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Profile

College / Department

College of Arts and Sciences

Department of Arabic and Translation Studies

Teaching areas

Al-Andalus, Arab heritage, Arabic as a foreign language, Arabic sociolinguistics, translation theory

Research areas

Arabic dialectology, Arabic historical linguistics, Gulf Arabic

Education

PhD, Arabic Language And Linguistics, University of Michigan, United States, 1995

Professional experience

Professor, Arabic And Translation Studies, American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, 2022 - Present

Head Of Department, Arabic And Translation Studies, American University of Sharjah (AUS), United Arab Emirates, 2016 - 2022

Professor, Department Of Arabic And Near Eastern Languages, The American University of Beirut, Lebanon, 2014 - 2016

Chair, Department Of Arabic And Near Eastern Languages, The American University of Beirut, Lebanon, 2013 - 2016

Associate Professor, Department Of Arabic And Near Eastern Languages, The American University of Beirut, Lebanon, 2009 - 2014

Visiting Associate Professor, Department Of Arabic And Near Eastern Languages, The American University of Beirut, Lebanon, 2007 - 2009

Visiting Associate Professor, Department Of Arabic And Islamic Studies, Georgetown University, DC, United States, 2006 - 2007

Associate Dean, Instructional Affairs, The American University in Cairo, Egypt, 2004 - 2006

Director, Arabic And Translation Studies Division, School Of Professional Studies,, American University of Cairo, Egypt, 1993 - 2006

Memberships

International Foundation for the Study of Arabia, June 2017

International Association of Maltese Linguistics, June 2013

American Association of Teachers of Arabic, June 1999

Association Internationale de Dialectologie Arabe, March 1998

Arabic Linguistic Society, May 1992

Contact

[email protected]

+971 6 515 2528

Dr. David Wilmsen

Professor

PhD, University of Michigan, United States

Before coming to AUS, David Wilmsen had taught Arabic as a foreign language, Arabic/English translation, and Arabic linguistics at the American University in Cairo, Georgetown University and the American University of Beirut. His research interests encompass the history of the Arabic dialects, especially their ancient grammatical features that survive in the regional varieties of modern spoken Arabic. His published research explores the development of various syntactic features of Arabic dialects, especially object markers, modals, demonstratives, interrogatives and negators. His current ...

Publications

David Wilmsen. Extensions and commonalities in negative existential cycles in Arabic, December 2022

David Wilmsen. The Enigma of Mehri and Southern Peninsular Arabic Existential śī and šī, Journal Of Semitic Studies, 5 May 2022

David Wilmsen. The Cambridge Handbook of Arabic Linguistics, September 2021

David Wilmsen. Maltese: A Peripheral Dialect in the Historical Dialectology of Arabic, The Cambridge Handbook Of Arabic Linguistics, September 2021

David Wilmsen And Mai Zaki. The Utility of Arabic Corpus Linguistics, The Cambridge Handbook Of Arabic Linguistics, September 2021

Mai Zaki, David Wilmsen And D. Abdulrahim. The utility of Arabic corpus linguistics., September 2021

David Wilmsen. Infixed -nn- in Northern Emirati Arabic, 2020

David Wilmsen. Croft's cycle in Arabic: The negative existential cycle in a single language, Linguistics, April (2nd Quarter/Spring) 2020

David Wilmsen And Amany Al-sayyed. On Morpho-Syntactic Levantisms in Maltese, Studies On Arabic Dialectology And Sociolinguistics, January (1st Quarter/Winter) 2019

David Wilmsen And Natalie Khairallah. Verbal Negation in the Lebanese Dialect of Zeitoun, Keserwan, Studies On Arabic Dialectology And Sociolinguistics, January (1st Quarter/Winter) 2019

David Wilmsen. Review of Sjörs, Ambjörn. 2018. Historical Aspects of Standard Negation in Semitic. Leiden: Brill, Linguisti List, January (1st Quarter/Winter) 2019

David Wilmsen And Amany Al-sayyed. Verbal Negation with mush in Maltese and Eastern Mediterranean Arabics, 2017

David Wilmsen. Grammaticalization and Degrammaticalization in an Arabic Existential Particle \shay, Folia Orientalia, 2017

David Wilmsen. Perfect Modality: Auxiliary verbs and finite subordinates in Levantine (and other) Arabics, Al-'arabiyya, 2015

Conference Presentations

Historical Linguistic Trends in Gulf Arabic. The Language Landscape in Qatar - Workshop I. The Georgetown School of Foreign Services in Qatar. 19-20 February 2023., The Language Landscape In Qatar - Workshop, February 2023

Presentative aku/aki in Emirati Arabic, 14th Conference Of The International Association Of Arabic Dialectology, 28 June 2022

The Arabic dialect(s) of the Rashāyda, May 2022

Grammatical šī in southern Peninsular Arabic: A loan from ancestral “Modern” South Arabian?, “allmas” Paris Workshop On Arabic And The Ancient & Modern Languages Of South Arabia, 19 January 2022

On Bundles and Broken Chains: Ancient features of Emirati Arabic, Experimental Arabic Linguistics Conference (exal) Iv, 4 April 2021

A new perspective on Arabic grammatical šī: Functions and possible origins, Arabic [email protected], 29 March 2021

Emirati dialects’ singular features: The Sharjah Museum Authority Recordings, Sorbonne Abu Dhabi – Cefas Diwan, 10 December 2020

Infixed -n(n)- in Emirati Arabic, Aida 13, June 2019

On Morpho-syntactic Levantisms in Maltese, Aida 12, June 2017

Particularities of verbal negation in the Lebanese dialect of Zeitoun, Keserwan, Aida 12, June 2017

NEC x 3: Negative existential cycles in Arabic, The Negative Existential Cycle From A Historical-comparative Perspective, May 2017

Grants and sponsorships

Grant, FRG Small Grant, AUS, 01 June 2019 - 31 May 2020

Grant, FRG Large grant