About Spoken Languages
Every language is a source of unique knowledge and cultural expression. Smaller languages provide us with new perspectives on the world. They give words to cultural phenomena, show us how people communicate and how a community forms its identity.
In the lecture series ‘About Spoken Languages’ five academics shine their light on a smaller or less known (and sometimes not standardised) language.

Palestinian Arabic
Palestinian Arabic, together with Lebanese, Syrian, and Jordanian Arabic, belongs to the Levantine dialects of Arabic. It is spoken by Palestinians in historic Palestine — the present-day West Bank, Gaza, and Israel — as well as in the diaspora.
The first part of this lecture offers an overview of the variation among the different Palestinian dialects spoken within historic Palestine. The second part focuses on the development of Palestinian Arabic in the diaspora, specifically how it is spoken by Palestinians in Beirut, Lebanon. A central theme addressed in this lecture is the relationship between identity and language in exile.

Dr. Nina van Kampen
Dr. Nina van Kampen conducts research on language variation and change among Palestinians in Beirut. She is affiliated with the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations (INALCO, Paris), where she defended her PhD in early 2026. She previously taught Modern Standard Arabic and Levantine Arabic there and at Sciences Po Paris. In addition, she works as a collections specialist at the Library of the University of Amsterdam, where she focuses, among other things, on the Middle Eastern Studies and Linguistics collections.

Language of instruction: Dutch

This lecture is part of the series About Spoken Languages.
Other lectures in this series:

9 January: Cappadocian, Pontic, Pharasiot by Prof. Dr. Mark Janse
19 February: Yiddish by Dr. Daniella Zaidman-Mauer
27 March: Catalan by Dr. Eva J. Daussá
22 May: Frisian by Dr. Alexia Kerkhof

€18 per lecture | entire series €80
Student rate*: €6 per lecture | entire series €25

Entry is not possible after the lecture has started.

*The student rate applies to students enrolled at a university or university of applied sciences. Select ‘Invoice’ as the payment method and indicate in the ‘Additional remarks’ field that you are a student.