The use of the Egyptian dialect in the satirical newspaper Abu naddāra zarʾa

The Egyptian dialect of the second half of the nineteenth century is very well documented. Indeed, there are many textbooks and works of grammar on the subject, such as those by Spitta-Bey (1880), Nallino (1900), Willmore (1901), Vollers (1890) and Burkitt & Vollers (1895), as well as dictionaries (Spiro 1895 and 1897) and collections of stories (Spitta-Bey 1883). Yet another great source of information about the Egyptian colloquial is found in the satirical periodicals that became popular in that period. One of these is al-ʾUstād by ʿAbd Allāh al-Nadīm (1843-96), which ran between 1892 and 1893. Another is the newspaper Abu Naddāra Zarʾa, which as the first of its kind to appear in Egypt and was published for more than three decades (1878-1910). This article will discuss the use of this newspaper for improving our knowledge of the Egyptian Arabic of that period, along with some of the other Arabic dialects.