Semitic languages, or that have been expanded in Arabic to become distinguishing features, thereby giving it its uniqueness and own identity.