The Doha Historical Dictionary of Arabic aims to oversee the
compilation of a historical lexicon of the Arabic language as it has developed
over the last two millennia. Once completed, the final work will detail the
origins of every word in its corpus and record the transformations in each
word’s meaning, in addition to the location of its first appearance. To achieve
this, the Doha Historical Dictionary of Arabic will rely on an extensive body of
primary materials in the Arabic language, drawn from centuries of the Arabic
canon.
The mandate of the Doha Historical Dictionary of Arabic is
significant in that it will remedy the present lack of an all-encompassing, historical
dictionary for Arabic speakers. In addition, by serving to preserve the Arab
nation’s common linguistic, epistemological and intellectual legacy, the
Dictionary will serve to bolster Arab unity through highlighting the Arabs’
common linguistic heritage.
