This book covers everything you want to know about some important parts of Arabic morphology relating to the irregular forms of the verbs and nouns and to the phonological changes. It contains chapters that take up every key issue of the doubled, hamzated and weak verbs and it provides interesting insights about the assimilation, the transfer, the elision and the addition of vowels and consonants and the substitution.
It is easy to use with its comprehensive indices and thorough numbered paragraphs. So you can easily pick up the specific information that interests you among all the essentials that are treated. For instance if you want to know more about a particular issue within the subject of assimilation, you look for it in the index of contents and are directed to the particular section or sections where you'll find piles of information and examples about it.
The work is a comprehensive handbook for intermediate and advanced students in Arabic linguistics and for scholars and professionals. Its detailed approach makes it also an excellent complement to the work of less specific grammatical textbooks.
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This book places special emphasis on the irregular verbs and nouns and on the phonological changes which occur in the Arabic language.
The chapters of the irregular verbs are those of the doubled verb, the hamzated verb, the verb with 1st, 2nd or 3rd weak radical and the verb with two weak radicals. Concentrating on them, Akesson presents and analyses all the various imaginable sequences which constitute a part of their formations.
The chapters of the phonological changes are those of the assimilation, the changes due to the hamza, the unsoundness due to the weak segment and the substitution. Here, Akesson discusses when these phonological changes occur and when they do not. She presents as well and analyzes many different sequences in detail.
The index in the beginning of the book is very detailed and will help the reader to find the subject that he/she wishes to delve into.
This is a very scientific and well researched book. It is filled with linguistic terminology and contains references to many other important works, ancient as well as new.
All in all, it is a very useful book and an eye opener into the intricacies that occur in the complex Arabic language.
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I found this book to be full of new information. It contains ten chapters that will teach you all you want to know about every key issue in the morphology and phonology of the doubled, hamzated and weak verbs. You will also learn about the assimilation, the transfer, the elision, the addition of the vowels and letters and the substitution. These are the basic phonological changes that are important to know about in the Arabic field. It is the Arabic grammarian of the 10th century Ibn Ginni who mentioned them once before in his works about morphology.
The connections between the irregular forms and the phonological changes are very well presented and are necessary to know about if one is interested to know how the language functions. You will get acquainted to a wealth of data and analysis and references to well-known grammarians and linguists from the 8th century until our days. The index of the contents in the beginning makes the book practical to work with. It is a wonderful help that the work is rife with internal cross-references and references to other works.

Extremely organized and well written!!, August 23, 2009

By Mark S. 
The complexities of the Arabic language continue to interest the Arabs and the English-speaking world. By studying the irregular forms and the phonological changes, this book serves to highlight all the thinkable features relating to them and inspires new ideas about Arabic linguistics.
The work is extremely organized and well written. It provides an in-depth look at the morphological forms from the ground up and fills a gap in some advanced levels of the Arabic language as it presents advanced concepts of the language.
The references make the content and other works from the 8th century until our days accessible.
The Complexity of the Irregular Verbal and Nominal Forms & the Phonological Changes in Arabic is of interest for scholars and professionals, Arabists and comparative Semiticists and to phonologists, morphologists and linguists in general.