The Language of: The Fleas Ate Me “A Historical Study”

Abstract

The research deals with the "the fleas ate me" language from a historical aspect, and aims to highlight the opinions of scholars from Saibawayh until the modern age about this language that was passed on from some Arab tribes.

The researcher dealt with matters related to the historical approach, and the historical tracing of this phenomenon, by reviewing and discussing the opinions that were received from scholars from Saibawayh until the modern age about this language. Moreover, I explained the opinion taken by modern scholars on this phenomenon, in addition to citing some linguistic evidence on this phenomenon. The researcher relied on the inductive analytical method.

The research reached several results, the most important of which are:

• The oldest discourse that has come down to us from the speech of the Arabs that is based on this language is the verse attributed to Ahihah Ibn Al-Jallah Al-Awsi (130 BH).
• The first person to call this phenomenon the language of "the fleas ate me" is Saibawayh (180 AH) in his book, quoting from Al-Khalil Al-Farahidi (170 AH), even though he did not attribute it to a particular tribe.
• The first person to call this phenomenon the language of "they follow among you angels" is Ibn Malik (672 AH).