Some speculations on the vowel system of classical Arabic

In this paper I consider the vowel combinations of Classical Arabic. I discuss the possibiIity that vowel combinations which are not considered to have been standardly permitted in Classical Arabic might have occurred in certain ancient dialects. I draw mainly on the observations of Sibawayh, as well as more modem interpretors of the classical Arabic grammarians such as Rabill (1951) and al-Nassir (1993). Given the nature of the material which I am looking at and the relative brevity of this paper, the arguments which I present here are not intended to be anything more than speculative and exploratory.