13. Laḥn al-ʿāmma: An Evergreen Genre? A Review of Two Contemporary Works

Laḥn al-ʿāmma is a genre of works in which Arab grammarians recorded the mistakes made by the ʿāmma – and the ḫāṣṣa – when speaking or writing that flourished in the Maghreb and Mashriq in medieval times. These authors were purists who considered fuṣḥā the “norm,” while any dialecticism was viewed as a deviation. Their works aimed to correct mistakes (al-laḥn) and indicate the linguistic models (al-ṣawāb) that should be followed. Nowadays, similar works in the form of prescriptive grammars (qul, lā taqul) are still being produced to limit the ongoing “corruption” of fuṣḥā, considered under attack by other languages, i.e., English and especially Arabic dialects. In this paper, two contemporary works, published in Lebanon (2010) and in Egypt (2018), will be analysed to reveal that the debate on the alleged “corruption” of fuṣḥā and its preservation is still being addressed through the publication of widespread texts.