Arabic is one of the world’s largest languages, spoken natively by about 300 million speakers. It is by a large margin the largest language in Africa (nearly 200 million speakers), and one of the biggest in Asia (120 million). It has been estimated to be the fifth largest language in the world in terms of native speakers. Strength of numbers alone guarantees it communicative centrality in the world language system. This Handbook reflects the full breadth of research on Arabic Linguistics in the West, covering topics such as pidgins and creoles, Arabic second language acquisition, loanwords, Arabic dialects, codeswitching, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, and Arabic lexicography. The Handbook brings together different approaches and scholarly traditions, an invitation to the reader to explore the many faceted world of Arabic Linguistics. The articles in this volume expertly explore the nature of the house of Arabic from many angles. Many argue for specific points of view, others give descriptions of synoptic breadth, while others provide exhaustive overviews of the state of the art. The parts may or may not come together to describe a common structure; they do provide blueprints for a better understanding of it.