Dialectal Atlas of the Arab World - between Intention and Reality

Arabic dialectology has a long history and achieved significant progress in collecting and analyzing linguistic data and its classification. The present paper analyses modern trends in the linguistic situation in the Arab world and defines the topics essential for the Arabic dialectology, which require an urgent solution. During the last century, several attempts have been undertaken to create dialectal atlases of different regions of the Arab world. Besides this, considerable work also has been done on synchronous descriptions of modern and ancient Arabic dialects. Meanwhile these researches do not always reflect fully and adequately the current state of the dialectal continuum, which underwent significant transformations as a result of social and economic changes in the region, development of new technologies. Globalization and leveling of dialectal differences, spread of languages of international communication will lead to disappearance of small dialectal groups and vernaculars, among them those that are not sufficiently described or are little known at all, which presupposes their urgent investigation. In recent years digital methods of research open new horizons for scholars and put on the agenda the task of building of the dialectal atlas of the Arab world basing on the previous experience and data collected as well as application of ICT.