Development of the Kuwaiti Dialect Study & Analysis
by: Laila Khalaf Al-Saban

No doubt, this book might seem to be difficult and complicated to anyone willing to have a glance on the development of the Kuwaiti dialect. On the contrary, it would be so useful and fruitful to obtain more benefit from this book either you are looking for something academic, or looking for more information about this certain topic only. For both sorts of readers, our book would satisfy this desire completely.

As a matter of fact, the author, Laila Khalaf Al-Saban succeeded to cover and handle the main outlines related to this important subject, but even she went in depth to deal with all minor and major points included in this significant study aiming at having a comprehensive survey to help those looking for something in detail about the Kuwait dialect.

In this book, the author divided her survey into four parts, an introduction, two main sections and a conclusion. She also listed all references used in this study at the end of her book. She specialized the first section to cover her field of research geographically, historically and culturally. She also talked about all factors affecting the development of the Kuwaiti society within the framework of all aspects of life. She, the author, considered the first section as an introductory study and an entry for her research. For the second section, she included five chapters as she wrote and talked about all various aspects of the indicative study of the dialect phrases and words. This complete view provided the author with a suitable ground to solidify the method she adopted to handle her significant study.

Furthermore, this study is considered to be related to socio-linguistics, which is a modern science at present, and has been discussed and elaborated by a lot of linguists all over the world and by some linguists in our Arab World when dealing with the different Arab dialects. In fact, some researchers have come across this field of study before, but it is considered the first academic survey about the indication in the Kuwaiti dialect phrases. The authors exerted efforts cant be ignored at all and such efforts are so tangible when you go through this remarkable book, which is a true valuable reference should be possessed by those who pay more interest in studying and have the desire to know more about this field of study.

More, the author succeeded to adopt and dispense a wonderful technique helped her a lot to provide a successful survey. This technique is the descriptive one, which relies on the direct remarking and induction. Upon going through this study, the readers find out that the author did an outstanding effort to collect information and classify it into many categories according to the indicative aspects, and that helped her, no doubt, to make and process her scientific analytic study. The author counted on some vital sources represented in those books which dealt with the Kuwaiti dialect regarding all elements such as structure sounds etc. There were also other books related to the indication of phrases for famous writers like Dr. Ebrahim Anis, Dr. Hassan Zaza and Stephen Olman. In addition, there were books of old languages aiming at helping her to look up the original meanings of the Kuwaiti dialect phrases.

Through the second chapter of the first section, Laila Al-Saban pointed out to all development factors which played a significant role towards the Kuwaiti dialect. She listed all factors seen in oil, immigration, education, effect of mass media, health care, social welfare, trading, transportation, sporting clubs and finally the National Council of Culture, Art and Literature. She succeeded to highlight the above-indicated elements, which helped in accordance with her point of view to develop the Kuwaiti dialect. For some readers and researchers, they may see that some of these factors dont comprise the required importance of affecting the aimed dialect, but I dont agree with this since all factors, even the minor ones, have their own salient role actually. It was even fantastic from the authors part to indicate the importance of the last factor and how the Council contributed a lot in this field. She succeeded indeed to classify each factor in depth and that helped all readers and researchers to recognize the necessity of each element indicated.

On the other hand, in her second section, Laila Al-Saban divided this section into five chapters and we can see her in this context to go in depth towards the dialect itself. She went through the civilized indications, multiplication in the phrase and the indication, the linguistic differences, movement of phrasal value and finally the phrase and the meaning between change and constancy. The author provided a lot of examples according to their indication such as synonymy and homonym with their origin derived from other languages. She also talked about derivation, acquisition either from foreign languages, or other surrounding dialects, motivation, building up words and composition.

In addition, one of the most interesting elements she pointed out to is proverbs and their indications. She even put them within the framework of a simplified questionnaire. She also indicated the main reasons, which help eliminate and extinguish some phrases giving different examples and phrases.

In my own viewpoint, this book and its study included pinpoints an important reality confined to the target of this survey which leads to the link narrowing between the Arabic dialects from one part, and the classical Arabic language from another part. No doubt that the classical Arabic has its own difficulties, which makes a lot of linguists consider it as one of the most difficult languages in our contemporary world. To overcome this problem, it is very essential to be acquainted and familiar with the existing Arabic dialects. This book represents a remarkable addition to this part of knowledge that we ought to be familiar with. The authors efforts cant be ignored at all that she succeeded to go further and further when she made use of a lot of references as listed in her book.