The Sentence and Its Complements in the Al-Abisiyah Vernacular

This study investigates sentence structure and sentence complements in the Al-Abisiyah vernacular spoken among the Al-Hada tribe in Dhamar Governorate, Yemen, with particular attention to its syntactic relationship with Standard Arabic. It examines both verbal and nominal sentences, including constructions with past, present, and imperative verbs and the subject–predicate structure of nominal sentences. The analysis also considers major sentence complements, such as the direct object, object of purpose, cognate accusative, circumstantial expression, specification, and emphasis. Drawing on examples from actual vernacular usage, the study identifies numerous syntactic patterns that correspond closely to those of Standard Arabic. The findings demonstrate that Al-Abisiyah sentence structure generally follows grammatical patterns attested in Standard Arabic and, in some cases, displays striking structural correspondence, particularly in constructions involving the fronting of accusative nouns before verbs. These similarities indicate that the Al-Abisiyah vernacular preserves significant features of Arabic syntax rather than representing an unstructured colloquial variety. The study thus highlights the importance of vernacular Arabic as a valuable field for linguistic research and as evidence of the continuity of syntactic features across different varieties of Arabic.