The chapter looks at the effect of natural barriers on linguistic configuration and diffusion through illustrations of cases from Arabic and other languages. It provides examples of how different types of topographical features either facilitate or hinder communication, thus affecting the diffusion of linguistic features. It also provides a thorough introduction to the Arabic linguistic atlases available, from 1915 into the twenty-first century. The chapter highlights cases of language isolation and language contact involving Arabic.

Psycholinguists often use experimental tasks of word recognition as a window onto understanding how we process words. Here, we review results with the lexical decision task that show sensitivity to morphological structure in that word recognition task. We then highlight the limitations of assuming that evidence of morphological processing is best interpreted as evidence that lexical entries are decomposed into constituent morphemes. Further, when target words follow primes formed from the same stem and presented at brief durations so as to tap into early processing in the lexical decision task, we argue that finding no difference between semantically transparent and opaque pairs in individual priming experiments is not sufficient to conclude that early analysis proceeds without regard to a word’s semantic properties. We familiarize the reader with the intricacies of the priming methodology for the lexical decision task and the claim that target recognition benefits from structural priming based on repetition of a stem morpheme in prime and target in . Inwe then discuss how outcomes change with processing time for the prime and its implication for the claim that when processing time for the prime is curtailed, morphological processing is insensitive to semantics. We argue instead that morphological priming cannot be attributed solely to the letter sequence that constitutes the stem in part because stem repetition accounts downplay the role of differences and similarities of whole-word targets with words other than just its prime. Inwe provide evidence that challenges an account of early morphological processing based on the form but not the semantic consequences of shared morphology between prime and target. In , we summarize meta-analytic results with funnel plots to ascertain the reliability of early effects of semantic similarity among morphological relatives in lexical decision, thus refuting support for a decomposition account that is semantically blind and based on stem form. Finally, in , we touch upon the power of tuning form-with-semantics models across languages and writing systems that differ with respect to their morphological structure and neighborhood density measures by emphasizing patterning distributed across words rather than local decomposition into morphemes. As an alternative throughout, we align results with models in which analysis of wordform and meaning are interdependent, rather than two independent and sequential processes, thus discounting the privileged role reserved for the stem.

Competing models of lexical access propose contrasting roles for morphological structure in word recognition. Whole-word models suggest that there are no separate representations for morphemes (e.g., Tyler et al. ); decomposition models posit that words are recognized by accessing their constituent morphemes (e.g., Taft et al. ); and hybrid models incorporate both pathways to recognition (e.g., Bertram et al. ). The relative productivity of a word’s derivational affixes may also play a role: words with unproductive affixes are processed holistically whereas words with productive derivational affixes are processed as a function of their morphemes (e.g., Balling and Baayen ). In this paper, we examine the role of the Semitic consonantal root, known to be a route for lexical retrieval, and its interaction with relative binyan productivity. Extending the methodology developed by Wray () for Jordanian Arabic, we investigate the Semitic language Maltese. Based on two auditory lexical decision experiments, we find a reverse base frequency effect in a productive binyan (words with more frequent roots are recognized more slowly than words with less frequent roots), and in two less productive binyanim we find no base frequency effect. This supports the validity of models in which morphological decomposition is relevant strictly for productive affixes.

David Wilmsen examines Maltese, a peripheral dialect of Arabic. Of those, Maltese stands out as remarkably unusual. Unlike other dialects of Arabic, it is an official language of the state in which its speakers reside, the Republic of Malta, as well as being an official language of the European Union. It boasts a long literary tradition, a language academy, an active press, scholarly journals and societies devoted to it, and an ever-growing digital presence, including a large online, freely accessible corpus encompassing hundreds of millions of words. It is therefore an easily accessible language for linguistic research. The chapter examines Maltese in light of linguistic thinking about so-called enclave dialects, showing that Maltese conforms to the general characteristics of remnant dialect groupings, in that it does borrow from the languages with which it comes into contact, it does undergo independent internal change, and it does retain features of its founder languages. As such, Maltese can be instrumental in demarking the latest date for the emergence of a range of features found variously in mainland dialects of Arabic.

This chapter covers the languages of the Greater Middle East, the region that includes the Near East, North Africa and the neighboring regions. The focus of this chapter is on Afroasiatic languages. The two branches of this family that are discussed in greatest detail here are Semitic and Berber languages. The last section delves into the issue of language contact, which is illustrated with the examples of two Afroasiatic (specifically, Semitic) languages that have been heavily influenced through language contact: Maltese and Moroccan Arabic.